On our way home...

Tonight is the night... the night that we risk our sanity and everyone's around us as we take a 1 1/2 year old on an all night, red-eye flight home. Our plane leaves at 10:30PM (or something like that) and is a straight shot from Kona, HI to Seattle. Nathan will either sleep almost all of the way, or he'll be a wreck because he'll be pulling his first all-nighter. Which of course means that we'll be pulling an all-nighter with him. The last ones of those that I remember were in college the nights before tests where I 'studied' - which consisted of going over everything that I had failed to pay attention to before the test.

In a debrief of Kona, here are a few notes that the average Hawaii traveller might want to know about before coming:

1. The Big Island (where Kona is) is a VOLCANO! The active lava flow is still going, but is a 5 mile hike to where you can see it - the roads are blocked off otherwise.

2. "Kona Coffee" seems to be all it is cracked up to be. The drive through coffee farms are worth the trip, especially if you want good free coffee. They just give you little cups, but a whole bunch of little ones make a big one... or five.

3. Geckos are all over the place. Including in your bedroom on the walls as you're falling asleep threatening to jump on you and bite you as you sleep. (OK the last part isn't true, but they're in the room)

4. There are tiny little ants everywhere and they DO bite. They're crawling on the computer right now as I'm writing.

5. There aren't very many sandy beaches. The ones that are 'sandy' are tiny ground up pieces of lava rock and shells. Not exactly the stuff you like between your toes. Unless you stay at the Marriott Resort north of Kona. They have their own private perfectly sandy beach (that I'm sure was shipped in) for their guests. I know where I'm going next time. Or you can find sand at Huggo's On The Rocks bar where they have a 'barefoot bar' where the floor is all sand - this sand was either shipped in also, or they stole it from the Marriott.

6. The other beaches are all lava rock. While they look cool, they're not very nice to your feet.

7. The food, yeah, that's pretty good.

8. Mai Tais. Mmmmm. But they're not cheap. Unless you go to Sushi En Fuego where they have $2 Mai Tais from 11-5 on weekdays. And yes, I did say Sushi En Fuego. Don't knock the place that has the cheapest mai tais in town. And for the record, they were pretty darn tasty. And stiff too.

9. Houses here have solar-powered hot water tanks that kept on the tops of their houses. Interesting.

10. The "Free" Hawaiian highly acclaimed and advertised show called "Ho'oilina: Beauty, Passion, and Rage" held at the Mauna Lina mall is HIGHLY overrated. If you stumble upon it while you're there, it's worth watching. But don't drive 40 minutes to it and 40 minutes home for the 20 minute show. I promise staying home and letting your child sleep is a much better option. It seems that no matter where you go, "You get what you pay for" applies. Excpet in the Dominican Republic where cigars are really cheap - those are also really good!

The trip has been fantastic and we're on our way home tonight. Nathan's been really good this week and we even finally got him comfortable in the pool. He even finally put his feet in the ocean yesterday without thinking he was going to die. :) We went back to try it again but as soon as we got to the one sandy beach around (not the Marriott - that'll be next time we sneak in there) it started pouring down rain - so we went home.

See you back on the mainland...

Aloha! Or as Nathan has been saying 'Al-low-pa'