Tag Archives: honolulu zoo

Honolulu Zoo

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DSC_0130aOne of our last ‘fill up two weeks off of school with fun’ fun days was to hit up the zoo. Of course when I suggested it you would have thought it was the meanest thing ever. They were turning into mole people in the days after Christmas, blinds closed, eyes glued to tv and video games. I finally dragged them out of the house and made it to the zoo all on my own, no gps needed. What a great feeling that is! Also bonus #2, I found a parking spot in the lot right next to the zoo. $1/hour parking, heck yes!

Let me go ahead and get my flower photos out of the way here. Can I just say that I love how well landscaped this zoo is? It is so beautiful and lush.

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First up, the Keiki Zoo, or petting zoo (keiki means kids/children in Hawaiian). One of my favorite parts is the koi tank that the kids can crawl through. The koi are huge and beautiful. The first time we came here Omar refused to go in so I am happy he actually decided to do it this time. Don’t my kids look like they like each other in that picture? False!

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It wasn’t too crowded which was great, we took our time and walked and walked and walked. One thing that drove us crazy was the lions! You could hear them calling from all over the park but we could never catch a glimpse. I know some new cubs were just born so maybe they were still inside but I wanted to get some pictures of mom or dad making all that noise!

We saw pretty much everyone else though. Thanks for cooperating zoo animals!

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The meerkats were cracking me up, they looked like three little old men on a park bench. And the baboon was mid-yawn, he just looks menacing but was in fact being very sweet, although look at those canines! Yikes! The lemurs and turtle were having a standoff which was quite amusing, they couldn’t get to their island and he was very contentedly sunbathing. And Ms. Rhino, well she was posing pretty!

And of course the awesome trees that are all over make for a perfect backdrop, I love the banyan trees!

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If you live here make sure you take a trip out to the zoo, they have military and kama’aina discounts! We paid $8/adult $4/kid. Not bad! Also you are allowed to bring in your own food and drinks so pack a picnic lunch and a blanket!

 

Sunday in Waikiki

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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.