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Jellyfish! Actually, it was a very undramatic encounter. It was only one baby Portuguese man o' war, maybe a centimeter wide. It was quite beautiful: a translucent polyp with indigo tentacles. It brushed up against me and, thanks to a strong current, was out of range by the time I yanked Sophie out of the water. It raised a few lines of pin-prick sized welts on the inside of my right upper arm and stung like crazy for about twenty minutes, and then felt fine. I can see a few red marks now, but nothing I'd notice if I didn't know to look for them.
Supposedly a good, cheap treatment for a jellyfish sting is fresh urine. But I didn't try it, so I can't say for sure.
The new beach in question is Kailua Beach. Sophie had a day off today, so we decided to venture out of Waikiki. ("There are other beaches out there, you know," Tara told us.) Cousin Guy mentioned Kailua - so off we went. We took the scenic route, which is about 40 minutes of driving around the coast, past Hanauma Bay (famous nature preserve, great snorkeling) to the Windward side of the island.
Kailua looks like a fantasy version of a Hawaiian beach. The water spreads out in wide ribbons of sea green to turqouise to deep blue and there are small, green peaked islands on the horizon. The white sand feels like powdered silk underfoot. The waves were too flat for body boarding, but great for the numerous kayakers and windsurfers, and Ryan and Sophie had a rollicking time body surfing. Daniel, as usual, was in and out of the water every five minutes. He gets cold fast. (He takes after his Grammy Marilyn.)
We had a meeting at our house tonight with about a dozen people interested in forming a community group / Bible study. We did a potluck dinner - Ryan made kahlua pork in our landlord's crock pot, and Mandy Watanabe brought a killer fruit pizza. For an icebreaker, we had to talk about our favorite childhood superhero. Perfect opportunity for me to break out a photo Tara just sent of us with our Dad, circa 1980 (?). Check out those underoos! (And the bowl haircut. Thanks, Mom.)
It's late now and I'm going to bed, but wanted to post some pics for Aunty Tara, so she can get her Danny and Sophie fix. The first is of the kids' first bubble bath here in HI. (There was a sale on Clean Kids Natural Bubble Bath.) Note the Peach the Starfish tatoo on Daniel's chest, courtesy of Aunty Cris and Uncle Darcy. The second is of Daniel reading to himself and halfway sulking about it. He prefers to be read to.
2 comments:
Hi Carrie!
I'm very glad your brief encounter with a jellyfish stayed undramatic, so to speak. (By the way, I have several friends who swear by the urine fix, although I can't help wondering if that would be a case where the cure was worse than the illness?!)
Daniel looks so cute pouting....I can't believe he is big enough to read by himself....time does fly by us, doesn't it? It was such a eventful moment when Sophie started reading on her own, and now Daniel too! Et tu, Daniel, my, this auntie feels old~ ;)
I loved getting to see that photo of you and Tara with your father--wonderful! You really do have his smile, as does Sophie, you know. Okay, this has turned into an email rather than a comment--feel free to delete after reading, it was meant for you rather than posting anyway.
Being able to "see" you regularly is wonderful--I really do feel closer to you, and not just because we've managed to shave off several hours of a flight between us!
Love,
KS
A little unbelievable, even we konw Sophie can read early too. Did he paly in the same website Sophie did before? Or did they just play together there? Could you send some links of funny website for kids? Thanks a lot.
Jay
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