Whew! A Deafening Silence

 [Note: this is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.] 

6/19/21

Aloha Everyone –
    
Well, our guests left last night and the house sure seems quiet. We think the twins enjoyed their stay, but sometimes it was hard to tell.  Their edge-of-puberty mood swings could go from giggling and engaged to sour and sullen in a few nano seconds.  Karen and I agree that if they had visited a year from now they might have been rather difficult guests. Anyway, a couple of big hits were the ride in the Atlantis Submarine and a day pass at the Waikaloa Hilton resort up north.  The resort has two pool areas, one with waterfalls and grottoes, and the other with a long river-like waterway that has several slides.  There is also a lagoon with fish, turtles, and other marine life to see while snorkeling.  Finally, to put icing on the cake, the resort hosts educational encounters with bottle-nosed dolphins that we were able to watch, though not participate in because of the steep extra cost.  Karen and I enjoyed the day, too – we hadn’t been here in quite a while and it was a chance to be reminded of just how special the place is.

For us the past week has been a real eye-opening education about kids and parenting.  As I said last time, this experience confirms our opinion that some people should be parents and some perhaps should not – we definitely fall into the second category.  However, I found I was pretty good at the role of goofy-yet-fun-old-guy, and I was even able to make the kids laugh.  My sense of humor may turn off a lot of adults but it seems to resonate with 11-year-olds.

We also had a chance to see once again our island from the point of view of a visitor – something we haven’t done in a long time.  This led to a confirmation that we are well-suited to live in this uniquely special place, and that it’s way too easy to take things for granted after a while,  which leads to focusing too much on the sometimes irritating challenges of living here.  Finally, I’ve been surprised to see just how well our tourist economy is recovering.  The numbers of visitors at the usual places were up to the point of being over-subscribed.  This will ease as more venues open up, of course, but it doesn’t bode well for our traffic congestion once the car rental companies repopulate their fleets, resulting in even more vehicles are on the road.

So now the agenda is to get back to our usual routine, and to pick up again on the projects we interrupted or put off – such as getting our carpet cleaned, resealing our stone decking, power washing and re-coating the driveway, and tracking down a few coqui frogs that are setting up homesteads in the landscaping, and of course the usual whacking back the jungle.

Take care everyone.  Stay cool, enjoy your early summer.