May 5, 2011
The Kunana Dairy Farm only gives tours on Thursdays, so I scheduled this for our last morning (we had the condo reserved through Friday, so we didn’t have to check out first thing).
We followed the directions to the farm south of Kilauea and pulled up to a compact little farmstead. Ryan immediately noticed the billy goats in the nearby corral and we took some good photos.Farmers Ryan and Sarah brought out fresh lemonade and homemade cookies and pumpkin bread while we waited for everyone to arrive. We got to meet the kid goats, some of whom were only two or three days old and still had their umbilical cords attached!
Ryan was face to face with one who reached out and nibbled his nose, which he thought was hysterical. He proceeded to go around to the other kids trying to get another one to do it.
The tour was very interesting and interactive; Ryan and Sarah are obviously quite committed to their fairly monumental undertaking. It’s not a “polished” tour, though, so there was quite a bit of time spent just standing around looking at the goats or the gardens.
People were asking questions and I would have liked to have heard more of the answers, but farms aren’t exactly baby proof and it was tough to keep up with the toddler. I guess if you’re paying $35/person you don’t want to be rushed through, but we got a little weary by the end of it (and it ended well after lunchtime, so the boys were hungry and cranky).
People were asking questions and I would have liked to have heard more of the answers, but farms aren’t exactly baby proof and it was tough to keep up with the toddler. I guess if you’re paying $35/person you don’t want to be rushed through, but we got a little weary by the end of it (and it ended well after lunchtime, so the boys were hungry and cranky).
I bought three bars of goat’s milk soap and a T-shirt; I wish we had picked up some of the chevre earlier in the week at the Hanalei Farmer’s Market because it was SO good. We headed north again to try to get in some naps and to pack up our stuff. The boys did not want to comply on the nap front, so we loaded up our stuff and headed towards Lihue.
With the children finally asleep in the backseat, Sam asked if he should take the long shortcut we found around Kapa’a traffic, but I said, “Oh, no, they’ll stay asleep”. Yeah, right! The minute the car slowed down they were both awake and not too happy to be stuck in their carseats again. We finally made it to Lihue, where I wanted to mail a package to my niece. Sam jokingly suggested that at 4:15, the PO was probably on island time – and he was right, it closed at 4:00!
We drove over to Costco to fill up the rental car and then parked at Kukui Grove. We discovered a gimmicky yet tasty conveyor belt sushi place a few years ago called Genki Sushi, and Sam always wants that to be his last meal on island. We met Bill and Nancy there and slid into a booth. The sushi was fresh and the options were wide, but after the insanely good sushi we’d had the night before at Bouchon’s, we couldn’t help but be disappointed.
It was time to catch our interisland flight to Honolulu so we returned our car to Alamo and dragged all of our stuff over to the airport. We checked the Kelty, the stroller and Jack’s carseat through to Denver, and then got in line at security.
It was not very busy (it was Thursday evening) and we had plenty of time before our flight, but security lines are always stressful to me – gotta remember to take everything off and arrange the trays just so, take the netbook out of the case and make sure the sippy cups are empty.
On top of all that, the TSA agents waved me and the kids through the regular metal detector (but I had to send the Ergo carrier through on the conveyor) while they subjected Sam and both ILs to the full body scan – but then wouldn’t let Sam join me after his scan to help with the kids!
On top of all that, the TSA agents waved me and the kids through the regular metal detector (but I had to send the Ergo carrier through on the conveyor) while they subjected Sam and both ILs to the full body scan – but then wouldn’t let Sam join me after his scan to help with the kids!
Meanwhile, all our stuff was backed up on the conveyor belt and the people behind us couldn’t get their belongings because I didn’t have anywhere to put the baby in order to wrangle the manic-because-it's-way-past-bedtime toddler AND to claim our bags. But, boy, I do feel safe knowing that the TSA is subjecting little grandmothers and middle-aged fathers-of-two to full body scans.
Our flight to Honolulu (all 19 minutes of it) was uneventful and both boys slept really well on the HNL-DEN flight - we were actually the last people off the plane in Denver because Ryan was still asleep!
