Oh no, we’ve lost Station Officer Steel!
Trip Start
Sep 16, 2011
1
53
290
Trip End
Nov 20, 2011
Where I stayed
Haleiwa, Hawaii
Sunday, November 6, 2011
We wake up and after breakfast 1, we eat our body weight in toast and rustle up a plan for the day. We head out to Hale-iwa Farmers Markets and have a fantastic time. There is a jumping castle, a space for kids to draw (firstly Elwood wanted to write out the list of 'good behaviour' and then he wanted to draw a hunter, a bear and a sword. Such fun!) Elwood has developed a real thirst for the knowledge in the last couple of days. At the markets he was so interested in how bees make honey and was watching bees in a hive and then he was pleased when he got to taste the honey. There was a man pounding taro root into a banana leaf , and Elwood was fascinated with this and ask so loads of questions. He also was interested in the composting veg and asked someone how the composting works. Elwood was fascinated, listening and asking questions. Noah and I were so surprised – composting? He was running his hands through the compost!
At the markets I accidently bought a gorgeous necklace. I have wanted a necklace like it for ages, so I guess it was meant to be (ha!). It is a swallow in flight and I felt super fab when I tried it on. So, I am the proud owner of a lovely piece of jewellery from Hale-iwa. Happy me. However, you won’t be seeing it in any day time photos, so it doesn’t interfere with my tanning regime.
Our next stop was Mokule’ia Beach. Apparently this is where they filmed some of Lost. It was beautiful and Elwood had a good play in the trees and a splash in the water. The water seemed quite erratic and was full of kite surfers. It was so beautiful to watch. We were very glad to make the detour here.
We head back to Hale’iwa with the intention of getting lunch and doing some Christmas shopping. Elwood had been asking for a hot dog for about an hour, so we pop into the Grass Skirt Grille and have fabulous hot dogs and Noah happily chomps a vege burger. We browse in some shops, and don’t see anything Christmas wise but we manage to buy Woody a fantastic hat. It says Sea Lion on it, and it has a Lion, with a eye patch and smoking a pipe. He loved it so so much when he saw it and we could not resist. We a quick restorative shave-ice and then it is back to beach.
We go to Waimea Bay and it was mostly lovely except when we arrived Elwood went to run straight into the water as a giant barrel wave was heading for the shore. We freaked and Noah ran and quickly scooped Elwood up and it was fine. But Noah and I were spooked. I sat down to explain the situation to Elwood and another wave came rushing up and over Elwood and my laps. We had forgotten (I am not sure how!) how fierce and unpredictable at Waimea Bay is. We all learnt our lesson. We then just played it safe and stayed on the sand bank.
Elwood has been very chatty with people today. On the beach he walked up to a man with a metal detector and just asked if he could have a go. I knew he would do this, there is an episode in Fireman Sam with a metal detector. The man was a serious ‘metal detector-er’ and told Elwood he was too young but he could watch. Elwood was not impressed and stood in front of him with his arms crossed. Not long after, Elwood saw a man on the beach with a better stick than his. Elwood went straight up to him and asked if he could use it as a sword. But the thing that had Noah and I in stitches was when Elwood lost one of his prized Fireman Sam figures, Station Officer Steel (or stashe, as Elwood calls him). Noah and I started looking through the sand for the small, missing figure. Elwood, on other hand, went off in search of a Lifeguard. He marches up to the Lifeguard tower and starts speaking to the nearest Lifeguard. Very seriously he says he has lost his Fireman Sam figure in the sand, and had he seen it. The lifeguard looked super confused and said, ‘Have you lost a sandwich?’. Elwood explained the story in detail, the fact that the figure had fallen into the ice (which was the game he was playing) and the lifeguard was very confused and looking like how he might get out of this conversation. He motioned to a tree stump and said if he found it he would leave it there. I thought that was the end of it but Elwood was not at all satisfied with this. He replied, ‘How about if you find it you bring it to me on that (a quad bike!). The lifeguard was so confused and Noah and I were laughing so much. Elwood walked off, looking down, shaking his head saying he was ‘very sad about stashe’. He started the trip with 8 Fireman Sam figures and now he is down to 3. So, to summarise for those keeping a record, we still have Sam, Dylis and Helen, 3 are ‘around somewhere’, 1 station office Steel is buried on Wiamea beach, the other station officer Steel is stuck in the door frame of a wig wam in San Bernadino.
We have homemade nachos for dinner tonight and some sweet, sweet liquor. We watch a bit of rubbish / brilliant tv and we try and not be daunted about all we have to do. Hmmmmmmm
Good night super friends and family.
