Even with the comfy bed Jack was up at 5 a.m., so he and I watched the sun rise. Our room faced the pool and the heiau with a distant view of the ocean. My wrestling with the coffee maker woke up Nancy, and she got her grandson fix on the lanai as the rest of the family members gradually made their way to the common room. The resort provided a high chair for Ryan, so we pulled it out onto the lanai and fed the boys breakfast while we enjoyed our coffee.Bill and Nancy headed west to Waimea Canyon and we loaded up our backpack diaper bag, a laminated grocery tote, and the Kelty backpack; snuggled Jack into the stroller to nap, hoisted Ryan into the Kelty for Sam to carry, and headed to Poipu Beach.
We still needed to pick up sunscreen, which I hoped we could find at Brennecke's deli or the Nukomoi Surf Shop; I remembered that the Poipu Shopping Village was not much farther to walk. Brennecke’s had no sunscreen, so we decided to walk up to PSV (Jack was still asleep in the stroller and I wanted him to get a good long nap). When we reached Poipu Road I confidently turned right, sure that the shops would be just around the next corner.
We kept walking, Sam grumbling about how heavy Ryan was and how HE didn’t have any sunscreen on. We finally reached a road that looked familiar, in quite the wrong way – it was Pe’e, the road our resort is on! I had oh-so-assuredly marched ourselves all the way back to the Point – I should have turned LEFT at the intersection. So, since Jack was still asleep, we walked BACK to Poipu Beach, and I found some sunscreen at the surf shop that was passable – still packed full of chemicals, but SPF 50 and formulated for sensitive skin.
We headed to the baby beach and began unloading swimsuits, rashguards, swim diapers, etc. Sam took Ryan to the water while I dressed the baby, but they returned quickly with the toddler declaring he didn't WANT to go in the water. I thought I might have more luck with him, so I took both boys to the shore and handed Sam the camera. We got this one picture before Ryan totally lost it, so Sam took him to the nearby playground while I pulled Jack around in the shallow water in his floaty.Ryan decided he had enough of the playground but still didn’t want to get in the ocean, so we got the boys dressed and headed back to the Point. I mentioned Puka Dog and we decided to get the car and drive over there (we had walked plenty that morning!).
I ordered the Polish with mild sauce and lilikoi mustard, and it was great. Sam got spicy sauce and lilikoi mustard, which he said it wasn’t spicy enough. The lemonade was good, though mostly sugar.We headed back to the condo and put Ryan down for a nap in our bed and moved the crib into the second bedroom. Jack did NOT want to take a nap - and I can’t really blame him as the crib was pretty grungy.
I decided to drive into Koloa to buy a hat since I somehow managed to pack FOUR hats for Jack, but not one for Ryan. I bought band-aids at the pharmacy and yummy ahi poke at Sueoka’s, then headed over to Pohaku T’s, where I bought a T-shirt and a bib and had an interesting conversation with the saleslady about the plastic bag ban and recycling initiatives.
Further stimulating the local economy, I bought a camo-print bucket hat at the Emperor’s Emporium and then headed back to the condo.
Ryan was wide awake and tearing around the condo, so I took him down to the resort's on-site playground, stopping to see the koi ponds and to give the elephant statuary a hug (of course, he refused to do it again when I got the camera out). We got back to the room as the ILs returned around 4. We had a 5 pm reservation at Keoki’s Paradise so we gave them a tour of the fish ponds/pool and then headed to the restaurant.
The lesson learned at Keoki's was this: if monchong is on the menu, don’t think twice, just get it. I didn’t and spent the rest of our trip trying to find it again to no avail. The service was not great, as they were only grudgingly accommodating when I ordered a side of sauteed veggies for Ryan (the children's menu was not impressive - I didn't come to Hawaii to feed my child Kraft mac 'n cheese).
Ryan was thrilled when the guy came out to light the “black sticks” (tikis) with his lighter on a stick, and he still talks about it. Our chef’s sunset menu specials came with “individual” servings of hula pie, which were still enormous. Sam and I enjoyed our Wrong Island Iced Tea and Tai Chi drinks, and were ready to crash when we got back to the condo.
