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We had a really great spring break trip to Waikoloa Village on the Big Island of Hawaii!

Friday

February 13th: We woke up at 4:30 am for our flight and we were at the pool by 1pm! Megan and Abigail spent time in the water, but I just laid out in the sun on a beach chair for a long while. I had a flurry of dizzying dreams that were so intense!

We had a light meal at Nui for dinner: Megan’s blackened brussel sprouts were really good (we said we wanted to try to make them like that at home (bacon fat helped!)) we shared eggplant parm that we all thought was “good” and chicken parm that mom didn’t like.

Saturday

We spent much of the day at the Hilton lagoon. Abigail did perfectly with snorkeling! Lee saw a spotted eagle ray and followed it with Megan’s camera underwater!
Lee met Brian and Colt and threw a football for a while.

Abigail got a donut floatie and named it Frank Lee Donut. He became an in-joke for much of the rest of the trip! We found a beach ball with the name “Peterson” on it and we related it to the Castaway “Wilson”

I met a dad and kid, Brian and Colt. I had been just walking along at the pool and the two of them were throwing a nerf football back and forth. We got to throwing, which was nice! We met up a few more times during the vacation, which was also really sweet.

In the evening we went out to the Marriott Hawaii Calls restaurant for Valentine’s Day. There was the promise of king crab legs and prime rib buffet, but I’ll say right now it was remarkably mediocre in every way except for the sunset view. And, OMG it was like $280.

That evening, we made our own fun by walking out to A-Bay (Anaeho?omalu Bay) from the Marriott restaurant resort, admiring the gentle lapping of the water on the shore, and the nighttime view. Remarkably, as the three of us were lying on lounge chairs, we all saw a shooting star streak across the sky! It was large and orange for just a moment! We all shouted out and pointed in unison, “Shooting star!”

Sunday

This was the sleeping day. Someone in our family got slept 10 hours…. and then another 7. We spent most of the day in the room, doing a whole lotta nothing.

Monday

In the morning, we went to a kukui nut necklace making workshop. It was very chill and pleasant art making. There was a high schooler at the workshop, Amber, who knew about the Dragon Boat club in Berkeley. She invited Abigail to join!

We went on a catamaran whale watching tour with Hawaii Nautical. We spent most of our time sitting right in front where the water would occasionally splash up!

Sitting right in front on the netting, we got splashed a few times. It was hilarious when I got splashed and yelped, and the crewmate sitting in front of me leaned back in laughter, and HE got splashed! The water was the most indescribably beautiful crystal blue! But oooeeeee it was windy!

Tuesday

Pizza from the resort at the Kona pool was terrible. But the swimming and hot tubbing was great. (Thank you, wet suit! Yes, I’m a temperature wimp, but that wet suit gives me powers!) Playing with Abigail in the pool with Abigail was lots of fun!

Wednesday

We spent the whole day in the room. Someone slept 13 hrs, but poorly, and then another 6 hours.. 9-3. But then at 4 we went out to Lava Lava. I had already eaten in the room so I went for a contemplative walk on the beach while Megan and Abigail ate. Back to the room and then we went on a Manta Ray trip! It was incredible!!

I was anxious at the boat landing, being in a strange place at night but I made it through.
The boat ride out to the site was intense: I was sitting with a view on the oceanside, but there was nothing to see, nothing! I mean, nothing! I couldn’t make out the horizon while bouncing around in the little skiff, it felt like a tiny glimpse into a vast nothingness. I commented to Megan about A TV show we had watched a while back about people, real, regular people that wanted to travel to Mars or be on interstellar spaceships despite the vast emptiness of space. I suggested that they should ride on this boat first just to make sure they could comprehend what they were getting into.

We took the shuttle bus from the hotel to the Queens Marketplace enough times that We started paying attention to the schedule that it runs on. Here is the schedule. Eventually, we figured out that taking an Uber was actually usually a bit cheaper and faster, but it’s still good to have the bus in your back pocket. We were also going to go to the lei making, hula lessons and drum lessons at the King’s Shops on Wednesday, but we never made it! That’s ok!

Thursday

Brunch at the Hilton was amazing. Everything perfectly prepared. The chocolate pastries were perfect, moist where they should be and flaky where they wanted to be! The bread pudding was like a custard with great additions, the Korean chicken and waffles were spicy and peppered and flavorful! The POG juice was so Poggy! Lychee nuts, cut papaya, all kinds of beautiful muffins and danishes, oh my!

Then we were off to the Ocean pool. Ab and Megan played in the water for hours while Lee strolled to the giant Buddha on the peninsula, quite striking!

Both Abigail and Megan slipped at the pool, in separate instances. That was a bit scary, Abigail bumping her head, lightly thank everything. The next week, Megan’s foot X-Ray showed a broken toe that took two months to fully heal.

Here is our beloved Frank Lee Donut at various locations around the resort!