Okay, I haven’t ACTUALLY put my feet in the sand yet. Jonah wanted to. As we were sitting at the grill bar, overlooking the crescent-shaped beach with requisite turquoise water, waiting for our hamburger and hot dog, respectively, he suggested we go walk in the sand. But as it was t-minus one hour from bedtime Aunt Michelle wisely advised that we save that activity for tomorrow as who wants to take the time to get de-sanded or do the de-sanding before getting in the crib.
And bedtime was fast approaching for a kid who had been up since 6 a.m. PST, flown without napping (or tantrum, hallelujah — he’s still a good traveler even though he can now walk and is almost “terribly” 2) napped in a so-so manner in the rental car, and then… I guess traveling west is easier, time-shift wise. Because it’s 6:41 and that boy is aaaaaaaahhhhh-sleep.
Here’s to hoping he stays asleep till 6 a.m. local.
However I haven’t actually slept in 24 hours. Some crazy pre-trip insomnia. Though my brain is absolute soup at this moment, here I am, typing.
The kid is still a great traveler. This is his seventh plane trip since his introduction to this earth. First being the previous Kauai trip when he was about four months old. He no longer sleeps through flights, but he was reasonably delightful and entertainable. And yes, we did walk the aisle quite a bit. I used the trick of individually wrapping tiny toys — had scored a bag of ten different yellow or orange farm and construction vehicles, all palm-sized, at a garage sale recently. Pulled one out per hour, approximately. He was increasingly thrilled. As if the world couldn’t get any better when one has a tractor, and then suddenly one also has a dump truck, AND THEN a steam roller, AND THEN, OH MY GOODNESS a BUCKET LOADER! I’d brought ten, ended up only using five so am saving other five for trip home. Of course they fell down and rolled under our seats and such, but this was a small price to pay for such great joy.
He might have slept on the plane, had we opted to drag the car seat but we went for the CARES harness instead, borrowed from Laura and Flann (which is sooooo much easier — THANK YOU!). So, when the boy did finally get into his car seat in the rental, at 1pm Hawaii time, 4pm home time, he was out in seconds.
But the joy, that’s what this post is really about. The joy in the “So Many Plants!” at the airport. Joy in the wind bending the palm trees. Joy in the koi pond out front at our condo. (Feeding the koi is an organized activity, in which we will be joining tomorrow at 10 a.m.) Joy in chasing the three chickens hanging around the bar-grill area. (Chickens are the pigeons of Kauai.) And joy in having Nana! PopPop! and Aunt Michelle! right here to play with all the time.
Saw a 14-week-old on the plane. Can’t believe Jonah was ever that small, and can’t believe that’s almost how small he was the last time we were here. Wow.
Have a wonderful vacation!!
oh, i hope you have so much fun.
i lived on maui for six years and miss hawaii dearly.
krista’s last blog post..the end of august
On my first trip to Kauai, I went in July, I stayed in Poipu and used a week to see the island, then crashed at the Hyatt for 5 nights and were slugs.