Warm Waves and Winking Stars - Week 7

Week 7 (Los Angeles, Hawaii)

7^th to 14^th of September

Packing up our tent in Plaskett Creek was with bitter-sweetness. We have come to the end of the first quarter of this dream trip, by finally folding that VANGO super-duper tent away. This time we actually had to do it well, so it can go back into the teeny-weeny bag!!! By camping we made our 23-day road trip across Western America super affordable. It was not easy (most of the time), but it was one of those experiences which we will carry with us…sweet-sweet memories engraved upon our hearts…molding us as a family together. THIS is what this trip is ALL about!

When we started off in Carbondale, Colorado, we purchased a few extras, like a cooler box, camping chairs, washing-up bucket (the rest I brought from Scotland with us…like the cutlery, IKEA plastic plates, multi-mat self inflatable camping matrasses and sleeping bags). Now we were getting to the stage where we were getting rid of our chairs by blessing a ‘surfer family’ with them!!

Beautiful day again to be out on the coast. At our first out-look stop, we spotted a herd of whales (flote (float), gram, grind (bottle-nosed), herd, mob, pod, run, school, shoal, or troup (troop)……there you have the word(s) for it!!!)…actually a few troops of them. ‘Hunners’ of them….. we were mesmerized!!  It took us a very long time before we could drag ourselves away from this Godly concert in nature!! The road down south was still long, with quite a few sights still to be explored….

Next stop was the elephant seal colony, just north of Hearst Castle at San Simeon. Man those seals are BIG and SMELLY!!! They appeared here in 1990 and are still there. They are known to choose a spot to breed, stay there for some years and disappear again…nobody knows why…. On the day we were there, we saw around 400 of them, but were told that in the breeding season(winter) there can be up to 3000 seals crawling over each other on this small beach. That’s nature for you!!!!!

We treated ourselves with a coffee at the Cumbria Coffee Roasting Company…upon my request for directions to the nearest public toilets(called ‘rest rooms’ in the States…or ‘potties’????) I was told that, because of the drought and water restrictions, nobody in the town are allowed to flush toilets, but there are ‘porta potties’ in a wee side street for public use. Wow! We also experience restrictions on lighting wood fires in Plaskett Creek…which was a bit of an odd experience – camping without a braai(bbq).

San Luis Obispo(the fifth Californian Mission founded in 1772)  provided the next leg-stretching opportunity. Our guidebook told us about the ‘bubblegum alley’ – we just had to go and stick our bits of chew-goo on that wall too!! 

Next, the Madonna Inn considered as a pilgrimage site for lovers of All-American kitsch!!! Still not done in San L. Last stop(since we’ve not manage north into the famous Californian Napa valley) we choose the Tolosa Winery.

Imagine James Bond creating a tasting room, all sleek and sophisticated… We fell in love with their Tolosa 2012 No Oak Chardonnay ( you can get the expert opinion on this wine here: We just thought it was really nice!!!

By this stage it was already late afternoon and we still had a long way to go, but we just could not by-pass Santa Barbara’s Old Mission(founded in 1786).

Unfortunately it was after closing time, but it was still such a peaceful atmosphere that welcomed us at the church. It is still an active gathering spot- 225 years later!!! We had a bit a of a struggle getting the Suburban fueled up, but the wonderful frozen yogurt joint, we stumbled upon, made up for it…everybody(except our exceptional Nina…) can be bribed with ice cream!!!! (What child does not like ice-cream??? Well, we’ve got one…….!!!)

 Praise God for safe guidance to our hotel/motel close to Downtown Hollywood. On our second last day in the US, I got my Mexican carry-out dinner, kids got their McD’s and everybody went to bed well fed and HAPPY!!

Monday was spend finding stars of our favorite actors/actress and celebs in Hollywood Boulevard, driving through Beverly Hills, and getting a view over the city from Mulholland Drive - a 21-mile long road, loosely following the ridgeline of the eastern Santa Monica Mountains and the Hollywood Hills. We had a bit of a I-do-not-feel-well incident here, but hey ho…after 3 500 miles travelled with 4 young children and only one emergency stop… I think we did very well!!!!

Tuesday morning arrived and a new excitement was brewing… After our make-it-yourself waffle breakfast at our hotel, we packed the Suburban for the final time..blessed some more people with left over camping supplies and off we went to LAX International Airport. We were so ready for our planned week of swimming, surfing and celebrating in Hawai’i.

Our 5h flight to the popular island of O’ahu passed very quickly. United Airlines do not provide you with food onboard, but you can purchase it if you need to.(We are just so use to taking our own snacks on board, that it’s really not an issue.) You get free soft drinks though. What annoyed us on our flight from Orlando to Denver was that we even had to pay for our in-flight entertainment. Well, on that flight, needless to say, we just had to read books and play card games!!! Luckily, it was a different story on the Hawaii flight and everybody was HAPPY!!!!

We arrived late afternoon in Honolulu, picked up our Dodge 7-seater from Dollar Car rental (they even picked ups up with a wee bus at the airport!!) and we were off to the North Shore. We rented a one-bedroom condominium on Pat’s at Panaluu. On our way there we did a shop-stop: main purpose to pick up ingredients for an imminent special 6^th birthday party.

When we first started sharing our vision/dream with the kids we made sure to create a mind picture of which friends we were planning to see and what places we were planning to visit. From the start everybody talked about where they will be having their birthdays…where will we be in July, where will we be in September. Shortly after Philippa discovered that we will celebrate her birthday in Hawai’i, she drew us a picture. This girl did not only listened with her ears, but she formed a picture in her mind of the things that we were believing for; the things that we were dreaming of and started to plan towards. We put the picture up against the wall of our hallway. She helped us to see our vision. Every day we looked at it, we talked about it and we worked hard towards achieving this goal. As I am writing this, I am feeling quite emotional thinking back to September, 10^th . We did not stand on the side line watching somebody else’s dreams being full filled…no!!! We were part of that picture (now long packed into a removal box….) we were acting the scene out!!! We were waking her up with her midnightly-decorated-blue ocean and beach cake….just as she has dreamed and drawn about! We were living this dream and it felt sooooooo GOOD!!!

A very relaxing day followed. After birthday cake for breakfast and French toast for brunch (again requested by birthday girl), we spent the rest of our first day on the island swimming in the residential pool(straight in front of our ground floor condo) and in the aqua-marine hotter-than-bath-water ocean!! Afternoon picnic-party was held on the grassy strip between the block of condo’s and the beach..underneath the palm trees…idyllic!!! 

Another sunny day begged for deeper investigation into surfer’s paradise. We drove northwards from Panaluu. Now the desperate state of my bikini needed some serious attention. I found this to be a great BIG project of endurance and failure…. Arno’s annoyance turned into sympathy as he realized..now at the second shop..hours later…what a battle I was fighting!! The whole palava was eating into his precious surfing time…I understood that, and that made me even more desperado!!! With an success rate of 50%(yes I eventually found a bikini bottom that worked…) we decided on Haleiwa beach. Hot-hot sand forced us to hide under the palm tree shade, but with-in a few minutes we were messing about in the surf. At this stage I just need to point out that my one-and-only-son, who has told me so many times that (I was almost worn down to believe him) he hated sand and will never ever ever swim in the ocean….well, there he was boogie-boarding the waves like a pro. For more than 2 hours he, together with Alana, challenged the waves, got rolled about, dumped on the beach and raced each other back for more. I have not seen those two kids enjoying the ocean as much as that afternoon!!!

Arno was trying to find his ‘surfer legs’ again amongst a growing number of local pro’s as the afternoon progressed. It was so cool to be on a beach where the local girls came for their surf lessons after school. Alana’s age and younger. She was itching for a shot on the board, so as soon as Arno came closer to the shore she took him back in to teach her. I am so proud of this girl. She manage to stand up on the board within the hour!!...AND then..my treat for the afternoon…to see wee Nina’s face when her daddy let her go on a wave from way back. First on the boogie board and finally on the surfboard in the more shallow waters. At this stage she was still happy to lay down!!

We had to keep our promise…one of Philippa’s birthday wishes was to have a Hawaiian pizza in Hawaii…and that is what we did for dinner (although Arno and I were aching to try some of the local fish delicacies.)

We had a wee surprise lined up for the kids: we planned to take them to the opening day of the film Dolphin Tale 2. What a lovely movie!!(I was very sad to find out that we actually passed the aquarium in Clearwater Beach, Florida…and did not know that we could have taken the kids to go and meet ‘Winter’, the dolphin without a tale!!) What was also vey significant of this movie, is that Bethany Hamilton made a gust appearance in the movie. She is one of our role models, and such an inspiration, spiritually and physically!!(She grew up in Hawaii(!!). The movie ‘Soul Surfer’ tells her story. I am not giving it away…it’s a must see!!!!)

We met up with Pastor Joe Onesai. We befriended him last year, as he visited Scotland. This big Samoan Chief has planted Destiny Church in Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, 3 and a half years ago. God is building his church, with 3 Sunday services and one midweek service. We were so blessed by hanging out with him!!

We had to squeeze in some more sunning and surfing on Saturday, before we got dressed up to attend the Polynesian experience at the Culture Center. What a fantastic introduction to the culture of Hawaii and beyond. Each one of the six different nations hosted 30min long shows presenting a different aspect of that specific culture. This was homeschooling at it’s best!! We then proceeded to the Luau – where we were entertained by song and dance while we stuffed ourselves with traditional delicacies. We witnessed the whole ceremony of getting the whole-day-roasted-underneath-banana-leaves-on-hot-stones-pork of the stones and onto our plates!! 

Not finished yet…we proceeded to the very large auditorium to see the spectacle: ‘Breath of Life’. This enactment of the Polynesian cradle to grave story, complete with haka, fire-dancers and –eaters, love and eternal life kept us (front row seats…excuse me!!!) glued to our seats for more than 2hours. It was FANTASTIC!!!!

We visited Pastor Joe’s church on Sunday morning and enjoyed making some new godly connections with Christine and Leo Bogee. These guys are running a marriage ministry with the main aim on self-awareness. Very excited to ready a bit more about it in the book written by Leo himself!! This was our first church visit since Greenville and we were just soaking it all up. What a joy to be amongst believers- regardless of culture or langue. Thanks Pastor Joe for welcoming us and blessing us so much!! We can’t wait to welcome you and Pastor Ann in South Africa!!

Off to the Pearl Harbor Memorial Site. Not one of the most happiest times of my day, but a time of reflection for me and education for the children. On the 7^th of December 1941 more than 2500 soldiers gave their lives in the quest of a free and fair world. The surprise attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor, where most of the American fleet were stationed, kick-started the Second World War for America. I just feel sad about war and rumors of war…

Sunday afternoon at Waikiki beach…well, that did not happen, because we could not find parking!! Hee hee. Went the long way back home and checked out a few neighborhoods, where someday… we might come back to our weekend house!! Yes.. I can dream!!!!