The Burgoynes: Grandma and Grandpa Visit! Hike to the Albatross

I was looking forward to my mom and dad visiting, but also wondering how it all was going to be, since I had it on my calendar that they were coming out on Thursday evening and leaving Monday morning. 3 days in Hawaii?!? Well, if it weren't for a rainstorm that delayed their trip and prompted Dad to call me on Wednesday to tell me they'll be there a bit later THAT NIGHT, I wouldn't have been at the airport to pick them up! And they were leaving Monday night, not morning! So the whole trip started out even better than I expected -- with 5 days of Grandparents and not 3!

Day One: We hiked to Kaena Point to see the albatross. I thought it would be a 1 1/2 hour hike, but it was a 5 hour hike -- and well worth it! Wow, it is sooo beautiful at the point! And the albatross were neat to see.

view of the coastline along the way

Avoiding the mudpuddles

Love this pic -- Grandpa is growling like a bear to help motivate Elysse to keep going. Look at the smirk on Elysse's face as she pretends not to hear him. ;)

Grandma's 15th rendition of "Left, left, left my wife and 49 kids....."
Still smiling ;)

At one point, Grandpa went ahead with Soul (as well as our food, phone, and water). We hiked on til the end, with the girls complaining more and more about being hungry and thirsty, and no sight of Grandpa. I was beginning to worry about Dad, too. This was his first day here and I knew he wasn't drinking much. Hopefully he was okay. And then I was worried about Soul -- it was time for him to nurse. When we neared the point, we asked some hikers if they had seen him, but they said they had been all the way to the end and had not. Where was he? The kids were in the hot sun with no water, and Kezia laid down on the sand a few times, saying she was tired and just wanted to go to sleep. I knew it was just because she was so out of fuel and liquids. So we decided to say a prayer that we could find him and be okay til we did. A few minutes later he poked his head out of a gunnery at the point. We were so excited to him and refuel. And Soul was excited to see Mommy.

Well, after that we had a great time playing in the tide pools searching for creatures and finding plenty hermit crabs.

Most of all the girls loved playing on the gunnery. The wind was blowing at about 35mph up there! The girls had such a fun time playing with the wind and singing as loudly as they could.

The albatross were so cool. Smaller than I had expected, they were the size of a large duck, but it was really cool to see them nesting right next to the path, dancing with each other, clicking with their bills, and soaring right over our heads.