Holiday Greetings 2008

The California Kendalls will remember 2008 like a cheesy amusement park: a good time punctuated by some moments of terror and periods of joy.

After years of prattling about our wonderful vacations, the bubble burst in 2008. All our vacations sucked. Well, maybe that’s too strong, but here are some examples – Lesli and Charlotte missed the flight to Hawai'i (don't ask). Once there, Dan used his face to catch his surfboard (not recommended) and had a doctor glue him back together...

Trivial matters aside, we are a healthy and happy bunch. At age eleven, Savannah's transition from elementary to middle school has been big for her. Princess parties have been replaced by dances. Fortunately she's the same quiet, sweet girl who sings in choir, plays soccer and swims like no one I've ever seen. She's still crazy about horses and went to two horse camps this summer. At recess last spring she cracked open her chin in a collision with a classmate, requiring 3 stitches (ouch!).

Charlotte got braces! The big news is how gracefully she handles them –even seems to enjoy them! At 8 years old she is in third grade, getting letter-grades for the first time, and meeting the high standards set by her sister. Her soccer team started as the ‘leftover kids’ - an oddball collection of asthmatics, miniatures and novices, but they rallied and finished the season with a 5-game win streak. Charlotte dances after dinner. It isn't a style recognized by the fine arts community. If you can imagine Snoopy dancing on a floor of ball-bearings while experiencing a full-body heave, you're starting to get the picture.

Lesli is finding more free time now that the girls are in school. She is co-writing a script for the TV show Monk that she hopes to sell. She enjoys her beach workout class and recently added beach yoga to her week. When she's not coercing the girls into doing homework, she plans our home repairs – this year we replaced a window & sliding glass door, painted the exterior of the home and polished the abused marble flooring. During the summer she single-handedly painted Savannah's room.

Dan found a fun new Thursday basketball game to complement his Saturday game. He still enjoys watching rocket launches from the backyard and is perfecting the art of watching sports on TV. He’s learning yoga and the girls relish the comic relief. On the job-front, Dan would be CEO if mediocrity were a virtue (grin!). But he is home for dinner most nights and rarely misses a hula show, soccer game, teacher meeting or birthday - and that's a big deal to him. Next year he's volunteered to be an assistant coach for Charlotte's softball team. His biggest moment of 2008 was watching Savannah catch a wave at Waikiki.

We enjoyed short jaunts like a wintertime visit to the geothermal village California Hot Springs, and a pre-Thanksgiving tour of Death Valley where the 200 foot sand dunes were perfect for jumping, rolling, running, and falling. Perhaps the most fun we had was our spring break in Atlanta with Dan's family. We went to a Braves game, played cards, visited the Martin Luther King Memorial, fished, toured Stone Mountain & the Coca Cola museum and just generally laughed until beverages came out of our noses. We finished our Georgia vacation with a brief trip to Savannah (the city, not the daughter). In keeping with our "year of bad trips", on the return flight, Lesli and the girls got stuck in Atlanta for two nights (not too bad since they stayed with family and got to buy new underwear!).

At Thanksgiving, we participated in a feed-the-hungry fun-run. Although Charlotte was in bed with a cold, Sydney (now 10) filled in admirably and was quite fetching in her bandanna. This marked Syd’s complete recovery from surgery earlier in the year to remove a cancerous tumor.

We're excited to spend Festivus at home with visits from Aunt Julie, niece Whitney and Lesli's folks. We wish you unbridled good health, laughter that hurts your ribs, and hours upon hours of time with the people you love.

With love from Dan, Lesli, Savannah & Charlotte!

Holding place for Halloween, Death Valley & Thanksgiving

Fall 2008

(as with all my blog entries, you can click on the picture for a larger view) Summer came to a close with our annual Sycamore Canyon camping trip with friends. Here are some of the kids on the trip - Savannah & Charlotte are in the center...
Just before school started, Aunt Julie visited us. We played the game of Life, and just generally goofed around...
We often dog-sit Ally. Here Ally and Charlotte share a good joke...

Both Lesli and I had been seeing this Cooper Hawk for awhile, but usually only as a blur streaking through our tiny backyard. One morning he was hunting songbirds so intently, I caught him with the camera...
As a sixth-grader, Savannah is eligible to participate in Cotillion - a monthly event that is a fun way to learn dating protocol (and dress up). Here is Savannah before her first Cotillion event...
Tiny SBK in the middle of her Cotillion buddies...

Our Swiss friend Jerome Bernard took a vacation in Southern California. Charlotte took this picture of him as we were driving to Universal Studios theme park...
The newest ride at Universal Studios is "The Simpsons"...
"Can't get enough of that wonderful Duff!"
Next entry: Halloween!

(as with all my blogs, click on the picture for a larger view)

Our big summer vacation was a week in Hawai'i. In 2006 we had a great time in Oahu: We stayed on the North Shore on a quiet beach. This time we stayed on the western end of Waikiki beach and in the thick of all the hustle & bustle.

The vacation started on an 'oops!' when Lesli & Charlotte missed their flight. Delta told Lesli they were too late to check bags. Lesli, strongly disagrees with Delta. Anyway, Savannah & I flew American and did all the first-day stuff (car rental, check-in to the condo, grocery shop...). Before we picked up Lesli & Charlotte, we had just enough time to take this picture of Savannah at the Duke Kahanamoku lagoon, with lovely Diamond Head in the background...
Our condo was plenty big, modern and nice. It is in Waikiki's oldest high-rise, the Ilikai Hotel (as seen in the opening credits of Hawai'i 5-0)... Here are the girls in front of a sculpture of humpback whales in the lobby...
The first day was just pure relaxation. We played in the lagoon...
I surfed a break called Rockpile, and the girls rented a paddleboat...
Well rested, the next day we headed to the Manoa Valley in search of an elusive waterfall. Oahu is amazing - on Waikiki you can be in a cacauphony of urban noise and traffic and 5 miles away you can be in a Jurassic Park setting like this...

On our quest for the waterfall we swung on vines...

...climbed stair-steps made of tree roots...
...threaded our way thru inpenetrable bamboo forests...
...munched on wild fruit. These are Mountain Apples (Syzygium malaccense)
at last we made it to Manoa Falls...

We worked up an appetite during the hike. We found Kalakaua Plate Lunch: a hole-in-the-wall Hawaiian local-cuisine place that has really good food. However, it was, without a doubt, the dirtiest restaurant I've ever visited.
check out all the dead bugs in the overhead flourescent light...
The food was really good. I just kept telling myself that they kept the kitchen cleaner than the dining room. yeah, right!
Re-energized, our adventure quest continued with snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. It is a beautiful, if well-publicized spot for oogling fish, sea turtles, eels and more. Here are the girls afterwards...
We also saw a mongoose - the weasel-like import that was brought to the islands to kill rats, but instead has killed millions of indigenous birds...
Here is Lesli with another weasel-like import...
Lesli was smitten with the streetlamps at the park - they were powered by solar and wind devices...

That night at the hotel a Hawaiian quartet performed local music...
Sunset at the marina just a few steps from the hotel...

A day of hiking and snorkeling can take it's toll on some people...
Day 4 and what better way to buy souvenirs than the state's largest swap meet? Held every week at the stadium (Aloha Bowl), hundreds of merchants offered tons of merchandise. The girls enjoyed it!



As it got warmer we decided to try the shave ice (it sucked, but we ate it anyway!)...

For lunch we drove to downtown Honolulu and what many believe is the oldest Chinatown in the U.S. Lunch was great at Chin's...
The real fun of going to Chinatown is the open-air markets where all the exotic 'food' is displayed. Here is Savannah with a tank filled with 90% fish and 10% water...
this is a tub of live catfish writhing & squirming in a teaspoon of water...
Savannah and I submitted this picture to www.engrish.com
I guess if you catch pink-eye and it gets really bad, it could turn into a case of...
Speaking of discolored eyes, that afternoon I got a black eye! The long-winded version: Savannah & I went to Waikiki central for her first ever surfing experience. The session was fantastic - we rented a big, tandem surfboard (12-feet long, 6 inches thick & 75 lbs) and I paddled us into waves - she even stood up! The thrill of seeing my daughter surfing, with Diamond Head in the background is a lifetime experience! Anyway, when we returned the board, the rental guy said "I got it" when, in reality, he didn't. Some shorebreak tossed it into the air and the fin came down on my cheek (the sound was similar to biting into celery). A couple hours later a medical clinic used Crazy Glue (seriously!) to put me back together...
The next day we headed to Kailua for ocean kayaking to offshore islets. Here is Savannah getting our tandem kayaks ready...
We paddled to Flat Island and saw green sea turtles along the way. Lesli made a great picnic lunch which we brought along in a dry-bag. Here are the girls on Flat Island...
The islet is a bird sanctuary (or just a safe-haven for athiest birds). With no predators, they nest right on the ground, in the open...
Cooling lava made for some fun rock formations. The girls found their own jacuzzi...

Savannah discovered the footprint of an ancient giant...
Further offshore are the Mokulua Islands...
After kayaking we took local advice and got Shave Ice at Hawaiian Snow - a famous place that was visited by Barack Obama the day before. The servers were kind of a cross between Stepford wives and Seinfeld's The Soup Nazi. I wasn't crazy about the place. We finally got great shave ice at Aoki's in Haleiwa. Here is a neat shot of the windward mountains...
No visit to Oahu would be complete for us without a trip to The Pali. Today it is a scenic overlook, but years ago it was the site of King Kamahameha's final victory over the Oahu peoples. We love it because the trade winds are funneled into this gap resulting in winds that can knock you off your feet. The girls made capes out of beachtowels and became superheroines!
The next morning and here is Savannah on our lanai. The view was sorta good...

For many meals on the lanai we had a visitor. This little guy seemed to enjoy our company (and our bread crumbs)...If you position the camera just right, the view from our lanai looks heavenly
But that is only 25% of the view from the lanai. Unfortunately the rest was obscured by a 30-story construction site 50-yards away. From 7am to 5pm the noise was overwhelming. Here is 'the other' view from our lanai...
That's it! Construction, facial scars and airlines notwithstanding, Hawai'i is paradise, family vacations are worth more their weight in gold and we can't wait to go back to the islands of Aloha...