Sharks Cove & Harbor Cruisin'

Though our family is now safely back on the east coast, Andrew and I are still basking in post-vacation bliss. Ahh. How nice is it to have cool in-laws?! Because of the ridiculous number of fun events, I will post several blogs to attempt organization.

Sunday was our last full day at the beach house before we relocated to Waikiki. Everyone seemed perfectly happy to spread out and spend the day relaxing, so Andrew, Dad, Brooke, and Ell lounged around the house while Mom, Christina, Albert, Grandma, Pap, and I drove north to Sharks Cove.

Sharks Cove is a collection of rocks that when the tide recedes, creates tide pools with all sort of critters in them. We, unfortunately, got there as the tide was coming in and were almost swept to sea.... and, one of my shoes was! Talk about wishing you had packed heavier!

Mom & Grandma Ann at the cove. What a pair, huh? ;)

Because of the danger at Sharks Cove, we headed to Sunset Beach thinking we'd go swimming. Wrong, again. The waves were RIDICULOUS. We were almost swept to sea a second time and this prompted our return to the house... Not surprising.

After spending the evening before with some Hawaiian Knieriems, we decided to make it a double feature and meet up with Kenan for a harbor cruise Sunday evening.

Aren't those two a hot mess?! More seriously, I wish Andrew could take a decent pictures. What is his deal!??!

Dad, Kenan, and Andrew. It's comforting to know that the "inspector gadget" gene runs rampant through the Knieriem family.

Ellie on the boat. What a sweet little sailor muffin!

Pap & Grandma Ann! We celebrated their 49th wedding anniversary while they were here.


I tried to explain this to Andrew, but maybe I will do a better job here... To those that are married, do you remember the moment where you fell in love with your in-laws? Brooke and I have always been close, so I can hardly remember a time before our current relationship... but, Pap and I have never spent any real quality time together and we had the opportunity during their trip. There was a moment where he and I were talking about the sea turtles we saw at the sandbar and the contagiousness of his enthusiasm and the quality of youth that still exists in his 70 year-old body was thrilling to me. I remember truly falling in love with him. He's not Andrew's grand-father, he's mine. Even now, days later, I feel this overwhelming happiness with having shared that feeling with him. There is a poem by Walt Whitman, which I will paste below, that I read as a senior and his portrayal of relationships has always been comforting for me. A relationship between two people is less moment-to-moment and more of a lifetime dance. You grow and fall and twirl and bow... it takes so much work and when you recognize the ebb and flow of you and another... I don't know. It's incredible. It's without words. I can feel the dance between my in-laws and I more obviously than between my own family and I [I assume because it started so long ago] and I revel in the happiness it brings me.

A Noiseless Patient Spider
By: Walt Whitman



A noiseless patient spider, 
I mark’d where on a little promontory it stood, isolated, 
Mark’d how to explore the vacant vast surrounding, 
It launch’d forth filament, filament, filament, out of itself, 
     Ever unreeling them, ever tirelessly speeding them.         

And you O my Soul where you stand, 
Surrounded, detached, in measureless oceans of space, 
Ceaselessly musing, venturing, throwing, seeking the spheres to connect them,  Till the bridge you will need be form’d, till the ductile anchor hold,        
  Till the gossamer thread you fling catch somewhere, O my Soul.