Tuesday

Picture day! Remember when you were little and picture day was always such a big deal (at least at our house). Mom would wake us up early (or curl our hair in sponge rollers the night before) to get us all primped and ready. The outfit you wore was chosen with precision and planning complete with a matching hairbow. Family picture day was no different. I got up, showered and got my hair dried before breakfast. I had to wait until after breakfast to curl the hair because the humidity would make all the curls fall if I curled it too early. After getting the hair curled, applied picture makeup, then carefully put on my white shirt and khakis, being careful not to get anything dirty. Rita had bought all the girls plumeria clips to wear. We also packed our swim and snorkel stuff so after pictures we could find a good beach to play at. We all met downstairs and everyone looked awesome! Took about forty minutes or so to get to the beach the photographer had us meet at. It was on a Four Seasons property and when we pulled up to the security gate, you could tell they were snobby to “outsiders.” We made our way down a pretty, groomed golf course road to a little parking lot and a boardwalk. Pulling in right behind us was our photographer, David O. Baldwin and his assistant Birgit (pronounced beer get). He introduced himself to us and the kids as Uncle Beach. We hiked down the path and followed him onto a beautiful secluded little place called Kukio beach.

How do people ever find this we wondered! David explained the house that fronted the property covered six acres…yes, covered property! It belonged to Michael Dell and he had the beach “restored” and spent two and a half weeks a year here. Wow. Why would you have such a beautiful place and only spend that amount of time there! Anyways, David O was awesome. He knew how to work with the kids, the sun, the adults…everything. He took over 250 pictures, made sure we had gotten all the poses we wanted, even gave us some tips about where to snorkel and where to eat, then lead us back to the parking lot. All of us (sans David and Birgit) changed into our suits and headed back for the beach we had to ourselves! Ryan and I immediately took off to snorkel with Larry not far behind. This beach also had quite a few sea turtles which we discovered quickly. I watched one from about five feet away while he ate algae off of the rocks below. Incredible! Ryan was motioning to me about something so I said bye to the turtle and swam over to rps. On my way I had to stop suddenly. What Ryan had been watching (another sea turtle) swam directly underneath me…only about a foot away! If I would have kept kicking my feet, I would have hit him! I squealed and squealed out my snorkel. Ryan said he could hear me and giggled. Too cool! We snorkeled around for about an hour, then I had to head back in. I was starting to get cold and was ready to rest. Not long after I headed in, lps, rps, and hh all headed back in too.

Then it was Krystal and Kayla’s turn. HH and rps took them out for a bit while Rita snorkeled up close to wear we were sitting on the beach. Wesley, Larry and I just hung out…ate a few Pringles, and soaked in our surroundings. When everyone had finished snorkeling, we packed up our stuff and headed back toward Kona. We found Bongo Ben’s for lunch. All of us had worked up quite an appetite by this time. Kinda a neat little place…our waitress was from Austin…or she went to UT at least. It was a pretty good place. I had the grilled ham, turkey and cheese. Ahhh…a tasty treat! After lunch we drove up to Hilo Hattie’s. We were headed to a luau that night and Howard needed a shirt to wear. Funny how you can get carried away. We were supposed to be at the luau at 4:30…and it was already past 3:00 and we were still out and about shopping! Everyone hurried back to the hotel, showered and cleaned up as quickly as possible then met back downstairs. Back into the cars, then back down the road to the luau at King Kamehameha’s Hotel. We checked in, had our picture taken, then were escorted to our seats. Hawaiian punch was served at the tables and Mai Tai’s were served in another area around the corner.

We got to see someone teach us how to open a coconut, Kayla and Krystal learned to hula, and we got to see the pig pulled out of the pit it had been cooked in all day. We also watched the royal court (well, the pretend royal court as it was done many years ago) enter. As dinner began, a small band played music while everyone went through the lines. Pulled pork, salad, poi, all kinds of vegetables and things that unless they were labeled, I wouldn’t know what they were. Yes, I tried the poi…and really, it is supposed to be eaten with something…kinda like a gravy. So that’s how I tried it…with my pork. It has no taste. Just a filler. So I’m sure for those of you who are in the “poi is disgusting” group, you’re concerns are valid. But if you just had cream gravy or brown gravy by itself…wouldn’t you think the same about that? Anyways, off my poi soap box. No, I don’t need it on my food, but it isn’t near as bad as having to eat sushi (at least for me since I don’t like sushi). Back to the luau. As the dancers began, the first part was more relaxed dancing. Then they took a break and started their Polynesian dancing as the sun went down. They went through the different islands and showed you dances common in the different islands. WOW. That was impressive…and kinda scary! The sun had started to set and Wesley had been lap hopping trying to get comfortable so he could go to sleep. He happened to be in mine when the “scary dance” started…

red and black paint on their faces, kinda violent looking outfits and such…he immediately set himself up. Not long after crawled back into his mom’s lap. Last the fire dancer performed. They raised a net between the crowd and him…and I was okay with that. It was the longest fire throwing show I’ve ever seen! Very impressive! Afterward both kids were falling asleep so we scooted home quickly. Ryan and I decided we would go snorkeling first thing on Wednesday morning so we got all our stuff ready to go and by the door. I thought about writing in my journal, but was just too tired. Maybe there would be down time tomorrow to write in it…