January 6th Email

Aloha kakou,

I've been doing some more searching, but not coming up with much. I've added a 'scenarios' tab to the spreadsheet so that we can compare different possibilities:

Scenario 1:

We stay at the 4 BR Gold Coast Jewel. If Clay, Sue, and I are there for a month and Chris is there for 4 weeks, then Liz and Rae get a bedroom and Aaron sleeps on the couch. We'd have to coordinate the kids leaving before Bruce arrives, so that he'd have a room. And Fred and/or Steve don't even get an invite. This would be a bit crowded.

*Scenario 2:

The 6 BR Diamond Head Dream house. Same assumptions on Chris, Clay, Sue, and I. We'd probably bring the kids for 2 weeks. If Bruce comes for 2 weeks and Fred/Steve come for 3 then we have a rather attractive price point in a large, gold coast location. This place is starting to book out for 2008, so we might have to make a decision sooner than we want. All in all, this is probably looking best so far.

Scenario 3:

The 5 BR Ocean Estate at Black Point. This is kind of a fall-back of scenario 2. We're paying $1,000 more for a smaller house in a nicer, but less convenient location. Surfing Black point might be interesting, but I've never been out there. Walking into town would not be an option. A car would be required.

Scenario 4:

The over-the-top 5BR Shangri-La. Even if every BR was occupied for the whole month, we'd still be looking at $130/night. If we get to this point, I'd suggest we either get condos or consider staying up on the North Shore, or out in Hawai`i Kai.

As you might have noticed, we're considering bringing the kids for 2 weeks vs 1. Hopefully this isn't an issue for anyone. If so, let me know.

Bruce, I've still got you penciled in for 10 days because that was the last I heard from you. You are obviously welcome there for as long as you want!

Steve and Fred have been tentatively mentioned and contacted, but I haven't included them on the list. As we start to gel this a little more, we'll want to pull them in to the planning process.

As I've said before, I'm leaning towards an August trip. It works best for us with the kids being out of school. It gives Chris, Bruce, and I the best chance of catching some South Swell action! And the Slack Key festival is happening then. Let me know your thoughts on the dates (Clay has already).

I've attached the latest version of the spreadsheet. Just ignore the calendar tab; that will probably come into play later when we're trying to arrange bedrooms.

Malama pono,
Chris P.