My heart hurts right now for all of those killed or injured in that horrible attack. As a parent it just makes you squeeze your babies a little tighter. What a horrible tragedy. I can’t watch any more news, have no desire to check facebook to see everyone talking about it. I am just sad.
Colorado, my heart goes out to you and all of the families who didn’t have a loved one come home last night.
So Sunday I had wanted to head over to Kaneohe Bay on the eastern side of the island, but we ended up deciding to make our way back down to Waikiki and go to the Honolulu zoo. Of course the parking near the zoo is an absolute madhouse on the weekend. When we were staying at our hotel down here we had purchased a month long parking pass at the hale Koa hotel parking garage ($90 for the entire month!) So we decided to park there again and just walk to the zoo, stopping for lunch along the way.
We stopped for lunch at the Yard house, which I definitely recommend. They have something like 130 different beers on tap. Omar got a 1/2 yard of some local beer, Kona blonde something, I got a pint of a pear cider (yum!). Lunch was good, I got the BBQ chicken salad and it was delicious… avocado, roasted corn, shredded BBQ chicken, can’t wait to go back. Prices were pretty standard for Waikiki and they do have lunch specials.
This is also the point where I realized that I didn’t have my memory card in my camera. I was SO upset! And I didn’t even have my back up point and shoot in my purse like I usually do. So now I get to lug around my DSLR for no reason all day. I did take some crappy cell phone pictures but it’s not the same.
After lunch we keep walking. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea. Omar is getting ready to turn around when I spot the zoo. They have a military and local price so we got in pretty cheap. We only had a couple of hours before the zoo closed so we had to make it fast. The kids really loved the howler monkeys, those suckers are loud! For the most part the exhibits are nice, reminded me a bit of the Norfolk Zoo in some places. The elephants didn’t make an appearance, nor did the lions. I was most bummed about the fact that by the time we made it to the kids area of the zoo they were closing it. That area closes a 1/2 hour before the zoo closes so we only had a couple of minutes to crawl inside the big koi tank, check out the cool guinea pig house and see the goats. The kids liked it so we’ll have to go back.
Loooooong walk back to the car, passing some shops that I really wanted to stop and peek into but everyone else was just done. I keep seeing Hawaiian style quilts and they are just beautiful. They are going on my to buy list for Hawaii!
Also, yesterday we went and stocked up on snorkeling supplies. I can’t wait until my stuff gets here in over a month and Omar needed some of his own. he actually got this really nice mask that I’m a little jealous of, but he couldn’t get a good seal on any of the cheapo ones.
So this weekend we are going to try a new place to snorkel, hopefully one that isn’t as crowded as Shark’s Cove was. It seems like all the best places are going to be crazy crowded. We’ll have to see what we can find.
We decided to actually do something Hawaiian and touristy and take a trip up to the North Shore. On the way up we took a quick stop by the Dole Plantation. We weren’t trying to stay all day so we didn’t do the maze or train.
Not even a minute after walking in did Omar spy a pineapple! They have groups of different varieties growing all over the place and it’s amazing to see the many different colors and sizes. Who knew?!
The koi pond was also pretty cool. The koi were outta control, trying to swim on top of each other to get food. Unfortunately for us, the food was all gone out of the dispensers. Go before noon if you want to try to get some!
They had some really pretty plants as well. I am constantly taking pictures of all of the plants and flowers I see (I really need to buy that macro lens I want!) I love how well landscaped everything on this island is! Just beautiful!
My little pineapples… There was a group ahead of us who were doing this as well but they had way more people and a million cameras and were taking FOREVER. It was super annoying and they refused to get out of the way so my kids could take a picture.
Everyone raves about the Dole Whip, and I admit it was good. But really, it’s pineapple soft serve. For $5. But now I can say I ate it.
Guess what? MORE pineapple pictures! They were SO cool, and the baby ones were adorable. (Yes, I realize I just described a fruit as adorable.)
I don’t know what kind of tree this is, but Mckenna and I are now calling it a rainbow tree.
Continuing on to the North Shore, we passed this horse farm. Nothing happened, I just love how this shot turned out. (As we were creeping along in traffic because our bright idea was the same one that half the island had!)
Quick pull off right after the horse farm. Turtle Beach! I was hoping to see at least one sea turtle, or honu as they are known here. Instead, we saw DOZENS!
I just love those sweet faces! But not enough to touch them as they are protected and will cost $250K! The volunteers were actually really great and I would love to join them! hang with turtles all day? Sign me up!
While we were having a religious experience with sea turtles, Omar was happy to watch from the shore.
Next time I am bringing a snorkel!
One of the turtles up close. This is why they are here, to munch on all this yummy algae.
Onward! This time to find something to eat! We ended up purely on accident at Ted’s Bakery. Ended up having a GREAT lunch wishing we had room for dessert. They are apparently quite famous for their cream pies (which looked outstanding!) I did end up having my very first Hawaiian plate lunch. Fantastic!
After lunch we tried to make our way to Waimea Bay, one of the most famous surfing beaches in the world. Parking was INSANE. No where to park for miles, so back up the coast we go, finally stopping at Shark’s Cove. I had read that they had great snorkeling and even though we hadn’t brought any with us, we were hot and ready to cool off!
Omar and Mckenna went in first and I couldn’t tell whether they were enjoying it or not. Once they came back they said they saw tons of fish. We all ended up going out (with just goggles) and ended up seeing hundreds of convict tangs, parrot fish, wrasses, puffer fish, a moorish idol, and a humahuma trigger. I can NOT wait to go back here with a snorkel!
Still can’t believe this is my life. I’m kinda digging it so far.
We’ve been trying to keep busy the past couple of days. The more time we spend out of the hotel room the better, the kids are ready to kill each other. Our pool at our hotel is fine, but it gets really crowded sometimes and the kids are crazy! The sad thing is, most of them are military kids!
I found this lighthouse (?) while driving around getting lost on Hickam, it’s right next to the elementary school. I don’t know what it is there for but it looks really cool.
Today at the Pearl pool… Both kids were bored within an hour so we decided to take off and find something else to do. They are so spoiled from going to the Rota pool and knowing EVERYONE there. Being the new kid sucks and not knowing anyone sucks, too. I get it! I have no friends here either!
So we found our way over to the beach on hickam. (A detour here and there to get there, my plan of attack, just follow along the water!) It’s not huge but the water was beautiful! Mckenna was SUPER disappointed that she couldn’t go out on a paddle board by herself. We’ll have to go back with daddy so we can double up. I’m still dying to try it.
Mckenna is miserable here.
So am I. Life is rough.
What a hideous place to live. I don’t know how I am going to last 3 years.
Also, I am lucky enough to have gotten a sunburn on the tops of my thighs. hooray!
All of a sudden my “h” key on my laptop is deciding to not work. I never quite realized how much I used that letter until it’s gone! Plus the fact that I have to copy and paste every time I want to use it. Plus I hate having that annoying red squiggle under words as I type.
Going to see if my husband can work is magic, otherwise it’s off to the Geek Squad to fix.
I can’t even write a normal post because it’s getting on my nerves so much!
Feel like I accomplished a LOT today. Got both kids registered for school (the school I didn’t really want them to go to but I am over it and just am going to accept it), sorted out all of our Tricare stuff, no more Tricare Overseas, we are now TriWest (which sounds so stupid), booked appointments for school physicals/TB tests for Friday morning (kinda amazed they got me in that fast), picked up the dog’s kennel from the quarantine facility where we left it last week (no room in the car and that sucker was too big for the trunk!), picked Omar up early from school and zipped over to the DMV so he could get his Hawaii driver’s license (he’s official!) and now debating on where to go out for dinner.
(Also I probably hit my quota for parentheses for the day!)
I keep driving by our house willing the current residents to just move out already! The should be moving out in the next few days and then we have to wait for the house to get cleaned/repainted whatever it is they will be doing. The day we move in we are planning on having both our Aloha furniture (temp furniture to live on) and our express shipment (linens and kitchen stuff we packed) so we can be kinda in a real home. Just happy there is a pool within walking distance (with a teeny tiny gym!)
Tomorrow I have NO plans, which means that a ton of stuff will suddenly pop up that needs to be done! Still didn’t get to the beach over on Hickam so maybe we’ll try to find it, it looks like they have super cheap paddleboard rentals ($9/hour!) and I’ve been dying to try but it was super expensive in Waikiki!
Sink Or Swim 