Hawaii: Day 15 (16/17 June 2009)

Not just a fly day but a fly home day! :*(  We all slept in a bit, got all packed up, and ready to go. Mom and Dad had breakfast in the hotel restaurant while Laura and I went to Ken's Pancake House. We both had secret hopes of having some mac nut syrup again. It was not to be, they had mac nut pancakes but no mac nut syrup. On the other hand they had Guava, Passion Fruit, and Coconut syrups and all were very good! So, we weren't too disappointed after all.

After breakfast we loaded the car and checked out of the hotel. We went to the tsunami museum and did a little souvenir shopping in town. One of the artists we talked with showed us a painting of a waterfall and told us that it was not far away. We decided to go see it. Turns out that though the waterfall, Kulaniapia Falls, was not technically on private property the only access to get there is. At the edge of the falls sits a nice little bed and breakfast place. It was beautiful and maybe someday Laura and I will go back and stay for a night or two to enjoy our own private waterfall. The owners were nice enough to let us stand on their balcony and take a few pictures of the falls. Once again Dad looks as if he could die a happy man then and there! I think he was just in some type of amazingly-beautiful-vista-overload induced trance. It had been an incredible trip after all.

We stopped at the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Factory and had mac nut samples, mac nut ice cream and bought... you guessed it... mac nuts, choclate covered mac nuts! Ah, I love mac nuts.

We all finally found ourselves at the airport waiting for our flight home. It would be a very long day. We left the Big Island and had a couple of hour layover in Oahu. We had airport pizza and Chinese food for dinner and left on the plane for Salt Lake City about 10 p.m. Laura got a bit of sleep on the plane, I didn't even try. We landed about 8 a.m.

Mom and Dad were on a different flight because they waited too long to buy their tickets to get on the same flight. They wouldn't get in for a few more hours which gave us time to pickup Jamie and Nathan from my parent's house. They were very happy to see us and of course Jamie's first question was "Did you bring me any presents?" Silly girl! We thanked my parents profusely for watching the kids for so long. They said that the kids were well behaved for the most part but that they were pretty worn out just the same. Gee, I can't imagine why... crazy kids! On our way home from Grantsville we stopped at the airport to pickup Mom and Dad. In the end we all made it home to Kearns and got things unpacked by about 2 p.m. making for a 30 hour day!

Jamie was very excited to get a couple of new dresses and jewelry.

Nathan loved his Hawaii Bus.

They were both happy to get their presents and, I hope, to have us home again as well. It had been a very long day and we all slept well that night!