Monthly Archives: March 2013

Ko’Olina Lagoons

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Well the kids are finally back in school for their two day school week, but I wanted to share some more of our fun Spring Break adventures… On Monday we hit up Ko’Olina Lagoon, specifically #4 near the marina.

These lagoons are all man made but it makes for some great swimming for the kids. The water is nice and calm and there is a nice reef right outside the lagoon to keep the critters out. Unsuccessfully, there was a 4 foot reef shark spotted in here last week! No sharks for us, we did get a quick glance of a honu or green sea turtle. He was too fast for me to snap a picture.koolina

Yes the water is really that beautifully clear. And it was hot and sunny the entire time we were there, getting updates from all our Honolulu friends who were getting a downpour and my Virginia family who was getting snow! koolina1Shortly after I took the picture of our beach site I got reprimanded for having a tent up. I forgot that I am not too fond of this beach. Lots of rules, no umbrellas or tents, which is crazy because this is over on the west side which is the hottest side of the island! We did get to glimpse the cutest baby octopus ever! I don’t know how they even saw him in the water!

 

King Kamehameha’s Summer Palace Ruins Hike

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Oh my goodness. This hike was killing us. This was our THIRD time trying to find the trailhead and thankfully this time we actually found it!

I cannot recommend this hike enough, it is a very short hike and leads to an amazing set of ruins. I would just caution to not walk on them or disturb them because the walls are crumbling.

First things first: How to get there. Once again this is another hike of Nu’uanu Pali Dr. off of Pali Highway. Park near the Water Supply building and head up the road just a bit. You should see a gap in the bushes like so:

ruins1Continue on the trail, do NOT take the first left at the big tree, that will loop you around and take you back to the road. Head straight until you see a large path to the left while you are in the bamboo forest. The trail should start to climb a bit. You should start seeing lovely stone walls around you… This is good, you are headed the right way!

All of a sudden you should see this beauty in front of you:

ruins2Ten thousand people here for a luau?! Can you even imagine? I would have LOVED to be at that party.

ruins3It’s sad to see these ruins so neglected. When I was looking online for information about them, it said by the 1870s, just 30 years after the famous luau, they were already ruins. The history of these islands and their rulers is fascinating to me… I keep joking that I am going to start sitting in on Hawaiian studies classes at the University so I can keep learning!

If you have a time to fit this hike it, I recommend it. It should take no more than 10-15 minutes to hike in and would make for a great picnic or photo background location. I think there may also be another waterfall tucked away in here, but that is another hike for another day!

Spring Break… Still.

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This has been the LONGEST break ever! And we have kept up our insanely busy days. It is keeping us busy and we are having a lot of fun, but I am not gonna lie, I am going to enjoy Wednesday when they go back to school. (For two days! Then they are off AGAIN for Good Friday!)

So weekend recap… Saturday was a crazy fun day. It started out with a Deployed Spouse Appreciation Day put on by the Pearl Harbor Chapel. They had a great day set up with breakfast, lunch and classes for us to attend. I was pleasantly surprised because the photography session I had signed up I thought was some photography pointers and ended up being a free photo session. Hooray! I am really looking forward to seeing how the pictures turned out!

Anyways, my first session was pie making, which I didn’t really NEED to take since I already make a pretty bomb-ass pie. However, if there is food involved, I am signing up for it! My friend Cat happened to finish her photo session and was watching us so I dragged her into our class and made her make a pie with me.

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Then I had my great photo session with the kids. I can’t wait to see how they turned out! When I finished with that I poked around a bit and spied on some of my favorite ladies while they were in their sessions.spouse2

And then we all got to enjoy lunch together with our kids… We were able to eat the pies we had made earlier in the day… I may have snagged the pie that Cat and I had made and brought it to our table… Hey I know that one wasn’t made with licked fingers or anything!

We decided that our weekend wouldn’t be complete without a hike thrown in… Off for our THIRD time to try to find the King Kamehameha’s Summer Palace ruins… And what do you know? We actually found them! I am going to put those pictures in a separate post because it is a pretty awesome hike! Unfortunately we hiked it in the rain, which was pretty fun for me, but the kids were not pleased!

After all the rain we made a quick pit stop at Starbucks for some hot chocolate and coffee to warm us up.

Then off to football practice. Three hours of football practice. I almost died. Our coach FINALLY decided to wrap it up and we all got together at a teammates house for a potluck. The kids had fun playing together, us ladies all had fun hanging out together, it was an all around good time.  Had to finally call it a night because we had a scrimmage the next day, Sunday, and wanted to get together to warm up before that. So more football! We warmed up a bit then drove up to Wahaiwa for our scrimmage… that we lost. Again. I swear we are the Bad News Bears! But we had a great time playing in the rain and the mud, the other team was a bit rough and I am covered in bruises! Yes this is FLAG football!

527837_10151566954398582_181472165_nPost game muddiness… I LOVE these girls!

Pottery Painting {Spring Break Day 4}

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Today we combined our regular fun spring break activities with an FRG event. I invited the FRG to come join us for a pottery painting day at Hickam. I was VERY upset to learn that budget cuts may soon be affecting our favorite cheap place to paint! The kids had fun painting and hanging out with friends. We had a pretty good turnout of FRG ladies which was great, and I painted a replacement mug for my last one that has developed a hairline crack! pottery painting

 

After expressing ourselves artistically some of us headed over to Wright Bros. for a delicious lunch by the water… Grilled veggie panini for me, yum! The fish were out and about and we saw DOZENS of yellow tangs. Why have we never seen these fish snorkeling???

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Cutie kids and cutie moms… Seriously, I have met some really great ladies this deployment!cuteAnd Mckenna is ready for a baby sister… Sorry to disappoint! Not happening!

 

Diamond head! {Spring Break Day 3}

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The night before doing this hike I had talked to my mom who reminisced about doing it 30 years ago! I’m sure not too much has changed since then so hopefully this pictures bring back memories for you mom!

First off, there was zippy parking in the crater (there are only 50 spots or so inside) so we had to park down at the community college and walk in.

dh1The walk up to the crater isn’t too bad at all, although walking through the tunnel is a little unnerving… Especially when buses decide to honk all the way through. Also, I love that my kids were coordinated in yellow and black! Thanks guys!

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Diamond head was formed long after the initial volcanic activity that formed the island. Both this and Koko head were formed by secondary eruptions, basically a magma burp. Crazy!

dh2It was hot and dry during our hike, there wasn’t much breeze. Thankfully there are lots of spots to sit and take a water break. I was amazed by the number of people doing this in flip flops… I know its not a REAL hike but it was NOT sandal friendly!

Also? There are stairs. No fun at ALL! I jogged up half of them and then felt like I was going to die. That’s enough of that! The stairs are part of the original fortifications. There are pillboxes all along the coast and I’m pretty sure most of them had guns, but I don’t know that any of them were actually used.

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Oh yes. More stairs.

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Finally! The very top! The breeze was fantastic and the view was amazing. You can see from Koko head to Waikiki. It was SO crowded up there, everyone was squishing and squeezing, trying to get a photo. It was a little insane. dh5

And the award for the most perfectly placed shave ice truck goes to….dhice

 

A nice cold treat after that hot hike. This was a pretty easy one, Mckenna kept track and from the start of the trail in the crater and back it took us exactly an hour.

Of course, we then needed to go cool off…

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Spring Break Day 2

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Movie Day!

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Afterwards we headed over to Costco to raid the free samples. I am always amazed by how rude adults can be when it comes to free samples! Pushing in front of kids and not saying thank you, unbelievable!