Their plane was late coming in, and we'd arrived at the airport early, so it was a long wait! We were all so happy to see them when they finally got here! We greeted them with plumeria lei that we had made at the flower farm earlier that afternoon.
Papohaku beach
Mom and Dad brought 2 extra suitcases full of stuff for us - mostly things that I had requested that we can't get here and then some gifts. Thor loved this special gift from Grandpa.
At the library after Zara was finished "working".
We spent one morning caroling with my ukulele class - 2 preschools, Coffee's of Hawaii, then to Kumu farms where we sang, played and had lunch. I borrowed an ukulele for Dad and he had fun playing too!
We spent a day exploring the east side of Molokai.
All the way to the Halawa Valley - the end of the road.
We walked into a tropical flower farm and had a look around.
Flowers being washed for the street market the next day.
These old vehicles, completely overgrown, are a fairly common sight.
The beach in Halawa is beautiful!
Everything on the east end is so green and lush!
Visited a macadamia nut farm. Thor enjoyed cracked those nuts with a hammer! What a treat to eat the mac nuts right out of the shell!
My first hula performance!
Getting ready for our mule ride down to Kalaupapa (former leper colony, now a National Park)
First glimpse of the peninsula below. We decended 1600 feet in 3 miles - 26 switch backs down the side of a steep cliff! We were hanging on and just had to trust that the mules would get us there safely! I have a whole new respect for these steady, amazing animals!
Mom was happy to get off her mule at the bottom. (We all were!)
We took a 4 hour tour of Kalaupapa, through the town, some of the churches and the scenic areas. It was very beautiful and peaceful there, but also very melancholy. This place has such a tragic history.... the sadness was deep and you could feel the spirits of the 8000 people that had been sent there to die. In this photo above, you can see some of the marked graves of the priests and church people sent there to help and attend the victims, but that big green field on the other side of the wall is the site of thousands of unmarked graves.
If you look closely at the photo above you can see some trees sticking up at the top of the cliff just right of center. If you follow the top of the cliff over about an inch to the left you can make out a cut line that starts to drop down to the left. That was the start of the mule trail up top and we just zigzagged our way down the cliff. As we were getting on our mules after the tour to go back up, we were sure hoping the return trip would be easier! And it was! I really enjoyed it. I found the trip back up really peaceful and I soaked up every moment of being alone (sans kids!). They stayed home with John as a person has to be over 16 yrs old to make this trip.
This was an experience that will stay vivid in my mind for the rest of my life. Amazing.
A sweet moment at the beach.
John at the woodfire oven. We've become a great pizza making team... I make them, he bakes 'em!
That's a lot of photos in one post! I'm going to do a "part 2" for the second half of the trip!
Amazing. Love seeing pictures of you and your family along with Hawaii, seen through your eyes and experiences.
ReplyDeleteHope to see you hula dance in person, one day, Jacqueline. Looks like you're making the most of life in Hawaii. I'm so glad your parents were able to visit and looks like you made some wonderful memories during their time with you.