Hawaii - part 4

The next day we went to Hanauma bay which is a nature preserve. The water is super clear and it's one of the best places on the island for snorkeling. I mainly stayed in the shade with August while Doug snorkeled and swam with turtles. I did take a turn later, I'm not a huge fan of the ocean, or fish touching me, or being underwater so it worked out well.

After that we went to hike Diamond Head Crater. It was a 45 min hike up and part through a tunnel and up a big flight of stairs. The view was so rewarding!

view down to Waikiki and Honolulu

Then we went down to the famous Waikiki beach to watch the sunset. (we saw not 1, not 2, but 3 brides getting pictures taken!)

The next morning we quickly packed up, check out was 10am but the house cleaner showed up at 9:30, rrr, she was super nice and just waited outside but we felt kinda rushed. We didn't fly out till the evening so we had a whole day to spend.

We drove up to the North Shore to watch surfers and get lunch and just see a bit more of Hawaii.

We had this amazing lunch at this vegetarian place, The Beet Box, I had some burrito with curry veggies, SO good

And we went to the Dole Plantation. This place was started by some guy, someone Dole I forget his name in his early 20s who moved here from Boston, bought land, and just started farming pineapples and eventually was the biggest pineapple exporter at the time. Wow, in my 20s I was in and out of school and really not doing a whole lot with my life! Anyway, it was a cool tour and we got to experience August's first train ride and taste delicious Dole whip a kind of pineapple sherbet. Mmmm

colorful bark of a Eucalyptus tree

We spent the rest of the day driving around the other side of Oahu and eventually made our way to the airport

We flew through the night back home, August slept the whole time, Doug and I slept as well as you can on an airplane, and we got home safe and sound. I'm happy we were able to go to Hawaii again, and I'm happy we took August!

Hawaii- part 3

We flew over to Oahu in the evening. We had never been to that island before and really wanted to check out the memorials and just see another island. Oahu definitely had a different feel than the other islands. We felt the other islands had a welcoming, beachy, 'aloha' feel, but this island did not. It felt like a regular big city, and even as we walked the downtown area after dark, we both had a feeling like "are we in a third world country??".

Our condo was not really as advertised on flipkey. In Maui our condo greeted us with a fresh pineapple and loaf of banana bread, this one was in desperate need of updating, but also had signs everywhere telling us not to sit on anything and to be careful with their old garage-sale furniture. It was not very welcoming at all, and put us in a sour mood, but we did have an oceanfront balcony and the view was beautiful.

The next morning we went to the USS Arizona memorial. We had a bit of a mishap as our GPS guided us on the bridge to the area and we were stopped by a soldier guard who said civilians weren't allowed to cross and we had to go to the visitor's center. It wasn't a problem, we just had a laugh, but we were surprised the tickets hadn't mentioned anything about where to go!

We arrived to the visitor's center, there was a really well made video about the events of Pearl Harbor and then you take a boat out to the memorial site.

We spent the rest of the day driving around the area on a twisty road called Tantalus drive which took us up to a lookout point.

Little guy was also hungry and tired.

After that we were pretty hungry and drove back into Honolulu to find some dinner. It was a bad combination of being hangry, lack of public parking, and going to restaurants on the GPS that didn't exist anymore. We parked somewhere and walked several blocks, carrying the heavy carseat (big mistake) to get to a restaurant where no one ever came to take our order and the meter was running out on our car several blocks away so we just left. On the way back to the car Doug spotted a vegetarian restaurant, so we ordered there, we ran back to feed the meter and we actually had a tasty dinner. I felt pretty bad because I was a total grump and could not shake out of it. That's no fun to be around! Then kind hearted Doug wanted to get burgers for a few of the homeless people we had seen on the street and I grumped about that too. But we bought them and it felt good to pass them out, and of course I once again felt so blessed to be married to such a kind man.

The memorial had been our only plan for Oahu, so when we went back to our condo that night we made a list of ideas for the rest of our 2 days. To be continued...

Hawaii - part 2

beach baby!

We went to a site to snorkel, the bad part of taking a baby was obviously one person always has to be on baby duty. This time it ended up being me while Doug snorkeled

Chicken and chicks on the beach!

Hanging out in the shade

I had really wanted to do a glass bottom boat tour but they were all full! :( So we spent our last day on Maui by going up to Pa'ia and eating lunch, going to the beach, shopping in little fun shops. It was a good day.

I had this amazing spinach veggie burger

baby toes going in for a dip

he LOVED it

mom life

Mr. Turtle.

I finally had one of those acai bowls this blog girl I read is always talking about. Pretty much like blended fruit in a frosty consistency with granola, sliced fruit, seeds on top, pretty tasty. We enjoyed the sun and relaxing on our last day in Maui, went back and packed up at our condo, and flew that evening to Oahu.

To be continued...