Brrrr!

In a news item that will amuse no one with snow, ice, or cold temps awaiting them this morning (or really anyone who has to leave the house wearing a coat), it was too cold in Hawaii on Tuesday for preschoolers to go outside for recess. The high in Honolulu that day was 71 degrees. An evening newscaster said about the weather Monday evening, it was “…kinda like a socks night.” And yes, that’s a direct quote from the 5 PM news.
You’ll see in Robbie’s report card that when marking his daily activities, he went on auto-pilot and started to circle recess, but the teacher stopped him, had him cross it out, and she penciled in, “Too cold!” My guess is that the kids were simply not dressed for high-60s, low 70s temps and didn’t have jackets. But the kids did give it their best. They ran outside and quickly ran back inside complaining of “the chill” and the teachers turned to rarely-used Plan B – Inside Recess!

When he didn't have recess to choose from as his favorite activity, our little guy opted to select his nap.

Lucky quarters

Robbie came home from school yesterday with a Chinese New Year gift from his teacher - two uncirculated Hawai'i state quarters in a red envelope. Lucky money! I hadn't really thought about collecting the state quarter series, but I will be saving these. At least trying to. Coins are seen as toys around here; they get stacked, stashed, and scattered around as much as the blocks, cars, and train sets.

Bring on the Year of the Ox

After reading about it for years and never getting there for various reasons, I finally was able to check out Honolulu’s Chinatown during a Chinese New Year celebration. Events started Friday night, so I picked up Noel from his nearby office after work and we headed out. Our goals were to get some pastries and sweets from a new Chinatown bakery that has people lining up down the street for goodies and then to get dinner. We – barely – accomplished one of those goals.

Instead of an organized parade, Friday night just had everyone who has a lion/dragon costume running randomly through the streets collecting dollar bills “for good luck.” A little chaotic. Then equally randomly, folks lighting long strings of firecrackers hung from storefront facades. Robbie didn’t do so well with those and we couldn’t get him to cross a few streets to get to the bakery. So we headed in a different direction and found a non-Chinese restaurant that seemed semi-quiet and away from the fray. However, upon sitting down, we were informed (nicely) that a lion dancer was due to come through the restaurant and to “have his [Robbie’s] dollar bill ready if he was interested.” Then we noticed that outside of the back window the restaurant had its own string of firecrackers ready for lighting. We ordered anyway.

Cub was unusually fussy and not much worked to calm him down. At one point I rather comically tried to chase him down with a martini in my hand. (Didn’t spill a drop!) Milk calmed Cub down for a while. Until he threw it all up. I headed off to the ladies’ room to change him and when I returned, Noel headed off to the men’s room to clean up the stroller. The wait staff met him at the door and kindly showed him to the service kitchen, where they helped him hose it off and even Febreze’d it for him! Back at the table, we ate a few more bites and then asked that it all be packed up. Dinner was aborted and we headed home. The food was good though, and the wait staff fantastic. I’d like to head back someday without toddlers.

It could have been worse! While dining, we saw a fire truck and an ambulance pass by in the direction of firecrackers that had recently gone off. At least we ended the night without permanent scars.

Surfing Goat Dairy Farm

There is a lot of buzz around here about a little goat farm in Maui that supplies goat cheese to most of the major high-end hotels on the islands. I've been lucky enough to sample the cheese a few times in restaurants around town and it's fantastic. So when we were in Maui I dragged Noel and the boys up to lower Kula one afternoon to see the Surfing Goat Dairy Farm located on the slopes of Haleakala. (The view from the picture here is looking out toward West Maui.) We didn't take either of the tours offered, but wandered around where we were permitted, snapped some pictures of the 3-week old babies (above), and took home some goat feta cheese. We mixed it into a green salad that night and it was divine! Seriously some of the best feta you'll ever have.
I was hoping from there we would drive up to Haleakala and view the sunset, but on the slopes of Haleakala does not mean on the way to Haleakala. The dairy farm is not located on the main road that leads to Haleakala, and we didn't really have time to drive around and up to the summit that day so we didn't go. Haleakala is one of my favorite places in all of Hawaii - I keep saying this, but some day we will get back!

History

"For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours. It is the firefighter's courage to storm a stairway filled with smoke, but also a parent's willingness to nurture a child, that finally decides our fate.

Our challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends — hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism — these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded then is a return to these truths. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility — a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task."

Full text of inauguration speech here.

Wind, wind, go away

While most of the Mainland is fighting cold weather, we're fighting wind. A big wind storm was predicted late last night / early morning, so all schools in the state except the Big Island cancelled public schools. My mother-in-law, faithful watcher of the 5, 6, and 10 PM news, called to tell me at 5:30 last night. There's a good chance I otherwise would not have known. So far it's been a non-issue on Oahu. I'm wondering what the fuss is all about, but maybe some other islands are really getting hit.

So on with our vacation posts. Knowing Robbie loves to take pictures, my Mom gave him a Fisher Price camera for Christmas. In theory it's great - they claim it's kid tough (it looks it) and water resistant. But read the fine print and it's only 1.3 megapixels. We also discovered indoor shots are pretty bad and that it works best outside in bright sunlight. Robbie might be a little advanced for it already, but give Cub a few more months and he'll have fun with it. Here is cousin Johnny and Robbie building sandcastles at a Kihei beach.

Kihei sunset

Our last evening in Maui found us sans Noel and Cub. I took Robbie to a fantastic playground at the beach side Palama Park in Kihei before sundown, a short walk from our rental. The goal was to burn off some energy before dinner. It kind of worked. I also wanted to view the sunset and had to beg him to leave the equipment for a few minutes to take a look. I snapped a few pictures before he got restless and we turned our back to this view and returned to the swings. The sacrifices you make as a Mom.

No Superferry woes for us

We sailed to Maui on the Superferry for the second time. Our first crossing together was in November. We had planned to sail back together this time but Noel found out shortly before our vacation started that he would have to fly back a day earlier to meet clients. He kept offering to take one of the boys back with him so I wouldn’t have to manage both on the boat. I dragged my feet and didn’t make a decision about it until we heard about a bad crossing a few days after we sailed to Kahului. Seas in the channels were pretty rough – at least 17 cars were damaged in the vehicle deck and my mother-in-law in Waikiki reported they said on TV that “everyone” on board got sick. When I heard that, I gave in. Noel took off with Cub and Robbie and I remained to go it alone.
We sat next to a family who said they were on that fateful voyage and they admitted it was pretty bad. They were understandably apprehensive to return but had no choice. When I asked if everyone got sick, the other mom said, “Well, not everyone. I’d say about 95%.” I thought about it…imagine being in a room of 100 people and 95 of them puking. There were probably at least 200-300 people on the boat that day…ugh. They have a team of people cleaning up but a few people just can’t clean that fast!
We got lucky and had no problems. In fact, Robbie fell asleep while we could still see Maui. I fell asleep shortly after that and we pretty much slept the entire 3+ hours. I’d like to say we saw this lighthouse on the Molokai coast, but we didn’t. It’s a shot from last November. I think it is the isolated Kalaupapa area (think leper colony) but I couldn’t quite hear what the captain was saying as we cruised by.

Here today, gone to Maui

We went to Maui again. But this time my Mom, her boyfriend, my sister, her husband, and my niece and nephew joined us. We rented a house in Kihei with a big lanai and pool, plus just three houses from the beach and some yummy restaurants. Time went too fast and Thursday found us on the Superferry heading home. I think I'll post the pics in reverse, starting with this one above of Robbie peeking out at activity at the Kahului docks before we sailed for Honolulu. Boats, cranes, boxes, and trucks...what more can a boy ask for?

Where in the world did we go?

A belated Happy New Year to all. On Thursday we returned from a week-long family vacation to... I'm going to keep you guessing for another day. Here's a clue: On Tuesday we went to a goat dairy farm. Yes, it was my idea and I did drag the crew to a goat dairy farm. More on that later. For now, enjoy the view. I suppose if you're a goat this is as good as it gets?