Trip to Hawai'i, part 1

Our plane left LAX at 8:30 am on Dec. 15, which meant we had to leave the house at 4:30 to arrive at the airport by 6:30. I don't do mornings, so this was rather painful for me. And of course, we gained two hours going there, which made the day seem even longer. Brian (my husband) and I went to bed right after dinner. Not much sightseeing that day.

Over the next several days, we did some shopping and sightseeing in the northern part of the big island. There's a lot of beautiful forest and farmland in that area, and the valleys on the northeast coast are spectacular. Brian especially liked the town of Waimea, but we could never afford to live there.

On the 19th, we visited my parents' Catholic church. We're Baptists, so that's a big change for us. When we got there, the cantor asked us if we could sing, as he had laryngitis and wouldn't be able to lead the music. Brian is the music director at our small church, and we both sing at the community college, so we agreed, and after about 30 minutes of practice ( we didn't know much of the music) the service started. Apparently, we did okay - they didn't throw us out :)

The next day, we picked up our 19 year old daughter Rachel and 21 year old son Jacob at the airport, then stopped at a little music shop in Kailua, where I bought a case for my baritone ukulele and a folk song fake book. Then we picked up some groceries and headed for home, where we planned our major sightseeing trips for the rest of the week.

On Tuesday, we went down to Kailua-Kona to do some shopping (I've used that word a lot, haven't I?), then visited a painted church, a coffee plantation, and a neat little antique shop, where I bought my dad some false teeth as a joke (he's been wearing the same ones since 1963). We sampled some Kona coffee and bought a few bags to share with friends at work, then Jacob sang a few bars of "O Holy Night" for the proprietors, which sent their little dog into a tizzy. He's got quite a voice, as you can hear if you check out his blog.