Eia Au, Eia 'Oe Hawaii

Major highlights from each day of the trip

Day 0, Friday 2 June

The flight over to Kona was 6 hours....6 long hours. The 15 hour flight to Sydney a few months ago seemed to go by faster than this on. Of course on that flight I didn't have to be a referee, entertainer and baby holder . When we landed it was gray and overcast, not the typical vision of Hawaii. All flights to Hawaii should get in before noon when it is typically sunny and bright. And all the flights should have somebody meeting you at the bottom with leis.

After getting the car we set off for Hilo. It is interesting the mentality when you live on an island. I think it causes your world to shrink. When I told the lady at the rental counter that we were driving to Hilo that night she looked at me incredulously and said "You are going all the way to Hilo tonight?!? That is over a hundred miles!" Granted it is a slow hundred miles, taking over 2 hours to get there but not outrageous.

We got to the Kilauea Camp at about 8pm, got inside and Truman promptly threw up.

Day 1, Saturday 3 June

We all slept very well that first night and woke up hungry looking for breakfast. We came to our first sticker shock of the trip when we went in the cafeteria. Breakfast was $10 a person for the buffet or $7 a person for the "Continental Breakfast." We decided to just get milk and cereal at the general store but that wasn't too much better.

The next event of the day was exploring Volcanoes National Park. It was a beautiful sunny morning and we were all excited. We saw the Halemaumau Crater, the Devastation Trail, and Chain of Craters. Our favorite part of the park was the Thurston Lava Tube, which was a little rainforest in the middle of the crater and in the middle of the rainforest was a tunnel to the center of the volcano. Very cool.

After traipsing around volcanoes we started the drive back to Kona. Along the way we found the coolest beach. The sand was all ground up lava rock so it was all jet black on the beach. It was quite a sight. Tennyson's first experience on the beach was a very black one. The other amazing thing was on the beach were two huge sea turtles sunning themselves on the sand. The quote of day came after admiring the turtles for about a half hour, Tally noticed one of them move their head. He jumped back and said surprised, "Oh my gosh, their alive!"

Day 2, Sunday 4 June

Not wanting to let such a perfect opportunity escape us, Chlöe, Tally and I decided to make the climb up the 13,796 ft high Mauna Kea, the highest peak in Hawaii. Some interesting facts about Mauna Kea, it is the highest in the Pacific, it is the world's highest mountain from base to summit it rises more than 33,000 feet from the ocean floor, and it is the most remote mountain in the world nearly 2,500 miles from the closest continent.

It was a long journey, driving through winding, bumpy back roads to the center of Hawaii. The drive alone was about 2.5 hours to get to a suitable starting point. The entire mountain from about 6000 ft up is completely barren, no trees, no bushes, nothing. This made for quite a monotonous hike, but we made it and can check that one of the list. Up at the top we saw the only snow in the entire Pacific, which was pretty keen.

Day 3, Monday 5 June
I need to say just a bit about the place we stayed. We found this place on Ebay and we were a bit trepidations because we didn't know anything about it. It ended up being such an incredible find. It was a huge two bedroom condo with a large dining porch. All of the interior and exterior was patterned to look like authentic Hawaiian houses. It was great!

We went out today looking for a nice beach to hangout at for the day. We ended up on a beach on the north side of Hapuna Bay behind a hotel coincidentally called the Mauna Kea. All the beaches on the Big Island are public but the access doesn't have to be. The resort had set aside about a dozen parking spots for people not staying hotel, this really kept the number of people on the beach at a minimum.

The beach was beautiful. It was a natural bay with two rocky reefs on either side. We spent the day building sand castles, playing in the water, and snorkeling in on the reefs. There were quite a few turtles swimming on the reef that we were able to look at. It was the perfect place to spend the day...and we did for about 6.5 hours.

Day 4, Tuesday 6 June
Well, we pay for our fun at the beach today with nice red roasted backs. It was a bit troubling that Tally sunburn started in the middle of his bottom. Why can't any thing say on his waist?

We took a day trip out to the east side of the island in the rainforest. There are amazing sights over here from towering waterfalls to an animal sanctuary to beautifully manicured gardens. We all had a great time hiking and playing today. There isn't much to say about this day that the pictures don't say better.

Day 5, Wednesday 7 June
Recovery Day! Pool & beach down the street.

Day 6, Thursday 8 June
Tally and I had a little adventure today. We heard about a local pastime up on the north side of the island where they would grab inner tubes and inflatable boats and go float down the irrigation canals. There is one long canal that runs 22 miles from the central part of the island where it rains 150 inches a year down to the sugar cane fields closer to the coast.

There is an outfit that rents kayaks and takes people on a ride down the canal so Tally and I gave it a try. The ride was great, flumming through the rainforest and going through the tunnels dug out through the mountains. We were in a boat with a local who had lots of stories about the island and growing up there in a tiny little village.

That afternoon we when out to Makalawena Beach. The beach was really rock with lava formations all around it. But the surf was great for the older two kids. The waves broke a bit harder on the shore making it more exiting to body surf and try to stand against the waves.

Day 7, Friday 9 June
We called an audible today and decided with the long flight back and Saturday being a entire day in the car, it wouldn't be very fun for Tenny or Truman. Rose decided to take them back that night. So we revisited our favorite beach on the island up at Hapuna Bay. It was just as good as the first time.

Then we spent the evening going through the markets and shops in Kona. It is a quant little town, only a couple of streets wide. We finished up the evening with dinner at Hard Rock Cafe right on the beach, watching the sunset. It was a perfect way to end the trip with the whole family.

Day 8, Saturday 10 June
Our last day in Hawaii, so we had to squeeze every last second out of the day. Chlöe, Tally and I went swimming for about an hour in the morning. Then we went to the condo and grabbed all of our stuff so we could check out.

Then we traveled down the coast. Along the way we found Pu uhonua O Honaunau, which was a little historical park that was quite out of the way and off of the main highway. It had the remains of an ancient Hawaiian temple and retreat area. It had some of the original walls and structures and then the rest was recreated to look like it did in the 16th century. Quite prodigious!

We then continued down the road to the most southern point in the entire USA, appropriately named South Point. The next body of land to the south was Antarctica, I think I could see it off in the distance. We had heard about a small hidden bay on the south side of the island that was covered in green sand. We talked to some people down on a ranch down there and found out it was a three mile hike from the end of the road. The kids agreed and we were on our way.

The hike was really amazing. We walked through sprawling grassland on a trail that was as gold as Mr. T's chest. We hiked for about 45min until we came to a bay with shear cliff walls on both sides. At the bottom was the greenest sand I have ever seen, it wasn't bright green but it more of a dark rich green. We had to scale the walls to go check it out.

On the way down the cliff I told the kids not to get wet because we had to get on the plane in about 5 hours and we had no way to get cleaned up. We got to the bottom and I sat down to take off my shoes but Tally headed straight for the water. I looked up just in time to see a towering 6 foot wave land squarely on top of him. At that point there was nothing else to to but enjoy the massive wave and scenery of Mahana Beach.

We made are way back to Kona and on our flight and eventually home. It is amazing, I feel like just a day or two ago I was sitting at the computer planning out the trip. Now I am back here and it is all over. I think it was the sagacious Faris Bueller that said, "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it."

Leia Mais…

The Land of Fire and Ice

We had to go on a road trip this weekend to celebrate the 100,000 mile of our Toyota Sienna. I didn't want such a momentous occasion being spent on a mere trip to the commissary or taking the kids to school. We started the trip around 999,912 and we took a trip out to Grants, NM about 100 miles away. Right as the odometer flipped we all got our to dance around and commemorate the occasion with a 100 Grand candy bar.











Out in Grants they have a unique area where they had a volcano thousands of years ago. From the volcano there are several interesting formations such as lava flows, cinder cones, and twisty trees. One of the most interesting is a at the bottom of the volcano a cave formed. The porous nature of the cave combine with the altitude and insulation make the cave frozen year round. Inside the cave was a lake of ice and ice all over the walls. It was really kind of wild. The hike was great for the family because it wasn't too long, about 1.5 miles total. The trail was covered in minced lava rock and lined with curious looking twisted Douglas fir trees. This made the landscape look like a scene out of a B-rate sci-fi film. Also, this trip marked Tennyson's first hike! He really enjoyed it which is good because in this family you don't get much choice.

We end the day of hiking with a refreshing trip to the pool and a greased watermelon relay. Everyone knows it's not really Memorial Day without a greased watermelon relay.

Leia Mais…

My life...A bizarre rock video

Sometimes it seems like my life is some kind of crazy European rock video. The kind where there are multiple seemingly unconnected weird people and events. For example, at 2:17pm yesterday I was sitting in the living room while the kids were playing in the other room. All of a sudden Chlöe comes into the room with a hand towel around her waist, a brown paper shopping bag over her shoulders, and her face painted like a cat. Then a couple of minutes later Tally comes into the room bouncing a huge 2ft red ball with nothing on but orange and black striped underwear. Next Chewie comes into the room, screams out one indiscernible cacophony of sounds and then walks out. I was trippin the rest of the day trying to figure out what that all meant.

Leia Mais…

How high up are we?

We had to make an expeditious return from the F&S camp because I was due to go TDY that afternoon to White Sands (WSMR). This TDY was going to be the capstone of our SDB GPS jamming work but there was a downside. We had to spool out 3km of cable to use in the test. When I say we had to spool out the cable I don't mean we had to walk behind a machine that lay the cable for us I mean we had to put on gloves that would soon be shreds of fabric and roll the 500lb spool hand-over-hand for 3km. Not a fun job.

When we got to WSMR Maj Hebert said he wanted me to take a few people and set up an smaller site. This was a good deal for several reasons; first and foremost I would not have to deal with that bloody 3km cable. Another cool thing was that I would be in charge of a group and we were essentially hanging out in the mountains all day. The downside was that it was a 3 hour drive each way to the top of the mountain where the site would be located. This meant leaving 3 hours before everybody and getting home a couple hours later, but as long as I didn't have to roll the wheel of torture I was still coming out on top.

A couple of interesting events that transpired during the week. On the fourth night we started down off the 9700ft peak around 8pm. I don't know if it was the dusk hours of the night or some conspiracy that the animals had cooked up but there was a veritable safari out there. It was like someone opened up Noah's Ark on top of the mountain and several species scattered all over. We saw a bunch of deer, one of the largest elk I have ever seen, rattlesnakes, a thousand rabbits, and of course a ton of oryx. Oryx are large antelope that were transplanted from Africa to WSMR about 25 years ago. Without any natural predators they have absolutely flourished, which is amazing because they are not smart animals. They are as dumb as a deer but weigh 3x as much. When you are driving at night and the headlights shine on there red eyes, black faces and long pointy horns, it appears like the devil himself has just jumped in front of your car. On this evening driving home there were a couple dozen oryx that had a tremendous amount of anxiety that made them have to cross the road right now! A least it kept me awake after working 14 hours that day.

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On the last day of testing we were in a bind because there were not enough vehicles for everyone to get to there sites. Since we had all of our equipment set up already we just caught a ride with someone else. This worked great until we had to go home that night. We had to bring back all of our stuff but we didn't have a vehicle to transport it. One of the guys at a nearby site said he had enough room to grab us on his way back. When he picked us up he said he wanted to take all of the equipment that belonged to WSMR not just our stuff. This made for a very tight fit with four large boxes of electronics, tripods and mounting gear, some car batteries, three generators, and three 5gal cans of gasoline in the back of his truck with a shell on the back. Since we didn't have any other way back down and it was about 90deg out there on desert and we were tired, we all piled in.

About 1.5 miles down the mountain on a very tight logging road with sheer cliff sides that when about 2500ft down on both sides we heard something drop in the back. Since I was in the back seat of the king cab truck, I looked back but I didn't see anything. I said if we stopped I would run back and look to see if everything was alright. When I got to the back of the truck I noticed that the sound wasn't that of something falling but the sound of something combusting. Apparently it is not good for gasoline to be stored in airtight containers that start to compress when you loose several thousand feet in elevation driving down the mountain. Also it seems that when gas in these conditions is stored in a semi-airtight camper shell whose temperature has risen to about 150deg is suddenly given a blast of cool mountain oxygen it turns into what can only be described as a Molotov tornado.

After I made one of the dumbest decisions ever to open the back of the truck shell, I went running back to the front to tell everyone to get out because of the fire. The guy driving responed so quickly that he forgot that the car was still in drive and sent the car careening toward the cliff in front of us. The person in the passenger seat jumped in head first to put the car in park. I grabbed the fire extinguisher in the back seat (you know, all government vehicles must have them..."Safety First"). I ran back and drenched the back of the truck with billowy foam. After we had suppressed all of the flames, we inspected the back of the truck to find about 1/32 plastic left on the caps on the cans holding the 15 gallons of gasoline. I can't imagine we had much more than a 10-15 seconds before one of the containers went up in flames. After we got back to base everyone said, "Don't you know when your car starts on fire you just get the hell away from it." Let's see...we loaded 15 gals of gas in the back of a hot car with generators and car batteries...I am thinking nobody was a real safety wiz.

Leia Mais…

The Final Frustration

This one is entitled the "Final Frustration" because after planning and executing a poorly attended Fathers and Sons campout, I made a lengthy addition to the blog. I got up to get a drink of water and when I got back everything was gone. I don't know if it refreshed itself or if one of the kids clear it or what but instead of a detailed description you get two pictures of the camp and the hike to Tent Rocks. Good-bye

Leia Mais…

The Genesis

I am creating this log to chronicle the travels, trials and triumphs of the family. This will be a way of sharing some of the interesting events in the family and allow for comment to those. Hopefully, the additions and edits will be something that is perpetual and enjoyed by those who read it.

The first thing I wanted talk about was the trip to Papa's farm that Truman and I got to go on last weekend, 5 May. It is fitting that this entry goes along with the title of "The Genesis" because this is where our family began as well. Truman and I went down to help Papa shoot some video of different locations on the farm that has some special meaning. We had a great time but somewhat bittersweet because of the imminent selling of the farm. It made me feel as if we were selling a bit of our own history. I say "we" but it really has nothing to do with me. I realize everybody loves the farm but from a practical perspective it doesn't make sense to keep it if nobody really has the time to give it the care it deserves. It is almost like the farm is a dying relative, who is full of history and stories, but at some point you just have to let go. I am probably not the best person to judge on issues like this either...I still have my high school library card in my closet because it reminds me of books I read back then.



One of the highlights of the trip was the fishing excursion we took at the end of the day. We went fishing in the pond behind the farm with some poles we found in the old barn. On the first cast of his life Truman pulled out a huge 14" large mouth bass. He now holds a stat that I don't think any Harris, Carrico, or Buckley could beat...1 fish/ever 30 seconds of fishing in his life.

Leia Mais…