October is always an interesting month in central Texas. We still have plenty of 90 degree days, but they’re tempered with some days that are cooler as well. We all eagerly anticipate the brief break from the heat, around these parts. But October is also the start of our household’s holiday and birthday craziness that lasts through the end of the year.

As the kids have done every year they’ve had the opportunity, I think, Ian entered the yearbook cover contest at his elementary school. Maya’s middle school doesn’t do this (to my knowledge), so it was just Ian working alone this year. I really like what he’s come up with and he’s excited about his chances.

Maya and Ian had a long weekend that first weekend – four days! We thought about trying to figure out a small vacation, but we’re still recovering from our big Hawaii trip I think, so we decided to keep it low key. Since we had bought season passes this year, on Saturday, we took the kids up to Arlington to try out Six Flags over Texas. As I understand it, this was the original Six Flags location.

Since the park didn’t open till noon, we started our day with a nice sit-down lunch at Tom’s Burgers and Grill. Our food was delicious, though they were pretty busy, and it took a bit longer than intended. Six Flags itself was pretty crazy because they were all decked out for Halloween. The decorations were spooky and all the water in the park was dyed red, presumably to simulate blood.

We all tried our first ever bobsled coaster – La Vibora. While Ian enjoyed the snake theme, the ride itself wasn’t really our favorite. Maya and I went in a circle loop coaster, El Diablo, that Sean tells me isn’t really a roller coaster. Since the loop changes direction partway through (you dangle upside down for a bit too), they had us seated facing another pair of people. Maya watched, bemused, as the clearly-older-than-her girls screamed and screamed as the not-a-coaster completed its loops. Maya and I thought that one was actually pretty fun.

Maya, Ian, and I rode Titan. That guy is pretty fierce. It features a 255-foot drop and reaches a max speed of 85 mph. Maya rode it by herself and Ian rode with me. This thing has some pretty intense positive G-forces, and because of that, I will likely avoid ever riding it again. This forces are so intense, in fact, that Sean actually started to have tunnel vision while riding it in his younger days, which is why he was bowing out today. Ian may have permanently damaged my arm from gripping my hand so tightly, but we all really enjoyed our ride.

Next, we all rode what was probably my favorite coaster of the day – New Texas Giant. This was originally introduced in 1990, but in 2011 underwent a refurbishment by Rocky Mountain Coaster (usually referred to as RMC), intensifying some of its elements and adding a steel “I-box” track. The net result for me and my borked spine is that it’s a wooden roller coaster that I can ride comfortably, which makes me happy. We all loved it! Fun fact: this was the first ever RMC coaster conversion.

The only sour note to our day was that we waited in a sweltering hour-long line at the Batman coaster only to have it shut down right when we’d have been the next set of folks to board. We gave it I think another twenty minutes or so to see if there’d be any news. We got nothing, and by then both kids needed the bathroom, so we gave up and left. It wasn’t but five or ten minutes later that we saw them running empty cars. Alas.

As it got dark, costumed folks began to roam around and scare people as part of the Fright Fest celebration. Their makeup was excellent, and they really did a good job of jump scaring folks. But, at Ian’s request, one of the zombies agreed to pose for a photo, which he loves. Maya was again bemused that people seemed to be actually afraid and were bolting through the crowd to run away from these “monsters” and their scares. Ian chuckled at it too, but he also stuck pretty close to us once it got dark.

We decided that any of the haunted house type stuff would be too graphic for the kids and avoided that too, so once Sean and Maya got a ride in on Judge Roy Scream, we were ready to go. (On the first drop of the Judge Roy Scream coaster, there’s a sign that says “Appeal denied!” Maya chuckled and said that was the legal equivalent of “Get wrecked!”) All in all, it was a fun day trip. That said, it is about a three-hour drive either direction (and Sean drove all of it), so it’s definitely nicer to day trip to Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, which is a mere two hours away.

Ian wound up being a little congested and coughing a lot on that next Thursday, so he missed a day of school. I was sweating it a little because we were all scheduled for our flu and covid vaccines on Friday the 11th. Luckily, Ian was feeling better and went to school on Friday, so we proceeded with our shots. Ian always copes with the shots pretty well, but Maya is a little more of a wild card. This time though, she did great! The patient woman administering the vaccinations was very good with her, and Maya was so happy that she actually hugged her when she left! Maya is not a big hugger, in case anyone was wondering.

Everything was ok on Saturday. Sean always has a reaction to the mRNA vaccines, so this time he tried the Novavax vaccine instead. His symptoms were extremely mild by comparison. Hooray!

And then Sunday, Ian vomited. Weird. And then he spent most of the day vomiting. He couldn’t keep anything down, not even tiny sips of water. Poor dude was so miserable. We didn’t go carve pumpkins with his Cub Scout pack that afternoon. We canceled a play date he was supposed to have on Monday (they had the day off school). He must have felt bad because he didn’t really fight those decisions all that much. Sunday was also (if memory serves) the day we hit 100 degrees. WTF, Texas?!

On Monday, he seemed able to keep food down finally, but he was so weak from the day before that he still spent most of his day resting. He went back to school on Tuesday and his appetite slowly returned through the week. We still aren’t sure if he had a bad reaction to the vaccine, had a small virus (he never had a fever), or some other ailment.

At any rate, by Friday, the kids were all ready to go to Boo Fest, the elementary school’s fall carnival. In an odd turn, they both decided they wanted to wear their halloween costumes to the event! Maya was a kitty pirate, and Ian was a zombie pirate. Yarrrr!

We have fairly big kids these days, so Sean and I hung out and ate tacos while the kids roamed free, hanging out with their friends, playing games, eating junk food. We wandered around chatting with parents we’d met over the years, catching glimpses of the kids now and then. It was pleasant, laid back.

Day-to-day, I get so many junk phone calls, that I’m a pretty notorious ignore-by-default person. We had been chatting with one of Ian’s friend’s mom when I received a phone call, which I habitually ignored. And then that number called immediately again. I handed the phone to Sean and asked him to answer it since I sometimes have a hard time hearing over surrounding noise. And then he was gone, with my phone. Something had happened.

After what felt like several tense minutes, he came and got me. Maya, while standing in line waiting to go into the haunted house, passed out. When I got there, she was sitting at a table with her friend Selma and Selma’s mom, and Sean ran to get her a slice of pizza to eat. Evidently she felt it coming on and started to bend forward to try and rest against a rail, passed out for a few seconds, and then popped up saying something like, “oh, it’s actually happening; how long was I down there?” and then calmly gave someone my phone number so they could call me. Good job, Maya.

Sean got her water and pizza, though she said she’d eaten and drunk water during the day. I checked over the various parts of her costume to see if anything was constricting her, but everything was loose. The long and short is that we aren’t too sure what happened. When she fell, she busted her chin and her elbow and bit the tip of her tongue. After sitting a while and eating and drinking, she wanted to try to spend her last few tickets. She seemed ok as we were walking around playing games and whatnot. We watched her further when we got home. All seemed well, so we decided not to press it further.

The next day, Maya seemed like she was still doing well, so we all went on Ian’s fall Cub Scout campout at Bastrop State Park. We had a delightful lunch at Paw Paw’s Catfish House in Bastrop before going to “rough it.” Three of the four of us had the blackened catfish, which was excellent. Ian had some absolutely massive chicken fingers (more like chicken hands, I think), but he seemed to enjoy what he did manage to eat of them.

We camped in the deer run loop at Bastrop State Park. In 2011, some 96% of the park was affected by a wildfire. The deer run loop appears to be in the remaining 4%. The loblolly pines loomed over us as we set up camp directly beneath them. It was really pretty.

Per scouting guidance, we made Ian help set up the tent, which irritated him to no end. Maya sat on the ground right next to our tent and spent what seemed like literal hours chiseling up stones. We had to “borrow” our mallet from her, so we could actually get the tend set up.

It was so hot. I was thinking it would be cooler, and it was in the morning, so I had worn jeans. That was a mistake. Luckily, there was readily available water near our campsite, so it worked out ok. The kids played at a playground in the same loop, even letting Maya play along, so I think everyone wound up having a lot of fun. There was a burn ban, so the “campfire” was more of a gas fire pit, so Maya actually hung out with us while the kids told jokes and did skits and we all sang silly songs.

At one point, Maya was quizzing me about the den that Ian is in this year. It’s called the Webelos, but the name isn’t actually a plural, so she was irked by some of the linguistic goofiness that happens when you refer to something that sounds plural as a single thing. It stands for WE BE LOyal Scouts (which, to be fair, has its own linguistic goofiness). Ian, on overhearing this explanation, looked at us horrified and said, “We boil scouts???” Not what was said, son. And go read your scouting handbook.

This version of camping is relatively easy. You’re car camping, so no heavy backpacks. There are bathrooms with flush toilets, sinks, and even showers just a short walk away. The scouts handle all the cooking, so we don’t have to worry about food. Since there was no campfire, we didn’t even really have to worry about Maya’s food, though we brought some just in case. You’re there less than 24 hours.

We got home in time to unload the car and have showers before Ian was scheduled to go sell popcorn for his Cub Scout fundraiser. His sales shift was at a Randalls grocery store, and it was pretty slow going. They ultimately did all right though, and it’s probably good experience learning how to interact with folks and how to handle both positive and negative outcomes. Still those sales shifts personally stress me out. I’m an introvert and shy to boot, so I have to go way out of my shell to help support Ian in his endeavors. Luckily, he’s very extroverted and outgoing, so it works out ok.

Maya had her first school dance the last Friday in October. The sixth graders had a costumed dance in the gym at school. She initially didn’t want to go. A dance? Ick, no! But we pointed out to her that especially at her age, it was probably more of a social, hang-out situation than a full on dance. She eventually agreed to go. She wore her kitty pirate costume, took along cash so she could buy pizza and sodas, and brought her phone, in case she needed us to come rescue her early.

It turns out it all went really well. Maya told us she had to hide under the bleachers for a little while at one point because there were so many people, but a friend kept her company while she was hiding and then she re-entered the fray. She got to see a number of her Davis friends that don’t have classes with her, which I don’t think she was expecting. The girl was all smiles when we picked her up.

With all the running around we had been doing so far in October, we tried very hard to keep the following weekend as low key as possible. Plus the temperatures were down to the mid to upper 80s, so it was maybe cool enough to undertake a meat project. I was all excited about trying to cook a piece of meat called Thor’s Hammer. It’s basically a beef shank that’s “been Frenched” or had the thinner meat and connective tissue cleaned from one end of the bone, so you can hold it like a Flintstones-sized drumstick.

Alas, despite what HEB’s website said, they didn’t have any beef shanks in stock that weren’t sliced. Instead, we picked up a 13-14 lb prime brisket. I would simply smoke that instead of the shank. The night before the smoking, I trimmed the brisket, removing a lot (but not all) of the fat layer. To get a nice shape for even smoking, I trimmed some of the thinner and more nubbly bits of “good” brisket and saved those to grind into burgers later in the week (which were stupendous, btw, can’t recommend enough). I seasoned the brisket heavily all over and left it in the fridge overnight, very loosely covered.

I used the same “snake” method I’ve used in the past. You run a “snake” of charcoal around the edge of the grill, leaving an opening. You light one end of the open-ended snake and the fire slowly works through the coals over many hours. You place chunks of smoking wood (in our case pecan, though I’ve also used the more Texas traditional post oak in the past) at regular intervals around the “snake” and as the hot coals get to them, a fresh wave of smoke ensues.

I am out of practice and had a little trouble keeping the temperature down, but otherwise, I’d say the brisket cook was successful. The meat was tender, there was a nice smoke ring, and even after eating brisket in tacos, sandwiches, and lovely piles off and on for a week, I still had about four lbs to package up and store in the freezer for later enjoyment. Plus tending meat over fire for literal hours while I don’t have (or can successfully compartmentalize for later) a thousand other to-do list items is therapeutic for me.

Now, Maya doesn’t like the smell of fire *at all* so she wouldn’t hug me or really even be in the same room as me till after I had bathed. And she wouldn’t eat any of the meat. Maybe someday.

Sean and I managed to work in an early voting run on Sunday afternoon. Maya and even Ian are paying more attention lately to who’s running for office and wanted to know why we might choose one candidate or another. This election season has been absolutely bonkers. The level of hateful and infantile discourse has been gross to observe, so we haven’t really let the kids watch any of the debates or speeches with us. Maybe in a couple years when we vote for governor, we’ll have to get the kids more involved.

Maya and Ian farted around forever not deciding what they wanted on their pumpkins, so for the first time in their lives I think, Anna didn’t draw their pumpkins for them. Each kid drew their own. I gutted them, reserving most of the seeds for roasting, and then the kids carved them. Sean helped Maya a little bit with a drawing method, but I think she did the work herself. Ian did his entirely on his own (except the aforementioned gutting).

Maya’s is a cat whose ears were repurposed from the triangle eye cut-outs. Ian’s is meant to be creepy. He wanted to do a “shaded” type pumpkin where you cut off some of the skin, but leave the flesh to glow in the candlelight. I don’t know what tools we need for that but we definitely didn’t have time to gather them up. Next year.

The kids had Friday November 1st off school (Diwali celebration, I think), so that left us latitude for Ian to have a sleepover with his friend Damian on Halloween night after Damian joined us for neighborhood trick or treating. I tried to get Maya to arrange trick or treat plans with her friends (some of whom live within walking distance of our house), but I think with the dance, her social bucket was empty, so she just joined the boys in their trick or treating.

Sean wasn’t feeling well, so he manned the candy bowl at our house while I walked Maya, Ian, and Damian around the neighborhood. Maya’s costume was really long, so she had to walk to keep from tripping. Ian and Damian, in their excitement, ran absolutely everywhere, usually leaving Maya and I behind. I don’t think Maya got to ring a single doorbell, and after a while she told me she was tired and would like to go home. I have a notion she was tired of getting left out, but I could be wrong. We walked her home and spent maybe another half hour trick or treating before the boys decided their bags were full enough.

After we got back, the boys half-watched Scream. They sacked out in the living room on air mattresses. It was cute.

For my part, I had a beer and tried out a new method for roasting the pumpkin seeds. They were better than any I’ve made before, but still didn’t achieve the desired degree of crispiness I was hoping for. Earlier that afternoon, I boiled them in salt water for about five minutes and laid them out to dry for a couple hours. Once I was ready to roast, I tossed them in olive oil and salt, spreading them on a parchment lined sheet pan, and baked them at 350 for maybe 25 minutes or so, stirring a few times during the baking. I have a friend who says he lets his dry out for days, and that may make the difference. I don’t know how to square that up with the fact that our jack o lanterns don’t last all that long in the Texas heat, but I may have to try that next year.

I’m delighted that Maya still wants to be a kid and dress up in a fun costume and go trick or treating. Ian and his friends are still very excited about trick or treating, so we’ll ride that out for a while. I’ve heard it said or written a weirdly large number of times over the past couple weeks that “the days are long but the years are short.” And I feel this too. I get weary of getting the kids to all the things all the time, but Cub Scout campouts and sixth grade dances and trick-or-treating will look hazy and sweet in the rearview mirror. Sentimentality must just be in the too-hot, wish-fall-would-start-already Texas air right now, I guess.

Yeah, I don’t know what that title means either, but my 4th and 6th grade children probably do (and would tell me I’m being “cringe”), and I thought it would be funny to capture some Gen Alpha slang. I’m so far behind with posting that I’m just going to combine August and September. Maya started middle school this year, and the transition to having two different schools to keep up with has been hard for me.

We started August beautifully with an action-packed trip to Hawaii, visiting three islands: Oahu, Kauai, and the Big Island. We loved our Hawaii trip so much, that we tried to extend our trip culinarily. We had yummy Manoa chocolate bars to slowly work our way through and some variously-flavored Hawaiian shortbread cookies to enjoy as well. There’s rum too, but we haven’t cracked into that yet.

But I couldn’t leave well enough alone. Since we’ve been back, I’ve also made Kalua Pork (which all of us loved), complete with pink alaea sea salt. With Maya in mind, I’ve made Spam Musubi a couple times now – we even bought a special musubi mold, which makes the process fairly painless. (She loves them, and she loves making them – double win!) For Mom and Dad mostly, I’ve also been making a coconut syrup for our pancakes. I tried to do this after our first Hawaii trip in 2008. Turns out I was probably trying way, way too hard (I was attempting to roast and crack coconut and infuse the syrup with the freshly roasted coconut, when really I just needed nice coconut milk). All these things let us remember the aloha as we go about our hectic everyday lives, which is nice.

As is normal for the middle of August in Central Texas, we made the pilgrimage to our local HEB Central Market grocery store to buy all the hatch chile festival things, stocking the freezer very nicely with easy to prepare marinated meats and chile-centric sausages and burgers. One of the best and most interesting things we tried though were these blue corn tortilla and hatch chile cookies. The kids weren’t into them at all, which was fine by me because I LOVED them.

We tried another run of tropical fruits since the Central Market often has a nice selection. We bought rambutans for Ian since they’re similar to lychees, which he tried in Hawaii and loved. We bought dragonfruit for Maya because she wanted to try them in Hawaii and we never quite worked it out. We picked up a carambola / star fruit as well, since they’ve liked them in the past. And we grabbed some kumquats which Maya especially adored because you eat them skin and all, which gives them a bitter edge that she finds very appealing.

Maya and Ian started back to school on August 20th. Since the schools have a staggered start times, and Sean starts work later in the morning, he is still dropping them off at their two schools. At my request though, to maintain my work sanity, they have started riding the bus home after school. Their first week back contained some of the hottest days we’ve had all summer, highs reaching 106 and 107 on a couple of the days. And when they get dropped off from school, it’s about the hottest part of the afternoon, so we took an umbrella up and met them at the bus stop. After the first day, they requested that we not meet them again – that they could get home on their own, thank you very much. Fine by me; it was hot out there.

In middle school, Maya has to move between her classes each day. She is not prone to hurrying for any reason, so I think it’s been a bit of a struggle for her to get her bag packed and move to her next class on time. I get the impression now that we’re nearly through the first quarter, she’s got the hang of it, but I still don’t think it’s easy. I went to back to school night or whatever it’s called and “walked” her schedule. I haven’t ever had to find my way between the different buildings at her school before, but even once I knew where they were, I struggled to get to her classes during the 5-minute gap between them, and I didn’t have a bag to pack.

She is taking Band this year and has begun to learn how to play the oboe. In addition to a weekly piano lesson, she now has a weekly oboe lesson immediately after school. While the music reading skills she’s acquired with her piano study help with this, playing the instrument is a whole different deal. It’s a hard one to learn, and at least so far, she’s had to work really hard to figure it out. Scholastically, things come fairly easily to her, so I think this may be a point of frustration.

Sean surprised the kids that first weekend after school started with Dr Pepper doughnuts from Krispy Kreme. I can usually eat one doughnut before the sugar, fat, whatever gets to me, but I tried one out anyway, and there’s definitely a nice Dr Pepper flavor hidden amongst all that pure sweet.

Ian is participating in Cub Scouts again this year. As a fourth-grader he’s in the Webelos den, and at the first pack meeting they made paper rockets. These were launched with compressed air, and whatever combination of construction paper and packing tape Ian landed on this time was definitely the right one because his rocket went REALLY far. It was astonishing.

It was very marginally cooler over Labor Day weekend, so one afternoon, we headed down to Pease Park to check out Malin’s Fountain. Malin’s Fountain is a sculpture by Danish artist Thomas Dambo, who is famous for making large troll sculptures using recycled materials (over a hundred so far – maybe one is near you: trollmap). It was installed this past March and, according the Pease Park Conservancy website, will be in place for 15 years.

Malin is apparently a water protector, something we badly need in perpetually water-strapped central Texas. Protector or not, she’s amazing to behold. She’s larger than life and has friendly, inviting eyes. The kids seemed astonished that such a thing would just be sitting in one of our city parks. And then, Maya and Ian even got to play in the nearby “treehouse” and have shave ices.

I’ve been delighted with the quantity of bumble bees that have been hanging out in my my flowering plants this year. This was mostly happening in late August and early September, before things died back in this long, hot dry spell (the yard is largely dead or dormant now in mid-October). Several of the flowering plants had come alive after a few August rain showers, and the bees seem to have a particular affinity for the pink Turk’s cap plants. (I have an affinity for them too – they’re natives and hard to kill.)

Ian had been wanting to try his hand at cake decorating again, so we decided to make a little confetti cake and let him mess around with a star-shaped piping tip. Ian chose to make a Pac Man cake. We left some of the icing white and dyed the rest yellow, and he went to town. All in all, I think it turned out well, and he seemed happy with it.

Rather than let our kids hoodwink us into eating at the same three or four restaurants over and over and over again, we decided to try out a place called Buddha Burger. It’s a food trailer in a gas station parking lot, which in and of itself isn’t so bad, but it’s still so hot out. Thankfully, they had picnic tables in the shade, and everyone seemed to enjoy their food.

In mid-September, Maya was invited to her friend Maclin’s birthday event – and they went fishing! Evidently she had an excellent time, and when she wasn’t actively fishing, she was busy catching bait. What a fun way to celebrate a birthday!

That same weekend, Ian had a Cub Scout pack meeting wherein they built sailboats. While his sailboat floated well, it wasn’t quite as successful as his rocket had been the month prior. Either way, he seemed to enjoy building it.

The Monday after that busy weekend, at Maya’s band teacher’s urging, we all went to the Toney Burger center and watched the AISD High School Marching Band Jamboree. Sean, who played alto saxophone in his high school marching band, was old hat at this sort of thing, but it was entirely new to the rest of us. All told, all thirteen high schools performed, and then the evening was capped off by a performance from the Texas State University Bobcat Marching Band.

It was so much fun to watch! Even Ian, who had campaigned hard not to go at all, was getting into it. The schools all put on fairly different shows, so it wasn’t boring or repetitive. The big wall of sound that hit you when the brass kicked in was genuinely uplifting, and the choreographed movement, for some reason, was an unexpected surprise for me. The sizes of the bands varied pretty widely, and probably school size and student interest were the prevailing factors. But I couldn’t quite shake the idea that it was a display of the haves and have-nots of the district.

Maya has been told again and again that oboe players don’t march, and to be fair, this one didn’t either. But one high school, during the jamboree performance at least, had an oboe player, and she even got to play a solo. Guitars were featured by some of the bands too, though their players also seemed to be stationary.

The next weekend, Ian got to perform at a farmer’s market in his guitar teacher Chris’s neighborhood. It was just Ian and Chris, so their set was pretty fluid, with Ian restarting or abandoning ship if he didn’t remember a piece as well. He did a good job and seemed happy to be there. Plus, Maya and I were able to go along and watch, which doesn’t always happen.

Maya has been playing piano since she was three and loves it very much. She’s lately been delving more into the theory side of things, working on different scales and modes. She spends a lot of time holed up in her room, playing on her keyboard, messing around with different chord progressions, transposing pieces she already knows into so many different keys. She was delighted when one of her weekly practice pieces – a series of little sea shanties – had a challenge at the end to develop her own. Maya, ever the favorer of the weird, came up with a sea shanty, and her teacher Ben made a video of her playing it!

The last weekend of the month was a doozy. Ian went on an overnight trip to the San Antonio Zoo for a Cub Scout activity. Normally, since the whole family can participate in Cub Scout overnights, I like for all of us to go, but we had a conflict. Maya’s former piano teacher Hannah and her husband Michael would be putting on a four hands piano concert at a local church and Maya wanted very badly to go.

I stayed in Austin and took Maya to her piano concert. Sean rode down to San Antonio with a fellow scout family and had fun at the zoo. The piano concert was only an hour long, and Maya might have gotten a little antsy, but she seemed to really enjoy it. There was a point where she was calling out chord juxtapositions with the admiration of a sports announcer calling out a good play. I felt compelled to shush her, but I was thrilled that she was so into it.

It helps that Hannah and her husband put on a spectacular performance, full of variety, helpful explanations, and a good dose of humor. They ended the evening with some pieces by P.D.Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) who appears to have died before he was born, and who toyed with his four hands performers by making them cross over one another at the keyboard in a sadistic version of piano Twister. Joke’s on him though – they didn’t miss a beat.

After the show, Maya hung around and talked to Hannah for a while. You could tell Maya didn’t want to leave – she really loved having Hannah as a teacher – but eventually we had to go home. Maya had another happy-sad. She loved seeing her former teacher perform, but she was sad all over again at her absence. Life can be hard.

My zoo information is secondhand, so I’ll do my best here. As I understand it, the zoo adventure started quite late and maybe the zoo folks weren’t quite prepared for the sheer quantity of scouts and scout family members. But, once things got started, they clicked along pretty well. Ian got to touch a hognose snake, which I’m sure thrilled him. That kid loves amphibians and reptiles, especially snakes.

They did some evening activities at the zoo, but I hear the real treat was the zoo walk the next morning. They got to head through the zoo before it opened to the public, so they were able to see the animals in a more alert and active state than they normally would have. I was particularly impressed with a bright-eyed tiger photo they managed to capture.

They managed to get home and we got things squared away juuuuuust enough for Sean and I to head out on our Sunday evening adventure. We were headed to Stubb’s to see James and Johnny Marr! I won’t lie. We were both tired, especially Sean who had slept on an inflatable mattress at the zoo the night before. And I know I sound like a broken record, but it was so hot. Even after the sun went down, it was still in the 90s.

James sounded great and even though I know literally one song by them (“Laid” which was released way back in 1993), it was an enjoyable show. The had a lovely ditty explaining that we were all going to die, but their trumpeter was fun to watch, so I guess I’ll forgive them.

I tried listening to the Johnny Marr solo stuff a few weeks before the show, just for curiosity. I don’t know, it was fine I guess, but nothing really grabbed me. Like so many other performers though, all that was out the window watching him live. He and the band put on a great show, and while I expect most folks were there for the old Smiths tunes, I thought the whole set was excellent. (And I know I’m far, far in the minority, but I don’t really love the way Morrissey sings – it’s just too precious for me, I think – so for me, it was a delight to hear music I genuinely enjoy being sung by a voice with a little more life in it.)

There we are, mid-October, and I’m finally writing about August and September. It’s funny how musical our September was. Weirdly, I’m not sure I noticed in real-time. Maya seems to have adapted ok to middle school, at least so far. Ian is holding his own in elementary school. I think at least for now, we’re all doing ok.

Still Day 8 – Arrival on the Big Island

After our flight landed, we collected our bags, and got our rental car, we had juuuuuust enough time to stop in at Pine Tree Cafe for dinner. The ladies working there were so, so nice to us. Ian was quizzing them about their fries – how were they cooked, how were they seasoned, how big were they (he’s picky, go figure). In addition to patiently answering all his questions, they brought one out for him to try (he loved them).

I had a delightful fried shrimp sandwich. Maya had a very small serving of poke. Sean went overboard. He ordered a mixed plate with garlic chicken and hamburger steak with gravy. I got to try everything and there’s no denying it was all spectacular, but wow did he have a lot of food.

We arrived at our fancy-pants hotel in the dark. More so than any of our other island hotels, this one has a resort vibe. It’s gigantic. There are separate pools for the kids and the adults. The kids’ pool has a 200-foot slide, which Maya and Ian were very, very excited about.

Day 9 – Sunrise at Pololu Point, Akaka Falls, Rainbow Falls

When we were originally laying out this vacation and deciding what we would like to do and see, we cooked up this plan to rent a jeep and try to get to the top of Mauna Kea to watch sunrise. (If I remember correctly, the need for 4WD is less about the rough road and need for high clearance – the road is actually well-maintained – but more about the steep grade as you head back downhill. You need to be in low gear to keep from burning out your brakes.)

In researching what kinds of vehicles were good for driving up to the summit, we happened upon a warning that you shouldn’t proceed beyond the visitor’s center if you are under 13 years of age, and that the prolonged high altitude exposure could cause bodily damage. I’m a scoffer, so I initially scoffed and figured we’d all be fine. But there’s a difference between taking stupid risks with your own body and health and life and taking a risk with that of your children, and so I looked into it further. After reading about the higher risk for pulmonary edema and cerebral edema, coupled with the fact that you’re really far from anywhere that can help you, it just didn’t seem worth the risk. We’d live to see that sunrise another time. Or maybe we wouldn’t. No big deal; there are lots of beautiful things in the world.

And so it was that our poor, mistreated kids were woken up a little after 4:00 in the morning (their parents were up even earlier) so that we could go watch sunrise at Pololu Point instead. The 1.5 hour car ride was completed almost entirely in the dark.

It was every bit as beautiful as we were lead to believe. Maya and Ian got to marvel at just how quickly the sun went from a slight sliver on the horizon, to a half-circle, to a full sun. Unfortunately, it was very cloudy, so we didn’t get to see the golden morning light washing over the cliffs. Given that we had not yet had breakfast and had not yet fully recovered from our epic waterfall hike, we chose not to do the hike down to the beach, though it looked like it would have been quite lovely as well.

We had started to listen to “Divergent” by Veronica Roth on our return drive from Alabama at the end of July. We thought we’d listen to the book during some of our longer drives on the Big Island as well, so now that the kids were both truly awake, we worked on our book some more. It kept them from getting bored, but unlike screen time, it left their eyes available to take in the unique Hawaiian landscape in all its endless variety as we drove around the island.

Our stop after Pololu was to indulge in breakfast at the Hawaiian Style Cafe in Waimea. We had kind of been looking forward to breakfast here the whole trip, so lovely was their menu. They warn you that their portions are big, but I honestly had no idea what was in store for us. And worse still, we were so busy eating, none of us remembered to snag any photos. Whoops.

For example, I ordered their famous hash, which came with rice or hash browns (the latter), two eggs (over easy), and a pancake, waffle, or toast (waffle, for Ian). Holy. Shit. That waffle was like a whole second breakfast. With just my order, I could probably have fed any three people. By the time we realized our mistake, it was much too late. Each of us had ordered our own breakfast. And Sean even upgraded his pancake side to haupia pancakes, which turned out to be a very wise choice because the haupia sauce they slathered on top was absolutely divine.

Their menu explains that leftovers don’t go to waste, that they’re fed to the pigs. Sean has a new theory that the Hawaiian Style Cafe also runs a pig farm and we customers supplement the pigs’ feed.

After breakfast, we hit the Waipi’o Valley Overlook. The coastal scenery was gorgeous, of course. We also saw a kitty hanging out by a cross that may or may not have been marking a grave (probably it was a memorial). The cat looked for all the world like it was guarding that cross though. It seemed to kitty-smile at us, and we thought it might come over for some scritches, but it stayed firm at its chosen post.

We also saw some really neat spiders hanging out all over the ceiling of the picnic bench area of the lookout. Ian, unfortunately, is not a big fan of spiders, so he was on edge while we were there. We looked them up, they are Hawaiian Orb Weaver, Hawaiian Garden Spider, or Banana Spider, depending on who you ask.

The Laupahoehoe Point lookout may have been the kids’ favorite. There were huge black lava boulders to clamber over, little crabs to watch scuttle about, interesting rocks, shells, and fossils to hung, and several colorful little birds to watch.

We were all still full from breakfast, so we skipped our lunch spot and drove straight to Akaka Falls. In 2008, this was a loop trail. In 2024, it was under construction, so it was an out and back instead. The 400-foot tall falls were still magnificent, and the thick coating of tropical vegetation was a sight to behold. This is a well-loved waterfall though, and there were a LOT of people, so that part wasn’t always pleasant. In fact, if you ask Maya which of the hikes she liked the best, her enjoyment was inversely proportional to quantity of people on the trail.

We took a particularly pretty drive (the Onomea Scenic Drive, the guide says) along the Old Mamalahoa Hwy (instead of the more direct Mamalahoa Hwy), and the scenery was beautiful. The drive goes past the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden along this route, and I just have to wonder, as much as the islands are covered in an abundance of widely varied flora, what do they choose to display in the botanical garden?

We stopped in at some random place for shave ice and snacks, and all the things we had were nice enough. The highlight here though was a friendly rooster who would eat pieces of tortilla chip from our hands. Sometimes it’s the little things.

Rainbow Falls was nice enough, but wasn’t particularly striking after our visits to Akaka Falls earlier that day and Hanakapi’ai Falls on Kauai. However, the grounds around the falls were pretty. There was an impressively large banyan tree that we had fun hiding in and climbing on.

After this, we decided to head back to the hotel to let the kids have some pool time. For the record, this is the first time we’d seen our hotel in the daylight. It was very large. As predicted, the 200-foot water slide was a huge hit with the kids who made endless trips down the slide, coming down forward, backward, on their knees, resting their heads on their hands and looking hilariously nonchalant.

After swimming, Sean and I let the kids hang out and get showered while we foraged for dinner that night and something easy for breakfast the next day. As we headed from the hotel room down into the parking lot, we were presented with a giant rainbow! It was amazing.

Foodwise, I was personally pushing hard for more of that excellent and affordable grocery store poke. Alas, by the time we got to the Sack-n-Save, there wasn’t much left. We wound up snagging dinner from some random ramen joint that night instead. The kids had the pleasure of hanging out at the table on the deck and eating their ramen – a compromise since Ian wanted to eat his ramen in bed. The poor dears.

Day 10 – Kealakekua / Captain Cook, Pu’uhonua o Honaunau, Manta Magic

Today we started and ended our day in the ocean. After a quick breakfast of provisions we had collected in our hotel room (my guava bread from the Sack N Save was excellent), we suited up to go on a snorkel trip to Kealakekua Bay, the same site as the Captain Cook Monument.

The Captain Cook Monument is a little controversial, especially to native Hawaiians. Apparently, explorer James Cook wasn’t known to be particularly kind to the indigenous people he encountered in his travels. It sounds like he wound up stopping in Kealakekua Bay in 1779 to repair a ship’s mast and stayed for a bit. On February 14th, he attacked a village and shot one of the native noblemen. He was bludgeoned and stabbed to death in the surf. The big 27-foot monument is set on land that is technically owned by the British. There’s a small plaque in the water that’s said to mark the exact spot of his demise. Evidently this monument gets defaced with some regularity, even though it is reachable only by docking a boat or by hiking a 2 mile trail. The area is also a very popular snorkeling location.

We got ourselves to the right location and then kind of meandered till we figured out the right group to board with. While we were waiting, Ian – reptile hunter extraordinaire, caught one of the geckos we had seen all over the place during this vacation. We looked it up – it’s a Gold Dust Day Gecko. After Ian held it for a bit and let it crawl around on his arms, he kindly gave Maya a turn holding it and checking it out as well.

The morning looked like it was going to be cloudy, but as our boat pulled into the bay, the sun shone down and the ocean colors came alive. Ian was in the water for all of about three minutes before he wanted out. The crew assured us they’d keep him entertained while we snorkeled. I love it that the kids are now old enough that I feel okay with that. We have joked a few times now that Ian’s trip was more of an expensive boat ride than anything else.

Maya lasted maybe 30-40 minutes before she became irritated with a wonky mask (which I understand) and headed back to the boat. From the kids, we heard that snacks and sodas and jumping from the boat were part of the fun while Mom and Dad stayed in the water.

The snorkeling was great. The water shimmered, the corals popped, and there were so many different fish to observe. I told Sean later on that it was like a little kid had gotten ahold of a crayon box and let their imagination run wild.

Toward the end, while I was watching some of the smaller fish feeding among the coral, I happened to see an octopus unfurl and move a few feet before camouflaging itself to invisibility again. I called Sean and his GoPro over. We stared and stared and I was starting to worry that he would doubt me when we finally saw another small burst of movement. We were running out of time when I happened to see Sean dive down and swim almost to the bottom. Sure enough, he managed a brief recording of the octopus to show Maya, our octopus lover.

We boated back to our launch point maybe 30 minutes away. They had fresh cut pineapple as part of their snack offering. I have decided that fresh pineapple lightly seasoned with salt-watery hands and mouth and air, after 90 minutes of brilliant snorkeling, is among the best flavors there is.

We all washed the saltwater off and headed to Reel Aloha Poke (which our nav system hilariously pronounced “poke” like you would do to someone’s shoulder if you were trying to get their attention). The selection wasn’t vast but it was unique, especially their side dishes, and everything we tried was super fresh and flavorful. For example, I had as my sides a pickled ogo salad, whose primary ingredient was a fine-branched brownish purple seaweed. Sean and I both tried the Ho’io salad, made with a local fern. For Ian, Sean walked to a nearby McDonald’s and bought him a chicken sandwich instead. The rest of us loved our poke though.

We next drove to the Pu’uhonua o Honaunau national monument. Sean and I had been before, but we thought it would be good for the kids to understand that Hawaii, while being one of our fifty United States, has its own unique history and heritage. As I understand it, this is (or was) a place of intense mana or spiritual power because of the 23 chiefs whose bones were protected in the temple. This mana was available only to royalty and those who served them. (I looked it up, the bones were relocated in the 1800s, so I suppose the mana moved along with them.)

Additionally, this is place served as a sanctuary during wartimes. It was also a place of refuge for those who might break a kapu, or sacred law. Infractions might include a commoner casting a shadow on royalty or someone catching a fish out of season. The penalty for breaking kapu was death. If the criminal could outmaneuver their pursuers and make it to the Pu’uhonua, they might be absolved of their crimes by a priest. Evidently the law of kapu ended in 1819, but the site remains sacred to the Hawaiians.

I’m not sure how engaged Maya and Ian were. There was a game, called Konane, that involved black and white stones on a large stone playing surface. We didn’t take the time to learn the rules, but it looked like it could be interesting. We listened for while to what the different woven baskets on display were used for.

After this, we stopped by St Benedict’s Roman Catholic Church, the famous painted church. Maya and Ian did a great job of reigning in their normal loud and boisterous natures while they were in the church.

Everyone was oddly tired after all this, so we had some down time before heading out for an early dinner at Kona Brewing Co. Sean and I used to love a beer of theirs called “Koko Brown,” but it seemingly hasn’t been available in Austin in ages. We thought maybe in the Hawaiian islands, we’d find it available, but thus far, it hadn’t been seen in any of the establishments we visited – not at any grocery store or convenience store even. Surely if we went to the brewery itself it would be available, and sure enough, there it was on the menu!

Imagine our disappointment when they said they had run out a couple days prior and weren’t sure when it would be back in stock. Oh well.

After dinner, we had just enough time to get dressed in our swim things again and get to the meeting spot for our big event: nighttime snorkeling with manta rays!

Here’s how it works. The tour operator sets out a light board – a retrofitted surfboard with lights shining down from the bottom and handles all around its perimeter. Us intrepid snorkelers attached floats to our ankles (to avoid accidentally kicking the mantas), grabbed those handles with our hands and just laid on top of the water. With this setup, we very much limited our chances of accidentally touching the federally protected manta rays.

The light attracts the plankton and the rays gracefully swim by with their big mouths agape and scoop it up, gently flipping over as they do so to expose their undersides. Since they are federally protected, we of course we couldn’t touch them, but that they could touch us. I was brushed at least a couple times as the huge creatures swooped past.

We had been told that morning about a locally famous manta ray known as Big Bertha, whose wingspan is around 16 feet. We didn’t get to see her, but we saw probably eight other mantas (individually identifiable by their unique spot patterns) roughly half that size. I even had a little trouble with my mask leaking (I had to stop every few minutes and dump the water from it), and I still can’t be anything but thrilled with the experience with those huge and gentle sea creatures.

I was worried that Ian would be a little weirded out by the size of the manta rays swimming around him. Plus I was a little nervous that he’d bail a few minutes in like he had this morning. But nope, both kids stuck it out and by all accounts were just as thrilled as the grownups.

Day 11 – Punalu’u Black Sand Beach, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

Today was our big Hawaii Volcanoes National Park day. To be fair, in 2008, when there was active eruption activity going on, visiting the park was a much different experience. At the time we visited in August of this year, there was no eruption happening, but we figured it was still worth a visit to see such a unique landscape.

We started our day with a small tide-us-over snack in our hotel room before heading out on the hour and twenty minute drive to our actual breakfast stop, Punalu’u Bake Shop. Sean, Maya, and I enjoyed malasadas and other sweet pastries. Ian had a bacon, egg, and toast breakfast plate that was more to his liking. We hung out in a pretty courtyard in a gazebo, watching another gold dust day gecko puttering around in its eaves.

Afterward, we headed to the Punalu’u Black Sand Beach. The sparkly black volcanic sand there was truly beautiful, but the part that I loved most was seeing the big green sea turtles.

We were sort of idly puttering around on the lava rocks along the beach, watching waves crash and crabs scuttle. Two beach dudes wandered by and told us to take our family a little further on – there was a turtle just hanging out eating. They even walked us over to where it was and showed us.

Sure enough, in the water right along the shore, a sea turtle was just happily sitting in the water, chomping away at algae and whatever else they chomp on. Its colors were so much more vibrant than the ones we saw in a roped off section of the beach. (They had the beach section roped off because the turtles are endangered and thus a protected species. You’re not allowed to touch or even approach them.)

After gazing at the turtles for a while and figuring out that we didn’t know how to capture that beautiful black sand sparkle in photos, we headed on into Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

We started by checking out the Kilauea Visitor’s Center, where Ian, who was filling a bit cold, almost immediately parked himself in front of Pele’s fireplace. Maya, who abhors the smell of fire, gave the fireplace a wide berth and went outside to look at the Halema’uma’u crater (the caldera of the Kilauea volcano), which honestly didn’t smell a whole lot better.

The caldera looks quite a bit different than when we last saw it in 2008. The big eruption in 2018 drained some 1 billion cubic yards of lava from within the volcano. The loss in pressure and structure allowed the summit to collapse. Signage at the Visitor’s Center said that Halema’uma’u crater sunk 1,600 feet down, which is particularly impressive given that Kilauea’s elevation is around 4,000 feet.

We started our exploration by letting the kids check out one of the steam vents. There’s a whole trail that takes you to additional vents, but the one right in the parking area suited us just fine as a novelty. Ground water seeps over magma-heated rocks, and it evaporates into steam. It was pretty brisk outside, but leaning over the steam vent, we’d be hit with little bursts of hot moist air, occasionally almost uncomfortably hot. It was pretty wild.

Next we visited the Thurston Lava Tube (known as Nahuku in Hawaiian). Lava carves a path through the landscape (as things do when they’re more than 2000 degrees Fahrenheit), but the slower moving exterior edges of the lava flow can harden and form a sort of crust. Eventually that crust builds up and joins at the top, creating a tube. Even after the lava drains away, the tube remains. And we could actually hike through the Thurston Lava Tube.

The dining options inside the park weren’t really thrilling us, so we drove to the nearby town of Volcano and ate at the Tuk Tuk Thai Food Truck instead. While there is no seating around the truck itself, the extremely nice lady working at the truck gave us directions to a park where we could sit and eat our lunch. The kids had hot and sour soup. We all shared some egg rolls, and Sean and I had a big steaming pile of pad kee mao (drunken noodles). It was such a delicious and soul warming treat.

After our late lunch, we decided to drive down Chain of Craters road. We wanted to show the kids the sea arch, and we wanted them to see how the road just ends because lava rock has overtaken it.

We parked the car and had a fine time taking a look at the Holei Sea Arch from the overlook. The lava rock is younger and more stark in this part of Hawaii, and it was interesting to see the beautiful deep blue water crash endlessly into the jagged black rock. Indeed, it was pointed out that the sea arch won’t last forever. With the constant attack of the ocean waves, it will eventually collapse too.

We started walking down the road to see where the lava rock crossed over. We walked till the black desolation stretched to either side of us and then walked some more. The kids spent some time clambering around the jagged fields of lava rock, admiring the different iridescent colors that shimmered in the sun.

The air temperature was not hot, maybe 85 degrees, but that sun is so incredibly direct that we were all cooking by this point. And that’s about when we noticed the sign advertising the evacuation route. Maybe as a result of the big 2018 eruption, the lava-blocked road had been cleared.

I had been wanting to walk the Kilauea Iki trail, but we were running out of time and energy. The sun sets pretty early here, and the restaurants don’t tend to linger late either. What’s cool about this trail though is that you get to hike down into a now dormant volcanic caldera. Kilauea Iki means “Little Kilauea” in Hawaiian, and that’s kinda what it looks like on the map – a little caldera to the east of the big Kilauea caldera. (Oh, and hey, I just saw in my trail guide that Kilauea means “spewing” in Hawaiian, which is what happened in Kilauea Iki in 1959.)

I wish we had more time to enjoy the trail, but what we did see what fascinating. Were we ever to find ourselves there again, I might make sure we had more time to do this hike properly. As it was, at 6p, the sun was rapidly dropping, and it was so late (not really) when we got back into town, that nothing was open except McDonalds.

Day 12 – Wandering, Last-minute Shopping, Heading Home

We actually took it relatively easy today. Sean and I (mostly Sean) packed our bags for the return trip that evening, and I wandered the kids down for one last swim in that glorious pool with its glorious slide.

Over the past several days, we kept seeing small brown creatures romping through the parking lot or poking around in the hotel lawns. They were squirrel-ish but much too large to be that and they moved differently too. We finally looked them up – they are mongooses! (Yes, that is the correct plural form.) They were introduced in the 1880s to help control rats in the sugarcane fields. That may have been well and good then, but now they are considered invasive. The problem is that they eat lots of other things too, including endangered birds and the eggs and hatchlings of endangered sea turtles.

After we loaded up the car and bid our hotel farewell, we headed north to try out Kohala Burger for lunch. I think only Sean had an actual burger, but regardless, the food was solid and service was nice and relaxed. For the first time during this giant long time in Hawaii, we had either Dole Whip (pineapple ice cream) or fancy drinks made with Dole Whip. I love that stuff, and outside of Disney World, the only place I’ve had it is in Hawaii.

On our way back south, we stopped to see the Pu’ukohola Heiau National Historic Site. A heiau is kind of a temple or place of worship. This particular heiau is one of the last to have been built (1790-91) before outside influences impacted traditional Hawaiian ways.

After learning about the social / political structure of the early Hawaiians, with the chiefs and priests and so on, and learning about people being put to death for breaking kapu, or for ruling land another chief wanted, and after seeing their various weaponry back at the Bishop Museum, Maya, while sitting under a shade tree at the Heiau site, said, “I’ll never think of Hawaiians as easygoing beach people again.”

Because we’d been so busy, we really didn’t manage to squeeze in much wandering and shopping since back on Oahu when we were hanging out in Chinatown. In the Waikaloa Village area, we stopped in at Reyn Spooner to search for proper Hawaiian shirts. It took a while to try everything on and make selections (I actually held out and found one I liked at Kahala instead, which I ordered after we were back home), so the kids were jonesing for a treat by then – one last shave ice, pleeeeeeeeese?

The nice fellow working at Reyn Spooner sent us over to Original Big Island Shave Ice Co. While the line for the place was lengthy, the texture of the shave ice was the best we’d had so far during this trip.

We took a little walk around the shopping center after this popping into stores as the urge hit us, buying a few little take-home treats here and there. Somewhere in our wandering, we saw a little display with different types of solidified lava and explanations for how it was formed. We saw the usual pahoehoe form that hardens from slow-flowing lava and looks (to me) like brownie batter. And there was the counterexample to the pahoehoe, a’a, which is loose and jaggedy and is created from faster moving flows. We also saw a terrifying thing called a volcanic bomb (which we had learned about yesterday as well during our Kilauea Iki hike). Globs of lava fly into the air and cool to solidification on the way back down. We saw one I hadn’t heard of before called Pele’s Hair. These are long strands that occur when lava is thrown into the air and stretched out by the wind.

On our way back down to Kailua Kona, we stopped in for one last long look at the weird dark black lava rock meets blue ocean water vistas around us. The kids chilled out in the car for a little whiel while we soaked up the last bit of Hawaii before we had to leave. We saw a few bikers come and go. Watched some folks who’d rented jeeps – probably to get to the top of Mauna Kea – take some photos and move on. And finally it was time for us to leave too. Sigh.

We filled up the rental car and headed back to the airport. The Kona airport is kind of an open air marvel. This is our second time through this airport, and I still wonder what happens if it rains. We were “late” in the evening, so of course it was hard to find food places that were open and when they were open, that hadn’t run out of food. We managed to get dinner in and get to our gate with plenty of time to spare.

It’s sort of a weird experience walking out across the tarmac to get to your airplane, but I like it (again, we haven’t encountered rain yet – might be different then). We boarded our plane, started to taxi out to the runway, and then sat and waited for what felt like forever. They let us know there was a medical situation and that over the Pacific Ocean wasn’t the best place for that to escalate, so they taxied back to the gate and we waited a while longer for a person or people to be escorted from the plane. And it sounded like there may have been some clean up required as well. From where we were sitting, the details were a little vague. Probably that’s a good thing.

As it was, by the time we left, we were probably two hours later than our original takeoff time. We were going to have had a 75 minute layover at LAX, but of course, that ship had sailed. However, on our Delta flight, we were able to use the onboard wifi for free (I can’t remember if this was available to all or if you had to be part of their frequent flier program), and so when our flight was irreparably delayed and we were definitely not making our connection, they rebooked us on the next available flight out of LAX and we simply had to confirm that change via their app. This all happened without us having to hustle to find a gate agent or desk agent who, in our past experience, have varying levels of interest in helping you.

We had plenty of time for breakfast, and so we did. And our flight from LAX to Austin went without a hitch. Our luggage made the flight change with us, so we were able to get home without further incident. And since we arrived home on a Saturday, we still had one more day to clean up and decompress a little before we started back to work.

We had an outstanding trip. Sean especially did a ton of planning, and other than suffering for not getting to do everything he had intended, I think the plan served us well. Were we to do another trip like this, rather than cramming three islands into just under two weeks, I think we’d visit no more than one island per week. The other thing we’d like to figure out is how to streamline our beach-going. The getting from car to ocean and from ocean to car wound up being a far lengthier process than it seemed like it should be. We’ve managed to extend the aloha a little longer by cooking some Hawaiian things, reading books set in Hawaii, and writing up these travel notes. The kids still grumble about the big hike, but they tell me they loved the trip too. It may not be Maine or Iceland, but I guess it’ll do.

Day 5 – Arrival in Kauai, Kilauea Lighthouse, Hanalei Town

After a flight that took less than an hour, we descended into absolute paradise. This is saying something given that we’d just spent several days on Oahu, which is no slouch in the gorgeous scenery department. We loaded into our rental car, and much to the kids’ delight, a nice family who was leaving the island that day gifted us with a boogie board that they couldn’t pack along on their flight.

We had a later reservation at Kilauea Lighthouse and needed to kill about a half hour. We stopped by for a few quick photos a Wailua Falls to pass the time. There is a lookout to these falls almost directly from the parking lot, which I was personally delighted about. After yesterday’s hike, my hamstring was still aching, so a quick walk from the car to the 140-foot waterfall sounded just about right for us.

By the time we finished there, we were actually in danger of being late for our lighthouse reservation, but we needn’t have worried. When we arrived at Kilauea Lighthouse, there was a huge line to enter. We wound up stuck in this line for probably 20-30 minutes before we finally got to park.

Kilauea Point is actually a national wildlife refuge, providing protection for vast quantities of seabirds. As we wandered the grounds, the movement in the air was nearly constant as birds fished the ocean below. Sean had his big camera out, trying to catch the action as the birds endlessly soared and swooped. We spotted, among other things, red-tailed tropicbirds, white-tailed tropicbirds, red-footed boobies, and great frigatebirds. Plus, a helpful employee pointed out a nesting wedge-tailed shearwater hanging out near the visitor’s center.

And Kilauea Point, the lighthouse on the grounds, was lovely as well. The Daniel K. Inouye Kilauea Point Lighthouse was built in 1912 and dedicated in 1913. Interesting note – there was no road serving the lighthouse till 1927 so needed supplies were brought in by boat until that time.

As is our habit, we were now behind the schedule Sean had made, but we soldiered on regardless. We made a quick stop to check out the Hanalei Valley overlook. Imagine a lush green farmed valley that supports taro fields with those abrupt volcanic mountains as a backdrop. I saw some rainy-season photos online that showed waterfalls cascading down the mountains. We didn’t see that, but it was gorgeous nonetheless.

We had a delightful lunch at Hanalei Gourmet. I don’t remember what anyone else ate, but I had some really excellent fish tacos. We took the kids over to the Holey Grail food truck to try out some doughnuts. As they ate, we got to watch a hen show her passel of chicks how to scratch back the dirt and search for bugs and worms.

We had intended to visit Tunnels Beach next. We had heard snorkeling there was great and that green sea turtles were often spotted there. A co-worker had raved about the density of parrotfish around that beach.

Alas, by the time we arrived, figured out where to park, rooted through multiple suitcases multiple times to gather towels, swim suits, goggles, and snorkel gear, and finally got changed, it was late and everyone was frustrated. No one wanted to walk the extra 15 minutes over sandy beach to get to Tunnels, so we played at Ha’ena Beach instead. The kids made ample use of the gifted boogie board, and Sean managed to do a little bit of low-key snorkeling at this beach as well. I ferried kids to and from the bathroom multiple times, but still managed to play in the water a little as well.

As I recall, we had intended to make reservations for our dinner destination that night, Ama, but that even as early as Sean was, they were all gone by the time he checked. Luckily, they set aside some seating for walk-ins. We wandered in, fresh from the beach, and they seated us right away.

Maya and Ian ordered interesting mocktails. Mom and Dad ordered interesting cocktails, Sean continuing his survey of Hawaiian mai tais. We split an appetizer of seared Brussels sprouts that all four Woodses absolutely loved. The thing to order here are ramen bowls, and they are indeed delicious. The kids both love love love ramen, and so they were pretty excited about this restaurant. All of our noodle bowls were really well prepared, but Maya was the big winner with her laksa, which she kindly let us try. It was so flavorful!

As good as the food was, the scenery was even better. At least where we were seated, the back of the restaurant is open to the outside. From our table, we could look out back and drink in the views of jewel-green Kauai mountains. It was such a relaxing way to end a day that had started so, so early.

And after all that, we finally found our hotel and checked in! The kids were delighted with the hotel’s open-air front desk and lobby area. Little birds would sometimes sneak in and the breeze was soft and pleasant.

Day 6 – Hanapepe Swinging Bridge, Waimea Canyon, Na Pali Coast Cruise

We got up early enough to see our first sight before having breakfast. We passed through the quiet town of Hanapepe and stopped just long enough to see their famous swinging bridge. It’s a pedestrian suspension bridge over the Hanapepe River. It was interesting, if a bit unnerving, to walk across this bridge with its swaying walkway and its twanging metal cables.

We stopped at Aloha Sweet Delites for breakfast pastries. After carefully choosing from a well-stocked case, we ate breakfast in the car. My pineapple fritter was moist on the inside and crispy on the outside and very flavorful. Sean enjoyed these tiny little coconut custard filled doughnuts.

We spent the rest of our morning puttering around in Waimea Canyon. In deference to the huge hike we had planned for the next day, we tried to contain our visit to short walks and pullouts to scenic overlooks.

The Red Dirt Waterfall wasn’t particularly spectacular, but it was fun to clamber around on the red dirt and take in the surroundings. Ian in particular could range far and wide and run into very little trouble. The red dirt comes from the iron rich basalt oxidizing over time. I was just reading that apparently Waimea means “red water” in Hawaiian, and the famous Hawaiian red salt gets is color from oxidized basalt as well.

The Waimea Canyon Lookout was incredible. They call Waimea Canyon the Grand Canyon of the Pacific, and to a certain extent, I can see why. The canyon is up to 2500 feet deep, about a mile and a half wide, and over 13 miles long. The porous volcanic rock has weathered in a stark and craggy way, exposing layers of often brightly colored rock. The abundant rainfall means the green does its level best to take over, providing a bright contrast to the grays and browns and reds. The main artery is the Waimea River, but there are side streams and canyons as well.

The Pu’u Hinahina lookout gives you an alternate viewpoint on the canyon, sort of a ‘down the canyon’ view as opposed to an ‘across the canyon’ view from the first lookout. The Kalalau lookout faces out to the ocean in the Kalalau valley along the Na Pali coast. The tall cliffs loom next to impossibly blue water. Especially if you will see Na Pali no other way, this view is not to be missed.

We thought we might have time for one more small walk on our way back to town. We had read about a ten minute walk along the Cliff Trail that got you another pretty view of the canyon. What had been left out of that description was the high-clearance vehicle road you had to walk down (if you lacked a high clearance vehicle) to get to the start of that ten minutes. The view of the canyon from the opposite side was indeed lovely, but our twenty minute stroll wound up costing a lot more time and energy than anticipated. And that’s the story of how we ate McDonalds for lunch instead of Kauai Brewing Company.

We had to arrive on time for our big deal boat trip. We were going to see the Na Pali coast and enjoy dinner and a sunset on the ocean. We checked into our Holo Holo Na Pali coast boat ride and walked down to the dock. We left our shoes in a little cubby and boarded the boat barefoot. It turns out that traction and balance are easier if you aren’t wearing shoes. Fine by me!

After a safety briefing, we were on our way. They told us the closer we stood to the front of the boat, the more sea spray we would feel. Maya’s eyes lit up with delight. Ian wanted to stay in the back. In fact, poor dude was apparently not feeling too well, and he went into the cabin part of the boat, laid down on a cushion, and had a little nap. Our theory is that the Dramamine I insisted we all take was making him feel drowsy. Luckily, he emerged and seemed to enjoy the snacks and the ginger candy if nothing else. (I think he liked the boat ride some too.)

Toward the beginning of the ride, we saw the island of Ni’ihau, except we didn’t know at the time exactly what we were looking at, so Maya asked the captain the name of the land mass we were seeing. After he told her, she grinned and insisted on calling in “meow” instead. Ni’ihau is interesting because it’s owned by the Robinson family so you really can’t visit it without permission or as part of a special tour (for which I’m sure someone needed permission). Evidently they’ve owned it since 1800 when a great-great-grandmother bought it from King Kamehameha V. The visitation restriction allows the Robinsons to preserve the island’s culture and natural beauty.

On our way to the Na Pali coast, Maya spotted flying fish several times. At one point, Hawaii spinner dolphins joined us, leaping out of the water and playing in the boat’s wake. As we passed the actual Na Pali cliffs (pali means cliffs in Hawaiian, so I’m saying the cliffs cliffs and it’s bugging me), we spotted several mountain goats and a few brave hikers. Along the way we saw tons of rugged coastline, several magnificent waterfalls, and some interesting sea caves.

We were on a sailboat, so we couldn’t venture into any of these caves. The notion was that we’d sail back after seeing the cliffs, but the wind was not in our favor. No worries though; I think we were able to go a little further along the coast since our return trip by motor would be a bit faster.

We were served drinks, snacks, dinner, and dessert, and a champagne toast to celebrate the sunset. The ride back to the dock was particularly bouncy, and Maya insisted on being up where the action was. And she wanted company. She and I were soaked through by the time all was said and done. The experience was amazing though. We took so many pictures, and I’m not sure any of them could really capture what it was like to be on the water with those massive cliffs towering over you. It was one of my favorite experiences of the trip.

That evening, Sean and I managed to get through about 2/3 of our accumulated laundry. Unfortunately, this meant that we were in bed somewhere around midnight. It wasn’t optimal for the big day ahead of us tomorrow, but today had been so spectacular, I’m not sure either of us cared.

Day 7 – Hanakapi’ai Falls Hike, Culinary Wonders of Foodland

When we had first picked up our rental car at the airport a couple days ago, the nice man helping us warned us about the lack of cell coverage on the island and that we should make sure we have a physical map. The one he gave us was pretty basic, but by and large, our route along the eastern and northern part of Kauai was the Kuhio Highway. If we ever found ourselves a bit off the beaten path and our cell coverage was no more, if we found our way back to the Kuhio Highway, we were in good shape. I had taken to calling it, The Road.

Well, The Road abruptly ended at our hiking adventure for today. Kuhio Highway essentially ends where the Kalalau trail begins. And we couldn’t even drive to the end ourselves; we would be taking a shuttle bus to Ha’ena State Park and heading to Hanakapi’ai Falls via that Kalalau trail.

This adventure actually started a month ahead of time, when Sean tried waking up early enough to be online at 5:00 in the morning (midnight Hawaii time) to make parking reservations at the actual state park. Alas, though he got up early, they were gone in milliseconds, and so we were left with no choice but to pay (overpay) for the parking shuttle.

Before our scheduled shuttle time at 7:40, we got ourselves packed with hiking essentials and drove to a nearby Foodland to pick up pastries for breakfast and sandwiches for a mid-hike lunch. We got to our shuttle parking in plenty of time and had about a 20 minute ride from the shuttle pickup point to the park. And then we had another five or so minutes of walking to get to our trailhead. This walk took us past some demonstration gardens and a turn off to go to Ke’e beach.

This hike is, to put it mildly, challenging, especially for sedentary office types and their elementary school aged kids. We waxed and waned on whether we should give over an entire day to this endeavor, but ultimately, Sean and I decided that we weren’t getting any younger and if we were going to attempt this hike, we better do it now.

The hike starts with 2 miles along the Kalalau Trail. This trail moves along the Na Pali coast so there are plenty of uphills and downhills along fluted cliffs rife with vigorous tropical foliage and gorgeous ocean vistas. Then, you turn inland for two more miles hiking up the valley to the Hanakai’ai Falls. The falls are roughly 300 feet tall, and the really fun thing is that you can swim at the base of them. And then you reverse that and hike the four miles back out again.

Eight miles doesn’t sound too bad to seasoned hikers, but these are tough miles. By some reports, your total elevation gain is in the vicinity of 2500 feet. Once you turn to the falls trail, it becomes unmaintained. There are stream crossings and rock scrambles to negotiate, and all of this gets harder as you grow more tired.

Somewhere along that first two miles, the kids saw a centipede. Apparently it scared the tar out of Ian, and all Maya could talk about seemingly forever was keeping on the lookout for another centipede. I think the hike was half dead to her by this point. For me, one of the weirdly pleasant things about the hike, other than the insane vistas, was the aroma of fallen lilikoi. At a few places along the route, there must have been passionfruit vines, because there’d be lilikoi fruit in various states of broken and squashed, and they filled the air with their delicate perfume.

We negotiated our first stream crossing right before the turn off to the falls trail. In wet season, I think it’s considered a fording situation, but we were able to “rock hop” our way across. All of that sounds innocent enough, but this is a large stream and the rocks we were hopping were often large boulders. Plus, we had one kid who was way too confident and another who was not confident enough. I am not a creature of grace on a good day. Add to that a bad back (which can make my balance poor) and the concern over the kids, and I had a really hard time with most of the crossings. Everyone made it across the first stream with their feet dry except for me. Luckily I could wring out my wool socks and have them be mostly wearable, but I would not recommend being 2 miles into an 8 mile hike and getting your socks wet.

We spent a little dab of time having snacks and seeing the Hanakapi’ai Beach. After that, as we ascended the valley toward the falls, the trail of course became much more difficult. We negotiated several more stream crossings on our way up. Sean managed to rock hop all of them. There was one that I just walked through barefoot, hiking boots tied together with a butcher’s knot and slung over my neck. The trail ended with a fairly difficult rock scramble, though maybe it would have been easier had we not just hiked four miles.

The Hanakapi’ai Falls themselves were gorgeous. Unfortunately, they were also very, very cold. After we sat and had our sandwiches and cleaned up, Ian put a toe in the water and noped out with a quickness. Sean and Maya wanted to swim under the falls, and they did briefly, but Sean said his muscles kind of seized up, and it became hard to move. I think backstroke was his savior on that one. Poor Maya, the one saving grace for this bullshit hike her parents drug her on was swimming in that waterfall, and then it was too cold to really relax and enjoy.

For my part, I got in to about knee-height to refresh my feet and try to take photos of my intrepid swimmers. During all this, Ian puttered around on the bank, looking around for neat rocks.

Because it had taken us so long to get to that point (it was around 2:00 in the afternoon when we finished up at the falls) that we didn’t really have a lot of time to swim. This is probably okay since the water was so cold anyway. But the last shuttle left at 6:40, so we would have to make better time on the way out.

That walk back was physically and mentally hard for all of us. The big payout had happened, so for Maya especially, there was not much to look forward to other than being done. Even Ian who is usually a bundle of energy and genuinely seems to like hiking was sick of it. For my part, if I’m trying to work through something that’s physically hard for me, hearing other people’s complaining is a huge, huge drain, so I was really struggling by the end. We stopped halfway through and had an afternoon snack and everyone forced smiles for the photos. We rolled into the pick up spot in time to make the 6:00 shuttle.

We stopped by Foodland again on our way home from the park and loaded up on drinks, pie, treats, sushi, and poke to have for dinner back at the hotel. It was an excellent and well-deserved feast after a very hard day. And then, Sean and I finished the rest of our laundry.

Was the big hike worth it? I think the answer is yes. The scenery was spectacular and at least 50% of the Woodses got to play in the big waterfall. I have a thumb injury that even in late September is still bothering me. Thanks to my wet socks, I have three toe nails that are eventually going to go (which has never happened to me on a hike before; I’m meticulous about foot care). Maya and Ian may never hike with us again. But, no one can take away the fact that we did it. We completed the challenging hike and saw all the pretty things. And as of this writing (late September), apparently the trail and campgrounds are closed due to a norovirus outbreak (yuck). So hey, at least *that* didn’t happen to us.

Day 8 – Puka Dog, Koloa Rum, Flight to the Big Island

Because everyone had worked so hard the day before, we rejiggered our plans so we could pack at a leisurely pace and let the kids have some pool time before we had to check out of our hotel. While at the pool, the kids found another family to bestow the gifted boogie board upon, so we didn’t even have to deal with carting that around.

We went back to Puka Dog afterward to fulfill Sean’s desire to have the much-loved treat from our 2008 trip again. Back then, there was one in Waikiki, but in researching for this trip, Sean discovered the only remaining location was on Kauai, near Poipu Beach park. (I looked around a little bit just now. Apparently the husband-wife founders of Puka Dog divorced and the Missus got the Oahu stores, which she was required to rename “Hula Dog.”) A puka dog is unique in that the bun fully encloses the hot dog or polish sausage. The way the central hole is created is for the bun to be stabbed onto a metal spike that toasts the interior. They have lovely sauces and relishes and you truly can customize it to your preferences.

Poipu Beach is likewise gorgeous. Once we collected our lunch order, we walked over to some picnic tables closer to the water to enjoy our puka dogs with salt breeze in our hair. The food was good, but Maya and Ian’s favorite part was that they met a hen and her chicks as they wandered unafraid amongst the picnic tables, seeking out crumbs. The kids even managed to briefly and gently hold the little chicks, which tickled them to no end. Mama hen didn’t even seem to mind that much. Maybe she was happy for the break.

After this, we walked the beach a bit, but I think everyone was too tired to bother about swimming. And then it was time to head to Koloa Rum for our 1:00 tasting. The kids again hung out in the car, puttering with their screens, excited to have the extra screen time.

We started our tasting with a small mai tai on which we floated their dark rum. We sampled their silver, dark, gold, coconut, and cacao rums. They were all good (except the coconut one was too sweet for me); we thought we might seek out the cacao one when we were back in Austin, but I don’t think we’ve done so yet.

There wasn’t a ton of time before our flight to the Big Island, so we spent the next little while just puttering around lovely Kauai, soaking up the last bit of its pretty mountains and greenery. The Lihue airport is tiny. Other than having nowhere for us to refill our water bottles, our flight was uneventful.

We struggled mightily with our big summer vacation this year. First we were planning to go to Boston and up into Maine. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get reservations for the puffin visiting boat tour I had my heart set on. Ok fine, you know where else we can see puffins? Iceland. We were a goodly way into thinking this was going to be the trip for us when we realized that everyone else had gotten their accommodation booked well ahead of us and there just weren’t many options left. We waffled for a bit, but Sean eventually talked us into Hawaii.

I wasn’t entirely convinced since there are so many places to visit and we had already been to Hawaii, twice. Once in 2008 we went for an excellent trip with Sean’s family to see the Big Island, Maui, and Oahu. Then in 2018, Sean talked us into taking Maya and Ian to the Aulani resort, which is on Oahu. Sean is hardcore Disney, and this is a Disney resort. Plus, Maya was way into Moana at the time, and the kids were young enough to believe they were really meeting the characters. Eventually, I relented and we started trip planning as quickly as we could.

There wasn’t a ton of time to plan, so we wound up using Costco Travel to book the hotels and inter-island flights. I didn’t examine our options the way Sean did, but he seemed satisfied with the process and the outcome.

We were sweating it leading up to the trip. Lolli and Pop had sent us home early from our Alabama visit in hopes of us avoiding whatever illness they had picked up, but it seemed like everyone had varying degrees of not-quite-right as our departure time approached.

We were almost entirely packed by the Sunday before our Monday morning flight, but had been slowly gathering gear for a couple weeks. We had plans for snorkeling, hiking, swimming, and photography, all things that require some specialized gear. And all that gear wound up consuming a LOT of space. In fact, because we wanted to take our trekking poles, we wound up buying a bigger suitcase. As we zipped up our bags, we worried about trunk space in the average rental car. It was going to be tight.

Day 1 – Flight, Monkeypod, Waikiki Beach

We scored a direct flight on Hawaiian Air from Austin to Honolulu. We managed to get out the door on time, and the airport was a normal level of busy, so we had no trouble catching the flight. We were amused to notice that instead of gate 13, there was a gate marked with an infinity symbol. Apparently it’s an interactive art installation called “Interimaginary Departures” and it’s been there since 2021. We’ve just not noticed before now. Next time we have spare airport time, we’ll have to examine it in more detail.

The flight was long but uneventful. We landed a little after 1p local time, but didn’t secure our bags till well after 2p. A nice lady arranged via Costco Travel plied all of us with beautiful, fresh flower leis and showed us to the shuttle bus that would eventually deposit us and our massive luggage at the hotel. Since we were the very last stop on the route, we didn’t get checked in till around 3p.

We were determined to plow through the jet lag, so we immediately headed out to wander along the street by Waikiki Beach on our way to Monkeypod for happy hour. We were all looking a little careworn and scruffy, but they still plunked us right at a prime table. We had a lovely view of the ocean, had ready access to the bar, and were delighted to find we were near a very talented live musician.

Sean and I of course had the famous Monkeypod Mai Tais, complete with a lovely dollop of lilikoi foam. The kids had mocktails, and we all split some snacks as well. We watched the waves coming in on the ocean, sipped our drinks, and listened to the gentle guitar and effortlessly yearning voice of our musician as he belted out his own rendition of radio classics through the ages. We were all sort of in low power mode, listening to the man sing, when I hear “Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down …” I couldn’t help laughing out loud and poking the kids. We came all the way to an oceanside bar in Oahu … to get Rick-rolled.

Suitably happy-houred, we headed back to the hotel to change into bathing suits and go play in the waves at the nearby beach. Maya was sad that thanks to a wave-break wall shielding a large portion of Waikiki beach, she wouldn’t be getting pummeled with waves. So she was extra thrilled to find that the wall ended just about where we accessed the beach from our hotel. That kid loves to let the waves crash against her, often diving headlong into them. Even Ian was diving into them with her.

After a post-beach shower, I could very happily have gone to sleep. The kids insisted they were hungry though and needed dinner. We got ourselves seated at Maui Brewing Co maybe a little after 8p. Keep in mind that to our internal clocks, this felt like 1:00 in the morning, and we’d been going all day. Dinner was fine, but by the end poor Ian had more or less fallen asleep sitting upright at the table. And even Maya confessed to being tired.

Day 2 – Daimond Head, Ko Hana, Stand-up Paddleboarding, Shark’s Cove

We didn’t rent a car for the full time we were on Oahu because so much of the stuff we wanted to see was in town and because parking at our hotel was really expensive. So for this, our North Shore day, Sean left the hotel room early to fetch a rental car from a place called Sixt. My job was to corral our children and all of our stuff for the day out of the hotel room and down to the street so he could scoop us up without having to find anywhere to park.

After loading up the car, we headed straight for Rainbow Drive-In for breakfast. At the advice of someone in line, Sean wound up ordering the Portuguese sausage fried rice and eggs and holy wow was it good. The rest of us did ok, but I think this is the kind of place where you have to order a few things a few different ways to dial in your preferences. Maya was supremely irritated that there were signs everywhere forbidding her from feeding the avian left that clearly flocked to the place in search of a handout. Ian had a myna bird straight up try to steal the waffle from his plate. Later on that myna bird plopped himself on the bench between Maya and Ian, patiently waiting for scraps.

After breakfast, we headed out for our scheduled access to Diamond Head. I don’t remember us having to schedule everything ahead of time back in 2008. We’re wondering if this is a holdover from the pandemic, or if it’s meant as an antidote to overcrowding, or maybe both. I had the QR code for the reservation pulled up on my phone, having made it a couple weeks earlier. Sean handed it over to the guy checking reservations as we drove in, and he said something like, “this is all good, but you have the wrong day.” Every ounce of the paranoia at my middle-aged brain not performing as expected – a paranoia that has been steadily increasing over the past months – washed over me in a wave of disappointment, self-doubt, and a smidge of self-loathing. I could totally believe that I had screwed that up. He didn’t let me suffer for more than a beat though before he grinned and said he was just kidding. We were good to go.

It had been raining to varying degrees all morning and we were a little worried for our hike (the reservation was for a two hour block, but you had to arrive for your pre-paid parking in the first 30 minutes of that block). Luckily, we didn’t wait in the parking lot for more than a few minutes before it had cleared up enough to start the hike.

It was a little muddy and slippery and there was some kerfuffle over which kid should be in the lead. And there were a LOT of people. Overall though, it was a very pleasant, if sweaty hike. The views of Waikiki and Honolulu from the top of the crater were spectacular. Also around the top you could see various World War II era bunkers and peer down at the Diamond Head Lighthouse.

Sean and I wanted to try a rum tasting at the Ko Hana rum distillery on our way to the North Shore. We let the kids hang out in the car and play on screens, since they were too young to enter. The day was overcast, and they were delighted with the extra screen time.

We shared an aged flight and a classic flight. The aged flight offered tastes of their Koho aged rum, their Koa which is aged in Koa wood, their Kila cask strength, and their Kokoleka cacao and honey rum, which we had picked up as well during our 2018 trip to Oahu, when the distillery was still known as Manulele Distillers. These were all delicious to be sure. My classic flight offered something we hadn’t really experienced before. The Koho and Kokoleka were the same as with the aged flight, but we also tried two different versions of the Kea (white) rum.

Many varieties of sugarcane are grown for Ko Hana’s rum production (the Ko in their name means “sugarcane” in Hawaiian), and these two white rums were distilled from different varieties of sugar cane to produce two different “expressions” of their Kea / white rum. Our tasting guide, on hearing that we strongly preferred one to the other, also let us know that the one we liked better had been pot-stilled instead of column-stilled. (She also, on hearing us natter on and on about the flavors and different distilling processes, let us try a bit of a special high-proof release of their white rum that was absolutely fabulous, so much so that we purchased a bottle.)

We had lunch at Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck. The trailer park it was in was cuh-razy crowded and it took a while to even get our shrimp ordered. In the mean time, Ian needed the rest room, and those can be tricky to come by. Luckily, the trailer park must have worked something out with a nearby shop owner to allow patrons of the various restaurants to use their facilities.

Eventually, we got back from our trek to the bathroom, secured ourselves a picnic table (no easy feat) and laid waste to some excellent piles of garlicky, buttery shrimp served alongside plain white rice. It was messy, it was crowded, it was loud. And it was so, so good. Plus, even with the throngs of people, we still managed to be visited by a handful of meandering chickens, much to the kids’ delight. (I think it was here that we even saw a duck family waddling through.) I swear I don’t recall the chickens being quite so … populous last time we were here.

We had a little time to kill before our next scheduled outing, so we thought we’d try to sneak in a little snorkeling. After being confronted with three completely full beach parking lots, we gave up and arrived early for our family stand-up paddle board lesson. It worked out fine though because 1 – it wasn’t super duper clear where we were to meet our instructor for our lesson and 2 – she was prepared to start early anyway if we liked.

We spent a bit of time on the beach learning how to get up on our boards and how to stand. Then, one by one, she let us try it out. Everyone managed to stand up and paddle at least a little bit, except me. It’s frustrating because I really only got one try at it, and when it comes to physical stuff, I am just not a natural. But, I’m determined (stubborn?), and I would have gotten it if I’d been able to try a bit longer. Alas, most of our lesson time was actually consumed by a scenic paddle up the ‘Anahulu River. We all sat comfortably on our paddle boards. Honestly, if you aren’t trying to stand up, they don’t feel tippy at all. If you can paddle a kayak, you can do this.

We got to see sea turtles lounging on the banks of the river. The folks who could comfortably stand up on their boards kept pointing them out swimming through the water as well. I guess from our seated angle, they weren’t as visible. The kids saw lots of crabs scuttling about, as well as a couple of feral cats. Poor Ian apparently saw a huge, hairy spider, which he described at length. As we paddled back out into the bay, Maya had jetted way, way ahead of us and so it was an anxious paddle till we could get back and lay eyes on her and confirm all was well.

After our lesson / tour was over, we decided to give snorkeling another shot. We had gotten some parking advice from our paddle board instructor, and so we’d have a backup plan if the parking lots were full. We made our way to Shark’s Cove. Fear not, its name doesn’t come from the many sharks that make their home here, but instead for a rock formation that is said to resemble a shark.

The area where we snorkeled was sort of like a giant tide pool. It was largely protected by walls of rock, so you didn’t get jerked around by waves. The fish who had wandered in at high tide couldn’t really get out during low tide. Also, they were used to humans, so, as it was described to us, it was like snorkeling in an aquarium.

I personally struggled a little at first because Ian was sick of salt water and didn’t want to do it. He wanted to hang out on shore. Because I’m Mom, I’m the one he comes to a lot of the time with these grievances because I will take care of him, hang out with him, entertain him. Sean helpfully pointed out to me that he was nine years old and could play on shore by himself. And so, with some hesitation, I finally calmed down and let myself enjoy the water.

The light wasn’t great because it was well after 5 by this point, but the water was jam packed with marine life. Schools of big-eyed silver fish would sort of zip back and forth in unison in front of you. Bright yellow fish, weird dark fish with orange protuberances, deeply patterned tang-shaped fish – you really could just stay still and watch the action happening around you. I finally caught on that people sort of float in salt water, and so, even though I don’t really swim, I could comfortably float around and gaze at the creatures and not worry too much. Sean and both the kids are good swimmers, so I could honestly just relax.

We stayed in that water till just shy of sunset. We collected Ian and showered off and got into our dry clothes (a sentence which is easy to type and much less so to execute). Then, on the way to the car, we were treated to an epic multi-hued sunset as well.

We closed out our day the way started it – at Rainbow Drive-In. Sean and I shared a loco moco, Maya had a mahi plate, and Ian had a hot dog and fries.

Day 3 – Chinatown, Bishop Museum, International Market Place

Today we mostly traveled by Uber, Lyft, or our own two feet. We started our day at Kamehameha Bakery. The selection was pretty overwhelming, and there was nowhere to sit, but we managed to enjoy our haul while hanging out in the parking lot. I tried out their specialty: poi doughnuts. Now, I’m gonna be honest. Poi is not something I personally get excited about. It is considered sacred in Hawaiian culture, but to my tongue at least it’s not all that flavorful. Poi doughnuts are a whole ‘nother thing though. The texture is a dream – so moist! And the doughnuts had just the right amount of sweet from the glaze.

The rest of the various pastries were good too, and all of us seemed to enjoy our breakfast. As we were getting ready to head to our next destination, a nice lady in the parking lot stopped us wanting to know how we had found out about this place. She seemed astonished to see tourists there. Maybe she just didn’t want the secret getting out.

We headed to Chinatown next to see about a walking tour that we had read could be arranged through the Hawaii Heritage Center. Everything on their website said walk-ins were welcome, but we seemed to have caught them off guard. My advice would be to call regardless, just to be sure everything’s set.

We learned much more than we would have had we just been wandering around. Our guide taught us a little about Chinese funeral customs, the Chinese zodiac, and the original arrival of Chinese folks in Hawaii as laborers for the sugarcane fields. We visited (among other places) both the Mauna Kea Market and the Oahu Market. We got to try a variety of small treats – for example, Ian learned that he very much loves fresh lychee. Maya learned that she likes dried shrimp chow fun. We ate so much that we wound up skipping lunch.

After seeing a dragon mural in the street, our guide explained to us that before the dragon comes to dance at a festival, you must first wake up it up. I read a little bit about it later and there’s a whole unique ritual around waking the dragon before it can dance involving spoken words and brushing the dragon with real or imagined water. The eyes are often left covered until it is properly awakened, and then the covering is removed and the dancers begin.

Maya had learned a little about Chinese language and culture in her fourth grade year (Ian is learning about it this school year), and so she was particularly engaged. She kept her eye out for moon gates and could pick out which of the lion statues guarding Chinatown was the female and which was the male based on what they were holding.

From there we took a walk to see the exterior of the Iolani Palace. This is the only official royal residence in the United States. We thought the kids would only have stamina for one museum type experience, especially after the cultural walking tour this morning, so we confined our visiting to the palace and the iconic King Kamehameha statue in front of the Ali-iolani Hale government building.

Instead, we took the kids to the Bishop Museum, which is a natural and cultural history museum. The Hawaiian Hall and Pacific Hall were excellent – there was a giant whale dangling from the ceiling and so many interesting artifacts to examine. It wasn’t all roses though. We were surprised to find that their planetarium show doesn’t run on Wednesdays (this is clear on their website, if you check the right place ahead of time, so I’ll take the hit on that one – the sample itinerary I looked at described it as a “daily planetarium show” so hopefully I can be forgiven).

We were saddened to discover that their lava experience wasn’t operational … and later that their deep sea tank was undergoing renovations. I really enjoyed what we saw and was delighted that the kids are finally reading signs and placards at museums, even if they tell us it’s just to keep from getting bored. Alas though, if we had known about all the things that weren’t available to us, it probably wouldn’t have been worth the price of admission.

From there, we headed to the International Market Place to do a little shopping and admire the huge open-air spaces in the mall. The kids (and adults) lingered outside the cat cafe for a little while – we were already missing our kitties. We found lychee-flavored Ramune sodas at a Japanese market. We sampled soooo many cookies at the Honolulu Cookie Company.

Anchoring the mall is the Banyan Court, which features a huge banyan tree around which the marketplace was constructed. This tree once held Donn Beach’s original treehouse. Apparently back in the day, he lived in and worked out of this treehouse, sharing tiki culture with all comers. There is a treehouse sort of thing there still, paying homage to Mr. Beach.

After finding some rocking chairs and relaxing a bit, we all walked more or less across the street for dinner at Muragame Udon. The line was predictably out the door when we arrived, but it moved along pretty quickly. We ordered our main noodles and then were sent through a sort of cafeteria style line to collect broth and trimmings. Sean and Ian had some tempura as well. Maya tried out a spam musubi, which she discovered she loved. I took a crack at a different sort of noodle bowl – it was called nikutama and it featured a soft boiled egg and sweet, shaved beef. It was a delight.

We headed back and let the kids play at the pool after dinner. Both our hotel room and the pool area had a lovely view of Diamond Head, so Sean and I relaxed on some lawn chairs and let the kids play and play.

Day 4 – Koko Crater, East Coast, Manoa Chocolate, Kailua Beach

Sean again fetched a rental car for today’s adventures (they rented him a BMW 5-series, which I think made him a slightly nervous – we had lots of messy plans for the day). We had intended to start our day at the main location of Leonard’s Bakery for malasadas, but decided the crowd wasn’t going to work for our schedule and tried out one of their parking lot “malasadamobiles” instead. It worked out well enough. The parking lot surroundings weren’t necessarily the most scenic but we had a gentle egret stalking our every move, so that was kind of fun.

Today was our big Koko Crater hike. This hike isn’t particularly long, but there’s a catch. Rather than a series of switchbacks taking you the slow way up the crater, you instead are instead hiking on old tramway tracks in a straight line up the crater wall. (These tracks, now unused, belonged to an incline tram that was used during World War II to haul supplies to a lookout post at the top of the crater.) It was like hiking up stairs for 0.8 miles, 1048 according to online sources. We didn’t count them. Also, the trail is mostly in full sun, and wow were we feeling it. It was brutal both uphill and down, but the views were amazing. My synopsis: I’m glad I did it once, but I don’t need to do it again.

Ian absolutely tore up the trail. He’d jet ahead of us and then sit and wait for us to catch up. Sometimes Maya would jet along with him, sometimes she would hang with us. This was particularly nerve-wracking because there’s a section of track partway up that is a bridge, so it has no ground under it. There’s nothing particularly hard about it as long as you’re careful, but I would hardly accuse our children of being careful.

Later on, as we neared the top of the trail, we heard a couple of guys coming back down the trail good-naturedly discussing the kid at the top of the trail who thought the trail was sooooo easy. I distinctly heard, “that little shit; someday he’ll be old too.” I asked them if it was a boy with long blond hair. Yup. The little shit in question was Ian. Go figure.

The view at the top was spectacular, and we took our time sitting to have a snack, taking photos, and generally resting. The way back down was certainly easier, but not easy. Poor Maya, who is almost obsessively apprehensive about bees and wasps and the like, kept seeing these tiny little wasps. We’d tell her to calm down, just keep walking, those wasps don’t have any interest in her. Welp, sure enough, as she was climbing down a trail to bypass the open tracks of the bridge, one of those wasps had been flying around her legs. It stung her as she was deeply bending her legs to navigate the rocks. She weathered it well and even seemed proud of how well she coped, but I hate that all her terrible fears are now confirmed.

When we read about it, this was described as an hour-long hike. These two middle-aged, sedentary office types spent about three hours all told, including snacks at the top and plenty of lingering for photos and rests. By this point, our idea of a schedule was kind of shot, so we rejiggered. We went first for a post-hike shave ice at a place called Kokonuts. This kids had scoops of ice cream hiding in theirs. Sean had some condensed milk added to his. The flavors were bright and the ice cooled us down, which I think we all needed.

We drove then to Ono Steak and Shrimp, a place Sean was particularly looking forward to trying out, and were dismayed to find that it was closed, in need of gas-line repairs. Instead, we backtracked a little and wound up at Ono Seafood. (In Hawaiian, ono means “good” or “delicious” or is a name for a wahoo fish.) They had poke! In fact, they even had some made with salmon, which Ian prefers over the more traditional tuna. For the second time that day, we ate in a parking lot. (Third probably, if you count the shave ice.)

After lunch, we drove for a while along the scenic coastline, stopping at various lookouts, trying to see if the Halona blowhole was blowing. Either the tide wasn’t quite right for that to happen or we weren’t looking the right direction. Regardless, the views were stunning and it was a nice way to further our resting.

For the kids (read: Sean), we stopped at Manoa Chocolate for a tasting. Bernadette, our tasting guide at KoHana Rum had told us to look for Kai at Manoa. As luck would have it, Kai was our tasting guide at the chocolate factory. As he tells us, he and Bernadette have been sending each other business for years. You could do worse than rum and chocolate, to be sure.

Along with samplings of their various chocolates, we sprung for each of to have a spritz made with pressed cacao juice and water. We also had tea brewed from cocoa nibs as our palate cleanser between chocolate bites. It was a delightful experience. After purchasing way too much chocolate, we wound up going to Kailua Beach so the kids could play in the ocean for a while. I had pulled or stressed on of my hamstrings during that morning’s hike, so I mostly sprawled out on a towel under a shade tree and rested and watched chickens while Sean and the kids played.

After cleaning sand out of every crevice imaginable, we made our way back to Honolulu. At the suggestion of one of our Uber drivers yesterday, we stopped at Helena’s for dinner. Apparently this place has been around since 1946! They serve traditional Hawaiian food, largely a la carte. Like many places, they close quite early, and we snuck in not long before closing. We asked first if it was ok, and they were supremely welcoming. We picked several different things to try. We discovered that lomi lomi salmon has too much other stuff in it for Ian to enjoy the salmon, but kalua pig is excellent. Maya learned that she is fond of chicken long rice … and kalua pig. They are known for their haupia, and I can understand why.

The kids and I hauled all our stuff back up to the room while Sean returned the rental car. We ended our evening with Mai Tais and mocktails at the Royal Hawaiian. The Mai Tai Bar was packed, but they still found us a nice table. The comparison to our more spare surroundings at Helena’s was almost jarring, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Sadly, once we were back at the hotel, we had to get cleaned up and pack. The Woodses were in for an early morning.

Day 5 – Off to Kauai!

We woke up WAY too early to catch to our 5:15a shuttle bus to the airport. Even with multiple stops to collect more people, we were through security more than two hours before our flight departed, bone tired and with limited breakfast options. I think we wound up with Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts that morning. Our flight boarded and departed with no issues.

It’s been so long now, I can’t even remember how July started. Other than Maya’s swim team practices, we had a bit of a camp reprieve at the beginning of the month. So it only made sense that I would get sick.

It started out benignly enough with a little sore throat. Then some congestion was added. My body felt like it does when I have a fever, but I don’t think my temperature got much beyond the 99s. We had bought all the stuff to make a swanky lobster bisque on 4th of July, so I muscled through that, though I mostly just wanted to rest. Then because I didn’t feel well, no one in our house bothered about fireworks. It was a very subdued celebration of our country’s independence.

The next day, I’m not even sure why, I decided to take a COVID test. I haven’t had a test come back as quickly or as affirmatively positive as this one did. I was in the middle of texting Sean to see how long you were supposed to wait for a line to appear when I noticed it rapidly and boldly emerging next to the control line. Thankfully no one in the house got sick. Because COVID wasn’t even really on my radar, I wasn’t being obsessively cautious, and I was under the weather for a few days before it occurred to me to test.

Our month was pretty low key. We watched the movie Chef with the kids, and were inspired to make Cubanos, courtesy of a youtube recipe from Brian Lagerstrom. The pork was divine, and bread was exactly what I want from sandwich bread. The kids were largely content with just pork and bread. Sean and I went in for the whole mustard, cheese, pickle, pressed sandwich thing. It was a good experience.

Ian had been watching a show called, “Is It Cake?” The premise is that these incredibly talented baker/artists make cakes that legit look like real life objects and in a comparison, contestants have to decide which is actually cake. Ian decided that he’d like to try his hand at cake decorating. We started simple with an iced chocolate cake. He has asked to try a confetti cake next.

The weekend of the 14th, Maya had her last of three swim meets on her fun summer league. Her favorite stroke is butterfly, but she’s fastest at backstroke. In fact, if she weren’t so worried about bonking her head on the wall (a real concern, to be sure), she’d be very fast. I hear this backstroke speed is hereditary (her dad).

The next week, both kids had camp. Ian went to a Lorcana camp at the comic book store, which by all accounts he adored. Maya tried out a songwriting camp. She’s musically very talented and competent, but she very much prefers to do things on her own rather than in a group. The group aspect of songwriting camp was going to stretch her a bit, and I think Sean and I were both apprehensive about how well she’d like it. We needn’t have worried. Every day she was excited to go, and when we picked her up, she’d babble endlessly about all the things they had done that day. She’s already planning to go back next summer and has been working on Ian to try it out too.

The evening of the 19th, after camps were all done, we loaded up the car and headed partway to Alabama for Camp Lollipop. Maya and Ian would spend the week hanging out with their grandparents. We would spend the week working from Alabama. It seemed like a good arrangement.

Our hotel in Shreveport had a lot of “character.” The AC didn’t work, the blackout shades didn’t black out, and to top it all off, the coffee machine didn’t work. Oh, also, the clock was wonky – it was always 2:25p, no matter what. We weren’t really there long enough for it to matter much; mostly it was a place for us to sleep a bit, so no big deal.

Lolli and Pop had a dance that Saturday evening, but we managed to roll into Homewood in time to see them a bit before they headed out. After much dithering, we tried a place called Sam’s Deli for dinner. Sean and I loved the dinners we ordered. Their falafel was amazing! The kids were maybe less excited about the chicken fingers they got from there.

On Sunday, we rested, at least in the morning. The kids chose Nothing But Noodles for lunch, and it was on the way there that we learned the startling news that President Biden had dropped out of the 2024 presidential race against Donald Trump and had endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris instead. It’s one of those historic, unprecedented kinds of things that can’t help but dominate the lunch conversation. And the kids seemed to be listening too, because they definitely had questions.

Pop took the Maya and Ian to the pool, much to their delight. If someone would take them to the pool every single day, I think they’d be happy. Our fun event for that evening was to go see the Despicable Me 4 movie at the Grand River Drive-In in nearby Leeds.

They have a really nice set-up there. There’s sort of an attached food court area where you can secure food and drinks from a handful of eateries. We went to fetch the family some dinner to eat during the movie and holy wow were they out of everything the kids might have liked. There was no red sauce for pizza and their fryer was out of service so no french fries. It was tricky finding food the kids would eat, but we more or less managed.

When we got back, the movie was just starting, so we missed a little of the beginning, but no big deal. The kids were there with Lolli and Pop, so they saw it. Our car was a little fussy. To hear the audio, we tuned to a particular FM frequency, but in accessory mode, our car just kind of shut off every so often and our audio had to be re-started. For us at least, it was a little hard to hear unless we were sitting inside the car. If we were to do this more frequently, we’d need to find a good audio solution for chilling out near the car in our lawn chairs. There was definitely plenty of room for us to do that. Still, everyone had a really good time. Gru and the minions are a hoot, as always.

On Monday, Sean and I set up to work, and Lolli and Pop took the kids to the Cook Museum of Natural Science in Decatur for the day. Maya and Ian’s favorite part of that experience was getting to work a mining sluice. They got a sack of mining dirt and sifted off the dirt in the running water to see what sort of gemstones had been hiding in their bag. Ian tells me one of his is an emerald, so that’s pretty exciting. Then, after all that fun, Lolli took them for their obligatory run to the pool.

That evening, the kids chose Okinawa Sushi for dinner. I think Okinawa may be the kids’ most eagerly anticipated meal when they visit Lollipop. They get cool Ramune sodas, excellent sushi, and even miso soup. What’s not to like!

After Okinawa, we went to Big Spoon Creamery for ice cream, mostly at my request. I don’t crave sweets often, but every once in a while, I love a good ice cream. They had a unique variety of flavors. Ian had a basil flavored ice cream that was to die for. Maya, with her coffee affinity had one called caramelatte. I had a corn and blackberry one, and Sean had the peach and bourbon cobbler flavored ice cream.

Pop had been starting to get sickly already on Sunday. By Tuesday, Lolli was well into her illness as well. It was decided that in the best interest of everyone, we should head back home. We worked through the day and then loaded up and headed halfway home that evening, finishing our drive on Wednesday. The drive home was uneventful, though the kids were sad their visit was cut short.

We pass the time on long road trips by listening to audiobooks with the kids. On the way out, we listened to Swindle, by Gordon Korman, which was geared to younger kids. It was maybe a hair boring for the adults, but the kids seemed to enjoy it. On the way back home, we started listening to Divergent, by Veronica Roth. They really seemed to get into this one, so while it may seem a little “old” for a 9- and 11-year-old, for ours it was spot on.

We mostly used our unanticipated extra time at home to try to pack for our big summer vacation ahead of time. We wouldn’t be flying out till Monday the 29th, so for a change, we had time to lay everything out, check and double check that we were remembering necessary items for specific outings, and even purchase a few last-minute things. It was as un-chaotic as packing for a trip has managed to be, since we’ve had kids.

And then we flew to Hawaii.

Right away after we got back from our Missouri road trip, Maya started a six-week summer swim team, and Ian went to art camp. In fact, our entire June was full of swim team every weekday and either one or both kids in camp. Because Sean and I were working also, it wound up being very hectic getting everyone where they needed to go and with all the right stuff every day!

The second week, Maya had art camp and Ian went to bouldering camp (which he adores). Then the next week, they both went to Pokemon camp. And then Maya had a week where she only had daily swim team practice while Ian had basketball camp. Whatever vision of a lazy summer I might have entertained very quickly evaporated with all that running around.

Sean and I took a crack at implementing a few dietary changes this month, which has made meal planning a little more interesting. We’re starting small – trying to only have red meat once a week (and instead trying to eat more seafood). And we’re trying to seriously curtail added sugars in our food. This is a big one for Sean, who has a massive sweet tooth. It didn’t impact me as much, so instead I focused on avoiding school night beers (and their added calories). I’m very proud of my spouse – he’s managing pretty well reducing his sugar intake.

We have had some really great animal action in our yard this month. Mama fox (who we call Foxy Cleopatra) has visited a few more times, but so have her babies! We have seen at least a pair of them playing around back there. The little kits are actually more nervous about visiting the feeder than the big foxes, which I was a little surprised about.

We had a deer sleeping in our front shrub bed for a couple days. That was kind of startling because she was right by the door. The striped skunk visited at least one more time. There are countless birds and squirrels of course, drawn to the various feeders we put out. I hate the heat here, but I love our big-windowed house and its well-traveled backyard.

Mid-month, we went to a sandlot baseball game at The Long Time with the cub scouts. It was pretty hot, and I’m not sure the kids were all that interested in the game, but it was an interesting idea. It would be a neat little venue to watch a game, but it might be more fun once it got dark out.

Sean’s Father’s Day was pretty busy. He and the kids got up nice and early so they could go on a bike ride before it got too hot. Then we got to go watch Maya’s first ever swim meet, during which she did very well. And then finally, we went home, had homemade thin-crust pizza, and opened gifts.

The pizza we made was Brian Lagerstrom’s Tavern Style Chicago Thin Crust Pizza. Sean happened upon his YouTube channel in looking at something else, but quickly found his way to this recipe. We’ve made it several times since, and it’s been a hit every time, so it’s probably part of our regular rotation now.

The next weekend, Ian went bouldering with his friend Damian, and then they had a sleepover! With all the camp running around, it’s been hard to find time and energy to arrange social visits. It’s probably something to keep in mind when we think about structuring things next summer.

That same weekend, Maya participated in a fundraising car wash for her swim team’s end of season party. As a very tall kid, she wound up mostly be in charge of “washing high.” Weirdly, I think she liked the work well enough.

And we closed out the month by meeting friends at Cidercade. I love this place. I can’t remember if I’ve talked about it before, but you pay a flat fee and then everyone plays all the games they want, no quarters or tokens or cards required. You don’t earn points. There is no prize counter. You just go, play games, and if you so desire, drink hard cider and eat pizza. We pay for the kids to have bottomless soda, which delights them. I think on this particular day, we spent maybe 4 hours playing games and eating lunch and catching up. It was the low effort hang out that we needed after a month of camp and swim team craziness.

I thought May would be loaded up with crazy end-of-year stuff, especially with Maya finishing elementary school this year, but I wasn’t prepared for the bonkers nature of getting kids to all the right places while still doing my job that has happened so far in June. And that is how June is over, and I’m trying to reassemble in my brain what transpired in May!

Looking back at my photos, it apparently started with a skunk. We fill a couple feeders with bird seed mix, another with suet, and another with hummingbird nectar. We also have a little ground feeder that we fill with things the squirrels will enjoy (which does very little to alleviate how much time they spend at the bird feeders, in case anyone was curious).

The ground feeder attracts more than just squirrels though. We sometimes see raccoons, the occasional opossum, and sometimes little gray foxes. But for the first time I’m aware of, we had a skunk at the ground feeder. It was early in the morning, probably just before sunrise, so it was pretty dark, and we left the lights off in the kitchen, so we didn’t alarm it and potentially cause it to spray. It didn’t linger too long and as far as I know, hasn’t been back since. It was a beautiful creature, and since it didn’t stink up the back yard, I’m glad we got to see it.

The graduating 5th grader festivities started early in the month. Already on the 3rd, we were invited to attend a fine arts exhibition. Maya had made many lovely pieces of art throughout the year, but my favorite (other than her self portrait) was her octopus sculpture. An octopus mom and a couple of babies are rendered in clay, and while future marine biologist Maya knows this wouldn’t really happen in the great blue sea, it’s perfectly fine for her sweet heart and vivid imagination to produce an artistic rendering of a happy octopus family.

We spent time in May also making sure Ian had finished all his cub scout requirements so he could achieve his bear rank by the end of the year. One of his adventures involved him helping to prepare a meal. Ian likes being in the kitchen and inventing recipes, so he did one better and made his own ramen recipe. It was thankfully an uncomplicated recipe, using ramen noodles we already had, chicken bouillon, some grated garlic, and some freshly cut herbs from the back yard. Everyone who tried it loved it, so I think we can count that as a win for cub scout chef Ian.

In weird bug sightings (of which we have a few), I found a neat moth on a pile of fresh tree trimmings that I was breaking down to set out for pickup. Turns out, it was a Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus).

Ian brought home his own clay art from school as well. He took something dear to his heart and rendered it in clay – sushi rolls!

Because everything else was so bonkers, we tried to keep Mother’s Day low key. Maya had a piano recital, so that was nice, and afterward we stopped by Dairy Queen for ice cream. We ate dinner, opened presents, and generally celebrated quietly.

Mid-month, we bit the bullet and got Maya a smart phone. As she transitions to middle school, we’d like her to try to keep track of her friends. And she’s shown us that she’s trying to be more responsible with her things, so we’re diving in and hoping for the best. So far, she’s not super into the texting, treating it more like a mini-ipad, it seems. Time will tell whether this has been a good choice or a poor choice, but regardless, she is delighted.

Ian’s last cub scout meeting of the year was at Walnut Creek Park and featured a very nice map reading exercise. Ian ditched us with a quickness to hang with his friend Malcolm instead, so mostly it was Maya, Sean and me doing our own map reading. He did ultimately achieve his bear rank in cub scouts, was rewarded for his fundraising popcorn sales in the fall, and ate waaaay too much watermelon.

Thursday, the 23rd was the kids’ last day of school, and Maya’s last day of elementary school ever, something she’d been stewing over off and on for a few weeks. That morning, we attended a 5th grade awards ceremony and talent show. Maya won a ton of awards and performed brilliantly at the piano for her talent. She seemed annoyed at the attention but otherwise was holding it together pretty well, I think.

That afternoon, we went back to school to watch the fifth graders’ last walk. This was definitely tougher for Maya. She was legit finally leaving all the teachers she loved. Maya is very excited about middle school, but distraught over the fact that she won’t see her favorite teachers again and that some of her friends will be going to different schools than her. Happy sad is how we refer to the concept of “bittersweet,” using it in describing the ends of vacations, elementary to middle school transitions, and the music of The Cure. She was in tears by the end.

The very next day, Sean and I worked, and then hastily packed our bags and headed out the door to drive partway to Missouri! Our stop for the evening was McAlester, OK. Here was our plan: finish up work as early as possible and hit the road by 4p. Here’s what actually happened: while folding laundry, poor Sean half removed his right big toe nail in catching it on part of our bed. He wound up going to urgent care just to make sure everything was ok, and consequently he was late finishing work. We weren’t on the road till 6. Then, just north of the I-35 east / west split, some terrible accident completely stopped traffic for at least an hour and a half, maybe longer. With all the delays, we rolled into McAlester around 2 in the morning.

We slept in a little the next morning and wound up hitting the road by around 11. Except for a little hitch driving through the Oklahoma turnpike (heads up, it’s cash only), the drive was easy going.

The plan for this trip was the spend a couple days seeing St Louis with the kids before driving to Grammy and Grandpa’s house to visit for a few days. We arrived at our St Louis hotel around 6 that evening, and the kids wasted no time whatsoever getting into the hotel pool. It had been so hot in Texas already, that I didn’t even think about the fact that this outdoor pool in Missouri probably hadn’t had a chance to warm up yet. Ian tried his best, but I think it was too cold for him. He didn’t swim for too long before he was wrapped in a towel and stretched out on a chaise. Maya, of course, was unfazed. Sean and I had a lovely time sitting in the lightly breezy 80 degree weather and doing very little for a brief period.

We elected to stay in a hotel with character for this little vacation. The Cheshire did not disappoint. They have what they call an “authentic British-inspired aesthetic,” and I suppose I can get behind that. Tudor architecture, pretty stained glass, and intricately carved benches greet a person upon entry. Further in, a giant stuffed bear (who the kids noticed had been relieved of a few claws) beckoned you further. The hallways and rooms were well decorated and each of the rooms is named for a different British writer, playwright, or poet – we stayed in the John Buchan room.

We kept things simple that evening and just had dinner in the onsite Fox and Hounds pub. The bar staff were solid – I observed practiced hands, an economy of movement, and zero skimping on the details. Plus they were friendly. They didn’t bat an eye when we asked if they’d make mocktails for the kids. And the grown-ups’ well-fortified drinks were lovely as well. We enjoyed our food well enough, especially Sean, who had wisely ordered the shepherd’s pie.

We were staying within walking distance of the St Louis Zoo and thought we might walk over that first morning if the weather cooperated. It didn’t. We woke up to rain and thunder, so instead we took it slow. We lingered over the Cheshire’s excellent breakfast buffet, sipped our coffee, wandered around a bit and let Maya take some photos to send to a friend.

Once the rain died down, we wandered in the area a bit. We visited Vintage Vinyl, a favorite record store that we’d hit from time to time during our college years. Maya and Ian were, of course, bored. I showed Ian the artist how interesting some of the covers were for the metal and hard rock albums, figuring especially any Iron Maiden cover art would likely appeal to him. For Maya, we wandered around and talked about different genres of music and how much she did or didn’t know about them. She explained that she’d like to learn more about jazz, so we flipped through the albums in that part of the store. Ian left with a new Van Halen record and Maya decided to try out one by John Coltrane.

We wandered Delmar St a little while, took in the brass stars, saw Blueberry Hill, and lamented the fact that apparently our favorite arthouse movie theatre, the Tivoli, had become a church. At the kids’ request, we popped into a bookstore and looked around a little before finally shuffling off to lunch at Imo’s. The pizza and toasted ravs were every bit as good as they always are. We had thought to try a different place for once, but the other recommended toasted ravioli spots were closed. Next time.

That afternoon’s big deal activity was the City Museum. I won’t lie – getting the kids to this place was at least half of why I thought it would be fun to tack a couple of St Louis days onto our Grammy and Grandpa visit. This place defies explanation. It’s like a giant art installation that you can climb on and in and around. They purposely won’t make a map of this place, encouraging visitors to get lost. Housed in a former shoe warehouse, this place has tubes and caves and a castle and lizards and a 5-story slide and a 10-story slide and axolotls and a cantilevered bus and a giant metal praying mantis and a ferris wheel on the roof and and and AND. It was amazing and I think Ian would live there if you let him.

Sean and I didn’t even try to keep up. We attempted to make a point of laying eyes on the kids every so often, but it was all but hopeless. The kids are 9 and 11, and I’m not sure I’d have been okay with bringing them there at any younger age than they are. Their age is just about perfect though – they could get themselves into a little trouble, get themselves out of trouble, and explore their physical and mental limits. Sean and I tried to climb around in the rebar structures a little bit, but my back is just too damaged for me to be as mobile as I might like.

Were I to do it again (and believe you me, Ian very badly wants to), I’d equip both kids with wrist watches and have a designated place for us to meet about once an hour. Even as it was, I managed to not stress too badly right up until the tornado warning came through. The sky had turned a stormy blue-black, which isn’t all that out of the ordinary in the midwest. And then they started telling all of us to go to the lowest floor and shelter in the caves. I’m not kidding. It took us a while to find the kids and get them sheltered and by the time we did so, the danger had more or less passed. We didn’t spend too long in the caves before we were back to wandering. The only sad part about the unexpected afternoon rain is that there was one more outdoor area that we didn’t get to explore. Given that, Ian will probably see his wish to go back to the City Museum granted.

We saw sea creatures, reptiles, art, and mayhem. We were undersea, in caves, and in a school bus cantilevered off the edge of the building. The kids rode multi-story slides, climbed rebar tubes, and clearly tested their mettle. We left exhausted and still needing more time. It was an excellent visit.

We ended our evening at the Old Spaghetti Factory wearing funny hats, making origami for the waitstaff, and eating pasta doused in brown butter and mizithra cheese – a pleasant and nostalgic end to a busy day.

After breakfast at the hotel, we started our next day at the Gateway Arch. We failed to reserve parking ahead of time, but it wound up not mattering because that area was nearly a ghost town on Memorial Day. We managed to park on the street.

At 630 feet tall, the Arch is considered the nation’s tallest monument. It has a stainless steel structure, was designed by architect Eero Saarinen, and was completed in 1965.

We puttered in the museum trying to get the kids excited about catenary curves and rotating ride capsules until our designated tram time. Ian, who has ridden all manner of ridiculous roller coasters and thrill rides, seemed apprehensive about going up inside the Arch. Maybe it’s because we kept describing the tram system as “unique” and “one of a kind.”

Things have changed since I was a kid. They now have the two sides of the Arch separated, so once you’re at the top, you’re only on one side of it. Also, you’re limited to ten minutes before you have to go back down. It wasn’t bad, but it did feel a bit rushed. Still the kids got a huge kick out of it, and it was fun for Sean and I to experience it again.

If I remember correctly, the ride up takes 4.5 minutes, the ride down, only 3.5. Safely deposited at the bottom, we hit the gift shop, walked the riverfront a little bit, took about a billion photos, and then headed back to the car.

We had a quick lunch at a White Castle in Eureka and then it was off to Six Flags St Louis! The kids love amusement parks, so this year, we had sprung for a season pass and have thus far made very good use of it as a fun add on to our vacations.

We had been seeing posts from our Missouri friends talking about the invasion of the cicadas. Evidently the 13-year cicadas and the 17-year cicadas managed to emerge at the same time for the first time since 1803. We hadn’t really noticed too much in the heart of St Louis, but out in Eureka, it the buzzing of the cicadas was deafening – as in, the roar of the roller coasters was somewhat muffled for all the noise the cicadas were making. They would occasionally pop into our faces or hitch brief rides on our t-shirts, but other than the possible hearing damage, they weren’t too bad, at least for us.

We managed to hit a number of rides, but still had a few we hoped to ride or re-ride before we left when our beautiful, sunny, 80-degree day suddenly turned dark and rainy! It wasn’t in the forecast (at least not that we noticed), so we were completely unprepared for it.

The rides had shut down in the rain, and it was getting on toward dinner time, so we met up with our friend Matt at Dewey’s Pizza. The food was outstanding and it was nice to sit and have a beer and catch up a little. We let Maya and Ian chill out and watch videos on Maya’s phone, so everyone got to relax a little bit.

After dinner, we drove down to Friedheim to Grammy and Grandpa’s house, rolling in around 10:00 that night – another long and fun-filled day!

To conserve vacation time and to get out of the way and let Grandparents and Grandkids spend time together, Sean and I worked for the next few days. Connectivity was a little dicey, but otherwise, it worked out pretty well. We got some of our work done and the kids had quality time with Grammy and Grandpa. That first day, after spending a morning spent catching frogs, they had lunch out and went to the Cape Splash Family Aquatic Center to play on water slides for the afternoon.

That evening, we all went have dinner at The Pub. The couple times we’ve gone, the food has been great and everyone is so friendly there. Plus, this time we got to sit in the nonsmoking section, much to Maya’s relief. Not a terrible way to celebrate our 24th wedding anniversary! Also, Grammy made a dessert for us, and even decorated it!

The next day – Wednesday – while Sean and I worked, Grammy and Grandpa took the kids to Hoeckele’s Bakery to choose some breakfast doughnuts. They spent the afternoon at a trampoline park. It was funny too. Sean and I were working so we weren’t paying the best attention to what was going on around us, and at some point, we noticed it was really quiet. They had all just gone. It was amazing!

Ian had been saving up his quarters for this vacation with the specific goal of going to Circle U and spending some money in the video games there, so that evening, that’s exactly what we did. This is where Ian wanted to order shoestring fries, but because of what his eyes were seeing on his soda cup, he kept referring to them as horseshoe fries. I even slipped up and called them that once. It sounds kinda dumb now, but at the time, it was hilarious.

The kids, Maya especially, spent a lot of time on this trip hanging out by the pond, catching critters. They caught sooooo many little frogs in various stages of tail loss. Somewhere along the line Thursday morning, Ian came bursting into the office where Sean and I were working and said with breathless delight, “Mom, come look. We caught a turtle!”

Sure enough, they had the prettiest little turtle. In doing some research (and getting a second opinion), we believe it’s a Western Painted Turtle. The kids, especially Ian, wanted very badly to keep it. He set up a really nice little plastic bin for it, complete with water and food and spent lots of time checking on it. He named it “Kernel” – who knows why.

Anyhow, I did some looking. Those little guys can live 40 years or more, and if you want to care for them properly in captivity, you need something like a 100 gallon enclosure with dry areas and wet areas and dark places to sleep and places that replicate daylight with special lamps, and on and on and on. We all agreed that Kernel would live his best life right out there at that pond. They spent the day enjoying Kernel – he even slept in the basement that night, tucked away in his plastic bin, so he’d be “safe.”

That afternoon my siblings and their spouses and children all came to the house and we had a spectacular visit during which I didn’t have the presence of mind to take too many photos. Uncle Jade caught a whopper of a fish. Maya and Lily played in the pond. And Ian played with, well, everyone. Henry, who is now 15 (!!!) and learning to drive, practiced a bit in the side-by-side.

The next day, our last day in Missouri, we mostly hung out around the house. Sean worked, but I went ahead and took the day off to hang out a little bit before we left. Grammy and Grandpa have TONS of different kinds of bird feeders lining their deck. Plus the pond attracts lots of water birds. I had been having fun watching birds during downtime here and there. We saw goldfinches and red-winged blackbirds and both red-bellied and red-headed woodpeckers. Add to that the ruby-throated hummingbirds fighting endlessly over the feeders.

But nothing tops the bald eagle that came to visit the pond. On our last day, we saw it do several flybys before finally swooping down to grab a catfish from the pond. We watched the bird struggle a bit to get it to shore, but once it did, it tore into that fish. After the eagle left, we walked down to find what was left of a decent-sized catfish.

That evening, we packed up and drove about halfway home. That’s how we closed out our month of May, halfway between Friedheim and Austin. I don’t recall the trip home being at all remarkable. During the driving parts of this vacation, we introduced the kids to the Myth series by Robert Asprin by listening to the “Another Fine Myth” audiobook with them. They seemed to like it, and listening to an audiobook has been a nice way to break up their screen time during the long drives.

This was a healthier month for us. We started off going to school one evening to watch Ian’s Davis Virtuosos performance. They put on a small singing and percussion performance and while Ian gave us a few dirty looks for taking his photo, I thought he did very well.

Of course that first full weekend, we attended the big eclipse campout. We had, for a couple weeks, been expecting to not see much of the eclipse for all the cloud cover, so we were delighted when we actually got to see at least some of totality!

The next weekend, on Saturday, we got to see yet another Ian performance, this time on his guitar. His teacher got him added to the roster for a Beat4Beat concert at the ACC Music Recital Hall. This is an event he participated in last year as well, and it’s really neat.

That Sunday, at Ian’s Cub Scout pack meeting, they got to participate in an egg drop challenge. Ian was given an egg and a handful of tokens with which he could “purchase” a limited quantity of materials for cushioning and securing his egg. He built his egg-protecting contraption and then dropped it from a first floor landing. It survived! He then got to try dropping it from the second story landing, and again his egg made it! It did not, however, survive a fidgeting 9 year old boy on the way home.

Our college friend Chris has been learning to play the trombone as part of Blowcomotion, a “community learning brass band.” We missed his first gig, but were able to see him on the 21st when he played at Central Market. The kids got gelatos, and we all got to watch a delightful brass band performance that was big big big on personality.

On the cooking front, I think I finally found a kolache / klobasnek recipe that works for me. Making the dough was a bit of a pain, but generally speaking, I thought the flavor and texture were spot on. We did some with plain sausage, some with sausage and cheddar cheese, and some with sausage, cheddar, and pickled jalapenos. And they reheat well.

I also have a new favorite way to make pizza. It features a focaccia crust and is baked in a caste iron skillet. We haven’t made it with the toppings described in this recipe, but we’ve now used that crust recipe several times, to delicious effect.

And we ended the month quietly by having Maya harvest her radishes. The weather is getting pretty warm, and I wasn’t sure how much they’d continue to grow. Alas, we only had one fully formed radish and several that were radish-y enough to eat. Regardless, Maya was happy with her radish haul.

Already last year, even before the annular solar eclipse happened in October, I was thinking through how we could make the total solar eclipse in 2024 special. Since it was happening in April, before Texas turns into a furnace, I thought camping would be an excellent plan.

Texas state park campsites can be reserved 5 months ahead of time, and so I had chosen a few parks that would be in the path of totality, and set a reminder a few days before 5 months ahead so I could scope out preferred locations within the parks and that sort of thing. They were all gone. Every one of them. I searched a bit for non state park campsites, but the price gouging was so stupid that I just didn’t have the heart to bother. Austin was in the path of totality, so we’d just watch it from our house.

Then in February, the pack leader for Ian’s cub scout troop, sent out information for a scout campout to which cub scout families were invited. Camping was for Saturday through Monday (the day of the big eclipse), and the intervening time would be chock full of scouting and eclipse-related activities. It was more than we had planned to spend, but it was just too good to pass up. Plus, Ian and that pack leader’s youngest son are very good friends, so he’d have someone to play with as well.

Sean rented a lens for his camera that would be good for eclipse photography. He purchased a solar filter for said lens so he could take photos of the partial eclipse as well. He made sure he had the right hardware so he could correctly mount the camera and lens to his tripod.

As the big day approached, we kept watching our forecast. We’d been enjoying so much clear and mild and sunny weather, it was disappointing that for a solid ten days our forecast ranged from cloudy to cloudy and rainy and back to cloudy again. Oh well, we were gonna go camping regardless, so we’d just have to cross our fingers and hope for the best.

The Smilin V Scout Ranch is only maybe 40-45 minutes away from us, but we were definitely out of town. Since we weren’t to be provided food on Saturday night, we chose to stop by Liberty Hill and eat a calm-before-the-storm dinner at Dahlia Cafe. We couldn’t have asked for better. It was only about 5:00 when we got there, so it wasn’t too full. The food was good – Sean and I had chicken fried steak (and theirs is a solid rendition), Maya had a cajun tilapia dish that she was very fond of, and Ian – believe it or not – took down nearly all of a 12-oz ribeye. They have pies by the slice or whole, but the kids scored big with a brownie for Ian and a blondie for Maya, both topped with generous scoops of ice cream.

Check in at camp was from 6-10p that evening, but when we rolled in around 6:30, things weren’t too busy, and we were saved a camp site so that Ian and his scout friend could be neighbors. Mostly, Sean and I set up our tent and things while Ian played with his friend and Maya caught crickets and grasshoppers. There was a big open area for the kids to run and play in and still be in eyesight of the grown ups, so the set-up was perfect for us.

After our camp prep was finished, we took a stroll around the grounds to walk off dinner and orient ourselves a bit. We located the bathrooms and the main pavilion where food would be served on Sunday and Monday and where some of the activities took place. We wandered by the scout store and bought capitol area council eclipse patches for the kids.

It was a windy night, and our very boxy tent did a fair amount of dancing in the breeze. Other than the noise, I don’t think the kids were all that bothered about it, but Sean and I were both relieved when it had made it through the night.

Sean and I were already awake, but at 7:00, we were treated to the sounds of a bugler bugling to get everyone up and moving in time for breakfast at 7:30. The first round of scouting activities commenced at 8:30, and it was not limited only to scouts. Maya could participate too. Heck, even Sean and I could if we wanted to. Maya wanted some down time, so Sean went with Ian to go through an orienteering course.

Maya and I met up with them when they were going to build lego cars to run down the track, pinewood derby style. I had a lot of fun examining the animals they had on hand. They had a variety of central Texas toads, frogs, and lizards. There were turtles and tortoises. We even got to check out a couple of snakes. They had a ball python, which everyone got to hold. And they had a lovely rat snake who maybe wasn’t “tame” enough to be handled safely.

After that, we all trundled up to the shooting range where Ian and Maya tried out both archery (which Ian has had a fair amount of practice in, though not outdoors and in the wind) and “wrist rockets” which are sling shots. With those, they shot dried chickpeas at a row of foil pie-plates clipped to a string. Those things are hard to aim on a good day, but doubly so, I’d imagine, when your target is waggling around in the breeze.

After lunch, we walked to a different area to look at a couple different solar telescopes and do some eclipse and eclipse-adjacent crafts. The kids made coronas (like they’d see when the sun was behind the moon if it weren’t too cloudy) using black paper and chalk. They punched out pictures and words in thick paper so they could use those to let the sun shine through and make little eclipse shapes, like we did with the colander last fall (again, if it’s not too cloudy). And they used LEDs and batteries to make red light flashlights that they could use during this evening’s star party (if skies were clear).

Right then, the sky was clear enough to check out the solar telescopes. Yes, plural. Here’s the episode where I learned there are multiple ways of observing the sun through a telescope. Evidently, in the past, I’ve only looked at it through a white light filter. This allows you to see the sun spots, which in itself is interesting. But, with a hydrogen-alpha solar telescope, the filter only allows a narrow frequency of light through toward the red end of the spectrum, and this is the frequency at which the sun shows much of its activity. Looking through the hydrogen-alpha telescope, we were able to see the prominences exploding up from the sun’s surface. Many of these arc right back to the sun’s surface, and we were able to observe that as well around the sun’s edge. In the body of the sun, we saw a dark line that represented a prominence as well. It was our first time seeing that, and it was amazing.

The kids were getting antsy by this point, so we moseyed back toward our camping spot for a little breather before the kids went and did more activities. They worked at a water flow exhibit a bit, but rather than listening to the well-intentioned leader teach them about waterway maintenance, they just wanted to obstruct water flow and play in the water. By this point, it was getting pretty hot, so I’m not too surprised. Ian spent a very long time chatting with a fellow about the finer points of coin collecting. In fact, he went back and visited that man at least one more time and walked away with a magazine on the topic.

Maya needed some downtime, so I sat with her for a while at our very hot, sunshine-filled camp site so she could read about birds and not be bothered by nine year old boys or adults who insisted she follow directions.

We went back to find both the boys embroiled in, of all things, chess games! We rounded them up and headed back to the main pavilion to hear a talk from Colonel Mike Fossum, former Eagle Scout and astronaut. He had spent time on the international space station and came to chat with the kids about scouting and about outer space.

Col. Fossum made it through his whole talk and nearly the entire Q&A afterward before one brave kid finally asked the question they’d all been wanting to know. How do you go to the bathroom when there’s no gravity?! I suspect he’s had to field this one before because he had a carefully delivered explanation peppered with just the right amount of humor. There’s a suction system for the urine so it can be recycled. “Yesterday’s coffee is today’s coffee!” he quipped. On space walks they wear a MAG or maximum absorbency garment, “because calling it a diaper just wouldn’t be cool!” he grinned.

The kids had all been given nice photos of him at check in, and he spent a very long while, probably literal hours over the course of a couple days, talking with the individual kids and signing their photos for them.

After dinner that evening, we hung out a while and listened to a live band playing “the classics” which apparently now includes things like “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.” I don’t recall getting old, but apparently I’m there. The kids were bored and went and played while the grown ups sat in the shade and relaxed. A nice cold beer right about then would have been delightful, but that understandably doesn’t jive with a scout camp, so we made the most of water from a nearby spigot and cans of cold soda purchased from the scout store.

Maya abhors the smell and taste of grilled food, so we had brought along a couple of dehydrated meals just in case. While she liked that evening’s dinner (after hounding the nice volunteer serving the food about how it had been prepared), we had promised her one of the meals, so Sean made it for her. And to her credit, she ate her second dinner as well.

We didn’t have too much time after that before we headed to the big event of the evening – the star party. We used red light or no light at all in walking to the star party location. (I learned more new things.) I had thought that you didn’t use white light because it causes the pupil to retract and it takes a bit for it to re-adapt to dark conditions. But there’s more to it than that. Evidently, after your pupils dilate to let more light in, then the rod and cone cells in your retina produce a pigment (rhodopsin) that increases our eyes’ sensitivity. If that is damaged by white light, it can take as long as 40 minutes to reset. This pigment isn’t damaged by red light.

Ian’s pack leader is an enthusiastic amateur astronomer. Presumably because he’s not doing this every day like it’s his job, he has fun with it. To paraphrase … Here’s a constellation. Here’s its story. Where I grew up the sky was different. The spring sky is different from the summer sky. And on and on.

Early in the evening, before it dropped too low in the sky to avoid interference from our atmosphere, we were able to check out Jupiter and three of its moons with a telescope. We learned to spot satellites as they zinged through the sky. And we saw so many constellations, more and more as the clouds drifted away and the sky continued to darken. Here are some that I remember: Big Dipper, Little Dipper (faintly), Orion, Perseus holding Medusa’s severed head, Leo, Gemini (or separately Castor and Pollux), Cassiopeia, Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Taurus, Canis Major, Canis Minor, the Pleiades (or the seven sisters), and more that I simply cannot recall. I would have stayed longer, but Maya was telling me her legs hurt and not telling me that she was cold out there in her shorts and short sleeves. Despite having left early, the experience had been a hit for me. It was a beautiful night to look at the sky.

We went to bed that evening under clear skies and cold, crisp, quiet air. In the middle of the night at some point, the wind abruptly picked up and by morning, we emerged into a thick, moist morning under heavy cloud cover. It was a long while till the eclipse was happening, but given that rain showers were slated to come through in the afternoon, none of us were too optimistic about the cloud cover diminishing.

There were activities happening again on this last day in camp, but most of us were a bit tired from the past couple days and maybe a little mopey about the weather on top of it. We mostly just let the kids run free and play while we worked at dismantling our campsite and packing up the car, just in case that rain came earlier than expected.

The eclipse would start at 12:17p, so shortly after lunch, volunteers distributed eclipse glasses to all attendees. We thought the crowd would really swell on Monday, because folks had the option to just come for the day instead of camping all weekend. And while it’s true that more people arrived, it never felt crowded.

We did get some intermittent breaks in the cloud cover to observe the moon slowly creeping in on the sun. Sean had set up his camera and was capturing a few cool images. Much more of the sun had to be covered than I’d have expected before we really even noticed how dark it was getting. We were delighted to see a good big patch of blue stretching out in front of us, and for a little while we could see the crescent of the sun shrinking ever smaller. But things were moving too quickly, and with maybe 15 or 20 minutes till totality a thick bank of clouds rolled through.

Sean said he thought he saw a clear patch, but I couldn’t discern what he meant and thought maybe he was just giving me a little hope. But I had none. I slumped in my lawn chair and tried to be happy with the things we did get to see. The mood trickling through the crowd was ripe with disappointment. And then, it felt like just moments before totality, we got little flickers of fingernail sun through the clouds. Yells of “I SEE IT” rolled through a crowd consisting significantly of too-cool-for-school teen and preteen boys.

And suddenly we saw the sun slip away. First we saw Baily’s Beads, then a diamond ring, and then a dark circle in the sky surrounded by a shimmering corona. The clouds obscured our view from time to time, but it was incredible nonetheless. I don’t think photos can adequately prepare you for what you see, nor do I think they can reflect what it was like to be there in that moment seeing the world go briefly dark with only a halo of sun to provide light. And then, like a weird 360-degree sunrise, it was over. I don’t recall seeing Baily’s Beads on the way out of totality, but we got a cloudy diamond ring again. Not very much of the sun had to be uncovered before it was back to feeling like daytime again. A friend had said earlier, whether we see totality or not, there will be tears, and she was correct.

The moment totality was over, the kids were ready to hit the road. The poor darlings had been deprived of their screens since Saturday morning, after all. But the clouds had somewhat dissipated, so we hung out for a while taking a few more photos of the partial eclipse. We had observed bright red briefly in the corona during totality, and I thought my eyes were tricking me, but in Sean’s photos and in the solar telescope, we saw prominences around the edge of the sun that mirrored those red bits. This time too, you could see the arch of the more distinct prominence very clearly. We were told that that prominence might be ten Earths tall.

Eventually we finished packing up and headed home. Traffic was a bit thicker, but it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. The theory is that maybe since the forecast for eclipse viewing was so terrible, many folks either didn’t bother or went elsewhere. At any rate, I think we were home by around four o’clock, unloading our car and trying to set things back in order.

Sean’s parents were in Arkansas for the eclipse and got a good clear view during totality. My parents in Missouri had clear skies and a good long time to watch as well. We had kept the kids out of school so we could watch together as a family, and we were pleased to find that there had been a break in the clouds and everyone at the kids’ school got to experience totality as well. Talk about a shared experience! We had nearly zero cell reception at the camp ground, so it was funny to see all the different texts from friends and family once we re-entered cell coverage.

Now that I’ve seen it once, I want to experience it again. I’m sure that zeal will diminish over time. After all, there are plenty of experiences with which to fill one’s time. But until then … Europe in 2026? Maybe Australia in 2028?