From Pearl Harbor to Beach Fun

Wednesday we drove back to Honolulu for most of the day. We had a goal to leave the house early enough to enjoy the Waikiki Zoo before heading to Pearl Harbor with Mark in the afternoon...we made it just in time to run through a few exhibits before heading west for our 2:00 tour at Pearl Harbor. As a side note, Spencer threw up in the car about halfway to Honolulu. Luckily, Amanda and David had an extra shirt for their son, Jace. My little guy spent the day "swimming" in the larger, but clean, shirt. 

 

The zoo was impressive! Monkeys, hippos, and birds - oh my! That's what we were able to catch, at any rate. We rushed through the front exhibits and walked our children, with wailing and gnashing of teeth, back to the car for the next event.

Pearl Harbor was amazing in a rather subtle, non-fireworks kind of way. The whole place is filled with memories and the ghosts of the men and women who lost their lives that day. To start the tour, we watched a 30 minute video that taught about the attack on Pearl Harbor and showed footage from the event. We were then escorted by the military across the bay to the USS Arizona. Few people spoke while on the floating memorial and I had a moment of peace watching the Stars and Stripes flutter on a pole above my head. Spencer slept on my shoulder for the whole tour and woke with the hair on his forehead plastered down with sweat. Back in the day, the tour included a visit aboard a submarine, which would have been the icing on the cake. Such a tour was not included with our tickets (which were free, might I add, through a government website that saved 50 tickets to be used for the following day - score!). We piled back in the minivan and headed back to the beach house. I left with a desire to read and learn more about the events and people of WWII. 

 

 
 
Back at the beach house, there was more swimming, reading, and playing with cousins.

Chadwick found a little cove that was protected from the dangers of the tide not too far north of our house - the water was only thigh deep on the little people and the clear water made easy viewing of the fish, sea-stars, anemones, hundreds of snails, and rocks that live beneath the salt water surface. Listening to the surf crash into the rocks was mesmerizing. There is so much power behind that much water....amazing. The serenity of the location was somewhat off-set by the trash and burned out car we passed on the walk to the beach. Both my girls kept commenting on how people needed to learn to care for the earth. I couldn't agree more!

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
Several of us went on another hike one afternoon - there's a trail at the most northern point of the western shore that Mark and Chadwick had hiked earlier in the week. They discovered a neat blowhole off the trail that The Adams crew, Portland crew, and I wanted to see. Unfortunately, it was further than we really wanted to go with the kids; the humidity and vacation were starting to take its toll.

 

I'm about caught up on our vacation....from October. Too bad we've had Thanksgiving, recitals, Christmas, and daily antics since then....

From Beach House to Dole

It didn't hurt my feelings that Halloween would be spent on Oahu. My brothers, however, felt like the holiday still needed celebrating. The male cousins all had costumes in tow....we improvised with Moana-like outfits for the girls. Spencer wasn't in the mood to do much with the make-shift trick-or-treating we set up at different locations around the house. The kids had a blast, the candy consumption was minimal, and the two pineapples carved by Chadwick and Mark turned out fairly decently.

 

The kids read and played and coveted time with the Adams' iPads. We swam in the pool and swam in the Lagoon at Aulani, A Disney Resort. (The tide was such that swimming at just any beach would have been dangerous to the health of the little people. We had to find a place protected by a brick wall to enjoy the ocean.) Chadwick and I did a little snorkeling in the Lagoon and it was awesome to see the fish. I have to say, it is an unnatural thing to snorkel - put your face in the water, don't breathe through your nose (I didn't have proper goggles), and then breathe through a small tube connected to your mouth. Don't dip your head too far in any direction or you'll risk inhaling sea water. The two times I've been snorkeling, I had to repeat a mantra to myself, "Breathe slowly. Breathe slowly" to avoid hyperventilating. The kids loved the experience. It helped that Grandma and Grandpa were with us for this particular outing.

 

 

 

 

 

The Dole Plantation opened as a fruit stand in 1950 and opened as Hawaii's Pineapple Experience in 1989. They offer a train ride through the pineapple fields, give a brief history of how pineapple agriculture has changed over the years, and sell world-famous Dole-Whip (a pineapple flavored ice cream that tingled the taste buds in just the right way). The plantation also boasts the world's largest Garden Maze, stretching over 3 acres. We wandered around for a while on a hunt for stamps from the "secret places." Spencer and Jace were not impressed with the whole gig...Mallorie, Kade and Morgan had a ball running hither and thither with Chadwick. 

 

 

 

 

There were naps in the car, hikes to a small waterfall (highly over rated per David's observation), bonding time in the kitchen, and reading with Grandma. Stuart and Laura spent much of their time hiking and birding. For some reason, a ride around the pineapple plantation on a small train didn't appeal to them! 

 

 

 

 

 

With that many people, there is never a dull moment.