Liya runs the full Seattle Marathon with some of her cross-country teammates, including Lolo and Abby here. Angela drives Liya to the very early start at 7:00 am. It’s cold and rains a little. Liya finishes the 26.2 mile course in just under 5 hours.
Jan takes the Japanese Language Proficiency Test again. This year, he tries taking the hardest test level, Level 1. It’s a little longer (3 hours!) than the Level 2 test, and significantly harder. He’ll receive his test results in February.
The five of us fly to the Big Island of Hawaii for a Christmas vacation. Mom comes by early in the morning to say goodbye before we leave. When we get off the plane at Kailua-Kona, it’s sunny and warm.
We’re staying at the Kolea development (unit 2D) in Waikoloa, the fifth time we’ve stayed in the area. We like it because it’s on the sunny and relatively dry Kohala Coast, driving distance to some activities, and walking distance to a pool, the beach at Anaeho’omalu, and some shops and restaurants.
We’re in our unit around 3:00, and the intense debates over which sister should get a room to herself begins around 3:01. Anya argues that she needs space to herself in which to work on her remaining college applications — and this argument carries the day. Bree and Liya are happy to share a room in any event.
We take a dip in the ocean and the pool, then go out for a decent Thai food for dinner at Charley’s. Afterwards we shop for some breakfast fixings and snacks, postponing most of the shopping for when we have the time to drive to a less touristy supermarket.
Hawaii, Day 2. We drive up the mountainside a bit to Waikoloa Village to shop for more food. The girls have fun picking out their favorite snacks, so even though our cart is overflowing, we’ve only purchased food for two dinners.
Jan, Angela, and Liya walk to a new restaurant called Foster’s Market for lunch. It’s just okay.
We spend time by the pool. We have a dinner reservation at an Italian restaurant nearby, but it turns out to be in the sprawling Hilton complex — a place so big it has its own tram line. The food is so-so and overpriced.
Hawaii, Day 3. Angela gets up early, then Anya comes in to flop on the bed and pester Jan to get out of bed. She chides him for sleeping in — which is rich because: a) she herself rarely appears before 10:00 am, and b) it’s 7:20 am. She decides she’s going to “sing jaunty songs” until he gets out of bed. Bree comes to “help”. Jan groans and gets out of bed so the Christmas gift exchange can commence.
We had already exchanged our bulkier Christmas presents back in Seattle before we left, so we mostly have small things to give each other. Liya surprises Jan with a beautifully-made wooden toy she crafted in her school’s shop. Anya gives Liya an interesting science book, “Your Inner Fish”, which Jan begins reading. (Anya later steals it from Jan and finishes it first.)
Afterwards, we walk over to Starbucks for coffee, then spend the rest of the day loafing around. We make a simple dinner of curry rice.
Hawaii, Day 4. Anya has an old school friend, Ariella, who’s family usually visits the Big Island over the winter break, and this year is no exception. They invite us up to the Mauna Kea, the hotel up the road where they’re staying. Ariella’s mom, Melissa, has gotten up at dawn to claim chaises for everyone by the pool. It’s nice to see Melissa and her husband Marty again, as well as Ariella and her sister Sasha.
We spend a pleasant few hours bodysurfing and riding boogie boards in the ocean, then swimming in the pool. The five girls play Marco Polo for a long time. Jan wades into the pool with the poolside restaurant menu and a pen, calling, “Who wants to play Marco Luncho?” We eat lunch by the pool, then linger until the mid-afternoon.
We have dinner reservations at the restaurant above Tommy Bahama, where we’ve had good meals before. This evening turns out to be their busiest day of the year, however, and at 8:00 we’re still waiting for the table we booked for 7:30. Liya feels like she’s coming down with a cold, and Bree’s exhausted from all the activity. I point out to the hostess that both girls are falling asleep in the waiting area, and they finally get a table for us. The meal’s pretty good, although everyone’s ready for bed afterwards.
Hawaii, Day 5. Bree and Jan go for a walk in the morning, and discover a beautiful area of anchialine ponds (ponds with an underground connection to the ocean) set among grassy patches, trees, and heaps of black volcanic rock.
Liya definitely has a cold, so she stays at home in the morning. Jan, Angela, and Anya drive up to the small town of Waimea in search of a bookstore. Our first stop is at the Hawaiian Style Cafe, which is described as a popular spot for local food. There’s a bit of a wait for seats, but the food is decent as expected.
The bookstore across the street is more of a disappointment. As we walk up, we see a sign out front that says, “Books & Beads”; the thick wave of incense that greets us is another kind of sign. They only have books about spirituality and “Hawaiian healing”, so we walk out and have coffee at Waimea Coffee.
Before leaving town, we stock up on more groceries. We try out the gas grill on our condo’s lanai, which happily works. We make Japanese-style yakitori skewers for dinner.
Hawaii, Day 6. We mostly spend the day hanging around. In the afternoon, Jan and Angela take Sabriya to the nearby movie theater to see Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker. Some of the movie is pretty silly, but overall it’s a fun time.
Hawaii, Day 7. Jan and Angela get up very early so they can hike up a cinder cone called Pu’a Wa’awa’a. They start hiking at 7:00 am, just as the sun is starting to come up. The first part of the trail is a gravel road, but it leads past meadows with lots of birds and a forest. The trail eventually turns to a rutted jeep track, and the grass on either side becomes thick, lush, and green. The trail curves around behind the cinder cone, then begins to climb up the back side. There are sheep grazing off to the side as well as some cows. When Jan and Angela reach the top, there’s a bench to sit on with a sweeping view of the Kohala coastline. They can see five volcanoes: Kohala, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai — plus Haleakala on Maui off in the distance. On the way back home, they stop in Waikoloa Village for coffee.
Liya’s cold is slowly improving, but it seems that Bree may also have picked it up. Both of them spend most of the day in the condo. Liya has enough energy in the evening that she wants to get outside for a bit. She joins Jan and Angela for a walk down the beach to try out a restaurant with the (not particularly auspicious) name of Lava Lava Beach Club. The beachside restaurant is packed with people. Many people have come down to watch the sunset, and a large crowd has crammed into the bar area to watch the Seattle Seahawks play the Giants. Both sides have screaming fans, but the Seattle fans are particularly loud; one busboy says this is the loudest group he’s ever heard in the restaurant. There’s a very long wait for an outdoor table, but we manage to score a first-come/first-served table as a couple is getting up. The food and drinks turn out to be excellent, and it’s pleasant to have a view of the ocean at sunset. On the way back to the condo in the dark, Jan’s sunglasses fall off, and the three of them walk back and forth over the sand trying to find the sunglasses. Jan eventually discovers that the glasses have fallen into his sunhat, which has been resting on its string at the back of his neck — he’s been walking around looking at the ground for a pair of glasses that were sitting between his shoulder blades.
Hawaii, Day 8. Jan and Angela go snorkeling after breakfast. The conditions aren’t great: there’s too much sand in the water, so the visibility is terrible, and the corals are either bleached or covered in sand. Still, Jan and Angela do manage to find a small section of reef that has a decent amount and variety of fish, including angelfish, convict tangs, cowfish, dominoes, and triggerfish.
Anya continues working on her college applications, although she doesn’t volunteer much about her progress. When asked, she says everything’s going okay. She stays in the condo while the rest of us go to lunch at Mai Grille, a nearby restaurant that we’ve never tried before.
In the late afternoon, Bree stays at home while the other four of us drive down to Kona Bay Books, a huge used bookstore in Kona. We all get at least one book; Liya and Anya each pick out a small pile. We have tasty pho soup for dinner at the Ba-Le Vietnamese restaurant a few blocks away.
Hawaii, Day 9. Bree’s still feeling a little sick, but at least Liya’s on the mend. Anya and Liya join Jan for a walk around the ponds to the beach. The waves are bigger today, so there’s a crowd of surfers floating on the water waiting for a set of waves. We watch one young woman catch a wave, then ride it for a long time as she weaves through the crowd of other surfers.
All five of us go out to eat for lunch at A-Bay’s Grill, then Angela, Anya, and Liya wander around the shops. Later, Jan, Bree, and Liya go swimming in the ocean and the pool. Anya and Angela come to swim too, while Jan walks to the nearby shops to see a slack key guitarist, John Keawe, give a performance.
For dinner, we drive up to Merriman’s Restaurant in Waimea. We’ve been there several times before, and the food is always great. Bree does her best to rally for the meal, but fades halfway through and goes out to the car to sleep.