Continued from Hawaii Day 1.

Merry Christmas! Original plan today is to go to Volcano National Park and check everything out. But since we made a last minute adjustment to see the lava last night at the park, we decided that there’s nothing else we can see at the park that will top the lava eruption. So cool that we saw that.

First time seeing the backyard in the day time. Looks nice. Plan for the day is to stay at the airbnb, enjoy the slow day and just hang out at the house. We are all excited at the prospect of a really slow day.

Small dip pool in the side yard.

Long winding driveway so that you can’t see the house from the street. The original owners of the property must have really put thought and love into design it.

This is a pond that turns on automatically.

A little sitting area by the ocean with a small fire pit. Love this airbnb.

Not a beach, and the waves were giant. This ocean is only for viewing and not playing in.

Some tide pools here as well.

Those houses next door are basically on the rocky part of the “beach”. I bet they were once much farther away and the coastline just eroded away.

The waves here are no joke. If you fell off this rocky cliff, you’d just get washed up and bashed against the jagged volcanic rocks. Good thing the sharp volcanic rocks at the edge is already a good deterrent from going too close to the edge.

Father and son, just talking and not much arguing right now. Nice.

Just really giant waves bashing against those rocks all day.

Is this bench made out of Hawaiian koa wood?

While I was sitting with my dad, RL took this photo of us. Picturesque.

Back inside. My job today is to make lunch and dinner for everyone.

Such a cool house. Loving the flooring too. Think it’s Hawaiian koa wood. It’s really beautiful, I want this for my house in Austin. There’s only AC in the bedrooms, so the main living room we had to open the windows to let the cooler air in to coo the house. Wasn’t too bad.

The master bedroom on the main floor.

Great, except those sky lights have no shade so when the sun is up, you are up.

Little KL breaks out in rash again. Ugh, I wonder what’s going on. More allergy meds I guess.

Such a nice relaxing view.

RL’s breakfast spot on the porch.

Spiral stair case to the lower level. There’s also an outdoor staircase that leads to the lower level.

Leads down to a room with bunk beds. This is where the kids slept. And the door leads to another ensuite bedroom.

This is where RL and I slept last night.

Kids on their ipads, I’m on my laptop blogging. The good life.

It’s time to make lunch. I found this marinated char siu chicken thighs at the grocery store last night. Pop them in the oven for some easy peasy yummy chicken. Can you imagine finding this at a regular grocery store in Austin?

Christmas Day without a Christmas Tree. No big deal, I brought from Austin a large sheet of paper along with a bag of crayons. The kids will draw a Christmas Tree for us this year.

No lid to go with this pot, so this pan will make do for a lid. Speaking of which, this airbnb isn’t as well stocked as much airbnbs I’ve been to. Pots and pans missing lids and whatnot.

They do have a record player along with some records. Guardians of the Galaxy LP.

The kids finished the Christmas tree. Little KL helped a little bit too.

By lunch time, the clouds clear and it’s sunshine. Beautiful Christmas Day here on the big island.

They had a guitar and ukulele for the guests to play here. RL playing the ukulele. I suggested to her that maybe we could buy one here to take back to Austin as a souvenir.

No meat thermometer here, so I had to cut one open to check for doneness.

Simple lunch, but will get the job done.

Merry Christmas from Hawaii!!

The airbnb welcome folder told us about these geckos that come in the house. Well, there they are. I guess these geckos are every where in Hawaii. They made for fun lunch time entertainment for the kids.

Took a nap after lunch then it’s time to swim. It’s cooler on the big island here, maybe in the mid to high 70s. I doubt the kids will last too long in the pool here.

Nope, I’m not getting into the cold water.

Sure enough, in about 30 minutes everyone called it quit due to the cold. They still had fun though.

Mother and son photo.

Then it’s time for dinner prep. They had a grill here, but it’s seen better days and could use a good cleaning. Half of the gas jets were blocked so it was having really uneven heating….I’ve just gotta make due with what I’ve got.

Got some bone in pork chops at the grocery store last night.

Again, half of the jets on the grill were blocked. And of those that are still working, some worked better than others, so it was a very uneven grill. I figured my strategy was to keep moving the pork chops in a circular motion in the hopes that all of them will share some time at the hot spots and the cold spots.

Despite the subpar grill, it’s pretty cool to be cooking for my family at this beautiful spot in Hawaii. There are however mosquitos here, but fortunately I didn’t really see any while I was out grilling.

Ta Da! Turned out pretty good actually. Just very very slightly overcooked despite the shitty grill.

Christmas Dinner!! Been a mostly relaxing day. This morning it took a little bit for everyone to feel settled into a lazy day, then by lunch time it was all smooth sailing family time. How wholesome.

To be continued at Hawaii Day 3 Part 1.