From Holua cabin, Haleakala Crater, Maui

[Written in my handy notepad, which later took an unplanned dip in the Pacific...]

We're more than three days into our Hawaii trip, and this is the first spare minute I've had to put pen to paper. I take this as a sign that we're having a very fun (and busy!) time.

We arrived in Honolulu early on the evening of Saturday, the 14th. Lauren's mother, Donna, was at the airport to greet us with smiles and lots of leis.

With checked luggage quickly in hand and with our rental van procured, we met up with Robin and went straight to Lauren's first dinner choice: Zippy's. She described it as "like Denny's, but tastier and more ghetto."

At Zippy's, Bill was delighted to discover that the stories he'd heard about Hawaiians and SPAM were true. But at the end, the pull of the Chili Loco Moco proved too strong for Bill, Albert, and me. Chili Loco Moco... Start with enough white rice to make a meal, and put it in a bowl. Then comes the obligatory layer of mayonnaise. Top this with a burger and gravy and you've got loco moco. Replace the gravy with meaty chili and you've got Chili Loco Moco.
We all felt a little sick afterward.

From there, it was straight to the Beachcomber hotel in Waikiki for some deliciously jetlagged sleep. The time change worked in our favor the next morning, when we all found it took much less effort than usual to "do the Ben Franklin" and be early to rise. Lauren and I walked along a mostly empty Waikiki beach just after sunrise and dipped our toes into the clear, blue Pacific.
We met up with the group at 8:30 and drove to breakfast at another childhood favorite of Lauren's, the Koa Pancake House, which she described as "kind of like Zippy's." (How is this girl so thin?!) We feasted on pancakes, waffles, and a Portuguese pork dish that tastes like equal parts pork and vinegar. Very similar to Dad's favorite kind of BBQ, actually.

From there, we went shopping for beach supplies, spending an hour bouncing between bookstores, surf shops, and similar. It was at this point that I finally noticed the diamond ring on Kate's left hand. She and Bill had taken a walk along the beach that morning as well, where Bill popped the question! We spent a lot of the day congratulating the two lovebirds.
After our shopping spree, we went to Lauren's lovely home in Kailua, where Donna and Robin were ready to greet us. After saying hi to the family dog, and looking at all sorts of embarrassing old childhood pictures, we threw on our swimsuits and drove to a gorgeous beach about a mile away. The water and sand were amazing. We were on Oahu's windward side, and it lived up to its name, with a strong wind making conditions perfect for bodysurfing (and difficult to do much else).

After a couple of hours on the beach, our smiling, sun-pink, wind-blasted crew drove to Lauren's favorite shave ice spot, Island Snow. (I recommend Snozberry/Lime, with a scoop of ice cream at the bottom). Then, it was home to Lauren's for showers and dinner. Lauren's paternal grandmother, Grammy, showed us how to make our own sushi:
...and Lauren's maternal grandfather, Kung Kung, brought the party with singing, dancing, harmonica, and lots of stories:
Dinner was delicious, and at this point the arc of the trip became clear: I was to be fattened up.

Well, all right then.

When no one could eat another bite, we said our goodnights and returned to the hotel to pack for our trip to Maui.

We met in the lobby on the morning of 4/16 at 5:45a.m, still not too difficult for people on California time. There was a lot of confusion and a close squeeze at the airport, but we and our bags made it to Maui in the end.

We stopped to pick up bento lunches and then drove straight up to Haleakala, parking a stone's throw from the big telescopes, at an elevation of almost 10,000 feet. Robin and I dropped one car off at the end of the trail, then returned to the trailhead where everyone took a sunscreen bath before starting off.
The hike to the cabin was seven and a half miles through volcanic landscape. I guess I would call it more moonscape than landscape. Ochers and blacks fought and faded into one another. Jagged rocks scattered over the flatlands, Zen-like. Otherworldly plants (silverswords) threw their startlingly silver stalks toward the sky:
And the clouds beneath us hid an enormous cliff in the distance, looking like nothing so much as the end of the world.
We finally arrived at the cabin, with just enough daylight left to do a quick Waltons impression (Dan chopped the onions, Bill boiled the water, Albert and I lit the wood-fire stove, etc.). After a pasta dinner and a few minutes of the most breathtaking stargazing of my life, we all turned in.
It's now 7a.m., and the bustling sounds of breakfast and packing are all around me. Today, we'll hike four miles up switchbacks on a lush, green ridge. Aloha.