Hawaii Day Eight: Surfing

We went to Kalama Park to cookout and surf and swim. Usually, we leave the beach at about 2pm because the winds pick up at that time. On this day we decided to stay all day. It is a good thing too because we did not get there until later than usual, and once we got there, they decided to cook first rather than swim first. This park was nice because it had a playground for the kids. There was not much beach to speak of. The park set up off the beach on a break wall of sorts. This helped with the winds at 2pm because they did not knock over our umbrellas.

Riley was playing on the playground and needed help with the handle so he could swing on the rail. As I was walking toward it, another mother helped Riley get the handle back. I thanked her and started walking back toward my lunch when I noticed another girl. I thought that she looked like someone from home, but I thought, no way. I turned back around and sure enough it was the girl that I thought it was, someone I have known since the day she was born; I even went to the baby shower that was given to her mom before she was born. We talked for awhile, and I found out the she moved to Maui after graduation. She was visiting her brother and decided to stay. She lived not too far away from the park we were at, and was there with her friend and her friend's kids. I am happy for my friend; she is enjoying life and living for the moment right now.

Riley was having so much fun playing on the playground that he forgot to go to the restroom and had an accident. I did not have another pair of swimming trunks for him so I improvised for him, and he ended up wearing Speedos, Reese's swimmies. He didn't think too much of it and just kept on playing.

The family wanted to go surfing so they rented two surfboards. Ron went out with them first and tried his hand at it. I am not sure exactly how he did because I was watching the kids and they were too far out for me to see in the sun. I went out for round three, and I actually got on the board and was able to kneel and stand on the board, but did not really ride that far before falling off. My sister in law helped out by pushing the board when it was the right time so I did not have to paddle to catch up with the waves. I had a great time and was pretty proud of myself for being able to get up on the board.

To celebrate New Year's Eve the adults went out for appetizers and drinks at the Wailea Golf Club. Although it was cloudy and we were not able to see the sunset, we got some beautiful pictures because our clothes matched the gray-blue sky of the evening. We had an interesting time with ordering the brie appetizer. We asked for extra bread to go with it. When the brie came out, we got the three pieces that were included in the appetizer. We asked for more, like nine pieces and were even willing to pay for it. We got three more. We asked for six more pieces; we got four more. We gave up after that, and we still had brie left.

We spent the evening figuring out the characters on the new Mah Jongg set that arrived in the mail that day. We have been waiting for this set for days because it is a game that we enjoy playing as a family, and they did not have a set at the Maui house. We have been substituting by playing Bonanza which is fun in a different way. The good thing about Bonanza is that it is not limited to four people. But family time for us is Mah Jongg time!

We quit Mah Jongg about 10pm in order to light up the neighborhood with fireworks. There are no laws here regarding fireworks. We were able to buy them at the local Walmart. The younger kids fell asleep before this point so they missed the action, but the adult kids and the older kids had a great time being young again.

We ended up going to bed early on the basis that everyone else on the mainland had already celebrated new year's. Mainly, we were tired from our all day excursion at the beach with surfing. I saw 11pm Maui time, but did not see the stroke of midnight.