Hawaiian Thanksgiving, Day 8.5

I know I've already covered all of my recent Hawaiian Thanksgiving, but as a coda of sorts, I wanted to share the story of my redeye flight home.  Generally I am pretty good at sleeping on an airplane.  When I went on my cruise, I think I was the only one of my friends who got a decent night's sleep on our redeye to Miami, and I've redeyed home from Hawaii at least once before.  Generally the hardest part of it is turning down free inflight movies in favor of getting some rest.

Unfortunately this trip was not to be so.  My parents were in two seats together on one side of the plane, and I had a window seat more or less across from them on the opposite side (2-3-2 seat arrangement). I got a window seat with the idea that it would be easier to lean against the wall and sleep than to just sleep sitting up in my chair.  I even brought my sweatshirt with me to use as a makeshift pillow, given that the brillo pad airplane pillows aren't exactly made for sweet dreams.

When I got to my seat there was an Asian businessman seated in the aisle seat next to mine, and we exchanged a minimum of pleasantries as I got seated.  I saw he was trying to turn on his reading light and I showed him that you have to do it now using the touchscreen on the seatback in front of you.  His light still didn't turn on, and he expressed some concern because he was planning to do "a lot of reading" during the flight and wouldn't be able to do without the overhead reading light. He flagged down one of the flight attendants to explain that his light wasn't turning on, and she said that it could just be because the cabin lights were on, and that if it didn't work once we were in the air, they could look into a solution.

Once the plane was loaded, we pulled away from the jetway and were taxiing toward the runway when someone hit their attendant call button a few times, and a few minutes later, we were taxiing back to the gate due to a medical emergency. Being no stranger to on-plane medical emergencies, I was able to look at this delay with the silver-lining view that "Hey at least we weren't in the air already" and "At least I don't have to worry about making a connecting flight in Los Angeles." Because both of those complicating factors can really make a slight delay into a big mess. We parked at the gate for a bit and some medical personnel came on, and it wasn't entirely clear what else happened besides that. I didn't see any passengers come down my aisle, but I wasn't paying too close attention.

At some point, while we were waiting they enabled the movies and I found something to watch while waiting to take off.  Meanwhile Asian businessman was still unable to turn on his overhead reading light, but was able to get some reading done with the cabin lighting. As far as I could tell, what he was reading was some sort of local Hawaiian business newsletter, something like Pacific Business News that looked like the Murray newsletter that gets dropped off at our house once a month or something.  Like a small newspaper.

Eventually our flight did take off, and they dimmed the cabin lights.  When his overhead light still did not turn on, the flight attendants sadly informed the passengers that they would need to reboot the computer system that runs the seatback systems, meaning everyone would have to restart their movies.  They did this (FYI its a Linux system), and eventually everything was up and running again.  Except for Mr. Pacific Business News's reading light. So they rebooted the system again.  Finally, his light was working. Oh joy! :)

At this point I was pretty much ready to get some sleep (it was probably getting close to midnight Hawaii time), but I was surprised to find out that the overhead reading light is actually REALLY bright. Ugh.  I struggled for quite some time to fall asleep, thinking that eventually my seatmate would finish up his reading and catch a few z's himself.  I eventually took some sly glances to see what was so important that he needed to be catching up on it in the middle of the night.  As best as I could tell, he was meticulously poring over bankruptcy notices and tax notifications and other really small print items, the back pages of the newsletter.  And then I noticed they weren't even recent newsletters. The one he was working on then was nearly two months old!

In a desperate attempt to get some sleep I ended up putting my sweatshirt over my head to block out the glare of the megaspotlight shining down on us, and tried that for a while. Not that Senor Asian Business took any notice of my struggle for sleep.  He just kept on staring at his newsletter.  Until, what's that?! he nodded off himself.  I wasn't sure if he was really sleeping or just resting his eyes for a moment or something, but after a minute or two, I decided he really must be asleep.  So I carefully reached over to his touchscreen and turned off his reading light! :)  All those years of sneakily writing on sleepy classmates' notes in college was really paying off.  I then tried to hurry and get to sleep, but sadly I did not find dreamland before he reawakened and turned his light on again.  At least two more times during the night, when I caught him dozing, I turned off his light. And always he would wake up again and turn it back on.

Eventually I did fall asleep for a while. Maybe an hour or two. At one point I awoke to the sound of him ripping out newspaper articles that he had found fascinating, or perhaps were destined for the "My Trip to America" pages in his scrapbook. I'll never know.

When I finally gave up on sleep for good, I roused myself to find that he'd given up on reading up on the best of last month's Pacific Business bankruptcy notices, but certainly had not given up on his overhead light.  He'd pulled out an ipad from somewhere and was meandering his way through the settings screen.  Not sure what he was looking for, but it was immediately apparent that his iPad was not in "Airplane Mode". I considered calling the flight attendant to complain about our security, but worried I might not have the best ground to stand on, given my secretive light turn offs. It seemed like maybe he was trying to connect to the internet and frustrated by the absence of free in-flight wi-fi.  And despite the iPad's built-in lighting, the cursed reading light continued to shine down on us.

We landed safely in Salt Lake (despite any danger presented by a non-airplane mode iPad) and we got our bags and headed for home.  And I did get some sleep that morning, and eventually caught up on my sleep.  But I just wanted to share this cautionary tale for the benefit of my readers. If the guy sitting next to you on a redeye informs you early on that he's brought a lot of reading material, you might try to find someone to trade seats with you. If not, you might be in for a long night. :)

Hawaiian Thanksgiving, Day 8

The big day had finally arrived. Thanksgiving was here!  Food had been preparing since the day before, and it still had a few hours to go in the morning, so we strapped a kayak to the roof the van and cruised over to Kaneohe Bay for some sea kayaking. One of George's coworkers (his boss maybe?) at the clinic has a place there with a nice launching spot, and also another kayak that they were kind enough to let us use.





Kaneohe Bay

Mom was a little nervous about the whole thing, probably after watching us tip over a bunch of times trying to get in at Bellows Beach in March, so she got put on the wider, more stable kayak with Lucy and me. As we were loading up in the shallows, and there weren't really any breaking waves, it was easy to get in and start paddling out.  George and Dad took Austin and Elise with them in a longer, slightly more narrow kayak.

As Mom was pretty nervous, I just told her to sit tight and I'd handle the paddling.  Lucy was having a good time up in front, getting splashed occasionally.  George and Dad cruised out a little farther given that they had two paddlers instead of just one. Eventually they turned around and came back toward us.  We were about ready to turn around, and they offered to come help us make sure we didn't tip over as we turned around (probably the most likely time to tip over is when you're perpendicular to the waves).  We managed to get turned around just fine, just taking it easy, but as they were attempting to come back and help us, somehow they tipped over their kayak, dumping all four of them out in the ocean.  The little kids were obviously shaken up, but as everyone had their life jackets on, no one was in any serious danger. They got the kids back up on the kayak, and then swam it back to a shallow spot where they could also get in and eventually made it back to where we had launched from.  The kids were still a little traumatized, but after a few minutes of hanging out on the shore in the sun, they were back to their happy selves.


Fully recovered :)

Kimi showed up around that time, and her George went for a little paddle out and back, and then we headed back to the house.

Our Thanksgiving feast was delicious.  We had two kinds of turkey, one cooked conventionally, and one cooked underground in a Hawaiian imu oven.  I could never remember which was which by the time I sat down at the table, but they were both really good.  We had good rolls, and mashed potatoes and gravy, but I think my favorite dish was Kimi's sweet potatoes. They pretty much tasted like candy. Really good stuff.  We ate until we were all stuffed and then took a few hours off before eventually getting back together for dessert. Kimi had made 3 different kinds of pie/cheesecake/goodness.  I didn't try them all, but the ones I had were also really great. It was Austin's birthday a few days later, so we celebrated that night opening presents and singing happy birthday, while we ate our dessert.

I didn't really take too many photos of the Thanksgiving festivities, but Kimi got some great ones from the day, that you can see here.

Sadly this was our last night together, and over the course of the day we were slowly working on getting packed up as well.  Eventually the time came for us to say our farewells and the Hawaii Tripps came out and sat on their front wall and waved goodbye to us.  Until next time...Aloha!

Hawaiian Thanksgiving, Day 7

Wednesday seems like it must have been a fairly laidback day as I don't remember much from the morning. Probably more playing with the kids.  Mancala with Elise or Connect 4 with Austin. All with their own sets of rules of course. :)

Around noon, Lucy had her school program, so we all walked over to watch it.  Rather than do a Thanksgiving-themed program, for whatever reason her teacher had chosen a program about a garden. With aliens. Who need fuel for their spaceship. And compost happens to be their fuel.  Also there were some tabloid reporters who offered cash for alien photos.  Didn't quite get me in the Thanksgiving mood, but not too painful to watch. :) Lucy was one of the gardeners and had a few lines and a couple songs that she sang with the other gardeners.





The highlight of the program came after it was over: Hawaiian potluck! :)  So many good things to choose from. I even got to try some chicken katsu, which Ben says is one of his favorite dishes.  As we ate, the kids got to play on the playground, so it was fun to watch that as well.  Austin was pleased with himself and being able to climb all the way up to the big slide and go down.

Austin "swinging like a monkey!"

Crossing over to the big slide

Eventually we made our way back to the house, where most of the adults busied themselves with food preparation for the big meal the next day.  I have to say that I don't think I did much of anything to help with Thanksgiving dinner.  What I did instead, I can't really remember.

At the very end of the night, George and Dad and I watched Captain America. Well Dad and I watched it. George fell asleep at some point.  I thought it was good, but maybe not as good as I'd been led to believe.  I think I'm keeping X-Men: First Class as my favorite superhero movie of the summer.

Hawaiian Thanksgiving, Day 6

We decided that on Tuesday we would (eventually) head up to the north shore and see if the big winter surfing contests were any good. One of the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing contests, the Reef Hawaiian Pro at Haleiwa, was going on, and while they had waited about 10 days without any decent waves, they finally started some surfing on Monday. While it wasn't the big waves they expect on north shore, it was at least enough for them to get some surfing in.  So having read that report we figured 1) it might be worth checking out, and 2) might not be crazy crowded as the waves weren't as good as they are some years.

But before we went north, we made a stop down in Kailua at Boots & Kimos, a restaurant I've had recommended to me by a few friends.  Apparently my friends aren't the only ones who've heard about it, as it was a 45 minute wait for breakfast. Eventually we did eat though and the macadamia nut syrup was pretty delicious (or "onolicous" if you prefer).  After we ate, we headed on up to Haleiwa, only stopping once for damage control on the kiddos.

We got to Haleiwa around 11 or so I think, and we able to find parking by the big grassy park near the beach, and walked over to where the surf contest was going on.  The contest worked as follows: 4 surfers would go out at a time and they'd have like 20 minutes or so to get their best surfing in. The 2 best surfers then advance on.  I'm not sure what constitutes good surfing, nor do I know any of the surfers. But it was still fun to watch them catch waves and do some cool moves on said waves.  We took lots of pictures even though they were far enough away that my little point-and-shoot doesn't really do justice.  Here are some of my favorites:


















There also were a few turtles hanging around near the shore right in front of us, and you could often see them below the water and every few minutes or so, one would poke his head up.  I waited for a while and managed to get at least one shot of one with its head up:



After an hour or two of watching the surfers, Kimi loaded the kids up and headed home to be there when Lucy got out of school, and Dad, Mom and I hit Matsumotos for a shave ice.  We also stopped at BYU-Hawaii on the way back and eventually found the bookstore in the hopes of finding a DVD that Ben was looking for and had heard could only be found, at least in Hawaii, there.  They were sold out though. So after a bit of looking around, we headed back to Kaneohe, with a quick pit stop at McDonalds for a late lunch.


Hang Loose!

That night, George and Kimi had arranged a babysitter for the kids, and the grown ups went out for a fancy dinner at a place called Haleiwa Joe's. (But in Kaneohe, not Haleiwa).  It was a very nice place, with a fantastic patio kind of eating area, overlooking a pond and some lush greenery.  The food was great too. I got a chipotle pork chop. We had some good shrimp for appetizers, and even got dessert.  Overall a great dinner and great atmosphere. I didn't take my camera, so you'll just have to imagine it, I guess. :)

Update: Looks like Kimi posted a few pictures from our day on their blog.

Hawaiian Thanksgiving, Day 5

Monday morning, mom and Kimi had signed up for a class at a botanical garden over in Honolulu somewhere, so Dad and I got babysitting duties for the morning (minus Lucy who had to go to school).


Hanging out with Coley Moley

After a nice relaxed morning, we eventually loaded up the kiddos and drove over to the much closer botanical gardens in Kaneohe with our objective being to feed bread to ducks and fishes.  The gardens were super lush and beautiful and we kind of had the place to ourselves for the most part. We found what we thought to be the right path down to the lake, and we were certain we'd found the right spot when a herd of ducks and other birds approached us and followed us around until we found a table to sit down at and commence with the feeding.  Along with the ducks there were some coots and one large goose.  All very tame and friendly, though the goose was a little scarier than the ducks, perhaps just because of its size.  We had such a good time feeding the birds that we never actually ended up feeding the fish. Once our loaf of bread was gone we headed back to the house.

Feeding the birds

In the afternoon, after Mom and Kimi were back, I convinced Mom and Dad to go for a little hike with me, to a lighthouse at Makapu'u Head.  Not a super long hike, but we were grateful for the overcast sky as the whole hike was unprotected from the sun.  Definitely interesting scenery, as we were over on the deserty side of the island. Lots of cactus, and it was interesting that people have taken to writing "graffiti" on the cacti.   Not sure what means they use to go about it, but lots of love notes and class of 2011 rules, etc.

Cactus Graffiti

The Lighthouse

Eventually we made our way up to the end of the trail, and probably the best view of the hike, looking back toward Kaneohe from up on the point.

Looking back toward Kaneohe

Rabbit Island aka Manana Island


Rebecca + Kristian 4Ever

Don't remember many specifics from that night, other than just hanging out and playing and having a short Family Home Evening lesson.

Hawaiian Thanksgiving, Day 4

Day 4 of our trip was Sunday, and it was an extra special Sunday because we got to go to church, not just once, but twice! :)  Lucy goes to school at the Lutheran school next door to their house, and sometimes the school kids get to sing at the church's Sunday service. So we got dressed and walked over to the Lutheran church for their Sunday meeting. Pretty sure it was my first time at a non-LDS church. I was complemented by the greeter on how "classy" I looked in my white shirt and tie.

Definitely a different meeting than an LDS sacrament meeting. The pastor (preacher? reverend?) would say some prayers and sometimes we (the congregation) would join in by saying some of the lines. There was a projector screen with powerpoint where the words would be for us to say.  We sang some hymns, one of which was "How Firm a Foundation", but with somewhat different lyrics, and totally different music. Another was a hymn I didn't know, but the tune was one that we use in the LDS church for a different hymn. So that was interesting.  Lucy sang a couple times.  For a while, they took all the kids in the congregation over to one of the other buildings for a while. Someone got up and read some scriptures.  The pastor gave a bit of a sermon.  There was an opportunity to make a donation. Kind of a mix of all the stuff I'm used to in 3 hours, condensed into 1.  There was a potluck afterward where I had a cookie or something, I think.

Then it was back home for some more hanging out while we waiting for the LDS church meetings.  Which was pretty much what I am used to. Fell asleep for a bit during Sunday School.  One interesting thing was chatting briefly with the full-time missionaries that were there, as they seemed to know Ben or at least had heard of him.  Kind of weird that he's in the same mission where George lives. Definitely different than my mission experience, but I imagine that every mission is different in its own way.

After dinner, we went home, had dinner, and spent more time hanging out and playing. I spent some time hanging out with Elise and Austin while they rode their bikes. Austin has a "helmet" that's actually a deflated kickball that he wears while he rides. Its good that he's happy with it, because apparently they only have one real helmet and Elise wears that. :)

Hawaiian Thanksgiving, Day 3

Well the good news is that my last post may have actually inspired George to post some of his better pictures from  Hanauma on his family's blog.  The bad news is that I only have 1 picture from Day 3:



And yes, it's pretty much the same view I posted for Day 2.  But I'm sure we still had fun on Day 3.  We got up and started our day with a delicious breakfast buffet at the hotel.  They had an omelet station, a place to make waffles, some of the best sausage links I've had, a variety of pastries and other things. Anyway, it was a great breakfast. And then we went back to the pools.  George and Kimi rented some stand-up paddle boards while we watched the kids at the pools.  Eventually I made it over to the big pool with Lucy and we had a good time playing there.

We finished up at the pools in time to get back to our rooms and get packed up in time for checkout.  Then we headed back to Kaneohe and had a fairly lazy afternoon.  Through the magic of the internet we were able to watch Utah's snowy game against Washington State, as well as Utah State's game in the office in George's house.  Both games ended up going to overtime and both Utah schools ended up winning, so that was pretty fun.

I think after that we must have eaten some dinner (navajo tacos? that was either this night or the next) and hung out and played games with the kids and eventually gone to bed, since I don't really remember any specifics.

Hawaiian Thanksgiving, Day 2

Friday morning, George was off work, and it was pretty much the only morning he'd have available to snorkel with us, so Dad and I and George got up early (granted, I always get up early my first few days there with the time change) and headed over to Hanauma.

The water was a little rougher than usual there, probably due to it being "winter" or something, but not horrible.  Saw lots of bigger fish there than I remember, including a few groups of larger fish. Dad found a turtle and called us over to see it. George found a giant snail, but when I followed him out to see it, it took him a while to find it and I had given up and swam off again by the time he found it. In the shallows, the rough water was pretty murky and it was overcast so not a lot of great light for taking pictures, at least with a cheap disposable camera. George bought a real underwater camera and he probably has some good photos, not that he has a blog or a facebook page or anything to share them on, though. :)  In any case, I did get a few salvageable photos:

Large group of big ringtail surgeonfish

Decent shot of a moorish idol

Nice green shot of a turtle (that's George in the background)

Turtle up close

Anyway, I always love Hanauma and all the beautiful and interesting fish you can see there, and I think I've seen a turtle every time I've been, too, so that's always fun.

After we were done, we headed back home and spent some time hanging out and packing up a night's worth of stuff for a little vacation-in-a-vacation that George and family had put together for us. They got us reservations at the Hale Koa hotel in Waikiki. It's owned and/or run by the military or something, so we were able to get a fairly reasonable rate, I imagine. We headed over in the afternoon.


Waiting for the grownups to check us in.

Once we were checked in, we changed into our swim trunks and headed down to the swimming pools.  Yes, we were right by the ocean, but the kiddie pool was probably more fun for the kids. I know I had a good time playing with Elise and Austin. At one point, I was just floating in the foot and a half of water and they were having a great time slowing spinning me in a circle. Must have done at least 20 revolutions. :)


View from the room

After some swimming time (and with an unheated pool on an overcast evening, it gets cold after a while) we got changed, watched some TV -- since George and Kimi don't have TV per se, the kids get super excited to watch Spongebob and other cartoons at the hotel. Talk about managing expectations. :) --, and headed off in search of some dinner. We ended up at a deli of sorts that was quite good. I got a reuben that was pretty tasty.

Finally, we walked down to the beach by the Hilton where we'd been told that they do a fireworks show every Friday night.  And the rumors were true. They put on quite a show and with it being so close to the hotels there was quite an echo ringing back in my ears. Especially on the big explosions. Made for a great end to Day 2.

Hawaiian Thanksgiving, Day 1

Well my "Welcome Back from Hawaii" headcold is mostly on the outs (knock on wood!), and things at work are a little slow, so I figured it might be time to start writing up my trip. Yeah? I like how I ask it as though 1) someone out there was reading this besides my mom who was on the trip, and 2) like you have any choice about what I blog. :)

I tried to think of a clever title for these posts (Like what's the Thanksgiving version of "Mele Kalikimaka"?), but couldn't really come up with one. So you're stuck with "Hawaiian Thanksgiving". If I make it back for another Thanksgiving I might have to find something more fun.

Anyway, we left for Hawaii on a Thursday around noon.  I decided to drive myself there since I was leaving during the workday and coming home at 7 am on Black Friday when any sane person would probably be sleeping, and anyone else would be shopping. :)  Our flight was fairly uneventful. I do love the free movies on the flight to Hawaii.  If you're quick you can fit in 3 if you really want to. I watched "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" which I thought was really fun, and then "Green Lantern" which was only so-so.  Had time for another but couldn't really find anything too interested, so I ended up reading a bit and napping a bit.

We got to Hawaii in the afternoon (6 hour flight, 3 hour time change), picked up our rental car and made our way successfully to Kaneohe.  If I remember right, we just spent that night hanging out with George and Kimi and reacquainting ourselves with the kids.  Didn't even take any pictures.