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For the second portion of our trip, we took a short flight from Kona to Lihue on the island of Kauai. Known as the Garden Island, Kauai is the 4th most visited of the Hawaiian Islands, behind Oahu, Maui and Hawaii. However, you could say it “punches above its weight” when it comes to natural beauty and dramatic landscapes.
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Following the passing of Umeno Morita, Valerie’s Mom, the family began making plans for a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii, Umeno’s birthplace, to scatter her ashes. That trip began on June 4, 2022, approximately one year after her passing. We flew into Kona, HI, and stayed in Fairway Villas by Outrigger in Waikoloa.
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During May we went to see Tad play football and then a couple of weeks later, we watched him ride his dirt bike in a race.
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The month began with completing our move into the house in San Diego. Once settled, we went for a local hike around the nearby Lake Miramar reservoir and then up to Murrieta to watch Mia play T-ball and have lunch with the family.
On the 10th, Valerie and I had an anniversary brunch on Shelter Island near downtown San Diego. While dining, we noticed the cruise ships docked in San Diego and were inspired to check out upcoming cruises. When we saw that there was a 5 night cruise departing on the 17th, we decided to take advantage of it.
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Once we learned that Chrissy and Johnny were expecting a baby in early May, Valerie very much wanted to be on-hand for the birth and to help out with the newborn. Therefore, we decided to end our time in Maryland and return to California. In addition, since Chrissy and Johnny were planning to look for a larger place to live and wanted to relocated to San Diego, we collectively decided to look for a house that would accommodate everybody.
We found a place that suited our requirements and Chrissy and Johnny moved into it at the end of February. So, in early March, we packed up our apartment and had everything stuffed into two U-Haul moving containers that would be shipped for us to San Diego. We celebrated Valerie’s birthday on the 11th and stayed with Cyndie and Ming for a few days before starting our car trip across country on March 17th.
Along the way, we stopped off to visit my sister Sheila and her family in Tennessee, then on to San Antonio where we spent a few days with Ralph and Carlie.
On March 30th we completed the drive to our new home and began unloading the containers.
Second Act 