With no prompting, Amalia began keeping this “blog” at the beginning of our trip. Here is the day to day activities of our first Hawaii days.
Hawaii 5-0, The Directors Cut
So, I published the official Hawaii 5-0 episode (blog post) and realized I still had several awesome pictures from the week. This post is simply some additional photos of the various things we did that didn’t make it into the final version of the earlier post.
A Toast and Great Cheers to Hawaii 5-0
A few brief college years still connect our far-flung group of close-knit compatriots, now decades after first coming together. And this durable synthetic family came together once again for this year’s fantastic Hawaii 5-0 festivities. It was a festive gathering of old friends that also served to launch our Axelrod Adventures this summer.
“We have been close friends,” I used to explain to people when I first arrived in Los Angeles, “for 10 years.” Then, I would introduce them as I moved jobs or made other new friends, as my “friends for over 20 years.” Last year, I jumped another decade and so these are now my friends “for more than 30 years.” I am truly lucky to see so much of, so frequently, my best college mates. They all have the official “Aunt” and “Uncle” title to my kids; they are as close to me as any sibling. So, my best college mates were in Hawaii for the Big 5-0, but there were other connections among and between us all. Len and Sue met in grad school. Jem went to grad school with them and I went to college with Sue. (Jem and I thus met through Len and Sue, and we would not have had our two kids but for these connections.) Janet and Sean, the other key members of the college family, reunited with us for the occasion. And, furthering the spirit, Len’s friend Sandra from undergrad joined the fun, along with his (always-game) mother, Marianne. Really amazing the tentacles and webs some random class at Drake University in 1988 (Sue, Janet and I all took the same class that year and met there) spun 31 years into the future. Nope, never, ever would have guessed at the time.
Ten years ago, most of us had done some travel events for our 40th birthdays, one person choose a weekend in Big Bear, another a long weekend escape to Cape Cod, and a memorable Mexico trip for Len’s 40th. But for 50, well, we were all feeling our mortality creeping a bit closer and so we wanted to go bigger. Hence the full house for a full week in Hawaii.
We had a great time celebrating the big 5-0…Hawaii 5-0! (Cue: da-na-na-na-NA-na, da-na-na-na-NA, Hawaii 50 theme.) We had amazing views from our lanai, which everyone used for a couple of hours every morning.
Some of us spent the morning at the house reading the news, doing crosswords on the lanai,
or a little bit of work on the lanai… (I work from wherever the cellphone and laptop are, and a Hawaiian lanai with an ocean view ranks right up there as a top commute)
or enjoying the pool.
We also did some classic touristy things during our stay. Even though both Jem and I had been to Oahu many times, (and there is a family rumor that at least one of the twins was conceived at the Sheraton Waikiki), we usually leaned more Kama’aini in our approach to Oahu. This time though, since Len and Sue had never been to Oahu (which is why they chose it for the location of their 50th birthday extravaganza), we spent some time on the classics — booze cruise, Dole Plantation, North Shore, and a very memorable snorkel day with a nice beachside lunch.
Sharks Cove for snorkeling is a winner and is only really possible in the summer. In the winter, this area has 20-40 foot waves, so I stay well away. Normally, we are in Hawaii for the winter months, so it was a treat to snorkel Sharks Cove.
Followed by a very nice lunch at beachside at Turtle Bay.
Some (most?) days we partied like we were all still in college and many cases of wine and beer were consumed. With some higher end tequilas and whiskeys given our age demographic of course. We collaborated on puzzles, also in keeping with our age demographic.
What a great week, spending time with the definition of life-long friends. It went by so fast. I can’t wait until we do it again…and since our ages are spread out every year or so, we have two more 5-0 celebrations in 2020, and then a final one 2021 (youngest of the group), followed by perhaps starting the next rotation of milestone birthdays at 55, which would start the annual vacation partying in February of 2022 for the next 4 years after that. I am going to start planning now! As you all know, we like to travel!
Aloha!
On Our Way to Hawaii 5-0
Leg 1 of our summer 2019 adventure was celebrating our friends Len and Sue’s 50th birthdays. They both turned 50 this year, and wanted to go to Hawaii. Thus the event Hawaii 5-0 was born. 8 adults and our 2 children rented a house on Oahu for a week.
We flew Sun Country, our first time flying on this airline. We ended up on the same flight as Len and Sue and our other friend, Sean (and Len’s mom). Party Plane! Sun Country was a surprisingly pleasant experience. It was a low cost carrier, so they nickle and dimed you about every scrap of bag you had, but otherwise they were pretty cool, and we will fly them again (especially in the “best” section, which included nice legroom and a free drink). We of course had to pay for both a carry on and a checked bag, the full max possible of 50 pounds of luggage. Our bags weighed 49.5, 50.0 and 50.0. And that was us supposed to be traveling light! We are at max capacity and not sure how we are going to do this abroad. Our house sitters and army of friends coming by frequently to bring in mail and check on the cats are going to probably get thank you “postcards” or another mailed home item because we have no room for gifts. We are going to have to come up with a better solution, maybe I can mail home or abandon some things in Hawaii. Or … horror…buy another suitcase. Being road warriors is supposed to be about learning to live on less! Not figuring out how to carry more. Lots to learn on this adventure still.
First glimpse of Hawaii in the distance:
Official First Post: Welcome Readers
So, now that I have figured out how this blog thing works, I can officially do our first post. Which is technically our third post. Oh well, things never work out quite how you plan.
As I will explain in some subsequent post in more detail, I have given notice at my 9-5 fixed job and am making a job change. Among other things, I am becoming a homeschool second/third grade teacher for the summer. We pulled the girls out of school and are finishing up second grade and starting parts of third grade on the road abroad. “World School” is the technical term.
We hope to be doing lots of traveling as a family and doing short bursts of “road schooling” or “world-schooling” and then sending the girls back into their classroom. Luckily, we are in a private school and thus do not need to go through the Robocalls and/or requests for independent study process — and we will not be reported to Child Welfare as “truants.” We will just teach on the road, and let the girls engage in some self-directed learning. We will be using this blog to catalog where we go, and how the world schooling project is going. The girls will do blog posts for homework as well and will love to get feedback.
So, officially, welcome to our blog about travel, world-schooling and …. Axelrod adventures!
We left California last week. Our first stop is Oahu, Hawaii because it is….party time!
We’re learning!
As we are T minus 7 days for our departure from California, first to Hawaii and then to Japan for the summer, we are learning a lot about how to prepare to be nomads for two months. So far, we are full of new lessons and adventures. To start with, Lil is learning how to write and edit a blog. This one. I am not sure how it is going, in so far as this is Lil’s blog post, but I think I am logged in as Jem. Confusing. Also, I am trying to learn a little Japanese. It is hard to learn a new language at age 48. My retention is close to nil. Thanks to Duolingo, I think I can say “vegetables” and “alcohol.” I don’t know why it chose to teach me those two words first. I would have thought “bathroom” and “where is” would be much more useful.
Lil and Jem are learning how to pack for a multi-month adventure within the 50 pound per suitcase limit. Normally, we take 50 pounds per suitcase for a week. Each. And a third suitcase, also 50 pounds, for the girls. Now we are going for many more weeks than that, and to climates cold and boiling hot, so we need a little bit of every kind of clothing. Learning to pack for many weeks under those constraints is a challenge.
Lil is learning how to travel with less than 5 pairs of shoes. I am down to 4. I don’t see how I do less, in so far as I need 1 nice pair, 1 closed toe pair and then flip flops. Since I love my flip flops, I am wearing 1 pair and taking a backup. So, that may be where I can reduce my shoes down by one more pair. No backup flip flops. But no way I can take less than 3 pairs.
Amalia and Sophie will have to learn how to travel with no stuffed animals (more realistically, since they take about 5 each, I am going to try and limit them to 1-2 each). I really want them to take no stuffed animals or toys because one of our first stops will be Tokyo DisneySea. Whatever room will be in our suitcase when we leave California will be gone by the end of that week — filled with Disney and Mickey T-shirts and toys.
Now I have to learn how to publish a blog post. (If you are reading this, then I think I can say success!)
The Adventures Begin
Come along with the Axelrod del Campo family for our adventures around the world!