Our biggest news is that Jeff, youngest son, newly minted PhD, is going to be joining the faculty in the Biostatistics Department at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health in New York City! Do you remember the commercial with the cowboy (or was it a movie with a cowboy?) and the way he said ‘New York City!”? That’s what I was thinking when I heard the news. I wish I could find that clip on youtube…

Update: Many thanks to Julia for telling me where to find the Pace Picante Sauce commercial that I couldn’t remember! I’ve added it below:

Jeff is very excited as are we. It’s going to be lots of fun to visit him :-).

I’ve finally cleared the top of my desk. It won’t last but I’m enjoying it for now. I’m about to go baste a quilt for a new book. I’m using a batt I haven’t tried before: Mountain Mist Cream Rose.

It appears to be everything I want in a batt:

• 100% unbleached cotton
• It’s washed so won’t lead an oily residue
• It’s needleds you can quilt up to 6″ apart although I will quilt much closer than that

I had been using, and recommending, bamboo batting. I liked it but had made the switch
mostly for environmental reasons. Once I found out that there are concerns about the processing, I decided to switch back to cotton. 

In other news, Steve and I are babysitting Jack for a couple of nights.

 Christopher is attending a conference and Lorna went with him. Elanor is with Lorna’s parents. Jack and I have been to Target to buy Star Wars figures and now he’s mostly keeping himself busy with them. Which is good because I need to start basting that quilt once I sign off, which is now!

After my last post we went for a last walk in Lihue. I got this great photo of Steve and the girls by the fountain. On the walk back to the condo it rained on us – so typical of Kauai! Luckily we dried out before heading to the airport.

I use the Flight Tracker app and was notified as we were eating dinner that our flight out was going to be delayed by an hour. We knew we would miss our flight from LAX to Dallas before we even left the condo. I spent an hour on the phone with Angela at American Airlines. There were very few options. Monday morning Steve and Lola leave early early and fly to Phoenix, then on to Dallas, and then Lola goes on to Baltimore.

Elanor and I leave a bit later and fly through San Francisco to Dallas, arriving just a bit after Lola will have taken off for Baltimore. If all goes well, we'll be home tomorrow. There are thurnderstorms predicited for Dallas tomorrow – I hope they don't materialize.

There were a lot of people on our flight who missed connections. Some were luckier than us and managed to get out on Sunday. Others were less lucky. We at least had a plan and found a hotel so did not spend any time hanging around hopelessly at the airport. Instead we're hanging out at a Comfort Suites that was nice enough to let us check in really early. The girls are watching the Discovery Channel. The shark shows were good. I'm not loving Doomsday Bunkers – but the girls think it's full of good tips. 

As it turns out we're too tired to go out and about. Lola has had a nap. I had to wake her up so she didn't sleep the day away. I admit to being tempted to nap myself but we all have to readjust to the time. In some ways this little stop is easing us back into our own time zones. Our flights are early tomorrow, there just didn't seem to be a good reason to rent a car today. So, here we are. Perhaps tomorrow we'll be home!

The condo we spent the week in is on the grounds of the Church of the Pacific. It is handy to everthing in Princeville. It's very near the Kuhio Highway, the road that takes you everywhere on the island, but you don't notice the traffic. The only neighbors are the pastor and his wife. The view is fantastic and the condo itself is clean and well-equipped. I'd stay here again in a heartbeat.

That's the condo, seen from the golf course, nestled in the trees center left. You can also click here to go to a previous post about the condo.

The Church owns and rents the condo to raise funds for educational purposes. If you'd like more information, email Jeni for more information at info@church-of-the-pacific.org.

We went to Hanalei Beach this morning. Our plan is for all of us to be ready to sleep once the plane takes off tonight at 10:50 PM.

The beach goes much of the way around Hanalei Bay. We were in a spot that was shallow pretty far out but that also had some low, breaking waves. The girls got pretty good with the boogey board.

The girls dug a big moat that was still there when we left. 

They sat in the surf.

They posed in front of the mountains. We ate lunch on the beach, had a shave ice on the way to the car. We shopped a bit in Hanalei and I finally found what I was looking for for Jack. The drive back to the condo was short. We are cleaned up, packed up, and Steve has dinner planned. The girls are watching the Disney channel and chilling. When I finish this post I'm going to have a glass of wine and start the next Stephanie Plum novel. 

Here's hoping for an uneventful trip home!

We had a lot planned for our last full day on Kauai. First we went north through Hanalei and then on to the end of the road at Ke'e Beach. We stopped at Tunnels Beach, not a place for the girls to swim. See those signs? We promised not to put the girls in the water where the surf was not safe.

They played on the beach for a while and then we headed farther down the road to Ke'e Beach, where the road ends.

We did not leave the condo intending to swim today so we were not lathered completely up with sunscreen. And we did not have swimsuits on. Our plan was to check out beaches for tomorrow, our last most-of-a-day on Kauai so it was easy to say, no, you cannot swim here. I would not have been thrilled to see them in the water here anyway. The surf was nice, nice, nice – then this big set of waves came in and about washed our flip flops out to sea. People die here and we have no intention of losing either girl on this trip.

We left after about 30 minutes. Tomorrow we'll spend several hours at Hanalei Beach Park – closer, safer, nice. We are hoping for another clear day!

After lunch we were taken on a special tour of the Na 'Aina Kai Botanical Gardens. Trudy, who was in my class last weekend, is married to Sam who is a volunteer and tour leader at the this marvelous botanical garden. Rather than tell you about it, I wish you would click here to get the real information. What an amazing place and how lucky we were to get a special tour!

They have populations of nene, Laysan albatross, and Hawaiian Moorhens. Here's an albatross in the air…

There are oh so many wonderful plants. The sculptures are marvelous. If you come to Kauai, the Na 'Aina Kai Botanical Garden is worth a visit.

Then we went to the Kiluea Lighthouse. Here's Elanor in the door of the lighthouse. You cannot go up but sometimes you can see whales out in the ocean around the point. We didn't.

Next we went to play miniature golf. Neither girl had golfed before and Steve and I rarely playe. None of us was remotely near par but Elanor and Steve each had a hole in one. Lucky shots, both! Here's Lola, who posed for us before swinging…

We're in for night—showered and fed. The bags are mostly packed. Note to parents: our gift to you is a suitcase full of mostly dirty clothes :-). No time for laundry here.

We leave Kauai tomorrow night at 9:50 PM. When we land at LAX we have 45 minutes to make our flight to Dallas. If we miss it, it will be at least 2 days before there is another flight with seats. Steve says not to worry, we'll make it. I'm trying not to worry and am thinking of what we can do in the LA area for two days.

I've emailed my cousin in Poway to see if she's home now, just in case we get stuck. And Trudy did point out the Disneyland is right there, near LA. Honestly, Disneyland does not sound bad at all. Do any of you know of an inexpensive hotel we might visit for a couple of nights if we get stuck? Steve and I really don't want to be stuck in LA but I have to say that the very idea of a visit to Disneyland has me less wound up about it. If it wasn't so expensive I might be happy at the thought 🙂 but we both have work and really need to get home…

We went back to Poipu Beach today. We rented snorkel gear on the way for Steve and the girls. It was a lot windier and there were fewer people on the beach.

Steve and the girls went out together once and then Elanor's mask fell apart. That was fine because honestly it was better that one girl went out with Steve at a time.

Note to parents: They both like snorkeling! Elanor was a bit undone initially about sharing space with fish but she got over it. Lola just got into it right out of the gate.

The girls buried me in the sand. I was eventually covered up to my neck.

There was a fair amount of laying on the beach…

If you are standing about where we were and look back at land, this is what you see. Gotta love the blue sky!

We may not go back to Poipu because there is Craft Show on the Beach on Saturday and it just sounds like a bad thing traffic and parking wise. So it was nice to be there today. After the beach we went by Spouting Horn one more time. It spouted, but not in this shot.

When we got back to the condo, Steve went to the grocery store and we cleaned up. Steve is the one keeping us fed, 3 times a day. Gotta love him! He took this photo so I could show his work space.

Tonight we are going to watch the Parent Trap with Haley Mills! I do so love Haley Mills. More tomorrow!