travelogue

so... let's see. we haven't been doing much. this morning, lynn and i had to go to a time share presentation, in order to get a discount on a molokini snorkeling trip. we were both dreading it, because we hate "hard-sell" presentations like that. our presenter, though, actually seemed pretty matter-of-fact about everything, and "sensed" that we weren't exactly the buying type. i admit that it does sound interesting, though, and lynn and i have reaped the benefits of my parents' time share, both with regards to this trip and our honeymoon (which was in a very centrally located atmospheric hotel in san francisco). we ended the scheduled 1.5 hour presentation half an hour early. it was funny- lynn was so paranoid that they weren't going to "let us off easy," and when our presenter told us to go back to the front desk to "check out," lynn believed that she was just "passing the baton," so to speak, and that some other, more aggressive salesperson was about to "press us hard..."

but the people at the front desk were happy to give us our molokini discount. and as they were "locals," lynn asked them a lot of questions: where do the locals live? where do you guys go to eat? where is the homemade bakery? etc. it was cool, the guys over at the front desk started to compete to give us the best recommendations for places to go to get a good plate lunch, etc. so, based on this one guy (romel)'s recommendations, we decided to drive over to this place called "aloha mixed plate." the waiter serving us was pretty rude, and my wife and my ma didn't think the food was all that great (also expensive), but i kept quiet: my loco moco was pretty good (of course, i'm like "mikey" from those life? commercials... i'll eat anything).

we caught the sugar cane train, mainly for aiden, because he's such a thomas fan. aiden was really cute, wearing his thomas the train engineer's cap; he looked like dopey (in a good way) with his large ears sticking out from under the edges of the cap. the conductor, one uncle terry, seemed to like our family a lot; he kept confiding to us about his misadventures during a recent week in japan: like, how when he wanted to visit the nagoya castle, instead of saying "Oshiro mitai," (i want to see the castle) he said "Oshiri mitai" (i want to see your ass). anyway, he gave willow, aiden, kathy and marcus a signed postcard, and when we arrived at the station in lahaina, he placed four pennies on the track, and had the train run over them to flatten them: great souvenirs!!!

on the trainride, things weren't particularly interesting... we got to see some backyards, abandoned cars, a large rain drainage ditch... the high plains are dry, and at one point, a dust devil formed and actually whirled through us before dispersing...

hate to say it, but i miss home, domestic, routinized life... i want to work on the yard. etcetera. terrible, huh???

lynn and i have done more than our share of babysitting kathy and marcus. they are, of course, interested in the wii that we brought with us... i've tried to keep them under control, teach them the concept of taking turns, and of having patience with willow and aiden... it's hard at times. i do believe that they are good kids, but they haven't experienced any degree of consistency in their lives, and now it's somewhat "too little too late." lynn and i realize we can't turn things around. we just hope to expose them a bit to OUR rules when we watch them...