August 2019
Another robbery (not us) -- well, burglary
August 27, 2019 02:54 PM
Argh. Neighbors to the south robbed. Well, burgled. Nobody was home. Neighbors to the east apparently cased in a way that's similar to what happened to us. It may not be the same exact group; the methods are pretty common.
Our house not cased, but I have conspicuous cameras around. An officer showed up to request our videos from this morning between 9 AM and 10:30 AM. I put them up on Dropbox for them and e-mailed the police, but I'm not sure I see anything notable. Still, anything we can do to help…
Our house not cased, but I have conspicuous cameras around. An officer showed up to request our videos from this morning between 9 AM and 10:30 AM. I put them up on Dropbox for them and e-mailed the police, but I'm not sure I see anything notable. Still, anything we can do to help…
Hawaii Vacation 2019
August 19, 2019 07:43 PM
We took our biennial tropical island vacation in Hawaii this summer. I say "tropical island" because two years ago, we went to the Atlantis Resort in Nassau, but prior to that, our "tropical island" vacations had been in Hawaii.
This year, we wanted to try something different, based on our experience at Cocoa Beach for the PSP launch. The boys are too big to squeeze into one hotel room with me and Hsuan, but resort suites are very, very expensive, so we looked for either a condo rental or a timeshare. I was really attracted to the Wailea Elua Village condos in Wailea: There were some affordable condos with a lot of space, full kitchens laundries, and excellent views available when we were scheduled for our vacation. It's near the Grand Wailea on Maui where we usually stay. The Wailea area is quiet and comfortable with very nice beaches and easy snorkeling.
However, the pools there are tiny compared to the massive pool complex at the Grand Wailea. So, we decided on the Marriott Maui Ocean Club at Kaanapali Beach. This is a Marriott Vacation Club property, and we booked our timeshare suite through VRBO. We booked an oceanfront two bedroom suite, which may be the largest suite we've ever booked for our family vacations; the Cocoa Beach stay may have been larger. We didn't have a full kitchen, but we had access to the resort's outdoor grills and communal kitchen, if we needed them. Meanwhile, we had a generous kitchenette with refrigeration, dishwasher, microwaves, dishes, pots and pans, eating utensils, etc. It was more than enough for us; we saved a lot of restaurant money by getting breakfast and lunch foods at a local grocery store in Lahaina. Plus, by switching to West Maui instead of South Maui (Wailea), we had access to more restaurants and other nightlife.
With two bedrooms and a living room, we had a ton of space. In fact, we had more space than I expected, based on the floorpans we saw online when selecting our room class. I think it was because we were on the 2nd floor, which extended somewhat farther out toward the ocean than the 3rd and higher floors.
And of course, we had nice pools, not as massive as the Grand Wailea but way bigger than the small pools at Wailea Elua Village. There were two smaller pools at the side towers, including one right below our suite, plus a larger, central main pool complex. And there was the ocean. Also, Black Rock was about half a mile up the beach, near the Sheraton, for what was billed as some premiere snorkeling on Maui. Since I had never snorkeled there, I was looking forward to something new.
We flew in on Sunday, 8/11, picked up our luggage and rental car, drove to the Ocean Club, and had dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. On Monday we drove to Lahaina for breakfast and to shop for groceries for breakfast and lunch in the room that week. We had breakfast at Down Under and shave ice at Local Boys, both near the big banyan tree in historic Lahaina. We walked around Front Street a while before returning to our car to go to the grocery store.
GOPR0358
After having a late lunch in the room, we walked up the beach to Black Rock, a prime snorkeling point near the Sheraton at the north end of Kaanapali Beach. It's also a favorite spot for young people to jump off the rock and into the ocean. I've snorkeled during every visit to Hawaii, so I consider myself an experienced snorkeler, and the boys are pretty experienced as well. For this trip, I had purchased a Wildhorn Outfitters Seaview 180° v.2 to try out. It's a full-face mask and snorkel single unit, and while I have absolutely no problems using a traditional snorkel and mask, I wanted to try the new technology. This particular model is supposed to have better valving between chambers to prevent CO2 buildup in the breathing chambers. Unfortunately, the waves and current were too strong for me to get used to the new mask, and visibility was poor near the rock. I couldn't get close to the outermost edge of the rock to enter the two arms of the Black Rock outcropping, where the snorkeling is supposed to be best. I got tired quickly, gave up, and resolved to come out in the morning of some other day, when the waves and current were lower. Meanwhile, while I was trying to snorkel, the boys were up on the rock itself, jumping off into the water with other kids.
I returned to the spot farther south on the beach where Hsuan had set up some towels, and then I went body surfing a while with the boys. I wiped out a few times, enjoying myself fully, and it wasn't until later in the evening, in our room, where I found out that sand had gotten in all my swimming clothes, hair, and ears.
We returned to the resort, swam in the main pool a while, and had dinner in the room after we all showered at length to get rid of the sand. I was still rinsing sand out of my ears for days afterward.
Before leaving Pasadena, I had booked us a tour with Skyline Tours to see the sunrise at the summit of Mt. Haleakala on Tuesday. The last time we went to Mt. Haleakala for sunrise — a "once in a lifetime experience" — the boys were very young, and J got altitude sickness. Plus, I had to drive us all up there very early in the morning, and it was cold and crowded. To keep crowding down nowadays, the National Park Service has limited sunrise viewing permits, so either you book a tour with a licensed company or you get your own permit ahead of time. I went with the Haleakala Sunrise Tour with Breakfast with Skyline. They'd give us a hot breakfast (rather than a continental breakfast with some other companies), and they provided warm jackets for everyone. And of course, they'd do all the driving and position us at optimal viewing sites. I could sleep on the drive up.
I booked by phone, and they gave me J's ticket as a child's ticket, which saved us some money.
Our tour guide gave us a smooth drive, took some of our family photos, and generally made the entire tour comfortable and informative.
After returning to the resort, we had lunch, slept in the room for most of the afternoon, and then spent just a couple of hours at the pools before going to dinner at Monkeypod Kitchen at Whalers Village, a shopping and restaurant area halfway between the Maui Beach Club and Black Rock. We were still tired and decided we'd spend Wednesday at the resort as well.
Early Wednesday morning, we walked up the beach to Black Rock, for an early morning attempt at snorkeling. This time, I decided I'd concentrate on snorkeling rather than on the new Wildhorn Outfitters mask, so I brought only my traditional snorkel and mask, and fins. I went out easily. Not only were the waves calmer, but I was able to breathe far more easily with the simpler snorkel. I went around the rock and entered the two rock arms and found lots of coral and fish to look at, and I was able to use my GoPro by hand. I returned to the beach and talked J into joining me for another trip. He tried to tell me he didn't need fins, but I told him he had to use them, because he wouldn't have enough swimming power out there in the waves and current — calmer though they were — without the fins. In the water, I was a little disturbed to see him use a breast-stroke kick rather than a scissor kick to use the fins, and he didn't seem receptive to my pointing out the inefficiency of it all. Oh, well.
We got to see a lot of fish and coral between the arms of Black Rock. At one point, when I turned around, he was gone, and I had to scan around the area until I found him at the north end of the inlet with another group. Apparently, one of those guys had yelled out that there was a sea turtle there, so J went to look. I was irritated that he broke our buddy system — very important for safety — but relieved he was okay. I was only slightly disappointed that I didn't get to see the turtle.
We returned to the beach for more body surfing (and wiping out), then returned to the hotel to swim in the pool and have lunch. Dinner that evening was at Hula Grill at Whaler's Village.
Thursday was our Road to Hana day. The Road to Hana is noteworthy for the windy, narrow drive, with many single-lane bridges and hairpin, blind turns. There are many places to stop to see waterfalls or pools or special secluded beaches, and there are very limited parking spots at those areas. Basically, because the road is so narrow, if you can't find a spot to park at a site, it's better to drive on to the next one. The sites along the road are the main attraction; the town of Hana itself, on the east side of Maui, is almost an afterthought to the trip itself.
Hsuan and I had driven the road to Hana by ourselves long before the boys were born, so this was our first trip as a family. I had read some overwrought reviewers on TripAdvisor complaining about how dangeorus the road was, and since I was driving my family, I got a little worried. Once on the road, however, I was comfortably in control of the car. My only worry was the boys getting carsick.
We got a late start, leaving the Ocean Club only a little before 8 AM, while the guidebooks urged leaving by 6 AM. Naturally, we didn't stop at every site, and we missed a lot because of a lack of parking or because we simply passed by without noticing an exit. However, we did see Twin Falls (considered swimming, along with other visitors) and Kaumahina State Park (for a bathroom break). We stopped at the Halfway to Hana food stand for shave ice and delicious banana bread, fresh out of the oven. We visited the Hana Lava Tube. We had lunch in Hana, at the Hana Ranch Restaurant.
At lunch, which was already approaching mid-afternoon, I decided we'd skip the black sand beach and the red sand beach in Hana and try to make our way to the Seven Sacred Pools at 'Ohe'o Gulch, which is part of the Haleakala National Park. It's a big destination for many or most people on the Road to Hana, where streams drop down falls into a series of pools leading to the ocean. It's supposed to be a great swimming destination. Unfortunately, when we got there, the signs at the entrance ($25 entrance fee per car) indicated that swimming was currently prohibited, for safety reasons (flash flooding, etc.). Oh, well. Instead, we hiked up the Pipiwai trail and stopped at the Makahiku Falls for a photo, then turned around to go down to the 'Ohe'o gulch and visit the Seven Sacred Pools (and not swim).
The boys slept in the car for the long drive back to Lahaina, where we stopped for groceries and to pick up take-out at Aloha Mixed Plate, next door to the Old Lahaina Luau. We had forgotten to book Old Lahaina Luau tickets 3 weeks in advance, as we had forgotten during our last visit to Lahaina years ago. Oh, well. I had been craving mixed plate for a while anyway.
Friday was another resort-day, spent almost entirely at the pool, or having breakfast or lunch in our room, or playing chess in the tower. It was pretty relaxing. So relaxing, with the pool bar drinks, that I fell asleep in my lounge chair and got a pretty bad sunburn on my chest. It stung for a few days, and now, as I type this, it itches.
We went to Roy's for dinner. It turned out to be the same Roy's we had visited during our last visit to Maui.
Saturday, our last full day in Maui, was a surf (for the boys) and snorkel (for me) day. W has some friends who live near the beaches in LA and who surf, so he wanted to learn, and J agreed to do the lessons if W did them, so we signed them up for a 90 minute group surfing lesson. Devon, their instructor, spent a lot of time teaching them on land how to get up from prone to standing on a board, which gives a lot of new surfers problems. After maybe half an hour of instruction, he brought them out to the ocean to try, along with the two other surfers in their class. It took a while for them to catch some good waves, and toward the end, Devon had to help line them up and get them started, but both boys rode maybe four waves each. I didn't realize until the lessons were over that a photographer for the water sports company running the lessons was on shore, taking really nice photos, which we purchased. Three of them are posted here.
And now for my misadventures in snorkeling. For this last full day, Saturday, I decided we'd rent a couple of cabanas facing the beach, so we'd have reserved spaces, shaded, which wouldn't be cleared by pool staff if they seemed abandoned. Also, we'd get regular water and fruit delivered to us, along with runners taking our drink or food orders from the bar and restaurant at the pool. It was a splurge to help close out our last full day.
While lounging, I noticed some snorkelers in the ocean near our resort, and I knew there were coral reefs not far out there. It would be more convenient than walking all the way to Black Rock, so I went to the room to get the Wildhorn snorkel mask and my fins. I went out a while, and I found that the water was very shallow, maybe four feet deep at best, sometimes much less as the waves ebbed and flowed. It was actually pretty difficult not to get dragged along and scrape my chest on the rocks at some points. Also, I felt that I wasn't getting enough oxygen through the Wildhorn mask in order to keep up my strength and swimming power.
Suddenly, a Hawaiian sea turtle showed up on my right side, swimming with the waves along with me, and eating moss and lichen off the rocks. I was having a hard time now avoiding not only the rocks but also avoiding swimming into the turtle, so I returned to the beach to switch the Wildhorn mask for my traditional mask and snorkel, and to hand-carry my GoPro in the water.
GOPR0384
(There's a video here. Wait for it; it's large. If you get a question-mark icon, try right-clicking on it to open in a new tab.)
Once back in the water, I was able to find the turtle and video record our encounter for a long while. With my old snorkel, I was able to breathe a lot easier and maintain control of my swimming. The occasional wave would crash over me, obscuring my vision with air bubbles, and causing me and the turtle to flop around under water, but I generally didn't lose sight of the turtle.
Unfortunately, however, at one point I looked up and saw a much bigger wave about to crash into me, and I got disoriented when it slammed into me. It wasn't excessively huge — maybe 5' or 6' — but it was powerful, the water was shallow, and in my disorientation, I reflexively tried to stand, and I wound up slamming my foot down hard onto a sharp rock or other protrusion. I felt immense pain in my foot as I floundered, and as the wave finally passed by and the water cleared, I saw that whatever it was had slipped past the edge of my fins and sliced into my heel. Blood flowed, and some skin flapped loosely at the edge. Snorkeling was over for me, and I returned to our cabanas to find them empty, with Hsuan and the boys presumably away at the pool.
I went to a nearby beach shower to rinse off as much of the sand and blood as I could, but the blood kept flowing, albeit slowly, as I returned to the cabanas. I wrapped my foot in a towel to help staunch the flow. Eventually, Hsuan returned, and I asked her to get the pool safety guy to come over with a first aid kit. He and another guy came over, and they sprayed some disinfectant spray into the puncture wound. Clearly some flesh was gone. The native Hawaiian guy suggested cyanoacrylate glue to close the wound, but we all agreed that I'd have to be extra certain there was no sand still trapped in the wound. It went pretty deep, so I couldn't be absolutely certain. Instead, they gave me some antibacterial ointment and bandaids and said it would clot up on its own. I thanked them as they left, and then I sent Hsuan to the ABC Store in Whalers Village to get bandage tape, gauze pads, and Neosporin.
When she returned, I was able to bandage myself up pretty well. After 5 PM, I called it a day for myself, and returned to the room. The walk was excruciating, but I've felt worse — like kidney stones, gout, or serious surgery. I washed up more in the room, changed the dressing, and put on a compression sleeve (for plantar fasciitis) and a sock to keep on the dressing. (8/20/19 Update: After returning home, I went to urgent care, got a tetanus booster shot, and a prescription for ciprofloxacin in case of a deep infection.)
Despite Hsuan's recommendation that I call it a night, I wanted the family to have dinner at Leilani's On the Beach, the only remaining full service restaurant at Whalers Village that we hadn't yet tried. Dinner was excellent, but J, as usual, ordered a medium rare steak that came back somewhat too rare and which he couldn't eat. He left it mostly untouched. We didn't send it back to be reheated, though, and the restaurant removed it from our bill on their own initiative. That was very nice of them, so I tipped extra.
On Sunday, we checked out of our room by 10 AM, but we checked our luggage, stored some travel clothes and shower supplies in a locker in the public laundry room, and returned to the beach, renting cabanas yet again. I had changed my wound dressing again, and the foot was still painful. However, we had a late flight out (a redeye), so I wanted to enjoy the resort as much as possible — drinks and food at the cabanas, for example. The boys wanted to try surfing on their own, so we rented boards for them for 90 minutes — really two hours. I spent those two hours watching from the beach as they never succeeded in catching and riding waves. For whatever reason, they tried catching waves from one area, while other people were catching waves a few dozen yards away and closer in to the shore. Oh, well, practice and experience make perfect, I guess.
Late afternoon, after closing out our food tab, I decided I was well enough and my bandages secure enough (with the compression sleeve holding things in place) for all of us to go to the main pool together, for a while.
Then, we returned to our cabana, returned our towels, went to the hospitality rooms to shower and change clothes, and departed for the airport.
This year, we wanted to try something different, based on our experience at Cocoa Beach for the PSP launch. The boys are too big to squeeze into one hotel room with me and Hsuan, but resort suites are very, very expensive, so we looked for either a condo rental or a timeshare. I was really attracted to the Wailea Elua Village condos in Wailea: There were some affordable condos with a lot of space, full kitchens laundries, and excellent views available when we were scheduled for our vacation. It's near the Grand Wailea on Maui where we usually stay. The Wailea area is quiet and comfortable with very nice beaches and easy snorkeling.
However, the pools there are tiny compared to the massive pool complex at the Grand Wailea. So, we decided on the Marriott Maui Ocean Club at Kaanapali Beach. This is a Marriott Vacation Club property, and we booked our timeshare suite through VRBO. We booked an oceanfront two bedroom suite, which may be the largest suite we've ever booked for our family vacations; the Cocoa Beach stay may have been larger. We didn't have a full kitchen, but we had access to the resort's outdoor grills and communal kitchen, if we needed them. Meanwhile, we had a generous kitchenette with refrigeration, dishwasher, microwaves, dishes, pots and pans, eating utensils, etc. It was more than enough for us; we saved a lot of restaurant money by getting breakfast and lunch foods at a local grocery store in Lahaina. Plus, by switching to West Maui instead of South Maui (Wailea), we had access to more restaurants and other nightlife.
With two bedrooms and a living room, we had a ton of space. In fact, we had more space than I expected, based on the floorpans we saw online when selecting our room class. I think it was because we were on the 2nd floor, which extended somewhat farther out toward the ocean than the 3rd and higher floors.
And of course, we had nice pools, not as massive as the Grand Wailea but way bigger than the small pools at Wailea Elua Village. There were two smaller pools at the side towers, including one right below our suite, plus a larger, central main pool complex. And there was the ocean. Also, Black Rock was about half a mile up the beach, near the Sheraton, for what was billed as some premiere snorkeling on Maui. Since I had never snorkeled there, I was looking forward to something new.
Arrival (Sunday 8/11) and Monday (8/12)
We flew in on Sunday, 8/11, picked up our luggage and rental car, drove to the Ocean Club, and had dinner at one of the hotel restaurants. On Monday we drove to Lahaina for breakfast and to shop for groceries for breakfast and lunch in the room that week. We had breakfast at Down Under and shave ice at Local Boys, both near the big banyan tree in historic Lahaina. We walked around Front Street a while before returning to our car to go to the grocery store.
GOPR0358
After having a late lunch in the room, we walked up the beach to Black Rock, a prime snorkeling point near the Sheraton at the north end of Kaanapali Beach. It's also a favorite spot for young people to jump off the rock and into the ocean. I've snorkeled during every visit to Hawaii, so I consider myself an experienced snorkeler, and the boys are pretty experienced as well. For this trip, I had purchased a Wildhorn Outfitters Seaview 180° v.2 to try out. It's a full-face mask and snorkel single unit, and while I have absolutely no problems using a traditional snorkel and mask, I wanted to try the new technology. This particular model is supposed to have better valving between chambers to prevent CO2 buildup in the breathing chambers. Unfortunately, the waves and current were too strong for me to get used to the new mask, and visibility was poor near the rock. I couldn't get close to the outermost edge of the rock to enter the two arms of the Black Rock outcropping, where the snorkeling is supposed to be best. I got tired quickly, gave up, and resolved to come out in the morning of some other day, when the waves and current were lower. Meanwhile, while I was trying to snorkel, the boys were up on the rock itself, jumping off into the water with other kids.
I returned to the spot farther south on the beach where Hsuan had set up some towels, and then I went body surfing a while with the boys. I wiped out a few times, enjoying myself fully, and it wasn't until later in the evening, in our room, where I found out that sand had gotten in all my swimming clothes, hair, and ears.
We returned to the resort, swam in the main pool a while, and had dinner in the room after we all showered at length to get rid of the sand. I was still rinsing sand out of my ears for days afterward.
Tuesday (8/13) — Sunrise at Mt. Haleakala, and the pool
Before leaving Pasadena, I had booked us a tour with Skyline Tours to see the sunrise at the summit of Mt. Haleakala on Tuesday. The last time we went to Mt. Haleakala for sunrise — a "once in a lifetime experience" — the boys were very young, and J got altitude sickness. Plus, I had to drive us all up there very early in the morning, and it was cold and crowded. To keep crowding down nowadays, the National Park Service has limited sunrise viewing permits, so either you book a tour with a licensed company or you get your own permit ahead of time. I went with the Haleakala Sunrise Tour with Breakfast with Skyline. They'd give us a hot breakfast (rather than a continental breakfast with some other companies), and they provided warm jackets for everyone. And of course, they'd do all the driving and position us at optimal viewing sites. I could sleep on the drive up.
I booked by phone, and they gave me J's ticket as a child's ticket, which saved us some money.
Our tour guide gave us a smooth drive, took some of our family photos, and generally made the entire tour comfortable and informative.
After returning to the resort, we had lunch, slept in the room for most of the afternoon, and then spent just a couple of hours at the pools before going to dinner at Monkeypod Kitchen at Whalers Village, a shopping and restaurant area halfway between the Maui Beach Club and Black Rock. We were still tired and decided we'd spend Wednesday at the resort as well.
Wednesday (8/14) — Black Rock, Kaanapali Beach, the pool, and Monkeypod Kitchen
Early Wednesday morning, we walked up the beach to Black Rock, for an early morning attempt at snorkeling. This time, I decided I'd concentrate on snorkeling rather than on the new Wildhorn Outfitters mask, so I brought only my traditional snorkel and mask, and fins. I went out easily. Not only were the waves calmer, but I was able to breathe far more easily with the simpler snorkel. I went around the rock and entered the two rock arms and found lots of coral and fish to look at, and I was able to use my GoPro by hand. I returned to the beach and talked J into joining me for another trip. He tried to tell me he didn't need fins, but I told him he had to use them, because he wouldn't have enough swimming power out there in the waves and current — calmer though they were — without the fins. In the water, I was a little disturbed to see him use a breast-stroke kick rather than a scissor kick to use the fins, and he didn't seem receptive to my pointing out the inefficiency of it all. Oh, well.
We got to see a lot of fish and coral between the arms of Black Rock. At one point, when I turned around, he was gone, and I had to scan around the area until I found him at the north end of the inlet with another group. Apparently, one of those guys had yelled out that there was a sea turtle there, so J went to look. I was irritated that he broke our buddy system — very important for safety — but relieved he was okay. I was only slightly disappointed that I didn't get to see the turtle.
We returned to the beach for more body surfing (and wiping out), then returned to the hotel to swim in the pool and have lunch. Dinner that evening was at Hula Grill at Whaler's Village.
Thursday (8/15) — The Road to Hana
Thursday was our Road to Hana day. The Road to Hana is noteworthy for the windy, narrow drive, with many single-lane bridges and hairpin, blind turns. There are many places to stop to see waterfalls or pools or special secluded beaches, and there are very limited parking spots at those areas. Basically, because the road is so narrow, if you can't find a spot to park at a site, it's better to drive on to the next one. The sites along the road are the main attraction; the town of Hana itself, on the east side of Maui, is almost an afterthought to the trip itself.
Hsuan and I had driven the road to Hana by ourselves long before the boys were born, so this was our first trip as a family. I had read some overwrought reviewers on TripAdvisor complaining about how dangeorus the road was, and since I was driving my family, I got a little worried. Once on the road, however, I was comfortably in control of the car. My only worry was the boys getting carsick.
We got a late start, leaving the Ocean Club only a little before 8 AM, while the guidebooks urged leaving by 6 AM. Naturally, we didn't stop at every site, and we missed a lot because of a lack of parking or because we simply passed by without noticing an exit. However, we did see Twin Falls (considered swimming, along with other visitors) and Kaumahina State Park (for a bathroom break). We stopped at the Halfway to Hana food stand for shave ice and delicious banana bread, fresh out of the oven. We visited the Hana Lava Tube. We had lunch in Hana, at the Hana Ranch Restaurant.
At lunch, which was already approaching mid-afternoon, I decided we'd skip the black sand beach and the red sand beach in Hana and try to make our way to the Seven Sacred Pools at 'Ohe'o Gulch, which is part of the Haleakala National Park. It's a big destination for many or most people on the Road to Hana, where streams drop down falls into a series of pools leading to the ocean. It's supposed to be a great swimming destination. Unfortunately, when we got there, the signs at the entrance ($25 entrance fee per car) indicated that swimming was currently prohibited, for safety reasons (flash flooding, etc.). Oh, well. Instead, we hiked up the Pipiwai trail and stopped at the Makahiku Falls for a photo, then turned around to go down to the 'Ohe'o gulch and visit the Seven Sacred Pools (and not swim).
The boys slept in the car for the long drive back to Lahaina, where we stopped for groceries and to pick up take-out at Aloha Mixed Plate, next door to the Old Lahaina Luau. We had forgotten to book Old Lahaina Luau tickets 3 weeks in advance, as we had forgotten during our last visit to Lahaina years ago. Oh, well. I had been craving mixed plate for a while anyway.
Friday (8/16) — A Resort Day; Roy's
Friday was another resort-day, spent almost entirely at the pool, or having breakfast or lunch in our room, or playing chess in the tower. It was pretty relaxing. So relaxing, with the pool bar drinks, that I fell asleep in my lounge chair and got a pretty bad sunburn on my chest. It stung for a few days, and now, as I type this, it itches.
We went to Roy's for dinner. It turned out to be the same Roy's we had visited during our last visit to Maui.
Saturday (8/17) — Surfing, Misadventures in Snorkeling with a Sea Turtle; Leilani's On the Beach
Saturday, our last full day in Maui, was a surf (for the boys) and snorkel (for me) day. W has some friends who live near the beaches in LA and who surf, so he wanted to learn, and J agreed to do the lessons if W did them, so we signed them up for a 90 minute group surfing lesson. Devon, their instructor, spent a lot of time teaching them on land how to get up from prone to standing on a board, which gives a lot of new surfers problems. After maybe half an hour of instruction, he brought them out to the ocean to try, along with the two other surfers in their class. It took a while for them to catch some good waves, and toward the end, Devon had to help line them up and get them started, but both boys rode maybe four waves each. I didn't realize until the lessons were over that a photographer for the water sports company running the lessons was on shore, taking really nice photos, which we purchased. Three of them are posted here.
And now for my misadventures in snorkeling. For this last full day, Saturday, I decided we'd rent a couple of cabanas facing the beach, so we'd have reserved spaces, shaded, which wouldn't be cleared by pool staff if they seemed abandoned. Also, we'd get regular water and fruit delivered to us, along with runners taking our drink or food orders from the bar and restaurant at the pool. It was a splurge to help close out our last full day.
While lounging, I noticed some snorkelers in the ocean near our resort, and I knew there were coral reefs not far out there. It would be more convenient than walking all the way to Black Rock, so I went to the room to get the Wildhorn snorkel mask and my fins. I went out a while, and I found that the water was very shallow, maybe four feet deep at best, sometimes much less as the waves ebbed and flowed. It was actually pretty difficult not to get dragged along and scrape my chest on the rocks at some points. Also, I felt that I wasn't getting enough oxygen through the Wildhorn mask in order to keep up my strength and swimming power.
Suddenly, a Hawaiian sea turtle showed up on my right side, swimming with the waves along with me, and eating moss and lichen off the rocks. I was having a hard time now avoiding not only the rocks but also avoiding swimming into the turtle, so I returned to the beach to switch the Wildhorn mask for my traditional mask and snorkel, and to hand-carry my GoPro in the water.
GOPR0384
(There's a video here. Wait for it; it's large. If you get a question-mark icon, try right-clicking on it to open in a new tab.)
Once back in the water, I was able to find the turtle and video record our encounter for a long while. With my old snorkel, I was able to breathe a lot easier and maintain control of my swimming. The occasional wave would crash over me, obscuring my vision with air bubbles, and causing me and the turtle to flop around under water, but I generally didn't lose sight of the turtle.
Unfortunately, however, at one point I looked up and saw a much bigger wave about to crash into me, and I got disoriented when it slammed into me. It wasn't excessively huge — maybe 5' or 6' — but it was powerful, the water was shallow, and in my disorientation, I reflexively tried to stand, and I wound up slamming my foot down hard onto a sharp rock or other protrusion. I felt immense pain in my foot as I floundered, and as the wave finally passed by and the water cleared, I saw that whatever it was had slipped past the edge of my fins and sliced into my heel. Blood flowed, and some skin flapped loosely at the edge. Snorkeling was over for me, and I returned to our cabanas to find them empty, with Hsuan and the boys presumably away at the pool.
I went to a nearby beach shower to rinse off as much of the sand and blood as I could, but the blood kept flowing, albeit slowly, as I returned to the cabanas. I wrapped my foot in a towel to help staunch the flow. Eventually, Hsuan returned, and I asked her to get the pool safety guy to come over with a first aid kit. He and another guy came over, and they sprayed some disinfectant spray into the puncture wound. Clearly some flesh was gone. The native Hawaiian guy suggested cyanoacrylate glue to close the wound, but we all agreed that I'd have to be extra certain there was no sand still trapped in the wound. It went pretty deep, so I couldn't be absolutely certain. Instead, they gave me some antibacterial ointment and bandaids and said it would clot up on its own. I thanked them as they left, and then I sent Hsuan to the ABC Store in Whalers Village to get bandage tape, gauze pads, and Neosporin.
When she returned, I was able to bandage myself up pretty well. After 5 PM, I called it a day for myself, and returned to the room. The walk was excruciating, but I've felt worse — like kidney stones, gout, or serious surgery. I washed up more in the room, changed the dressing, and put on a compression sleeve (for plantar fasciitis) and a sock to keep on the dressing. (8/20/19 Update: After returning home, I went to urgent care, got a tetanus booster shot, and a prescription for ciprofloxacin in case of a deep infection.)
Despite Hsuan's recommendation that I call it a night, I wanted the family to have dinner at Leilani's On the Beach, the only remaining full service restaurant at Whalers Village that we hadn't yet tried. Dinner was excellent, but J, as usual, ordered a medium rare steak that came back somewhat too rare and which he couldn't eat. He left it mostly untouched. We didn't send it back to be reheated, though, and the restaurant removed it from our bill on their own initiative. That was very nice of them, so I tipped extra.
Sunday (8/18) — Checking out, surfing, and flying home
On Sunday, we checked out of our room by 10 AM, but we checked our luggage, stored some travel clothes and shower supplies in a locker in the public laundry room, and returned to the beach, renting cabanas yet again. I had changed my wound dressing again, and the foot was still painful. However, we had a late flight out (a redeye), so I wanted to enjoy the resort as much as possible — drinks and food at the cabanas, for example. The boys wanted to try surfing on their own, so we rented boards for them for 90 minutes — really two hours. I spent those two hours watching from the beach as they never succeeded in catching and riding waves. For whatever reason, they tried catching waves from one area, while other people were catching waves a few dozen yards away and closer in to the shore. Oh, well, practice and experience make perfect, I guess.
Late afternoon, after closing out our food tab, I decided I was well enough and my bandages secure enough (with the compression sleeve holding things in place) for all of us to go to the main pool together, for a while.
Then, we returned to our cabana, returned our towels, went to the hospitality rooms to shower and change clothes, and departed for the airport.
Camp Cherry Valley and the ICRC 2019
August 05, 2019 11:02 AM
Some quick shots:
In June, J graduated from his middle school, marking the end of our family's attendance at that school, which began when W entered Kindergarten there. It's been a long time. The end of an era.
The following week, W and J traveled to Camp Cherry Valley to participate in the summer's first week of the Advanced Camper Experience, Island Adventure program. We learned of the program through our association with the Order of the Arrow, with John W., who has been putting together the ACE program. Because our own troop would do CCV later during the summer (and has not normally done ACE), and because W would be busy later, W and J joined another troop for the trip over.
Later, in July, our troop took its own summer trip to CCV, and J was named Senior Patrol Leader, the same as W was a few years ago. It's the highest scout leadership position for the troop for the summer camp, and it entails some organization. I'm very proud of J, as I was with W. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend CCV this year as an adult leader, primarily because they needed the space for other adult leaders and also because I would be attending the International Cosmic Ray Conference in Madison the same week.
For my part, I attended the International Cosmic Ray Conference (2019) at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I gave an oral presentation on cosmic ray energy spectra measurements by the SuperTIGER experiment; it was really an update of ongoing work. And I gave a poster presentation on ionic charge state estimates for the September 2017 SEP events. I had spent the days before the conference scrambling to finish the associated papers.
I also attended the Chicago dinner, and I spent many of my lunchtimes having brats and beer while sitting near the lakeside looking out on Lake Mendota. The weather was sunny and warm, but it wasn't the heat wave I had feared. I also struck out for some very nice dinners, either on my own or with my longtime friend Eric.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my poster.
——
Update on Rapidweaver: It looks like I'm sticking with Rapidweaver, at the very least because it's still being maintained and developed. However, I still dislike it not being a WYSIWYG application, and it seems very sluggish at times.
Update 2: I may look into Sparkle or Everweb, too, but those seem to be from smaller, independent developers. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing at the moment.
In June, J graduated from his middle school, marking the end of our family's attendance at that school, which began when W entered Kindergarten there. It's been a long time. The end of an era.
The following week, W and J traveled to Camp Cherry Valley to participate in the summer's first week of the Advanced Camper Experience, Island Adventure program. We learned of the program through our association with the Order of the Arrow, with John W., who has been putting together the ACE program. Because our own troop would do CCV later during the summer (and has not normally done ACE), and because W would be busy later, W and J joined another troop for the trip over.
Later, in July, our troop took its own summer trip to CCV, and J was named Senior Patrol Leader, the same as W was a few years ago. It's the highest scout leadership position for the troop for the summer camp, and it entails some organization. I'm very proud of J, as I was with W. Unfortunately, I couldn't attend CCV this year as an adult leader, primarily because they needed the space for other adult leaders and also because I would be attending the International Cosmic Ray Conference in Madison the same week.
For my part, I attended the International Cosmic Ray Conference (2019) at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. I gave an oral presentation on cosmic ray energy spectra measurements by the SuperTIGER experiment; it was really an update of ongoing work. And I gave a poster presentation on ionic charge state estimates for the September 2017 SEP events. I had spent the days before the conference scrambling to finish the associated papers.
I also attended the Chicago dinner, and I spent many of my lunchtimes having brats and beer while sitting near the lakeside looking out on Lake Mendota. The weather was sunny and warm, but it wasn't the heat wave I had feared. I also struck out for some very nice dinners, either on my own or with my longtime friend Eric.
Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my poster.
——
Update on Rapidweaver: It looks like I'm sticking with Rapidweaver, at the very least because it's still being maintained and developed. However, I still dislike it not being a WYSIWYG application, and it seems very sluggish at times.
Update 2: I may look into Sparkle or Everweb, too, but those seem to be from smaller, independent developers. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing at the moment.