Costanoa 2013

Our final destination before we left NorCal was to the campground at Costanoa. It's actually not camping, but "glamping" in a tent cabin with electricity, real beds, comforters, even heating pads to warm up after being outside during cool (usually foggy) evenings or your trip to the "comfort station" which is also warmed, has hot water, dry sauna, and fireplace to hang out in front of sipping your nightcap!

We went for a three mile hike after a gourmet breakfast at the on site Cascade Grill restaurant for lodge guests (real rooms) and those like us who were "glamping" - Eggs Benedict Florentine with grilled salmon for Alex (!) 

The fog was burning off and we walked through some beautiful terrain with a stop to pick wild blackberries. Coastal prairie, rocky bluffs, sand dunes, eucalyptus forest...then we had to pack up the car and head over the hill to the airport for SoCal.

More photos here.

Summer 2013 - 3rd week and beyond

After Hawaii it was time to head to California. We flew to SFO on the red-eye and lost time due to crossing time zones.

Decided to go to Santa Cruz for lunch and drove back up Hwy 1 to meet my sister in Larkspur for dinner and enjoy some live music outdoors. There was a new tunnel to get to Pacifica, so it was pretty quick to Marin County which was good because I was pretty tired!

We went to Redding after a couple days visiting to hang out with my Mom. Here's us at her favorite pizza place - Round Table, and actually sitting at the round table.

Besides pizza, we went to have tacos, burgers, BBQ ribs & fried catfish, surf and turf, two Chinese restaurants and sushi the two weeks we were there! Too bad we were there during a heat wave, highest was 116F - we didn't even make it to the lake!

Before we flew to SoCal, we stayed a couple more nights in the Bay area. In SF stayed in an old style "auto court" motel where you park your car right under your room. The courtyard flowers were beautiful! 

The next day we went to a fun trampoline park near the Golden Gate before stopping to visit cousins.

Our final night was spent at a favorite campground and I'll write about that in the next post...

Second week of summer

The start of nearly a day's worth of travel began with a 4:30am alarm going off - we had to leave in an hour to check-in a couple hours ahead of our 8am flight. We flew Delta this year and our flight to Kona for the family vacation included a six hour layover in Narita and a couple of hours in Honolulu. We arrived in Tokyo in time for a sushi lunch with fish fresh from the famous Tsukiji market and spent the afternoon into evening wandering from one end of the terminal to the other, eating more food (noodles and soft-serve cones) and buying favorite treats discovered on past Japan trips to share - cookies from Hokkaido (shiroi koibito) and Kyoto (yatsuhashi), and Royce chocolate. We were waiting for the Japanese to finish work for the weekend to join us on the East-bound red-eye to HNL.  Because of the time difference, we arrived the same day we departed at 11:30am, but then had to wait another couple of hours for the rest of the family to arrive. In the end, our waiting time was nearly as long as flying time!

First view of Kona coast

Our party of nine rented a house off Alii Drive near Kailua-Kona and Keauhou Bay. It was a great location far enough away from the touristy area but close enough to go out to eat there - our first meal was local food at B.I.G. (Big Island Grill) We ate lots of Hawaiian food during the week - saimin, locomoco, fresh fish - poke, lomi lomi, grilled and fried, poi, lau lau and kalua pork, but also had sushi (at Shiono), pizza, pasta, burgers, other seafood, steaks, shave ice, ice cream and other local desserts, not to mention Kona coffee. The Su family enjoys their food!

View point on the way up the coast

In the water at Mauna Kea

Honu at Hilton Wailkoloa

 Saturday we drove up to the ritzy Kohala resort area twice - in the morning to a beautiful beach (best to go before it gets too hot and the winds pick up) and in the evening for a seafood buffet at Mauna Kea.

The Kona marathon was Sunday morning so we swam in the backyard pool after breakfast. Later, Paul took his old college bicycle out for a ride that he had fixed up to bring to HK and I took the kids snorkeling at a great beginner cove a couple miles away. We watched the sunset as we went to town for dinner.


Monday we woke early for a drive to the other side, with Volcanoes National Park being the destination. We drove clockwise North heading first to cattle country with a stop at Parker Ranch shopping center in Waimea,

then Waipio Valley, 
Akaka Falls,

and Hilo before arriving at the park for a walk through Thurston Lava Tube.

We watched the sun set and had dinner at Volcano House overlooking Kilauea. It was just after the full moon, but still hard to get a good shot at night...

Tuesday, after a couple of walks and driving down and up the Chain of Craters Road, we headed back around to the South, stopping at Punalu'u black sand beach and arrived back to the house for another lovely sunset.

 

Wednesday was our much anticipated snorkel trip to marine sanctuary Kealakekua Bay. We boarded Fair Wind II for breakfast and a leisurely cruise down the coast, were in the water for a couple of hours, and enjoyed BBQ for lunch before heading back to port.

Thursday was departure day with Paul heading back to HK first, then Rosa to Maui, and the rest of us had all day to hang out before our red-eye flights, East again - to California.

Other places we ate at: Merriman's, Scandanavian Shave Ice, Sam Choy's, Bianelli's Pizza, Kona de Pele Coffee (affogato), Tropical Frozen Yogurts, Pine Tree Cafe, Big Island Pizza (nice oven!) ; Hilo - Mr. Ed's Bakery, Cafe 100; Volcano - Kilauea Lodge, Cafe Ohia; Punalu'u Bake Shop

First week of summer

Started summer with a Mom's night out at a private kitchen in a Fotan warehouse that I had found and gone to with the family last November. It's actually a business that sells food they import by day and prepares that food in a set meal for guests in the evenings. They only have space for two tables of 5-6 and just one sitting. Our group sat and talked and ate a leisurely meal and just enjoyed each other's company since it was actually the first time we had all gone out in this particular group without all the boys (10 between us!) It was nearly 11pm by the time we left...past my normal bedtime, haha!

During the rest of the week before our scheduled departure Maggie and I enjoyed a morning at the spa - facial for her, massage for me, then lunch. On another day Alex and I went for a late afternoon foot massage, then dinner. Neither wanted me to take photos of them lounging around...

Spent the last few days trying to tidy up, doing paperwork, coordinating with friends for hamster care, and  packing. Our flight was at eight in the morning, so we had to leave home by 5:30am, but we were looking forward to vacationing with the Su side of the family (as we do every other year), this year on the big island of Hawaii - aloha!

Civil War Day

Wow – Civil War Day was filled with activities! (A huge thank you to the teachers for putting on such an event.) Our students had fun doing various activities separated by gender and at times Union (North) and Confederate (South). Mr. Thompson made a guest appearance as Abraham Lincoln to deliver the Gettysburg Address before the activities began. There was a backpack contest to see who could pack items relevant to a soldier going off to war. The students painted flags based on their assignments (North or South), the ladies decorated fans and learned about proper manners before they had a tea party. The gentlemen played a rousing game of rounders and strategically planned prisoner camps in groups. Then it was lunch – what a feast! Everyone made food similar to food served in the day – it was bountiful and delicious! After lunch the ladies wrote letters to their “dearest” off at the battlefield and the gentlemen were preparing for battle – going through marching drills and such. Everyone came together again to listen to a sermon and enjoy dancing – something similar to a Virginia Reel, two lines of partners (boys and girls) facing each other – choosing partners after bowing and curtseying by giving flowers. The day was finished with a showing of a well depicted movie about the first African-American Union Regiment.

You have to click on the album Civil War Day to see the videos since they don't play on the slideshow, but here's Alex since it's our blog... (Dixieland, Scarborough Fair by musicians, men preparing for battle - drills, marching, dancing, other misc)