Thursday, February 17, 2005
1/8/05
We are safely back from our wonderful trip to Hawaii. What a fantastic job you did putting it all together. It exceeded each and every expectation we had (and all those cards and gifts ahead of time had built up some pretty big expectations!)
I just heard the sound of Jacob blowing the conch shell that a Hawaiian named Ali Kai Kinimaka gave him while we were on our kayak trip. We had taken the kayaks down the Hanalei river and beached them at the beautiful Hanalei bay when this fellow called Jacob over and gave him the shell. Our guide was completely blown away; nothing like that had ever happened before. Evidently Ali Kai is from a very old and important native Hawaiian family on the island, and it was a tremendous honor. You should have seen Jacob glow. It was one of the magical moments.
The sailing adventure was great fun. Jacob and his friend, Franklin, got seats right away on the "trampoline" stretched across the front of the boat so that they could see (and be splashed by) everything. We saw dozens of leaping dolphins, turtles, whales and one very rare endangered monk seal (actually, they saw the monk seal; I didn't.)
The hotel suite was another lovely surprise. I wish now I had taken photos inside: it was huge, beautiful and it had a full kitchen, which was a great and practical luxury.
We did skip the Luau (we called ahead to let them know we weren't coming) and had a relaxing day on the beach. The kids had a lot fun building an impressive hut from driftwood and palm fronds lashed together with seaweed and bark. The picture attached is Jacob peeking out from the fronds of it. The thing was still standing the next day despite the wild winds and surf.
I just heard the sound of Jacob blowing the conch shell that a Hawaiian named Ali Kai Kinimaka gave him while we were on our kayak trip. We had taken the kayaks down the Hanalei river and beached them at the beautiful Hanalei bay when this fellow called Jacob over and gave him the shell. Our guide was completely blown away; nothing like that had ever happened before. Evidently Ali Kai is from a very old and important native Hawaiian family on the island, and it was a tremendous honor. You should have seen Jacob glow. It was one of the magical moments.
The sailing adventure was great fun. Jacob and his friend, Franklin, got seats right away on the "trampoline" stretched across the front of the boat so that they could see (and be splashed by) everything. We saw dozens of leaping dolphins, turtles, whales and one very rare endangered monk seal (actually, they saw the monk seal; I didn't.)
The hotel suite was another lovely surprise. I wish now I had taken photos inside: it was huge, beautiful and it had a full kitchen, which was a great and practical luxury.
We did skip the Luau (we called ahead to let them know we weren't coming) and had a relaxing day on the beach. The kids had a lot fun building an impressive hut from driftwood and palm fronds lashed together with seaweed and bark. The picture attached is Jacob peeking out from the fronds of it. The thing was still standing the next day despite the wild winds and surf.
# posted by Jacob's Dad @ 12:32 PM 
