Trip to Hawaii

For some reason I don't claim to understand, Anya and everyone else in the Seattle school district gets a week off in the middle of winter.  We took the opportunity to head to O'ahu and take advantage of the hospitality of good friends.

The deal was Anya and Dad could impose on mom's vacation if they stayed out of her hair, which gave dad and kid a great excuse to play in paradise for a week doing basically whatever the kid wanted.  Totally sweet!

Below is a photo journal of our trip, complete with direct transcription from the kid herself. 



Anya arrives!  We got in late at night, but first thing in the morning Anya poked dad in the right eye and "whispered" "DAAAAAD.  Let's to do stuff."  So dad and kid slipped out while the house slept and watched the sun come up over the beautiful beach near the house. 

Anya: I was walking on the beach.  The waves made my feet feel good. 

The trip mostly revolved around Anya seeking out and trying to collect various critters.  While waiting for our food at Cinnamon's one fine morning, Anya collected lots of snails and arranged them just so.  We feel this little photo sums up our kid to a T.

Anya: The snails grabbed a hold of me.  They felt a little slimy actually.  It was in a garden.

Ah yes, the wood pile.  This pile of detritus left over from a remodel and some bamboo clearing was probably Anya's favorite feature in all Hawaii.  It was a habitat for dozens of lizards.  Here we see Anya, still wearing her swim goggles, searching for lizards.  Some lizard highlights included: Seeing a green iguana, looking at the geckos ambushing bugs in the light sconces, saving one lizard from being eaten by another, and seeing two geckos hanging out on some lights so you could see their skeletons and full tummies through their translucent bodies.  She never did catch a lizard, though she did touch a few and one dove into her face from off the top of the car.

   

Anya: I hoped I would catch a lizard.  When I went in the bushes, I sometimes got thorns in my feet. It surprised me a lot. I had to pull them out by myself. I was looking for lizards, if I was lucky I might find a gecko. I saw a big lizard with a small lizard in its mouth, they were fighting, they were both boys.  The small one had its chin [puffed] out.  I had to save its life, that lizard was getting scared. I grabbed the big lizard a few times, but it still got away. It was in the morning. I was screaming, "bad lizard!" and chasing it around the wood pile when it dropped it (the smaller lizard). 

Anya enjoying the beach at Lani kai.

Anya: The sand felt good on my feet.  I was soaking wet. I think I found some fish. I don't know what kind they were.  There was a guy fishing, he let me release his fish.  It jumped out of my hands. It was slippery.  It road the waves back to home.

Mermaid Anya. This one was her idea.

Anya: I wish I was a real mermaid! I just felt a little sad, but a little dog jumped on me and scratched me in the leg, and ruined my tail. I had some scratches on me (actually that happened the following day, but whose counting).

Anya, Tina, and dad caught a cockroach.  All bugs are created equal in Anya's mind, and cockroaches are as cute as golden orb weaver spiders to her.

Anya: I trapped it in a glass. But it ran all over the place and I just couldn't catch it. My dad had to. I was thinking of naming it "Runny" but I didn't want to.

The first two days were a bit rainy, but we didn't let that stop us.  Here we see Anya and Tina and I headed to the beach to play in the rain.  Anya picked up a flower she found on the ground and stuck it behind her ear for that quintessential Hawaiian look. 

Anya: I found a flower.  I put it in my hair.  We were walking to the beach. I felt so happy. When we got to the beach I took it out and put it next to the bag.  Played about for a half-an-hour, then just went home.

We took a long walk to the top of a very tall cliff.  There was saw several wales playing in the water below, butterflies frolicking, and lots of vandalized cacti.  Here we see Anya atop a cliff magically summoning a kraken.

Anya: I was on a cliff. We saw some whales. My dad took a picture of me.  We went there with friends, Dad, and Mom.

The sun came out on the third day.  Anya got right up into dad's sleeping face and again "whispered", "DAAAAAAD, you said we could go kayaking today.  Let's GO!" And so we did.  In this picture we are off the beach in Kailua on the Flat Island.  The Flat Island is bird sanctuary, and lizards could be found here as well.  There was a beautiful reef around the island and fish could be seen in a couple of neat little tide pools in the rock. There were lots of crabs running around. 

The majority of her fun was probably had in the fresh water canal were you put in and practice paddling.  There were lots of fish to be seen and a mongoose to boot. 

Anya: We found some golden orb weavers.  We went snorkeling, but I didn't see anything.  I found a lizard too!

Our good friends and PEPS buddies Luca and Nico (Christina and Agnish) were staying at the Sheraton on Waikiki.  Nothing is better than having friends in Hawaii who are staying at a nice resort.  Drinks and food were delivered to us pool side.  Anya literally swam around the pool 20 times and we went to the beach for a long time. Dad discovered that, despite very detailed instructions, 6 years can not be trusted to put sun screen on their dad's back.  The burn is...interesting.

 

Anya: I was with my friends Luka and Nico. When dad took a picture of me I said, "I'll give you my foot!" I didn't want to have my picture taken.  I was in the hot tub.  I dived underwater and did a hand stand under water with one hand, and I still wouldn't let him take a picture of me.  

Here was see our PEPS Waikiki chapter with the kids drinking virgin Lava Flows with Diamond Head in the background.  It was an awesome day.

Anya: Those were our lava drinks.  We drank them a lot. We had to get a refill. Even those two kids, they're my friends from the PEPS group.  I've known them since I was born. That blue in the background is actually the ocean, not the swimming pool.  If you laugh at me on this, I'm just giving you some information.

Following her pattern of critter chasing, Anya insisted we stop at every fountain in Honolulu to look for koi.  The kid can spot a koi pond a mile away.

Anya: This was the koi fish tank.  I'm giving you some information. It was at night time, and we were just leaving our PEPS friends, their names are Luca and Nico.

Anya and dad drove to the North Shore to a little wading area right next to Shark's Cove.  This place is awesome in that there is almost no waves or current and tons of fish.  Anya actually used her snorkel gear for the first time and squealed when she saw fish.  She found refuge and lots of critters on a big flat rock in the middle of the pool.  She also met her soul sister Charlotte. An 8 year old from Manhattan who looked a lot like her cousin Mia. When Anya exclaimed, "I just saw the Hawaiian state fish!" Charlotte enquired, "The humu humu nuku nuku a pua'a!?" and I knew she had met her match.  Charlotte then asked if Anya had seen any nautiluses, (which, by the way, are 100,000,000 years old) and Anya said no, but she has seen other mollusks around.  It was pretty charming.  The two of them spent about an hour collecting various hermit crabs and trying to catch fish in a bucket while dad snorkeled and looked at fish. 

Anya: I was snokling. I was at Shark's Cove, you bet. I found a friend. Her name was Charlotte.  We played together a lot.  We found some crabs. 

As I've mentioned, Anya wanted to spend all her time at home chasing lizards, which entails a lot of standing about.  She also refused bug repellent, a perfect combination for mosquito bites, of which she received about 30.  Her legs look like pink pickles.  She also refused hydrocortisone so that was fun.  Here we see her chasing lizards in the back yard near the stagnate water of the bird bath.

Anya: I'm looking for lizards, yes I am! I was in the back yard looking for lizards with the mosquitos.  There was a lot of mosquitoes, I'm just giving you some information again. 

Here we are back at SeaTac airport. Grandma was awesome and came by to pick us up and drive us all home, where we slept heavily for about 10 hours.

Anya: That's me at the airport looking at some reflecting lights.  We're going back to Seattle.