January blahs

Here it is mid-January, and not a single blog post has been written since we returned from Hawaii. Sigh.

It's cold and rainy, Liesl was sick, I am sick (not Covid, just a miserable cold). There is work and school, school and work. It feels like everyone has Covid, or someone in their family has Covid.

On the bright side, there's our doggo, who we missed, and who has been getting to play with his doggie friends around 4 pm most days in an informal/impromptu gathering at dusk. He loves to run around with Ruca, Bandit, Hazel, Sadie, Noodles, Daisy, and Edna, and to say hello to their people. :)

Liesl completed a 500-piece puzzle by herself. She's been rewatching the Harry Potter movies, and we watched all of The Sound of Music together (probably her first time seeing it through, and not just cherry-picking favorite scenes). We have had a couple of meetups with her OBOB team and those are fun and boisterous. The girls have been great at reading their books (there are 16 on the list) and are now starting to re-read and take notes.

We are completing a daily word puzzle game, Wordle -- Steve, me, mom and dad, Carl, occasionally Kim and Liesl. It's a short game, and it's fun to compare daily scores and chitchat about it.

Sebastian has seen his friends both in person -- playing basketball together -- and through Fortnite. He's going to watch a bunch of his friends play in the middle school basketball games tonight and is excited to cheer them on.

Sports are starting to get into gear: soccer practices are starting, with Seb's season kicking off on Jan 22 (yes, that's right, his "spring" soccer season starts in the dead of winter.... brrrrr).  Both kids had indoor baseball/softball practices last weekend; Liesl needs a new helmet and Seb needs a new glove.

Our pineapple fixation continues, only it's a weekly instead of daily treat. Still pretty tasty, though! Onward with January --

Kua Bay

On our final day in Hawaii, the Raabits and Averlees headed back to the beach for swimming and boogie-boarding in the waves, this time at Kua Bay (Manini'owali Beach). Dad, mom, and Jean decided instead to head north to the town of Hawi and the Pololu Valley Lookout, and had a great day of sightseeing, window-shopping, and gazing down the steep cliffs at the ocean. 

The beach was gorgeous -- small, but tucked away behind some lava rocks, with soft sand and good waves. We had so much fun playing and swimming and enjoying the ocean, and we stayed until everyone was waterlogged and cold and tired and hungry. Such good memories, such an beautiful place, so wonderful to spend time with family after so long, so lucky that it all happened.

 

We ate all of the leftovers we had remaining in our three fridges, cut up and devoured our final daily pineapple, and packed up.

Boarding our plane on Friday morning, headed home (with a layover in Honolulu). Aloha Hawaii! We'll be back!

kayaking and snorkeling

On Wednesday, we rented kayaks from Ehu and Kai Adventures and kayaked across a bay to Captain Cook monument. We had two triple kayaks, one double, and one single — it was tough work to battle against the ocean, but also so fun to be out there on the water. There's great snorkeling near the monument, including a spot where the ocean floor drops steeply away and down.  We were slightly bothered by all the tour boats taking up the best spots and spewing out diesel fumes, but they left after a bit and we and the other kayakers had more room. It was really cool to see all of the fish, and to just jump over the sides of our kayaks and into the water. We had to tow them behind us as we snorkeled, like big dogs on leash.

 

After snorkeling for a couple of hours, we kayaked back to shore, got ourselves out and showered off and changed, and headed in search of something tasty. We found Gypsea Gelato and then Kona Joe coffee farm —

 

Someone liked the coffee a little too much!

teenagers on vacation...

We ordered dinner from Broke Da Mouth Grindz in Kona, and enjoyed a picnic on the beachy waterfront.

Hapuna Beach, part deux

We all agreed that Hapuna Beach was worth a second visit, so we headed back there on Tuesday morning. After our earlier experience, it was quite the surprise to show up and find enormous waves crashing down on the beach this time. There were extra lifeguards broadcasting frequent warnings about the strength of the undertow and the possibility of spinal cord injuries (we saw a man getting carried away on a stretcher to an ambulance).  So we were quite tentative in the beginning, and made sure that we only played in the waves after the break, and we had a grand time. Everyone bodysurfed or boogie-boarded, and the girls jumped the waves, and it was really fun to experience the ocean in a different way.

In the afternoon, I took the girls to check out the petroglyphs on the King's trail nearby. 

Danica carefully read all of the signs and made sure she covered all of the ground, looking at all of the spaces.

Liesl and Roxy are playing some sort of pretend game, off in the distance, oblivious to their surroundings.

The daily pineapple! So sweet and juicy!