First, if anyone has any suggestions on restaurants and any "must sees" in Honolulu, the Big Island (near Volcano), and Maui (Kihei) please send them ASAP -- we fly from Phoenix to Oahu tomorrow for 16 days.
Now, to the blog at hand.
What were we thinking? That's the question that has been coming back to me several times as I've been scavenging through all of our possessions for the past few hours. I don't know if there's a word similar to anthropomorphise for ascribing house-like qualities to a vehicle, but that's what we've done with haRVey / The Big Pig over the past several months. We've given names to the various sections / areas (the attic, the master bedroom, the kitchen, the dining room, the play room, the basement, etc.) as if it were a real house and not 220 sq. ft of living space. The basement is the large underneath storage area where we keep most of the things that we don't immediately need -- bike helmets, ski equipment, clothing that Josh has grown out of (but which we want to save for Simon), etc. And I've spent a good portion of the past few hours unpacking and repacking the basement.
As we get ready to head off to Hawaii, not having found a way to take the RV with us, we have to actually pack! After traveling around for the past six months with everything we need (from bathing suits to ski outfits) it's a bit of a challenge winnowing down what we'll need to bring. And it's also eye opening to be re-exposed to all of the stuff we've taken with us. Traveling around with equipment for all seasons can be trying at times. But, while we've used our ski equipment (twice in fact), there's plenty of other stuff that I've only come into contact a few times on this trip -- when unpacking or repacking the basement -- thus raising the "what were we thinking" question.
Baseball bats, mitts and balls -- yes our first stop was the baseball hall of fame, but how a family of four with fairly bad hand-eye coordination ever thought it would be playing multiple pick-up games around the country is beyond me. On the other hand, the ski poles which were lying on top of the baseball stuff came in handy as we hiked down the icy trails of the Grand Canyon.
Then there is all the camping equipment -- tents, sleeping bags, etc. These were conveniently stored in our large blue suitcase, which we have yet to open until today (we need the suitcase for Hawaii, not the camping equipment). It reminds me of the romantic notions we had of the RV / campground lifestyle, pitching our tents next to the RV on warm nights for a change of pace -- this has not yet happened, and probably won't so we've lugged around more stuff that will never get used. Then there's the folding picnic table that we've never used, but that came with the RV so I shouldn't complain.
Beneath the camping equipment I've found the bag of clothing Josh has outgrown and stuck inside that the snorkels and masks (which we haven't used yet, but hope to on the islands). I'm also thankful that we've packed our inflatable inner tubes that the kids use on the lake in the summer. When we left Vermont in August we had visions of many more swimming opportunities than we've taken advantage of, but the likelihood of our inflating the pool toys is finally looking up
And then there's the stuff I didn't bring that I should have; since we didn't know we'd be going to Hawaii, I didn't think to bring reef shoes (or whatever you call those rubber things you can put on your feet and swim with). Luckily, all diving equipment is 1/2 off at Dick's this time of year (for a desert city, the Scuba departments in the Phoenix sporting goods stores are remarkably well-equipped), so they're only $8/pair. Of course as I'm in the checkout line buying them I'm hoping that we'll have occasion to actually use them and that I won't be tossing them into a suitcase a few weeks from now wondering "what was I thinking?"
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Here's a picture of me unpacking the basement a few months ago -- things looked a little different when I did it in a parking lot in Scottsdale today (less snow, and no table to pile everything on).
Now, to the blog at hand.
What were we thinking? That's the question that has been coming back to me several times as I've been scavenging through all of our possessions for the past few hours. I don't know if there's a word similar to anthropomorphise for ascribing house-like qualities to a vehicle, but that's what we've done with haRVey / The Big Pig over the past several months. We've given names to the various sections / areas (the attic, the master bedroom, the kitchen, the dining room, the play room, the basement, etc.) as if it were a real house and not 220 sq. ft of living space. The basement is the large underneath storage area where we keep most of the things that we don't immediately need -- bike helmets, ski equipment, clothing that Josh has grown out of (but which we want to save for Simon), etc. And I've spent a good portion of the past few hours unpacking and repacking the basement.
As we get ready to head off to Hawaii, not having found a way to take the RV with us, we have to actually pack! After traveling around for the past six months with everything we need (from bathing suits to ski outfits) it's a bit of a challenge winnowing down what we'll need to bring. And it's also eye opening to be re-exposed to all of the stuff we've taken with us. Traveling around with equipment for all seasons can be trying at times. But, while we've used our ski equipment (twice in fact), there's plenty of other stuff that I've only come into contact a few times on this trip -- when unpacking or repacking the basement -- thus raising the "what were we thinking" question.
Baseball bats, mitts and balls -- yes our first stop was the baseball hall of fame, but how a family of four with fairly bad hand-eye coordination ever thought it would be playing multiple pick-up games around the country is beyond me. On the other hand, the ski poles which were lying on top of the baseball stuff came in handy as we hiked down the icy trails of the Grand Canyon.
Then there is all the camping equipment -- tents, sleeping bags, etc. These were conveniently stored in our large blue suitcase, which we have yet to open until today (we need the suitcase for Hawaii, not the camping equipment). It reminds me of the romantic notions we had of the RV / campground lifestyle, pitching our tents next to the RV on warm nights for a change of pace -- this has not yet happened, and probably won't so we've lugged around more stuff that will never get used. Then there's the folding picnic table that we've never used, but that came with the RV so I shouldn't complain.
Beneath the camping equipment I've found the bag of clothing Josh has outgrown and stuck inside that the snorkels and masks (which we haven't used yet, but hope to on the islands). I'm also thankful that we've packed our inflatable inner tubes that the kids use on the lake in the summer. When we left Vermont in August we had visions of many more swimming opportunities than we've taken advantage of, but the likelihood of our inflating the pool toys is finally looking up
And then there's the stuff I didn't bring that I should have; since we didn't know we'd be going to Hawaii, I didn't think to bring reef shoes (or whatever you call those rubber things you can put on your feet and swim with). Luckily, all diving equipment is 1/2 off at Dick's this time of year (for a desert city, the Scuba departments in the Phoenix sporting goods stores are remarkably well-equipped), so they're only $8/pair. Of course as I'm in the checkout line buying them I'm hoping that we'll have occasion to actually use them and that I won't be tossing them into a suitcase a few weeks from now wondering "what was I thinking?"
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Here's a picture of me unpacking the basement a few months ago -- things looked a little different when I did it in a parking lot in Scottsdale today (less snow, and no table to pile everything on).
