Thursday July 1, 2010

Happy Canada Day!

Having learned several valuable lessons the day before, we put them to use and visited Lydgate Park, which boasts a baby beach! Basically there are little enclosed pools, where the waves never get to high. This beach trip was a success and Jon was able to shoot some awesome shots of our little water baby. Later that afternoon we found the islands Wal-Mart and stocked up on some well needed supplies and stopped in at Macy’s where Melody decided to walk all by herself through none other than the lingerie department!

Wednesday June 30, 2010

We seem to be waking up REALLY early here, probably something to do with all of the chickens, jet-leg and Melody more or less sleeping through the night. There are chickens, chicks and roosters everywhere. Hurricane Ikki released them to the wild and they spread quickly. They cockadoodle incessantly starting at 4am sharp*. This morning I was out for a run by 6:30am, why can’t I do that at home??
We packed up the jeep and headed out. Today we decided we would drive the other side of the island. Much different scenery…red sand, just like PEI, fewer palm trees, and the mountains seemed less green, in fact, everything was less green. Eventually we came across a sign for Polihale State Park, and after a recommendation from our friend Brooke, couldn’t pass up the chance to check it out. The road to Polihale is BRUTAL, but it was no match for our trusty Jeep. We felt bad for all the little rental cars making their way out, but on arrival realized why people were going through all the trouble. This place is AMAZING and we will be going back. Today was a quick visit, because although we thought we were ready for the beach, we had a few things to learn:

1. Check your equipment before leaving home: we packed a beach umbrella only to find out that it was only the top part of the umbrella, no stick!! All of these happy families tucked under their umbrellas and we would have had to be lying down to enjoy ours!

2. Apply sunscreen well in advance! I had slathered the baby in the morning before leaving, but it was so hot, and the umbrella was so useless, that I felt I needed to slather again…so I slathered up the baby and then sat her on a beach towel, at which point she proceeded to grab handfuls of sand and pour them all over herself, can you imagine the result??

3. Eating at the beach is overrated, especially with a 13 month old. From now on we will eat before and after beach trips, but never during.

4. Leave the denim at home….I was wearing cute little denim capris that I thought were appropriate because I wasn’t going swimming. But I had to wash my little sand monster off before loading her in the car. So I waded out a short ways and dangled Melody into the water, hoping to wash of the sand she was caked in. What was I thinking? This is the OCEAN. No sooner had I waded out, then a wave came crashing into us and my jeans were soaked. Melody loved it!

At least we learned a few things, tomorrow’s beach trip we will put them to use! None of those things really mattered anyways; the view was worth the wet and sandy trip home 

After Polihale, we stopped into a thrift store to pick up Hawaiian shirts and a baby bath tub (the shower doesn’t work so well with Melody!), and started to make our way back to Kapaa. On the outskirts of town a sign caught our eye, FREE HULA SHOW, so we stopped in and had a yummy BBQ dinner while watching traditional Hula dancers in the shade of palm trees.

*denotes a change in author.

Tuesday June 29, 2010

Our first day in Kapaa, we jumped in the jeep and started to drive north. The scenery is absolutely breathtaking, with the ocean to the left, mountains to the right and everything green in between. Towns are quaint, and there are many one lane bridges to cross. We are sure we saw “base camp” for one of the movies they are filming here, Pirates of the Caribbean perhaps? We made a stop at Kilauea Lighthouse (of course!) and found a delicious smoothie stand for an afternoon treat. Melody drank out of a straw for the first time!

Monday June 28, 2010

Monday morning we were greeted by the biggest limo I have ever seen! We really received the royal treatment! Highlights: receiving our fresh flower leis, Diamond Head (saw Tom Selleck’s old neighbourhood), Dole pineapple plantation, Macadamia Nut farm, Pearl Harbour, Byodo-In Buddhist temple (Jon had seen this in an episode of Lost, it isn't normally a tour stop, but our special request, and really glad we insisted!) Our tour guide was wonderful, and would highly recommend Dang's Limosine to anyone visiting Oahu!



Flight to Kauai

I tried really, really hard to pack light, honestly. But we still had to make it through the airport with 2 heavy suitcases, a baby backpack (with a baby!) and 3 carry-on bags. I will admit I was the tiniest bit jealous when the couple in front of us (obviously honeymooners) checked onto the flight with just the tiniest of carry on bags. However, the smiling face of our tiny passenger makes the extra baggage all worth it. Traveling with Melody has been an absolute joy. She is able to make friends wherever she goes. In the airport waiting for our flight to Kauai, she made friends with a French-speaking Swiss family by climbing into their daughter’s booster seat. Her smiles also lead us to meet an Alaskan father-daughter off to visit colleges and a small boy named Logan who didn’t really want Melody to play with his dinosaur. Melody’s ability to fall asleep in the most awkward places (the Kelty Kids carrier), helped us to land an upgrade to the 4-door Jeep, the sales clerk just couldn’t put the baby and all our stuff into the 2-door! After a very long day we made it to Honua Lani gardens, our home away from home for the month.

Getting here...

When we started to plan our trip to Kauai, I really did not take into consideration how far away we would be. I understood that there would be several planes, and I knew it would be long, but for some reason it just didn’t register how really far away we would be!

Here are the highlights of our trip over:

We were picked up at 2:00 am at home and the drive to the airport was uneventful. “One-word answer Mike” was the driver. We all managed to get some sleep, which would come in handy later on! Checking in at the airport went pretty smoothly. It is quite a sight to see everyone walking through the checkpoints in their socks, humbling! Our flight to Chicago went well, Melody slept through take off! But we ran into some bad weather and were rerouted. Our hero of a pilot managed to get us landed before the thunder storm hit, so we were not delayed. Many others were not so lucky, this would also come in handy for us later on. In Chicago we had a bite to eat and got caught up on the soccer game. Luckily, our Honolulu connection was on time and we were back in the air again. The stewardess moved us up to a row of three when she saw we were traveling with a baby (the flight had been full, but because of the bad weather delaying flights all over the place, some unfortunate travelers did not make their connection). The three seats were an absolute life saver. Melody was able to lie down to sleep, stretch out, and stand up. She passed a great deal of time tearing up the complimentary magazines in the seat pockets in front of us.

Once we arrived at our hotel we ordered a Hawaiian pizza, watched the soccer replay and were sound asleep by 6pm (local time, it was 12:00 North Bay time!)

one week....

One week in, and I think it would be an understatement to say we are settling in. In the debate to blog or not to blog, we have come to the decision that a record of this adventure will be invaluable. So after a quick catch up, here’s hoping we can stay on top of things