Hawaii, Day 10. Anya heads back to Seattle a little earlier than the rest of us so that she can spend more time with her friends before heading back to school.
The remaining four of us drive down to Keauhou Bay to go SNUBA diving: a bit like snorkeling, but with a SCUBA-style regulator attached to a long airhouse. Jan and Liya did this the last time we were on the Big Island, but it’s the first time for Angela and Sabriya. We get checked in, then board the Fair Wind II for the 1-hour voyage to Kealakekua Bay. We’ve got a good morning for diving and snorkeling, and the visibility underwater is excellent.
Jan and Bree go first. Bree’s a little concerned about what it will be like to breathe underwater, but she adjusts to it very quickly. Angela and Liya are snorkeling above them, and Liya’s sharp eyes spot an octopus on the reef. She points this out to Joe, our divemaster, who points it out to Jan and Bree. When the octopus is moving, it’s brown and easy to see — but as soon as it settles on reef, its camouflage makes it very difficult to see. Jan also spots two moray eels hiding in the coral. There are many, many kinds of reef fish to see as well: groupers, unicornfish, goatfish, needlefish, and moorish idols, just to name a few.
After Jan and Bree leave the water, it’s Angela and Liya’s turn to SNUBA. Bree and Jan slide off the high water slide, then Jan goes snorkles for a while over the shallower parts of the reef.
After lunch, the boat is preparing to leave when we see 15-20 of the bay’s resident pod of spinner dolphins. They only surface for a short while before submerging for several minutes, then popping up again somewhere else. On the trip back to Keauhou Bay, we get one final treat: humpback whales spouting off the port side of the boat.
Back at our car, we drive a short distance to a cute cafe called Tealicious, where Jan and Bree share a fantastic Portuguese custard tart.
Hawaii, Day 11. Liya’s feeling better, and joins Jan and Angela for a drive up to the small, quirky town of Hawi on the Big Island’s lush north shore. We have lunch at the Sweet Potato Bakery, where Jan and Liya make the mistake of separately ordered the delicious but oversized chocolate banana waffles — they could have easily shared a plate. We shop in a couple of the boutiques, then drive back through the Parker Ranch. This is one of Jan’s favorite drives: vivid green pastures and rolling hills. We stop at a scenic overlook, where a vacationing couple from Turin, Italy, takes our picture.
Back at the condo, we go for a swim in the ocean and pool. Now that Liya’s feeling better, it’s Jan’s turn to get sick — he and Bree pass out on the lanai couch for a long time. We finish the day with dinner at Roy’s.
Time to go home. On the last day of a vacation to a warm place, Jan always likes to take one last swim on the final morning. Bree, Liya, and Angela join in. We swim for a bit in the ocean at A-Bay. Angela’s happy to finally have a chance to float around on one of the inner tubes she packed — although with the other three of us hanging off the tube, it’s not as relaxing an experience as she’d planned for. On the way back to the condo, we stop to swim in the pool and hot tub.
Our flight leaving Kona is delayed by a couple of hours due to mechanical difficulties, and we have more delays when we get to Seattle: there’s no gate available for the plane, and the baggage crew is short-staffed so we have to wait a long time for our bags. Anya meets us at baggage claim and drives us home. When we finally get in the door, it’s well after midnight.
This season, Liya will be teaching at the Cascade Ski School at Snoqualmie Pass again.
Today, there’s a blizzard at the pass, so Jan drives Liya rather than have her drive on her own. When Jan and Liya leave at 8:00 am, the usual 1 hour drive is projected to take 1 hour and 45 minutes. After they’ve been on the road for half an hour, the projected drive time is now… 1 hour and 48 minutes. Apparently road conditions are terrible at the pass, and that’s before the accidents start.
Finally, Jan and Liya come to an electronic road sign that says “PASS CLOSED”. They call the ski school for instructions, but they can’t get through. They assume the school is cancelled (it is) and they drive home.
Bree builds a kibble bomb for our cats. Jan proposes a device that, after a delay of several seconds, blows a small handful of cat kibble into the air. Bree agrees that this would be splendid, and sets about constructing such a kibble bomb.
She places a small reinforced cardboard platform in a small box, suspended by tight rubber bands. Beneath the platform is a small amount of sticky duct tape. Kibble is poured onto the platform, and then the platform is pressed down until it sticks to the bottom of the box.
When the platform is released, it remains attached to the box bottom for a little while. We can hear some creaking as the strain of the rubber bands fights with the duct tape. Eventually there’s a POP! and kibble shoots into the air.
The first time we try this with the cats, they’re sniffing the box, and so get a faceful of kibble. The second time, they hang back. When the box detonates, both cats startle — but Moxie’s quick to realize the opportunity to eat kibble. His brother Mojo eventually decides that it must be safe, and begins to eat too.
Liya made a hand crank toy called a “Do-Nothing” for Jan for Christmas. She prototyped it in June, reverse engineering how to make it based on memory, then worked in it in her Fire Arts class this fall. Hand sanding it took a while to get everything to work smoothly and the pins are handmade (with the help of her art teacher Bill).
Liya also made a graphic novella for Angela for Christmas. Here’s one of the hand drawn and inked pages! (Liya also hand bound it. Link to the scanned pages coming soon!)
Bree (on the right) skis on Fridays with her school. This year we have a new addition to our carpool: Abby (in the middle)! It’s Abby’s first year skiing, but with Bree and Bella’s (left) help, Abby went down the more challenging green run on her second day of skiing!
Jan goes for a morning walk in Seward Park, about 15 minutes from our house, and sees something a little unusual: a wild coyote. It ignores Jan, and goes about hunting for mice or whatever. Eventually, it lopes off.
Apparently coyotes have been returning to the Seattle area, and there have been a number of coyote sightings in Seward Park.
School is off for MLK Day tomorrow, so Bree hosts a sleepover for her friends Amari, Elsa, Hadley, and Leah.
After dinner, they all go to the beach park to play Flashlight Tag, dragging Jan and Angela along.
Since we still have tons of kiwi fruit left from last year’s harvest, for dessert Jan serves homemade kiwi ice cream.
Angela tells everyone in the house that she’s gotten some “oranges in different sizes” — but Bree hears this as “oranges in disguises”.
Bree decides to disguise an apple as an orange, then leave this in the fruit bowl for Liya to discover. Liya is amused, and adds a mustache to the apple’s disguise.
Jan travels to San Diego for a team offsite. Although half the team is based in San Francisco, it’s cheaper to fly everyone to inexpensive San Diego than would be to do the same event in San Francisco.
Towards the end of the first afternoon, Jan rents an electric scooter and rides around a bit. The scooter has smarts in it that prevent it from being ridden on pedestrian boulevards.
Jan receives the results of the Japanese language test he took in December — and learns he did not pass. The scoring is complicated, but it looks like he missed the passing bar by just 2 points out of a possible 180.
Oh, well. He was taking the hardest N1 level of the test for the first time, and would have been very surprised if he’d passed it on the first attempt. He’s planning on taking the test again this December.