...And Then Scotty Happened. A Hawaiian Adventure (CHAPTER 32 Added 5/23--THE END)

[Steppesister]

Ok. Girl, 7# 6 oz., Jan. 20, 6:00 AM-ish.

 

[Mrs. Knowitall]

Seriously, Mark, did you NOT think of the pregnant lady with you traveling in the car and forget to get some kind of snacks? You know how pregnant women can get when they get hungry.

Yeah!!

Hungry, pregnant ladies get HANGRY!

HANGRY?! Why am I just hearing about this awesome word right now? I LOVE it!!!!

Now I know why you didn't drive the extra down the dirt road tot eh cliff at the southernmost point. You were afraid you were going to pushed off since you had NO SNACKS FOR THE PREGNANT LADY!!!!

True Story!!!

Julie, a safe and as pain free as possible delivery and a happy healthy baby wish for you.

Thanks! Getting close now!!

Prayers for a smooth and easy delivery for Julie.

Thanks!!

Hi Mark. I am not sure if we ever met face-to-face, but I was Sarah's piano teacher for a while.

Hi Lauren!!!

You ladies crack me up. It's always funny to see how quickly I can become the bad guy in the story. Clearly, only one person in the car was capable of buying any snacks.

Well.....you DID have all the money....

It definitely paid off! Nice work, honey.

Thanks.....I guess I can forgive you about the snack situation...

12 lbs 14 oz?? Julie is NOT going to be happy with you.

Ah....but the prediction is also for 1/16.....which is tomorrow. And I'm all for that!

I tell ya, Julie's got spies everywhere.

heh-heh-heh

Here's the data for the previous kids:

Sarah--due 2/3, born 2/5, weight 7 lbs. 9 oz.
David--due 5/5, born 4/17, 8 lbs. 7 oz.
Scotty--due 4/30, born 4/12, 8 lbs. 4 oz.

Dave and Scotty's due dates got transposed.....David was due 4/30 and Scotty was due 5/5


And the update from the doctor......drum roll.....as of last Friday I was 1-2cm dilated - head is down and engaged. She said if I'm 1-2cm by my 39th week (1/26), she's fine to go ahead and induce me if I haven't had the baby by then. Seeing as how I'm already 1-2cm....this could be soon. I go to the doctor again tomorrow....

 

[MEK]

Hi Mark. I am not sure if we ever met face-to-face, but I was Sarah's piano teacher for a while. For Sarah's sake, I am going to say a girl. I will go with Feb. 1 with 7lbs 4oz.

Haha Lauren. I had almost the same guess on FB. It's totally a girl!!!!!!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Boy, I sure would like an update before the baby comes...

I see what you did there...

OK… I’ll play. I won’t win, but I’ll play.

From my fractured point of view, Febuary 2nd needs saving (desperately). Something that is purely good and that I’m aware of needs to happen on that day, so it gets my nod in this little game of speculation. As for the LBs and OZs…

You know it’s improper to discuss a Ladies’ weight regardless of her age…
(unless it happens to be a boy, then it’s 8 pounds and 3)

Got it. But Julie's update suggests we may not make it to February...

Ok. Girl, 7# 6 oz., Jan. 20, 6:00 AM-ish.

6:00 a.m.-ish? Meaning we get to the hospital when exactly?

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Yeah!!

HANGRY?! Why am I just hearing about this awesome word right now? I LOVE it!!!!

What does that even mean?

True Story!!!

Go buy your own snacks!

Well.....you DID have all the money....

I've never seen a single marriage in the history of the universe in which the wife was unable to make all of the money in the husband's wallet disappear.

Thanks.....I guess I can forgive you about the snack situation...

Hey, it only took 7 months!

Ah....but the prediction is also for 1/16.....which is tomorrow. And I'm all for that!

Ok, but don't come complaining to me later about a 12-lb. baby.

Dave and Scotty's due dates got transposed.....David was due 4/30 and Scotty was due 5/5

Man, can't count on me to do anything right.

And the update from the doctor......drum roll.....as of last Friday I was 1-2cm dilated - head is down and engaged. She said if I'm 1-2cm by my 39th week (1/26), she's fine to go ahead and induce me if I haven't had the baby by then. Seeing as how I'm already 1-2cm....this could be soon. I go to the doctor again tomorrow....

I'm guessing we don't make it to February.

Haha Lauren. I had almost the same guess on FB. It's totally a girl!!!!!!

Lots of people hoping for a girl...

 

[GoofyIsAsGoofyDoes]

Got it. But Julie's update suggests we may not make it to February...

I said I wouldn't have the right answer in the first place as y'all are already pretty sure it's going to be fairly soon. I was just taking an opportunity to wish for something good to occur on what for me is not a particularly enjoyable date on the calendar.

So my original prediction still stands: She… errr… I mean the baby… will be born healthy and Oblivious.
As it should be.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

I said I wouldn't have the right answer in the first place as y'all are already pretty sure it's going to be fairly soon. I was just taking an opportunity to wish for something good to occur on what for me is not a particularly enjoyable date on the calendar.

So my original prediction still stands: She… errr… I mean the baby… will be born healthy and Oblivious.
As it should be.

Julie's got another doctor appointment today so we'll see if there's been any progress. But of course, having a healthy baby is the only real concern here.

 

[that's nice]

Julie's got another doctor appointment today so we'll see if there's been any progress. But of course, having a healthy baby is the only real concern here.

Good luck Julie! We are all counting on you!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Good luck Julie! We are all counting on you!

+1

 

[podsnel]

Happy New year!! It's a very exciting 2014 for you!

I am going to guess 1/20, Girl (just to balance things out over there), 8 lbs, 10 oz, 3:30 pm.



Great Hawaii updates! We also stayed in Kona on our Honeymoon- at the now destroyed Kona Village- I don't think I remember it taking so long to get to VNP though- but maybe waaaaaay back in 1986 some other more direct route was open. I talked to Pods about it last night, and pretty much all we remember about it was it looked like the moon and we saw a Nene (goose). And...yea. That's it. No eruption, I don't remember the lava tube- I REALLY think we missed out!

BTW- Scotty happening REALLY cracks me up! I wonder where he gets it from....

Good luck, Julie! Wishing for quick and easy!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Happy New year!! It's a very exciting 2014 for you!

Happy new year to you too! You got the Virgin Islands and we get a kid!

I am going to guess 1/20, Girl (just to balance things out over there), 8 lbs, 10 oz, 3:30 pm.

Got it. Not eager to see more testosterone in this family, huh?

Great Hawaii updates! We also stayed in Kona on our Honeymoon- at the now destroyed Kona Village- I don't think I remember it taking so long to get to VNP though- but maybe waaaaaay back in 1986 some other more direct route was open. I talked to Pods about it last night, and pretty much all we remember about it was it looked like the moon and we saw a Nene (goose). And...yea. That's it. No eruption, I don't remember the lava tube- I REALLY think we missed out!

I think everyone gets a pass for not noticing other things on their honeymoon. Now you'll just need to go back!

BTW- Scotty happening REALLY cracks me up! I wonder where he gets it from....

He cracks us up too! Now we're all scared to death we could possibly end up with another one!

Good luck, Julie! Wishing for quick and easy!

So say we all!

 

[podsnel]

Happy new year to you too! You got the Virgin Islands and we get a kid!

Seems fair to me.....

Got it. Not eager to see more testosterone in this family, huh?

Well....we all know how THAT could turn out....

I think everyone gets a pass for not noticing other things on their honeymoon. Now you'll just need to go back!

YUP!!!!!

He cracks us up too! Now we're all scared to death we could possibly end up with another one!

Never- pretty sure there can be only one Scotty (unless you count his older twin, which would be YOU...

So say we all!

AMEN to THAT!!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Seems fair to me.....

Sure, if by "fair" you mean "I WIN!!!"

Well....we all know how THAT could turn out....

Hey, I thought the man-bashing was in your TR!

Never- pretty sure there can be only one Scotty (unless you count his older twin, which would be YOU...

Scotty is way cuter than me.

AMEN to THAT!!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Q: Where's your other hand?

A: Between two pillows.

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

THOSE AREN'T PILLOWS!!!

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

It’s mid-morning, we’ve only had a small pastry for breakfast, my wife is pregnant, and the heat is rising with the sun. Obviously it’s time to start some serious hiking. Our first stop was near the Kilauea Iki crater, which erupted in 1959. There’s actually a hike that takes you on a walk across the crater floor, but it’s a total of 4 miles and we didn’t feel we had the time to do that one. Here’s the view from up above:

You can see the well-worn path on the crater below. This was once a lake of lava, and there were several spots along the trail where we could see steam rising from the crater floor. I’m sure this would give you pause as you walked across—it’s probably simultaneously terrifying and thrilling. For a sense of scale, you can see a couple of hikers down on the trail in the bottom right side of this picture.

We were hiking the 0.5-mile Devastation Trail instead. This trail takes you through an area that was affected by that 1959 eruption of Kilauea Iki. It starts in a lush rain forest much like the one that covered the area in 1959.

And then you turn the corner and get this:

It’s an easy walk, and a stark demonstration of the power of the volcano.

Take note that people will come from thousands of miles away to take pictures of this field of rocks. Yet whenever I suggest scorching the yard so I don’t have to worry about maintaining the lawn anymore, I get the crazy looks. Go figure.

We drove further down Chain of Craters Road and were rewarded with an overlook that gave us a nice view of the sea. Down below, you could see the path of a recent lava flow from several years ago.

Julie got a big kick out of this sign. We saw several of them all around the island, and couldn’t figure out why anyone would want to run towards a tsunami.

We wound down the side of the mountain for several miles until we finally reached the end of the road. Chain of Craters Road used to continue all the way to the town of Kalapana, but was cut off by a lava flow in 1969. The road was finally re-opened in 1979, but then another lava flow cut it off in 1986, and the powers that be decided they would be fighting a losing battle to continually try and rebuild it. This proved to be wise thinking as several more lava flows have added to the wall that blocks traffic since then.

For some reason we couldn’t decipher, the parking lot at the end of the road is about a mile away from the actual spot where the road is cut off. I have no idea why they make you stop so far short. It’s a lot hotter down on the edge of the coast than it is up on the mountainside, and the road on that mile-long stretch seemed perfectly good to me. In any case, we got out and hoofed it up the road in the bright sun. Finally, the reward for our efforts felt just like our average Christmas morning: lots of lumps of black rocks.

According to the map we were given at the visitor center, this particular lava flow occurred in 2003. This means that in the picture below, Julie, Sarah and I are all sitting on ground that is younger than we are.

Climbing all over the lava was actually pretty cool. There are pockets here and there that remained untouched by the eruption.

Looking back down the unnecessarily-long trail:

We even found a few places where the earth had started the work of transforming the new ground.

I had planned on taking a different route away from the coast, so I went ahead to scout the road and…uh-oh.

I knew I should have taken that left turn in Albuquerque. Oh, well. I guess that means we’re walking back. But hey, at least we have no snacks in the car!

Near the parking area was a side trail that took us to the edge of the cliff. You could lean over and check out a sea arch below:

Julie didn’t like the vertiginous feeling she got leaning over the edge, so she made me take the pictures. I took one looking straight down just so she could see what she was missing.

And here’s the sheer drop at ocean’s edge:

We were still on the morning side of lunch time, so you’re probably thinking I did the sane, humane thing here and drove all the way back looking for snacks and drinks. Well, I’m sure being sane and humane works out just fine for most people, but we’re not most people. We had another hike to conquer!

This one was a 0.7-mile (one-way) trail over uneven ground, but at least there was no shade from the hot sun.

At the end of the trail was a boardwalk loop that took us around ancient petroglyphs. Geologists have dated these stone markings to sometime between 1200 – 1450 AD.

Not much is known about the people that left these petroglyphs here, but it is thought that many of the markings here charted different families, their offspring, and documented their travels around the island.

We didn’t stay long, mostly because the boardwalk loop itself was short and we were all very hot and tired at that point (go figure!). But I think all of these side trips were worthy of the time we took to see them.

We drove back up the mountain to the visitor center area. I had originally been hoping that we’d find a little fast-food joint near the gates to the park, but there was nothing apparent from the road on the way in. The town of Volcano is a few miles away, but I hadn’t found anything other than sit-down restaurants in my quick search prior to the trip. We ended up heading for the Volcano House, which is a lodge just across the street from the National Park visitor center. Inside was a sit-down restaurant, as well as two separate gift shops which sold snacks and cold drinks.

Julie and I huddled together and tried to figure out the plan for the day. We still had another site to see that involved a bit of a drive, and then more plans for the evening. So we decided to load up on snacks and then plan on an early dinner.

I will admit that part of the deciding factor was that the gift shop sold Maui Onion Chips.

I also used the opportunity to send Julie to buy snacks while I snuck over to the other shop to buy a very classy Christmas gift or two for her.

Coming Up Next: Our 2nd attempt of the trip to see a 400-ft. waterfall. An actual meal that involves more than potato chips! And then a special, memorable, once-in-a-lifetime evening treat. With a few hundred of our closest friends.

 

[podsnel]

THOSE AREN'T PILLOWS!!!

Planes Trains & Automobiles?

 

[Captain_Oblivious]

Planes Trains & Automobiles?

+1

 

[jedijill]

I love the tiki mugs. I bought a set of those tiki mugs for my brother for his birthday last year.

Jill in CO

 

[podsnel]

Funny movie!

That part of the volcanoes looks more familiar- the barren nothing with a path up the middle. If you put two geese in your pic, it would be like you were on our honeymoon. Except with 3 kids and a pregnant wife. And no snacks. And a much longer hike back to the car. Yup!