In our continuing quest to find a vacation destination with a similar proximity to us as Aruba was to our former state of residence, we have ventured to Hawaii.

In the past, since I have never been here before, Hawaii always seemed a warm tropical paradise to me. A place of continuous tropical breezes, warm sun, and endless beaches. We were very much looking forward to the journey.

But before we could get there, we had a six hour flight with a three year old and an eight month old to contend with.

This proved remarkably stress free. They both slept at least a few hours and otherwise were easy to entertain.

I did make one strategic error related to the title of this piece. Since we are now in the shorts and t-shirts all the time season in Arizona, I made the mistake of wearing this uniform on the plane, and froze to death.

I normally always bring a sweatshirt no matter where I go, but my now heat acclimated constitution deceived me.

And then grandson number one came to the rescue. On his Kindle Fire we had a number of books to read and movies to watch. Seeing as we were on the way to a tropical island, Levi selected A Muppet Christmas.

Did I try to talk him out of it, nope. Why not? Because he wanted to sit on my lap. Thus, I had the joy of sharing a magical moment watching the movie, and he kept me warm.

Perfect.

Then, on arriving in Kona, we were confronted by a remarkably unfamiliar sight, the sky wasn’t blue. It was gray! What sort of black magic was this?

So we made our way to the resort and settled in for the night.

The next morning, early of course since we were still on Arizona time, we woke to a strange yet vaguely familiar sound.

It was raining! Actually pouring.

My grandson was fascinated. It occurred to me he would have no memory of such weather. So I took him outside where the rain, to him, was like a Disney show.

Sometimes, it is the simplest things.

So we shall begin our exploration of Kona in earnest today. Hopefully, the familiar sun will show itself. Otherwise I will have to find a hooded sweatshirt.

How to people tolerate this weather?