Saturday, June 14 GREG

Hanalei Bay lookout into Mordor. Also, taro fields below.

 Today we decided to go to Hanalei Bay – titled the world’s best beach. The beach had wonderful sand and the bay was quite shallow. The kids enjoyed playing in the waves and watching haoles attempt to surf using 9 foot paddle boards. The views along the way were quite amazing and reminded the kids of Jurassic Park. I enjoyed the one-lane bridges that required cooperation and patience of all of the drivers in both directions. Maybe we would have a little less road rage is more conscious cooperation was expected out of drivers – teach everyone that we all take up space regardless of who we are.

Backdrop of Hanalei Bay beach.

The girls just hanging out at the beach. Guess who’s who?

This is when we wish we had a volleyball!

We also spent a fair amount of time at the pool which is directly below us. Finding just the right game for those aged 6-13 seems daunting but we finally settled on marco-polo. Having six in a family made it more fast pace and the turnaround was enjoyable.

For dinner, we took the kids to Foodland and had them walk around and decide what they wanted to eat. They gravitated towards macaroni and cheese with hot dogs. Renee and I gone out early in the morning to the farmer’s market and picked up some mixed salad with editable flowers (along with another bag – can never have too many of those). This was the hit of our dinner along with Jasmine rice and Portuguese sausage.

Julia is forced to eat a flower for dinner

The sun seems awfully intense in the tropics. You can feel its rays penetrate your skin and force you to seek protection. The kids have been great with sunblock and we have forced them to wear their rash guards on days that the clouds don’t seem to be providing relief. Movies help as well to keep little delicate skin out of the sun at high noon.

This is the pool outside the unit.