Keiki in Paradise

Sarah and I are "brave." At least according to countless numbers of gray-haired tourists who exclaimed this on the airplane, over pineapple at breakfast, on the beach, and in the hotel. Some would call you valiant for taking on the likes of the Spanish Armada or climbing a steep mountain in the dead of winter, but we were rewarded this title for simply taking a vacation. Yes, that is right we took our little Keiki (child in Hawaiian) to the white sand beach of Oahu, spent 5 days lounging, working on our tans, and hiking in lush forests with plenty of water and we are the bravest people on the planet. In all fairness this was not the easiest vacation in the world, but our daughter proved to be on her best behavior for about 87% of the trip which was just enough to have a great time and still produce some good stories about screaming and pooping. Anyway, I should start from the beginning.




Our story begins with two Hawaii loving adults who can't seem to make it through the harsh California winter without spending a few days in paradise. This usually involves a February trip to the Island du jour, but with the arrival of Claire this year, our trip needed to be postponed. As the trip grew near we began to worry about how we would pack for our first excursion with the baby. A 14 lb baby with practically zero interest in toys still requires an amazing entourage. First there is the car seat. Simply enough you might say, but first we packed the car seat base. No problem, but this unit alone (only half the car seat) filled the entire suitcase I packed when we went on our 2 week trip to New Zealand. This left the other half of the car seat, the stroller, all her clothes, her diapers, her wipes, her bottles, and her blankets. By the time we took inventory of what was needed I began to have trouble visualizing how we'd make our way through the airport without dropping bags or forgetting the baby along the way. That is when I had the brilliant idea of practicing towing our luggage and pushing the baby. Although Sarah poked fun at such a notion, my early preparation proved effective as we later effortlessly made our way through security and onto the plane with nearly an hour to spare.

Claire's first flight was amazingly smooth and not because there wasn't any turbulence. The best advice I can give new parents cautiously approaching their first flight is to pack plenty of diapers, a change of clothes, and feed the baby on take off and landing. All the books we read and our recent experience confirmed this. It didn't hurt that we were bumped up to the ample space of business class either. So here we are, we've practiced carrying our luggage, we've planned and packed accordingly for our trip and are ready to collect our rental car. Apparently this is where our preparation ended. Upon arrival at the Honolulu airport we remembered the long roundabout shuttle ride to the car rental center which was less 100 feet from the terminal and decided to walk. This proved to be an excellent idea as we walked right up to the Avis counter and declared were there to rent a car. Great plan right? Well yes, but it turns out our reservation was with Alamo. No problem though as all the rental agencies were within walking distance of each other. We walked right past Dollar, Hertz, and Budget and quickly realized that Alamo was nowhere to be found. Upon returning to the Avis desk, the man declared that we needed to board the shuttle and he'd return us to the terminal where we could pick up the Alamo shuttle. So we did and believe it or not, it took us about 15-20 minutes to get back to the terminal only 100 feet away. The traffic pattern at the airport is such that driving from the car rentals to the terminals requires you to first go away from the airport, then go through departing flights, then loop back behind the car rental places and then finally make your way to the arriving flights. That is where we finally found the Alamo shuttle, boarded it, passed by the Avis cars for the 5th time and were finally able to collect our car.


After unloading the car seat from our suitcase and securing Claire we drove to the Lotus hotel wedged beautifully between Diamond Head and the ocean. Our room on the 8th floor afforded us a wonderful view of both of these and as we put on our swimsuits and headed to San Souci beach, we quickly forgot about the long experience at the airport. The small beach between two nearby hotels had just enough room for 20 or so patrons but there was still a nice spot for us to setup our towels and umbrella for the baby. After taking turns frolicking in the ocean while the other watched the baby, we decided it was time to leave as the wind started picking up and our baby's deafening cry started drowning out every other sound on the beach. The remaining few couples hoping to catch a nice romantic sunset certainly got more than they bargained for as their attention was clearly drawn to the couple unable to calm their baby. We quickly packed our bags and moved our party first to the lobby of the hotel where after scaring some prospective clients we momentarily were able to calm her down. That was of course until we decided to take the elevator to our room. We weren't sure if it was the quick ascent followed by the abrupt stop at our floor or early onset baby claustrophobia but throughout the entire trip Claire made it clear to us that she hated elevators. One time she was smiling and cooing and the minute she saw the elevator door open she cried like the world's supply of milk had suddenly dried up. The good news is that toward the end of the trip we finally determined that bouncing her up and down and waving and singing to her the entire ascent or descent distracted her sufficiently.
Back in our room the baby continued to cry for 15 minutes more as she couldn't seem to get over her first elevator experience and this is when we decided to order room service instead of going out. After a wonderful meal from Don Ho's restaurant (courtesy of "Room Service in Paradise") we burned the midnight oil until nearly 8:30pm and retired for the evening. As an aside, Hawaii time is 3 hours earlier than California this time of year and 2 hours earlier in the winter as they do not observe the mainland tradition of falling back and springing forward. I theorize that as fall and spring have no meaning, they decided that summering back and summering forward made no sense.


The next morning we arose earlier, each went for a run, and then had breakfast at the wonderful Hau Tree restaurant next door. This restaurant was situated right on the beach with a very large and nicely trimmed tree serving as the roof. After breakfast we drove out to the east side of the island and hiked the Kuli'ou'ou tree (aka Top of the World) which was very steep, slippery, rooty, windy, and beautiful. This probably wasn't the best trail for infants; I fell 3 times while carrying her, but boy were the views from the top spectacular. While we've hiked many wonderful trails and seen may excellent sites in Hawaii this one offered by far the best single spot to catch a view. Unfortunately because it was so high and the mountain around it descended so quickly in every direction the wind also howled at the top. This meant of course that Claire threw another fit (I can't blame her for this one) and we had to hurry down to a lower viewing spot that wasn't so windy. We spent the rest of the day at Lanikai beach and again retired to our hotel room for an early dinner. Just as we started going to bed we had the pleasure of listening to Sheryl Crow serenade us from just outside our window. No, our fellow guests weren't blasting music, the actual ex-miss Armstrong was playing across the street in an outdoor amphitheatre. As she continued on about all she wanted to do, we dozed off and began dreaming of our next adventure.

The next day was equally pleasurable. Running in the morning, a walk on Waikiki beach where we ate breakfast and watched a moray eel, a lovely lush waterfall hike to Manoa falls, some more beach time, and a stop at the Dole plantation where we let Claire lead us through the world's largest Maze. With over 3.11 miles of paths and a giant pineapple in the middle, the maze took us nearly one hour to traverse (56 minutes to be exact). Interestingly enough, they record everyone's time as they enter and leave the maze and they claim someone finished in 5 minutes. While I find this hard to believe, who am I too argue with one of the world's leading producers of pineapple? Besides, they make excellent pineapple floats (Pineapple juice and pineapple ice cream).

Monday was our last full day and we again ran in the morning, covered a lovely trail that took us to the top of the eastern most point on the island (Makapu'u head). This point was significant because its geography made it an excellent location to fend off kamikaze attacks during WWII. The top was littered with old barracks and with the right imagination one could easily reenact a high-stakes Pacific battle. After the hike we got ourselves some Shave Ice (no trip is complete without it) and headed to Kailua beach where I failed to properly apply sunscreen. Its not that I didn't apply it, I just didn't apply it properly. Normally Sarah would apply it to my back, but I think she must have been feeding the baby or something when I decided to do it myself. The next morning I had a very interesting strip of red across my back, with clear delineations where my fingers had been able to reach. We capped off the day by heading out to Duke's Canoe Club for dinner (our first evening meal away from the hotel room) where aside from the nice views, fun atmosphere and great food, I discovered the very tasty Hawaiian Itch cocktail.

As all good things must come to an end, so did our trip. On Tuesday morning after running along the beach one more time, we grabbed some breakfast and headed to the very secluded Kahala beach for a nice picnic. It was here where we decided to dip Claire's feet in the ocean for the first time. While we thought she would scream, she did not. She actually really enjoyed the experience and this gave us hope that she'll soon enjoy Hawaii as much as we do.
As we returned to the airport and returned our car (which was "excessively dirty" according to the lady who assessed us a $50 charge for sand on the floor mats) we began reflecting on our trip and dreaming of the next one. Oh but don't worry, there's still a poop story to tell. The flight to San Francisco is 4.5 hours long and although it was the middle of the day, Claire slept for the first 4 hours of it. Right about the time we were descending through 25000 feet I felt something warm on my leg that kept growing and didn't stop until it had wrapped my entire thigh. Oh no I thought, Claire's pee has leaked. Wrong, it was too dark. Poo, lots of poo all over my lap. It was probably the biggest (in terms of volume) poo she's ever had, but I guess as she grows so do her bowels. Aloha!