Hawaiian Time and Coquis

Part one in a series…

Wednesday, November 20th, we picked Ella up after Daisy Scouts and started the drive to Houston. We made a few stops, sat in a bit of traffic (by a bit, I mean a lot), stopped for dinner and rolled into our hotel around 9:30p. Everyone was in bed by 10:30 and we were up and checked out by 6:00a. Probably the shortest stay I’ve ever had in a hotel.

Before the sun was up, we were on the airport shuttle, beginning our journey. We had a three hour flight to Salt Lake City, six hours to Honolulu and 30 minutes to Hilo. We were able to spend our layovers in the Delta lounge thanks to a temporary pass Loran had purchased. That helped a lot, escaping the bustle of the airport for a more relaxing atmosphere that had snacks, beverages and clean restrooms. The girls were amazing on our flights. Nobody (Ella) got sick (thanks SeaBands and Benedryl), both were content to color, nap, snack, read their favorite airplane safety cards, and watch on-board entertainment. They are now obsessed with Doc McStuffins thanks to the two episodes that were available to watch on the plane, Lily watched both episodes multiple times. By the time we arrived in Hilo, it was around 6:30p local time, 10:30p for us. We were feeling pretty good. The girls were feeling wacky and wound up. Ella serenaded the plane to Hilo with a song she made up called “We’re going to see Grandma and Grandpa” and Lily was so excited she nearly fell down the escalator where Grandma and Grandpa were waiting below. We like to make an entrance. The five people in the Hilo airport didn’t seem to be bothered by us.

We had some dinner, the girls got settled in and played a bit, then we tried to corral them to bed. They were mostly amicable to this. The coqui frogs are an abundant and loud invasive species, however, by night two I was used to them. Learn about the invasive frogs here (I like this article because they highlight frog counts in various cities and a Home Depot, so random). Hear them here on the video.

Why spend so much time writing about frogs? Oh, because they became Ella’s arch nemesis. She has a strong dislike for these frogs. She thinks they are too loud, too abundant and according to her, “make her ears vibrate!” She would base the passage of time based on whether the coqui frogs were out. As the sunset, we wouldn’t hear her displeasure that it was dark, scary, or near bedtime. Instead, every night we’d hear, “UGH! The coqui frogs are out!” Nobody else was bothered by them.

Our transistion across four time zones was not seamless. Ella started getting restless around 2a, which is 6a – her usual wake-up time for school. We managed to get her to stay in bed until 5:30, but she had been awake for at least an hour prior. Each morning, we were able to enjoy the Hawaiian sunrise, the quieting of the coqui frogs and quality time with the girls. Thank goodness for PBS kids. I’d created some journals for the girls, so each morning, they were eager to write and draw their previous day’s journal entry.

Actual journaled displeasure of coqui frogs by Ella. Ella’s teachers write in highlighter so she can trace their letters, so we copied them. Because of this, her independent writing is getting a lot better as evidenced by her writing of the date above.