Hawaii weekend

Blaise gave a talk in Honolulu on Monday so we all went over for a few days. We rented a house on the gorgeous "windward side", where one road winds around the island, separating a single row of houses from the beach or the mountains. We had a ball exploring the northern beaches and the cute surfing town of Haleiwa. At one of the beaches, we spotted two turtles swimming just a few feet away in the water and followed them all the way down the beach while they dived and surfaced. On Sunday we took off early for a 3-mile hike into the forest to a waterfall. This was an adventure, with many river crossings, mud, roots and rocks to climb, and a spectacular view at a high clearing.

We had a couple of days in Waikiki too, though we mostly tried to avoid it, and the kids played endlessly in the pools at the hotel-- largely gravitating to the hot tub. On our last full day, we visited Pearl Harbor, where we toured a submarine and a battleship ("beyond awesome", said the boy). I read to Anselm from Traitor to his Class, which starts with a gripping account of Roosevelt's morning on the day of the attack.