Hi everybody! This is Ana writing, with corrections from Glenn shouted from the other room. We're the Nakamura-Reyes family from Sacramento, California: Glenn (Dad), Ana (Mom, me), Emily (12), Jacob (9) and Sofia (5, and she'd like you to know she's almost 6).

We have been saving for this trip since Sofia was born, in a coffee can and then in an actual savings account once the coffee can got embarrassing. Glenn's grandmother came from Maui, and he had never been, and that was the whole reason. Two weeks, two islands, and we did it on a schoolteacher's and a county employee's budget, which is why there's a budget section below with real numbers. Several people asked, so here it is.

Short version: it was the best trip our family has ever taken and Sofia cried at the airport going home. So did I, a little.

Saturday July 10 — Getting there. Up at 4 a.m. We changed planes on the way and Sofia slept through both takeoffs. We landed in Kahului in the afternoon, got the rental car (a station wagon; the minivan we reserved was "not available," note for later), and drove to our condo in Kihei. It was warm, it was breezy, it smelled like flowers and the ocean, and Jacob said "is it always like this?" and the lady at the condo office said "yes." We ate at the grocery store deli and went to bed at 7:30 Hawaii time because it was 10:30 at home.

Sunday July 11 — Beach day. Just the beach in front of the condo. Warm water, little waves, Sofia in the sand for four hours straight. Glenn got sunburned on the tops of his feet, which is a thing that can happen, apparently. See kid tips about the aloe.

Monday July 12 — Snorkeling! We rented snorkel gear for the week from a little shop (cheap, and they showed the kids how to clear the mask). Emily and Jacob took to it instantly. Sofia stayed in the shallows with Mom and a mask and saw fish anyway. Glenn saw a sea turtle and talked about it for the rest of the trip. Yellow fish, striped fish, a spotted one, and a fish with a Hawaiian name about a foot long that Jacob learned to say from the snorkel-shop lady and would not stop saying.

Tuesday July 13 — Haleakala sunrise. The big one. Alarm at 2:30 a.m. (I know), two hours of driving up a mountain in the dark with the kids asleep in the back, and then you're at the top, 10,000 feet up, and it is COLD. Like, winter cold. We had read this and brought every sweatshirt we owned and wrapped the kids in the condo blankets and it was still cold. And then the sun came up over the clouds, which were below us, and the whole crater turned red and gold, and nobody said anything for a while, even Sofia. Worth it. Every bit of it. Then we drove back down and everybody slept until noon.

Wednesday July 14 — The road to Hana. Glenn drove, I navigated, the kids counted bridges and then stopped counting. Hundreds of curves and dozens of one-lane bridges, waterfalls right next to the road, and everything so green it doesn't look real. We stopped constantly: a fruit stand, a waterfall with a swimming hole, a black sand beach. The road is slow and it's supposed to be, and we took all day. Jacob got carsick once. Bring a bag.

Thursday July 15 — Rest day. Everybody was wiped out. Beach, condo, pool, a sunset walk. Emily read an entire book.

Friday July 16 — Luau night. See below, it gets its own section.

Saturday July 17 — To the Big Island. Returned the car, short flight over to Kona (you can see the islands the whole way), picked up the second rental car (this time we got the minivan) and drove to our condo on the Kona side. Jacob: "this island is all rocks." It is, on that side. Old lava everywhere, and people spell messages with white coral rocks on the black lava along the highway.

Sunday July 18 — Kona. Beach, and a walk along the waterfront in town. Shave ice for everybody. Emily discovered that the shops in Kona have every kind of shell necklace on earth and spent her whole allowance in one afternoon.

Monday July 19 — More snorkeling. The Kona side has the calmest, clearest water we found on the whole trip. Even Sofia went out with Glenn holding her. Sea turtles again, more than one. Glenn is now a turtle person.

Tuesday July 20 — Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Our second "big one." It's a long drive across the island from Kona, so we made a day of it. We drove the road around the rim of the crater and stopped at the overlooks, looked at steam coming right up out of the ground, walked through a lava tube (a tunnel that lava made, big enough to walk through; Jacob's favorite thing on the whole trip), and then drove the road that goes down toward the ocean until it just stops, because lava covered it. Kilauea has been erupting continuously since 1983 — the ranger told us this and I looked it up later and it's true — and where the flow reaches the sea you can see the steam plume. We stayed until after dark, when the ranger showed us where to look for the red glow. Sofia said "the mountain is on fire" and she wasn't wrong. Bring water, a flashlight, closed shoes and a jacket; it's cool up at the crater.

Wednesday July 21 — Recovery, and the farmers' market. Bought papayas the size of footballs. Sofia and I made friends with a lady selling flower leis.

Thursday July 22 — A little bit of Glenn's family. Not on Maui after all, but Glenn's grandmother's cousin lives in Hilo, and we drove over for lunch. She's 84 and she fed us like it was a holiday and told stories about Glenn's grandmother as a girl. This was the quiet best part of the trip and I'm not going to say more about it here except that Glenn was quiet in the car for a long time after.

Friday July 23 — Last beach day. Everyone tried to soak up as much as they could. Jacob buried Glenn in the sand.

Saturday July 24 — Home. Flew out of Kona in the afternoon, changed planes, landed in Sacramento late. It was 102 degrees the next day. Sofia asked if we could go back and I said someday, and I meant it.

We went to one luau, on Maui, on the Friday. They're not cheap for a family of five (see budget), so we picked one and made a night of it. Here's what you get, at least at ours: you arrive around sunset and they put a shell lei on you, there's a big lawn with long tables, and they uncover the pig that has been cooking all day in a pit in the ground (they do this in front of everybody, and the kids were fascinated and a little horrified). Then a huge buffet: the pig, chicken, fish, rice, sweet potatoes, a purple paste called poi that the kids would not touch and I sort of liked, and about six desserts. Then the show, with hula dancers, drums, and a man who twirls a flaming knife, which was Jacob's second-favorite thing on the trip after the lava tube.

Is it touristy? Yes. Did we care? No. Sofia got called up on stage to learn a hula and she has not stopped doing it since. Worth doing once.

I kept every receipt in an envelope, because I'm that person. This is for five people, 14 nights, from Sacramento, in July 1999. Your numbers will be different, but at least you'll know roughly what you're getting into. We stayed in condos with kitchens both places and cooked breakfast and most dinners, which is the single biggest reason this was affordable.

That's about $830 per person for two weeks, which is a lot of coffee cans, but for what we got I'd do it again tomorrow.

• Rash guards. Those stretchy long-sleeved swim shirts the surfers wear. Best $15 we spent, times three. The kids could be in the water all day without a burn on their shoulders, and no fighting about reapplying sunscreen on their backs every 20 minutes. Get them before you go; they're cheaper at home.
• The aloe. Buy a bottle of aloe vera gel the first day and keep it in the refrigerator. Somebody will get burned no matter what (see: Glenn's feet) and cold aloe from the fridge is the only thing that made him stop complaining. Sunscreen on the tops of the feet and the backs of the knees. And the ears.
• Water shoes for the rocky beaches and the lava. Sofia's flip-flops lasted one day.
• Snorkel gear for kids: rent it, don't buy it, and get the kind with a mask that actually fits their face. The shop we used sized each kid. A leaky mask ruins it for a little one.
• Haleakala: if you do the sunrise with small kids, bring blankets from the condo and let them sleep in the car until the last minute. We did. It's a long day. Sofia doesn't remember the drive up, but she remembers the sunrise.
• Carsick kids and the road to Hana are a known combination. Front seat for the queasy one, windows down, plastic bag within reach.
• The time change worked for us: the kids were up at 5:30 every morning and down by 8, which is a perfect Hawaii schedule anyway.
• Let them each pick one thing. Jacob picked the lava tube, Emily picked the black sand beach, Sofia picked "the beach" (any beach). Everyone got a day that was theirs.

• Confirm the rental car the day before. The station wagon was fine, but five people and five suitcases in a station wagon is a puzzle.
• One less "big day" on Maui. Haleakala on Tuesday and Hana on Wednesday back to back was too much. Put a beach day between them.
• More time on the Hilo side of the Big Island. We stayed in Kona for the beaches and only drove over twice, and the green, rainy side was beautiful and we barely saw it. Next time, split the week.
• Buy more film. Eleven rolls and we ran out the last day. Glenn says the turtles used up four of them.
• Bring a cooler bag. Groceries and a day at the beach, and lunch out of the car saves a fortune.
• Don't skip the pig. Emily did. She regrets it.

We shot eleven rolls of film and they are, as of this writing, still at the drugstore in the little envelopes, because eleven rolls is a lot of money to develop at once and we're doing them two at a time. Then Glenn has to borrow the scanner from his office. So: photos soon. The turtles will be first. Check back in October!