Home again, home again

  

Pahoehoe lava meets the ocean. View from helicopter 

We are back from our vacation! We had a very good time - and we are still pregnant (phew!).

The Big Island of Hawaii was beautiful and we had a very relaxing and stimulating vacation. Lots of exercise, which was good for me and made me want to try to fit in more regular exercise in my daily/weekly schedule. We snorkeled several times, which is something we love, and saw beautiful coral (some of the best I've seen anywhere), lots of turtles, and many fish.

Tide pools 

The second part of our trip we went to the other side of the island and stayed in a small cottage in the rainforest near the volcano.

The volcano crater was pretty amazing at night - glowing orange and beautiful. The beaches on this side of the island were beautiful - dark black sand and many swimmable tide pools filled with fish and coral. The hardened black lava that flows down to the beach was incredible as well - beautiful undulating black. We briefly considered a hike out on this old lava to see the fresh flowing lava, but ruled it out as too strenuous for me while pregnant. Maybe next time.

Kilauea crater after dark

Will did manage to talk me into a helicopter ride to see the volcano area and red flowing lava. I was pretty scared (I am not a fan of small aircraft), but it was beautiful.

"What have I gotten myself into?"

Throughout our trip, the little one obliged me by being very squirmy and kicky. I could feel her a few times a day, which would stop me no matter where I was or what I was doing and make me smile. I kept wondering if she could tell when I was swimming, if my being in water made things more weightless for her in any way. Probably. Throughout the trip, I was super grateful for all of her movement. I only used the doppler once when I became worried because I hadn't felt her in a bit and decided not to wait it out. She was right there and doing just fine.

The only rough part of the trip was the getting there and back. This was much tougher than anticipated. We flew out of JFK airport, which unfortunately was evacuated as we were waiting for our flight. So we had to leave the airport lounge and go outside and then with thousands of other people make our way back through security. This took hours, of course, and meant we missed our connection tin San Francisco. Then, when we arrived in San Francisco, there was a mechanical failure on the next aircraft that took several hours to try to fix, and then hours to get another plane when the first plane was deemed unfixable. All in all, getting to Hawaii door to door took approximately 24 hours. I was swollen and hurting pretty badly by that time. Getting home was simple - flights all on time, no delays. Still tough and pretty uncomfortable but not as bad. I think I underestimated though how much pregnancy impacts my stamina and comfort. And I think I struggled more (and am still struggling!) with the jet lag as a pregnant person than I would normally. 

Mo's feet at 22.5 weeks

So, all in all it was a lovely trip! It felt like we really got away and were able to enjoy each others' company in an idyllic setting. If only there were a way to teleport to Hawaii instead of fly!

Mo


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