Vacations aren’t what they used to be
It takes a lot to impress teenagers.
Or maybe not a lot, but it must be just the right things. At any
rate, I feared I had made a huge mistake when I selected a vacation
spot this summer.
Vacations aren’t what they used to be
It takes a lot to impress teenagers.
Or maybe not a lot, but it must be just the right things. At any rate, I feared I had made a huge mistake when I selected a vacation spot this summer.
Since I felt like it might be the last family vacation for us, seeing as how the 18 year old is going off to college soon, I decided to splurge on a trip to Hawaii. This is the first major trip I’ve done in my adult life – sure, there have been many trips, but this one involved a plane, a rental car, and other complications I hadn’t dealt with in a long time.
But I wanted to go, since I hadn’t been there myself for about 30 years, and I wanted my boys to experience this wonderful place. They seemed excited enough when I told them a few months ago.
Then we actually got there.
I was the one jumping around saying, “Look at the palm trees! Look at the ocean! Isn’t it great?” while they stood there in stony-faced silence.
“Do they have WiFi at the hotel?” Ross finally asked.
Then the complaints started. It was too hot. Too humid. The rental car didn’t have air conditioning vents in the back seat. They didn’t like the way I drove. They didn’t like the beach next door.
“Why isn’t it like a California beach?” Hunter wanted to know.
“Because we’re not in California,” I said through gritted teeth.
Which was kind of the point.
It took a few days, but they finally started to get why people come to Hawaii. Fresh pineapple, for one thing; fruit smoothies, for another. Rice served with every meal – even breakfast. Hunter, my starch fiend, is the one who liked that.
I guess Hawaii got to their hearts was through their stomachs, which I should have figured, them being the teenage eating machines that they are.
Then they found out that volcanoes are really cool. We stopped in Volcano National Park on our way to Hilo, where steam vents and calderas spew vapor and locals leave offerings for Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess.
The geologic fun was just beginning, however. There happens to be an active lava flow right now on the big island, and south of Hilo, we hiked out through shiny black volcanic fields to a viewing location. There, we were treated to a truly remarkable sight – gases and steam billowing up from the ocean, thousands of feet into the air, the result of red-hot lava pouring into the ocean. We could see chunks of stuff spewing out of mini-explosions.
That, finally, impressed them.
So they’ve decided that Hawaii is OK after all. They even put up with looking at waterfalls and botanical gardens without too much of a fight. And yes, they’ve finally acknowledged that it’s a beautiful place. It’s not like home, and that’s finally fine with
them.
And yes, having WiFi didn’t hurt one bit.
