Homeless in Hawaii

Tonight is our last night in our vacation rental.  Then, we’re homeless … unless we get something.  J  Ha!

Have you ever seen the movie “Groundhog Day”??  The guy wakes up every day and it’s the same day he relives over and over.  Dwight and I keep laughing – that’s us.  Today was day 4 of house-hunting and traveling the island with 5 children stuck in the car.  They’ve done extremely well, considering. 

We may have narrowed things down by this time … then again, maybe not.  Phew!  What a chore.  We laugh over one house in particular.  The owner was “selling” us on it when he kept saying over and over, “Very old, very old … need lots of work … very old.”  We also have had several laughs over the fact that practically EVERY street over here starts with the letter K followed by some assortment of vowels.  Kehuelani, Kaahina, Kaweiliani, etc.  Which road do we turn on??  Most realtors want a 6-month lease – but we said “NO WAY! “J  You feel good about that, don’t you.

On the up side, we’ve enjoyed seeing the island.  It is beautiful.  North of Hilo is incredibly gorgeous.  There aren’t many beaches, mostly cliffs.  But there are deep gulches, with waterfalls that run from inland to the ocean all along the coast.  One after another … gorgeous.  South of Hilo, down Puna way towards the South Point is also beautiful, but is more remots.  We have yet to experience the “rainy” part of the rainy side.  Its been sunny every day we’ve been here so far!

Starbucks … our saving grace.  Today we went twice – once in Hilo and once in Waimea.  Both times to use the internet.  In Hilo, we met a sweet girl named Hihina (Heeheena??).  We think that’s her name.  We specifically introduced her to Burnell so he would remember her name (he’s usually so good with names), but he says he can’t remember because “her name sounds like a flower or a bush or tree or something!” J  Ha!  Love that boy!

Our car is kinda fun.  It’s a small suv with 2 rows of 3 seats in the back.  Ty and Quint have their spots on the first bench while the other 3 rotate between the 3^rd seat on their bench and the “back of the bus”.  The 1^st bench is the choice spot because you can be at the window and make it go up and down all day.  Interestingly enough, if their window is open, the front window on that side must be open at least 2 inches or else the whole car vibrates (Ba ba ba ba ba).  J  Usually the windows are down and their heads are hanging out.  The barking thing is an added touch!  Nothing like pretending you’re a dog while hanging your head out the window. Hmmm…

We’ve gone to 2 farmer’s markets so far – one in Hilo, and one in Pahoa on Sunday.  They remind Dwight of his craft fair days.  Booth after booth of vendors selling fruit, veggies, clothes, soaps, etc.  One booth had the best goat cheese.  They’d sell us goat milk for $20/gallon, but their customer list is full!!  Whoah!  The music cracked me up – a Hawaiian lady singing various “country” songs with a distinctly Hawaiian beat and instruments.

We’ve been buying about $5 worth of bananas every day, papayas, kahlua pig … mmmm. Our appetites are … ravenous.  We eat about every 2 hours – mostly bananas.  Quint says “na na” now.  That’s practically all he eats. J  Just kidding.  He loves ‘em though.  Today, one of the places we found had avocado, tangerine and guava trees.  We ate a bunch of guavas.  Orin climbed the tree and shook a large branch so the ripe ones would fall.  Another place had a tomato plant with 3 ripe tomatoes (we ate those, too).

Thanks for all the info from people about the blog.  I’ll figure it out soon.  Also, some of you are still wondering what we’re doing over here.  Our plan is to be here in Hawaii for 3 months(ish).  Main reason, originally, was to avoid juniper allergy season in Oregon.  Of course, we had lots of other options, but this one sounded fun! 

Oh!  I might be having the beginnings of labor pains, too.  Which is why, at 2am, I’m awake and feeling like “nesting” – and since there’s no house to get in order, I’m writing all of you.  Gotta tie up those loose ends in life.  Aaaahhhhh!  I feel better now. 

More to come of our adventures.  We love you all and miss you, too.

PS We’ve been watching the news in the evenings.  The earthquake and tsunami damage in Japan is incredible.  And Santa Cruz – all the way across the ocean!  Makes us even more thankful that we were nowhere near Kona that night.