Col: I kind of like how the water line is not quite horizontal in this picture. That's because I had to set the timer and balance the camera on a coconut. Didn't think to bring a tripod, and it's okay that your coconut is not exactly perfect when you're using it as a camera stand.
Col: Packing and packing and hoping I didn't go over the weight restrictions on the big suitcase. I won't miss the pounding surf outside my window at night - like Mags, I find it keeps me up. Jay has the girls at the beach out back while I shove everything into bags - trying to protect seashells and keep the stuff we'll need to placate the girls on the plane tonight available. We have to be out by 10 in the morning and our flight's not till 7 tonight and on a Sunday in Molokai... I'm not sure how we're going to keep our sanity, let alone feed ourselves. Fortitude.
Day after the last day:
Jay: The last day wasn't so bad (considering it could have been a disaster). We did eventually get out around ten and I had a good talk with the housekeepeer, who told us a little more about how the cottages were run (she does a lot of the day-to-day stuff). It would be awesome to be able to stay in a place like that for the season and then have someone like her run the place while you're gone. Oh well.
The last day was spent mostly at On'e Alii Beach (version I to be precise). Not my cup of tea but the girls loved it. The water was about 80 degrees and there was minimal surf. They really tired themselves out in what was one of their best (and most active) beach experiences. We had enough time to waste to allow us to drive to the west side of the island again. We continued way past Papohaku Beach (the three mile long beach) to the end of the road. I believe the beach there is commonly called "Dixie Maru."
Thank god we went because I had completely written off the entire west side. That beach was awesome! Definitely another reason to come back. It was also the most crowded beach: there were at least ten other people on the beach when we were there (See the photos above of the beach and the parking lot).
After a quick stop at the Molokai Pizza Cafe (best dining in town - and kiddie cars!), we started "The Journey." Actually, it wasn't all that physically draining for me since both girls decided I had contracted Hansen's Disease and would not come near me for almost the entire flight. Ellie threw a fit that could easily have been diagnosed as a grand mal seizure. Fortunately, screaming at the top of her lungs for ten minutes after almost 14 hours without much meaningful sleep meant a hard crash on the plane. Col had to contort herself into unnatural positions to support both girls but she proved up to the task and was even a good sport about driving me into work this morning.
Work: I've had two people call me Grizzley Adams and one person called me a Yeti. The entire system office is wondering what kind of relaxed dress code Cam is maintaining in Legal Services.
I missed my birthday cake at the office.
Col: I agree that the last day was actually pretty fun - applying the whole laid back "we're not in a hurry to get anywhere" mentality. Kind of important when you have nine hours to drive to an airport that's 15 miles away. Jay neglected to mention the casualty that occurred at On'e Alii Beach - After we had enjoyed finishing off our Pipeline Coffee Porters, I was following the girls around taking some pictures (because that's what I do), Ellie dropped her glasses on the sidewalk leading to the little wahines room. And then I stepped on them. And broke them.
The flight from Molokai to Honolulu was great fun for Ellie - Maggie sobbed the whole time, "I don't want to leave Molokai!!! I want to go back to our green house!!!" We just kind of let her serve as our family spokesperson. Jay and I kind of agreed that there's nothing we were really psyched to run home to. We'll be back.
The wait for the flight to PDX was long - and the girls got visibly more and more exhausted so that by the time we got on the flight, the breakdown from Ellie was not a total surprise - it was just a matter of how one of them was going to decide to express her exhaustion to the world. It was really not fun to contort myself as Jay described above - at one point, I actually tried making myself comfortable in the 8-inch-wide foot area below the seats, as the girls spread out to fill every inch of seat room. At least they got some rest. Next time, we'll definitely try to avoid the red-eye - even if it means getting ourselves to Maui for a night or something and flying from there. Really glad we kept this little journal! (Thanks for indulging us by putting up with all of these posts... Kind of feels like now that I've got it all on the blog that the vacation is really over. Bummer.)
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