3/27 - Landon has pre-UIL performance after evening and most of day practice.
3/26 - Kasey had a Pom Squad dance performance. In the dance parking lot again instead of at a baskeball game.
3/20 - 3/21 - We had several scouts over to the house to help Landon paint and put together the benches. The boys did a good job with help and guidance from a few of the dads.
3/5-3/12 - Big Island Hawaii spring break
Friday took the kids out of school and headed to Hawaii. We got $200 tickets round trip and couldn't pass it up. The flight was long and not great with masks, but so worth it. We rented a place on the coast which I love. It wasn't beach but we could see and hear the waves hit the rocks all the time on our patio. Beautiful sunsets and just being in my happy place Hawaii. Landon had his own room, Kasey had a loft she called her palace with 2 twin beds and a chair. Kasey brought her rubber duck Fred who needed pictures in several places in Hawaii.
The first night we went to close restaurant where we sat outside and enjoyed food and some drinks. The next morning we decided to go exploring near our place. There was a short walkway in front of our place and we walked over rocks to a beach and over to some ruins. After that we went down to south point (southern most part of US). On the way down we had lunch at a local restaurant that happened to have our favorite beer on tap from Kona brewery. We hiked around some at south point, got some cool pictures. We decided to try and hike to the Green Sand Beach. Its a few miles hike, it was crazy windy with dirt. After putting on sunscreen I looked like I had been riding a motorcycle in a sand storm. We didn't actually make it to the green sand beach but it was about the adventure :)
Sunday we decided to go up to the North side to Waipio valley and to see waterfalls. We took wrong directions getting to Waipio valley but went down a cool road surrounded by really tall trees. We went down to observation area at Waipio valley and decided to drive down since we had 4 wheel drive Jeep. Drive down is really steep but we made it fine. At the bottom there were huge pot holes larger than the car and filled with water. There was another car in front of us that looked like they had been there before. We basically drove on the outside of the huge pot holes. Once we got down there we walked around on the black beach listening to the ocean. In the valley was a stream flowing into the ocean. Greg and the kids tried to cross it but didn't get all the way across on large slippery rocks. As we were starting to leave there were some horses that walked up to the water. One of them was walking up to people looking for food or something.
From there we headed to a brewery for some lunch and to try some local beer. It was raining some and of course the one time we didn't bring our rain coats. We decided to go ahead and drive to the water falls since we were already up in the area. We went to Akaka Falls and Kahuna Falls that were near each other. There was about 1/4 mile circle to walk around to see them. We were soaking wet but got to see some cool waterfalls. We got a few pictures of us all wet in front of the water falls.
Since we were eating later lunches, we weren't that hungry for dinner. So we ended up having ice cream/dessert for dinner 4 days in a row. The kids enjoyed it and really so did I :) In the evenings we had brought some wine and bourbon to enjoy.
The next morning we went to a close by cove to do some snorkeling. It was pretty cool. Landon and I saw a turtle and several cool fish and sea urchins. That afternoon we drove down to Kona Brewery for a late lunch and did a little shopping. That afternoon Greg and I went to the store for a few things and stopped at the outdoor restaurant for a drink. Greg wanted to try a Bourbon they had.
The next morning we had a dolphin tour booked. We headed out on the boat with captain Chad. We saw a bottle nose dolphin, a hawaiian monk seal (who are endangered), and huge manta ray feeding on the surface. We had not seen the large pod dolphins that they usually see. After about an hour and half the captain got a call where the dolphins were. He asked what we wanted to do, the dolphins were kind of far away so it would take longer. He knew a cool place we could snorkel or we could go find dolphins. It was just our family and 1 other guy and we all decided we wanted to go find the dolphins. We did find then and when we got there he let us get in the water and about 150 dolphin were swimming below and around us. Very cool. We could hear them in the water. Kasey decided to stay in the boat and so she got to see the spinner dolphins above the water flipping and swimming on the top.
We got back in the boat and went to the front of the dolphins so we could get in again and watch them go by. So cool to see all of them swimming with each other. We got back in the boat and went to the front of the dolphins again. This time about 5 feet from our boat some hump back whales came to the surface. They were pretty close and pretty big. There were about 6 whales so we watched them for a while. We weren't supposed to get in the water with them, but at one point they were playing in the middle of the dolphins. One of the whales was flapping his tail several times in the water. So cool. We headed back after that. We were about an hour late and the next tour had been waiting on us for an hour. Such a cool experience.
That afternoon we went to another Brewery in Kona called Ola. Pretty good. Greg was collecting brewery shirts along the way.
The next day we went to Huggos on the water for some lunch and view. We had some beers, some Ahi tuna and the kids got some daiquiris. we could see little yellow fish in the water right in front of us. Doug flew in that day. We met him in between where we were staying at Tommy Bahamas. We had a nice dinner, enjoyed a few drinks, good food and even got dessert.
The next morning Doug came down to our area. We got to see some dolphins off our patio. We headed to the cove for some snorkeling. We then tried to go find another place we had been in 2005 where we swam with big turtles. We didn't find it but did some more snorkeling at a cool place. That afternoon we went back to Kona Brewery for a good lunch. We hung out at our place in the afternoon and then we had booked a manta ray tour that night. We had tried the previous night but there weren't any out. We called the guy from the Dolphin tour and he was able to get us booked on another one. All 5 of us went. The water was a bit cold. We went out with snorkels, and had a surf board with a light under it. Each of us held onto a handle, floated on the water and had noodle under our legs. We got to see several manta rays swimming around. There were other tours out there and they would sometimes swim up under the lights. They didn't do that with our light, but that's ok. Not sure Kasey would have liked it.
The next day, our last day in paradise, we got packed up and went to meet Doug for lunch closer to the airport. We had a few drinks, good food and got to sit outside. We were early at the airport, but got to see other friends who were coming to the island. Wonderful trip!!