Sabriya broke her arm :(. Today Sabriya managed to climb out of her crib and fall to the floor. She cried for a while, but wasn’t obviously hurt. After it became clear she was favoring her right arm, Angela took her to the ER, where they X-rayed the arm. The doctor guessed it wasn’t broken because Sabriya was being so calm. In fact, her arm was broken! :( She’s got it in a splint for now, and later a pediatric specialist will decide whether to put it in a cast.
Jan’s birthday weekend begins. Angela and Chris have set up the whole thing, and Angela’s told me very little. She’s even packed my suitcase, including a set of envelopes I’m supposed to open as I go. Mom picks me up very early, around 5:45 am. At SeaTac, I open the first envelope: a boarding pass to Los Angeles. At LAX, second envelope is a boarding pass to Oxnard/Ventura. Chris arrives from SFO and meets me at the gate. Short flight to Oxnard, which has a very small airport. Third envelope is rental car information. Fourth envelope is a lat/long to a hotel: Embassy Suites Mandalay Beach.
It’s a fairly warm sunny day, but it’s off-season so place is somewhat empty. Open my suitcase to pull out my camera, discover it’s full of hiking gear: hiking boots, water backpack, and snack bars. We go for a walk north along the beach. See lots of seabirds. At one point they all rise into the air together, and the air is full of birds. Then we see a dog bounding across the beach toward the birds.
Walking back, the sun is getting close to setting, and reveals the silhouette of an island. I point this out to Chris and wonder aloud which island it is. I pull out my phone and scroll around the map to figure it out. I guess that it’s Santa Cruz Island, then Chris says that “Well, you’ll find out… because we’re going there tomorrow!” The island is part of Channel Islands National Park, where we’ll be hiking tomorrow.
We end the day with a nice steak dinner at Ruth’s Chris in Santa Barbara.
We’re up at 7:00 am, breakfast in hotel, leave by 8:00, drive to Ventura Harbor. Check in with “Island Packers” tour outfit. Buy sunblock—it’s really nice out, and we haven’t brought any. Pop around the corner to get paper sack lunches from a deli. Board ferry. Ride out is nice, about an hour. We see some sea lions hanging out on a buoy, and I catch a glimpse of a dolphin as well. We can see lots of oil drilling platforms in the channel.
First stop is Scorpion Beach, where we disembark along with some other hikers and some campers. A park ranger gives a quick introduction to Santa Cruz Island. Chris and I consult a map, and decide to try a hike described as “Strenuous” to another beach called Smuggler’s Cover on the west side of the island. We ask the guide how long it will take, and she makes it sound like a very challenging hike, but we decide to go ahead with it anyway. It’s warming up, so we leave some gear in a little shed, then hit the trail at 10:30 am.
The hike is along a dirt road that winds up and over a series of rolling hills covered with dry grass, some sparse trees, and rocks. Another couple walks ahead of us, but eventually takes a different turn towards Scorpion Canyon. There are a few ancient-looking fences left over from the island’s days as a farming area. The hike to Smuggler’s Cove only takes about an hour and a half, and isn’t nearly as hard as the map and guide had led to believe. We eat our lunches on a picnic table by the beach. We watch pelicans take long runs just above water, then dive suddenly in to catch a fish. Exploring the beach a little, we find a small outboard boat motor that’s washed up on shore, and haul it the road where someone might be able to pick it up.
Heading back after lunch, we stop halfway up a long hill. It’s amazingly quiet. There are no birds here, there are no sounds of people, and even the wind doesn’t make any noise; it’s absolutely still. Very occasionally we can hear a long low bass note, almost more of a sensation than a sound, from the surf pounding down below on Smuggler’s Cove. At one point, I hit a rock or something with my left foot, and suddenly something’s funny with my boot. I finally realize the entire sole of the boot is falling off. We stop and make several attempts to strap the sole on to the boot, but nothing works well enough to keep the sole on. I pull it off, and make the rest of the hike wearing just the soft upper part of the boot, sort of like a moccasin.
We’re making good time back, so we decide to make a detour and see Scorpion Canyon ourselves. Near the turn off for the trail, there’s a very old set of rusting machinery, including a rusted metal tower of some sort. This turns out to be an old oil drill. Drop a bit of glass and a pebble in the tube, can hear them pinging on their fall to the bottom, time this at around 44 seconds, which suggests the tube is well over a thousand meters deep. We make it back to the pier just in time to board the boat.
Chris has cold, so we make a stop to get some cold medicine before having dinner at an Italian restaurant back at the harbor.
Breakfast at the hotel, and hang out by the pool for a while. Chris has another surprise in store: we both have massages lined up at the hotel spa. Afterwards we make it back to the airport, and wait for them to let us check through security. We wait for so long, we forget to actually check in. When we go through security, the TSA inspector discovers a Leatherman tool I’d left in there months ago, and confiscates it. The fact that I’ve flown with it several times without detection is slightly unnerving. Chris and I have a quick lunch at LAX, then head to our respective gates.
Angela meets me at SeaTac, and we drive into the city for a nice birthday dinner at Dahlia Lounge.
Santa tales. Every year, we go visit Santa (preferably at the Downtown Nordstrom’s) and get a photo with him of the three girls. This year, after the photo and telling Santa what she wanted for Christmas, Anya asked Angela, “Will we get a present from Santa this year?”
“Maybe yes, maybe no,” Angela hedged, cringing at the thought of one more present.
“Because last year you said that Santa had lots of homes to visit so might not come to ours.”
Jan’s first Mandarin lesson made his head spin.
We went out and cut a Christmas tree late this morning. On the recommendation of Steven Ashby, we decided to check out Trinity Tree Farm in Issaquah instead of the place we’ve always gone before in Redmond. The tree farm turned out to be at the top of a hill, and the road was made somewhat treacherous by the remains of last night’s snowfall. The snow did make the trees look beautiful, however. Anya and Liya ran around in their snowsuits shaking the snow off trees, while Angela carried Bree and Jan carried the saw. Bree was kind of perplexed by the snow–when placed on the snow-covered ground, she stood still, and eventually cried to be picked up. For the tree, we decided to try a Frazer Fir, and found a nice one to cut down, bail up, and drive home.
Back at home, we had to wait for an hour or two for all the ice to melt off the branches before we could start decorating.
Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. This morning we woke up to 2 inches of snow, with more coming down. 10 minutes after Angela swept the sidewalk clean, a new blanket covered the walkway. The girls helped sweep, came in for breakfast, and then we all headed out for sledding. Angela pulled all 3 girls behind her, with Bree protesting most of the way to the sledding hill. She still hasn’t mastered walking in fat snow pants, and the cast probably doesn’t help much. But we’re all looking forward to her nap when we can make a snowman!
Another snow day! Jan worked from home in the morning, but took the girls sledding at Madison Park beach in the afternoon. He hadn’t been sledding since college. Anya and Liya were initially apprehensive about the presence of the lake at the bottom of the slope, but there was a lot of dirt/sand on the snow just in front of the lake, which provided a natural break for the sled. We did a lot of fun runs, including one over a jump that sent us flying into the air. Megan brought Kaila and Kate to sled for a while, and then we were joined by Jessica with Cordelia and Gideon in tow. Siri came to the park too to see what was going on. Kaila & co. went home, then Liya and Siri decided they were both cold and went home. Jan left Anya sledding with Cordelia under Jessica’s care, and Anya and Cordelia sledded for a long, long time. Jessica brought the kids over to our house, and everyone had hot cocoa.
Today Nutmeg was playing with one of Jan’s toys: a pile of magnetic sticks and steel balls. She eventually climbed up on Jan’s desk. She had a clump of magnets and balls stuck to the little metal bell on her collar!
Snow, day 3. In the evening, we all bundled up against the cold, and walked down to the beach to see the Christmas Ships. It was cold. After a few songs, Jan used Sabriya as a convenient excuse for us to leave before the program was finished. We had dinner at Cactus, then stopped by the Roussos house for their annual post-Christmas Ships party. Because of the heavy snow, only a few people could make it, but it was fun to hang out.
Snow, day 4. It snowed all night and through most of the day. In the afternoon Jan and Angela went back to George and Melanie’s house to retrieve Anya’s hat. On the way, we threw snowballs back and forth. Jan ended up giving Anya a lesson in how to throw snowballs, offering himself as a target for short-range practice. Anya wanted to make snow angels in the park, so we stopped there to make snow angels and “snow people” (like angels, only no moving around). There was a crust of snow on the top, so we had to gently bash our heads through the crust to make sure the snow angels/people ended up with heads.
We invited the Tippetts over for dinner, and they all walked over. Mia and the girls had great fun, with Sabriya hanging around them.
Bree really loves the “Beep/Honk” game these days:
_ Press someone’s nose and make (or they make) a “Beep” sound.
_ Squeeze someone’s nose and make (or they make) a “Honk” sound.
She likes to press her own nose and say, “Beeee!”
Christmas Eve Day. Jan picked up Chris at the airport, then drove him downtown to have lunch with Mom and Il Fornaio. Roads are really rutted out with ice and slush. Girls had playdate at Pearls’ house. Head to MIPC in afternoon for Christmas Eve service. Funniest part is a young child who walks down the aisle dressed as a giant gold silk star. Dinner afterwards at Ty and Susana’s, along with their friends Check and Seng and their boy Charlie. Yummy pot roast.
Christmas. Morning at home opening presents, then over to Mom’s in the early afternoon for a full Christmas dinner.
Leave for Hawaii. We get up really, really early at 5:30 am, and manage to make it out the door just after 7:00 am. The roads are still slushy, but we make it to the airport in good time. We’re stunned to find the off-airport parking lots are completely full, and figure we’ll spend the extra money to park at the airport. The airport lot is packed like we’ve never seen. All the floors are full, and people have invented all kinds of marginal/illegal spots. We can’t even find the room on which to build an excuse for a spot. In desparation, we back up the down ramp to the closed top floor, which is covered in snow–and more cars. We circle for a while, and finally decide to park in a place that’s not a spot, but at least isn’t in anyone’s way. We hope our car’s still there when we get back!
The flight to Honolulu goes pretty well, and Angela even gets Sabriya to nap for a little while. We have a somewhat long wait in Honolulu. At a food court, we run into the family of Strickland, a boy in 1st grade at SCDS (but in the other teacher’s class), so the girls play with his family for a while. We make it to Kona, and split up to save some time. Jan manages to get one of the last rental cars. Some bad weather had caused flights to be canceled, and many people had held on to their rental cars, so we don’t end up with the car we reserved, but at least have one.
By the time we make the short drive up to Waikoloa, Bree is exhausted (she got up earlier than usual, had a shorter nap than usual, and is up much later than usual). As soon as we check into the condo, we put her to bed, and she goes out like a light. The condo is in the new Hali’i Kai development, and is pretty nice. The main selling point is that we have three bedrooms, and Anya and Liya’s room has separate beds for them.
After the girls are in bed, Jan makes a quick trip to the market at the new Queens’ Shops to pick up food for breakfast. He’s disappointed to discover that they don’t stock the super-sweet Smacks cereal he indulges in on vacation, so he makes an extra stop at Whaler’s General Store in the older Kings’ Shops. They don’t have Smacks either, and he has to settle for Corn Pops.
By 9:30 pm, we’re all sleeping soundly.
Liya and Anya get up very early, around 5:30 am. Much later, when everyone’s up, we walk to the pool–it’s really close to our condo! The pool turns out to be very nice, with lots of interesting nooks, but the water is really cold. The older girls had fun climbing everywhere around the pool. Since they can both swim pretty well now, we didn’t have to watch them quite as closely as we used to have to. Sabriya loves the pool. Her favorite part is the shallow kiddie area, which has a set of low steps. She happily climbs down onto the top step, then back out, then down onto the top step, then back out, over and over. We eat lunch at the poolside cafe.
After lunch, our nanny for the week arrives. Marla enters in Mary Poppins form: with a suitcase full of stuff to do, an armload of butterfly nets, and some big tubes that make giant soap bubbles. She’s sort of like an instant grandmother, and begins telling the girls about the things they’ll do together. The girls later recount their afternoon so: They color hulu dolls; they make balloons; when Bree wakes up they go on a gecko safari with the nets. Marla explains that the girls need to put away their “Seattle eyes” and use “Hawaiian eyes” to see the geckos. They catch two geckos, and by the afternoon’s end can identify a Madagascar red spotted gecko. They finish the afternoon with balloon animals, another of Marla’s talents.
As for us, we spend the afternoon strolling through Kings’ Shops and Queens’ Shops and shopping for various things. After finding a place that stocks children’s flip-flops, we come out of the store to see a childrens’ hula performance going on. We eat ice cream while watching some pretty cute kids (including a precocious 18 month old) dance various hulas.
Reuniting at the condo, we all go out for a yummy dinner at Merriman’s Market Cafe. It’s dark on the ride home, and Anya and Liya see Venus from the car, so before bedtime Jan does a bit of stargazing with them.
We go to Anaeho’omalu Bay in the morning. We do some snorkeling, and Liya’s a little interested in trying it too, but decides she doesn’t like the taste of the salt water. To keep sand from getting into Bree’s cast, we have to wrap it in a plastic bag, which she’s not particularly happy about. Ramen for lunch at Queens’ Shops food court, followed by ice cream.
In the afternoon, the girls collect flowers with Marla to make leis tomorrow. We eat dinner at a semi-new Thai restaurant that’s not that great. The girls are exhausted, and before we’ve finished eating, Anya falls asleep in Angela’s lap.
Angela takes Liya to pool, while Jan takes Anya and Sabriya geocaching for Turtle Beach cache (GC185NV). We find the cache (but need the hint), then explore tide pools on the way back. Anya gets hot and tired.
We all meet up at the pool and swim until lunchtime. Once Marla arrives to watch the girls, we head up to Waimea. We spend some time at the Waimea Coffee House, then poke around the other shops nearby. We try to follow Google’s directions to the Kohala Bookshop, which take us to point in middle of nowhere west of Kawaihae. (The bookshop is really in Hawi.) We enjoy the nice scenic drive, though, and from the car can see whales splashing about in the ocean.
We have dinner at Roy’s, and the girls really like the chocolate souffle dessert. After the girls are in bed, Jan gets a great in-room massage.
We make a short hike on the Puako Trail. We try heading north from the road (instead of south towards the petroglyphs), but the straight trail is really that interesting, and in any event a warm rain starts to fall. We go shopping at Cinnamon Girl for dresses, but can’t find perfect matching dresses in all four sizes.
Lunch at the Queens’ Shops food court again. Afterwards, Liya makes an umeke (bowl) at the little pavilion there. In the afternoon we drive to Kona, fighting our way through traffic to the Borders Bookstore. We try Sansei in Waikoloa for dinner, which turns out to be okay.
We try to go to Mauna Kea Beach, but the lot is full, so we go to Hapuna Beach instead. Hapuna has huge waves, and we watch people in danger of hitting the rocks in middle of beach. The girls build two “sand boats”. We grab lunch from a beach shack there.
We spend the afternoon by the pool. Around 4:30, Angela brings the girls and Marla to join us. The pool is much warmer in the afternoon that it is in the morning. We have frozen pizza for dinner at the condo out on the patio, with mangoes for dessert. Jan takes Anya and Liya back to the pool after dinner to try swimming at night for the first time. The girls like seeing the pools all lit up from underneath.