Hawaii – Day 8: Sunday

We woke up Sunday morning, got everyone fed and dressed for church and headed out for the 9am meeting.  We were surprised when we pulled up and there were still plenty of open parking spaces right near the building.  I took a quick picture of the kiddos while Justin walked up to the doors and found them locked.  Turns out we happened to be there the week of stake conference which was being held across the island – an hour away.  Lesson learned:  It wouldn’t hurt to double check the church schedule ahead of time.  We thought about making the drive, but we would be late and sitting through someone else’s two-hour conference didn’t sound very fun.

We headed back to the hotel to relax then decided to go for a drive up north and try to find the Nakalele blowhole Justin had read about online.  We didn’t have exact directions, but he knew it was somewhere near mile marker #38.

We parked the van and started walking in the direction we thought it would be.  The views were beautiful.  The terrain was a bit frightening.  

As we walked along near the rocky cliffs I kept imagining one of us slipping to our death.  Would we jump into to save them?  Would there be any chance of survival?   It was not a fun stroll for me.  It was really hot and we realized quickly that we had no clue where we were going.  After awhile we decided to send Justin up ahead to see he could get some idea where this blowhole was located, but it was without luck.  Lesson learned:  “somewhere near…” is not sufficient directions.  We turned around and thankfully made it safely back to our car without anyone falling to their death.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the hotel.  

Jason and Katie coloring on the patio

View from our patio

Justin and I were able to slip out later that evening to walk along the beach.  I can’t even begin to tell you how awesome it is to have a responsible daughter who we can leave in charge every so often (becoming more and more often these days).  Not to mention three other kiddos who we can trust to behave when we’re not around.  Love those kids!