Farewell, Hawaii

On Monday morning we left our Airbnb and started our drive to the Haleakala National Park. On the way there we stopped at the Komoda Bakery in Makawao. We did a few small hikes, the kids earned Junior Ranger badges, and we enjoyed many amazing views as we drove to the summit (10,023 feet elevation). We were looking down at the clouds! The road was filled with many sharp turns. The kids and I felt like we were on an amusement park ride on the way down. The two volcanos (one on Hawaii and this one on Maui) were two of my favorite experiences from the trip. We weren't supposed to board our flight to San Diego until after 10:00 pm. We passed some of the time by watching sea turtles at three different beaches on the north shore (not too far from the airport). At this first beach there were 22 sea turtles on the beach, there were 3 at the second, and there were 17 at the third. At each beach we also saw sea turtles in the water, but it was impossible to count those. We also had pizza at the Flatbread Company. It was very tasty, but it was very expensive. Still, it was cheaper than ordering five entrees elsewhere. The pizzas were too small for one large to feed five people. Oliver and I didn't want to get just a cheese pizza. We chose Mopsy's Kalua Pork which included pork, a mango BBQ sauce, red onions, Maui pineapple, goat cheese, parmesan, and mozzarella. Paul only had the regular cheese pizza, but the rest of us had some of the pork one. 

We had a glitch with using our TSA Precheck because Alaska Airlines required us to book our tickets as three different reservations. Since Oliver was 12 when we flew here, he was able to go with us through TSA Precheck, but now that he's thirteen they wouldn't permit that. I don't plan to buy tickets through Alaska Airlines again. Our first flight took us from Maui to San Diego. We all slept a little bit on the flight. Thankfully, the food prices were more reasonable in this airport than they are in the Seattle airport. I bought five breakfast sandwiches at a Jack in the Box near our gate. When we shopped for groceries on Maui, I had purchased a cheese Danish for us to share and also some Club and Cheddar cracker sandwiches. This will constitute our "lunch" on the second flight to DC. We plan to spend the night at Yvonne's house and drive back to our home and Milo tomorrow afternoon. Hopefully, it won't take us too long to adjust to the six-hour time change. We will stop hearing the words Aloha and Mahalo that we've heard so many times over the last two weeks! Thankfully, we were all healthy during our trip, and the weather was nice. We had almost no rain. The only time rain impacted our plans was part of the day that we were hiking at the Volcano National Park on Hawaii.  I'm thankful we have been able to visit all fifty states! As beautiful as Hawaii was, I feel the same as I did when we left Alaska. I loved our time there but don't anticipate Paul and I will ever return to either state. I am looking forward to sleeping in my own bed tomorrow night and snuggling with Milo. Nadia's Astronomy class began yesterday through Liberty, and Ian's two classes through Cedarville begin tomorrow. Summer is almost done. It's been a good one!

Hawaiian goose "Nene" at the volcano