Saturday, May 27-Monday, May 29, 2017
So those of you who know us probably have noted a couple of things. One, Greg does not regularly go on Facebook. Two, he does usually post a link to a daily update on our family vacations—not just so you fabulous friends can see our smiling faces, but also so we can look back and try to remember what all we did. The time change and activities we’ve scheduled so far have kept us from starting in a timely manner, but I’m going to get us caught up.
Hawaii. It’s been on our list of places to visit for a long time. However, we wanted to be sure we waited until the kids were old enough to enjoy it, remember the experience, and, quite frankly, sit on a plane that long without needed to be constantly entertained by their parents. 2017 seemed to be a good year when all of those requirements could be met. We left Nashville at the peaceful hour of 4:30 am to head to the airport. That means I got everyone up by 3:30 am. No problems at the airport, a VERY quick turnaround in Los Angeles, and then on to Honolulu. We arrived about 1:30 pm local time. With a 5 hour time change, that meant we landed about 6:30 pm Nashville time. Hawaii is a LONG way away. We’ve rented an SUV for our time here on Oahu. We find it incredibly funny that the license plate is SPF 800. For those of you who know us well, several of the Flatts are very fair skinned. We joke that Gillian burns when she even thinks about being in the sun. Our reliable SPF 800 should serve us well!
We are staying at the Disney Aulani resort on Oahu, and it is everything lovely. Everyone is so nice! Ryan said, “I don’t know if it’s just because Disney pays everyone to be that way, but it’s really great when they (the bellmen) say I’ll get that. Remember you’re on vacation.” I agree. We are right on the beach, which has a sheltered manmade cove so I can actually not stare at the kids constantly when they are in the ocean. I’m comfortable checking every 5-10 minutes (!). I know they are all great swimmers, and big kids and young adults, but I’m the mom. Add in room service, and my personal favorite, a lazy river by the pool, and it’s easy to see that Disney would like you to have everything you need right on site. After the hours of travel, we spent the rest of Saturday at the beach and pool. It was an early night for us in Hawaii, but about 2:00 am in Nashville, so we were done!
Sunday we intentionally kept unscheduled so that we could start to adjust to the time change. As mentioned, Hawaii is 5 hours earlier, so we find that we wake up between 2:00 and 3:00 am, and have some trouble getting back to sleep. In tandem, we find that we are really tired about 8:00 pm. It’s only been 1 day, so I’m sure we’ll adjust just in time to head back home. On the sage advice of one of our friends, though, we took advantage of us feeling more awake to get up at 4:00 am Hawaii time on Sunday to drive over by Magic Island and Waikiki beach to watch the sunrise. We claimed our spot, and Gillian in particular, has a lovely time lapse series of the sunrise. We then went to a truly spectacular breakfast at Lilihu bakery. If you haven’t had a butter roll, I highly recommend them. Ryan had 6. We also had the Greg required SPAM (the potted meat) tasting for our trip. With it’s history tracing back to World War II, there is a whole subculture around SPAM in Hawaii. Personally, it’s not my first choice, but I’ve definitely had worse. From breakfast, back to the hotel. Audrey, Gillian and I spent some lovely time in (still my favorite) the lazy river. Greg, Elizabeth, and Ryan, however, added in an hour of surfing lessons. They all had a good time, with success. Ryan, I think, is a new surfing fan. Why do my kids like these “safe” sports so much?!
Sunday evening, we added the Disney luau experience that was on property. They included stations where we got temporary tattoos (only lasted until they meet soap and water), printing, leis, and pounding taro. All of these activities have traditional names which I failed to write down, and my pronunciation and remembering of the traditional Hawaiian language is atrocious. Sorry! Back to taro. So it’s a food used extensively on the islands. When you pound it and mix it with water, it’s used to make poi. Poi, while being a traditional food here, unfortunately comes out a shade somewhere between gray and purple with the consistency of baby food. I couldn’t even get Audrey to try it, although everyone else did—even Gillian, my most hesitant of new food tasters. I can not say my family is a fan. I will say I would definitely eat it before I ate bugs. Maybe with sugar on top.
Of course Hawaii is THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. We’ve come so far that we didn’t want to only see one. In true Flatt family fashion—vacation mode- we will be seeing three: Oahu (the Gathering Place), Hawaii (the Big Island), and Kauai (the Garden Island).
Monday we were up early (a trend that is not really a regular personal choice for me) and off to Hawaiian Air for a short flight to Hawaii—nickname: The Big Island. Landing before 9:00 am, we set off to explore in our rental minivan, the choice of all great adventurers. We headed North from Hilo with a 2-day goal of circling most of the island, adding interesting stops along the way. Mission Monday was a success. First stop, The Botanical Garden. We hiked through absolutely gorgeous jungle terrain, down to a beautiful ocean vista and back. Enormous mango trees were on the property complete with signs next to them warning visitors to not stand underneath (Danger! Falling mangos), orchids so beautiful as to not seem real, and lots of fun lizards hiding beneath the leaves. Really the scenery that I had imagined would abound in Hawaii, and that makes you say, “I could live here.”
Lunch was at a really fun roadside shop, The Low Shop. We had sandwiches and shaved ice. Fresh fruit is everywhere here. Next stop, Akaka falls where a brief hike took us to our first sighting of one of the larger waterfalls.
Back in the car to head to the Hawaiian Vanilla Company. We Flatt’s all love vanilla, so we were looking forward to touring an authentic vanilla plantation, however, we missed the tour by 30 minutes and our host was less than accommodating with information. He did play an 8 minute video about the farm and the process, which was interesting. I must confess to my ignorance that vanilla beans are grown from orchids. I don’t know why I didn’t know that, but problem solved now. They did have good vanilla milkshakes and a bathroom, so not a total waste of a trip.
No time to dally as we continued on to Mountain Thunder coffee plantation. Again, we arrived just as a tour was finishing with the next one in 30 minutes. We were very concerned about staying for the tour because our one reservation for the day wasn’t very far away. The guide at Mountain Thunder, however, was AWESOME! She took us on an unscheduled half tour so we could see and learn about the coffee trees, beans, picking, drying and roasting process. She totally didn’t have to go out of her way, and she totally did, and we are so grateful! I learned a lot, including that coffee must be picked by hand at $0.65 a pound (most workers earn $200-$300 a day, so that’s a lot of picking of pounds of coffee), what a peaberry bean is, and what makes KONA coffee so unique and delicious. Greg, our coffee drinker, confirms that it really is superior.
And finally, over to Kailua-Kona to check in to a hotel for overnight. Our 5 fearless family members are off to a night time manta ray snorkeling trip. Ok, so I’m not really fearful. They only had 5 openings when I booked the trip several weeks ago, and no one cancelled, so I’m holding down the fort, so to speak. It’s not so bad. I’m out here on the balcony, overlooking some pretty spectacular waves and typing. With so many blessings in my life, and so many beautiful new things to experience, I’m definitely not going to complain. Cross your fingers that the manta rays are cooperating tonight and all the family get to see at least one!
UPDATE—manta ray success! Three of these gentle giants swam and fed with the Flatt’s tonight. In Audrey’s words, “IT WAS SOOOOOO FUN!”
Tuesday, May 30, 2017
Today, we continued our adventure on The Big Island. We woke up fairly early knowing that we wanted to have plenty of time to explore Volcanoes National Park. I mean, how often do you get to visit a volcano? We had a quick breakfast at a lovely café. I don’t remember the name, but the fresh baked croissants were delicious. On to the park!
First stop before entering was a visit to The Volcano Store in Volcano, the city of. We stocked up on water, but there was quite the assortment of snack foods as well. Did you know that you can purchase a bag of dried shrimp? They were right next to the potato chips. Per the advice we gleaned from the all knowing internet, our first stop in the park was at the visitor center. The rangers there are happy to give you a report on volcanic activity. This is important, not only for finding out the best places to safely see eruptions and/or lava flows, but also so you can avoid the toxic gasses that accompany them.
We were so pleased and excited to see actual volcanic eruptions at Mauna Loa, the world’s largest active volcano. It’s really quite beautiful, especially from a safe distance (We’re all fine Granny). We even had lunch at the Mountain House, overlooking Mauna Loa. But that’s not the only fun things to see at Volcanoes National Park. We stopped at steam vents; they are really hot. We walked through the Thurston Lava Tubes. We drove Road of Craters drive, stopping at all the scenic spots. We walked over cooled lava; there are 2 types, a’a and pahoehoe. We drove down to the coast where you could see where older lava flows had journeyed to the ocean. We did NOT walk to where the active lava was meeting the ocean today. The rangers were very clear that the toxic gasses were blowing towards this approach, and while you can go at your own risk, they did not recommend it. For me, if the ranger says they wouldn’t do it themselves, it sounds like something I do not want to do with my family, either. We have some pretty great pictures, though, where you can see where the plume of gasses billowed up to the sky. We also hiked 2 miles, roundtrip, to see the Petroglyphs in lava rock.
Finding we had few minutes to spare before heading to the airport, we made a quick stop at the Orchid Garden, which has the world’s first (and what should probably be the world’s only) orchid maze. Seriously, the orchids were beautiful. They also have an orchid, yes, that 1 orchid plant, valued at $20,000. We did not buy it. We did take a picture. Apparently naturally occurring symmetry is worth a lot of money.
We had a quick dinner at Pineapples restaurant and then on to the airport to return to Oahu. Busy, but totally worth the trip!