Hawaii Day 7 ~ Sea Life Park and the Luau!

Here it is Wednesday on our Hawaii Trip. I am not getting these put in as quickly as I would like! Wednesday was such a great day! We wanted to do the Swap Meet at the Aloha Stadium http://www.alohastadiumswapmeet.net/ it is out of control! It takes up most of the parking lot around the stadium and they sell everything! There 1000's of T-shirts, some as cheap as 8 for $20. We bought a really neat photo album that was handmade. I have always been told that it is a great place to haggle, but we didn't get too much into that. It was so great though, if I lived there, I would probably go every week! After the meet we decided to catch an early lunch before Geneva want to class for the day. We headed over to Anna Miller's for lunch. It was really good! Geneva left to go to school and we decided to head to Sea Life Park.

Sea Life Park Entrance

When we first started planning our trip to Hawaii we thought it would be fun for the kids to have an encounter with a dolphin, little did we know that we needed to schedule that ahead of time. When we got to Sea Life Park, the earliest Dolphin encounter was at 3:15, since we had the Luau that night, we were afraid that would be too late. Instead we decided to just walk around and see the cool exhibits. They had a huge tank I guess with rays in it and lots of other fish. We walked down a ramp around it. It was really neat! We watched the sea turtles and the penguins. The neatest part was the dolphin show. They were amazing! The kids really seemed to enjoy it also. We decided to stick around for the Sea Lion show, even though it was miserably hot! They did a Beauty Pageant that was pretty cute. Lilly's favorite part was the dolphins, she loved them!

Mr. Ray (as Braxton called him)

We have probably 20 pictures of this fish, I don't know why, but he is neat looking!

Mr. Sea Turtle

I don't know how the penguins do it, it was so hot there!

This island was across from the park, it looks so peaceful!

Cheese!

Braxton & Lilly at the dolphin tank.

I love this picture. I want to live here.

After we left the park, we thought we would hike up to the lighthouse across the street. It looked like quite the trek and it was really hot, so we decided to pass. We briefly stopped a beach along the way, but the waves were so tall we knew the kids wouldn't be able to swim, so we kept going.

The luau that we went to was Germaine's Luau. www.germainesluau.com It was really neat! The kids had a great time and Lilly learned to hula! She didn't make it too long after dinner, so I took her to a bench at the back and let her sleep. The show was amazing though! They do such a neat job! We got to watch them take the pig out of the ground, they decided who would be the first to throw off the hot stones by the ancient tradition of Rock, Paper, Scissors. It was funny! The dinner was really good! All in all, it was a great time had by all!

The picture they take when you first get there, yes my kids are dressed alike!

The Girls and the Kids!

Our Family with some of the dancers.

Taking the pig out of the ground.

Grandma with some of the dancer's.

This lighthouse was right by the Luau!

Emily wasn't so sure about eating mahi mahi. She was convinced it was a cute dolphin.

Lilly learned to hula! Here she is doing the fish.

The stage!

The moon was pretty that night!

Hawaii Day 6 Part 2 ~ Magic Island

After the Dole Plantation, we headed back to Waikiki for a picnic with Ruthie. It was a beautiful night! Ruthie and Hannah brought yummy burgers and hot dogs! We grilled and had chips! Braxton had a great time with his new friends, as you can see! Thanks Ruthie and Hannah for a great night!!!

The girls didn't go with us this night, they decided to wander Waikiki on their own, I think they had a great time!

It was such a pretty night that I really thought we would get some great sunset pictures, but a cloud moved in. Bummer. But we did get some good ones!



Genny and Ralf came with the kids. They had a great time running around until Lilly fell and hurt her hand. It was a very minor injury, but we heard about it the rest of the night! After dark, Hannah was catching sand crabs. She was amazingly fast! Here are some more pictures of that night.

Diamond Head at night!

Our cool moon shot!

Hawaii Day 6 ~ North Shore & Tacky Souviner Shop Part 1

Я люблю, и вы пропустите Женеве!

On Tuesday we decided to head up to the infamous North Shore. If you have seen pictures of people surfing the BIG waves in Hawaii, they were probably on North Shore. We headed to Hale'iwa which is the shopping/tourist town of North Shore. We met my sister at Killer Tacos, where she parked her car and got in with my parents.

Did I mention that during the week we were in Hawaii, my sister had an Urdu refresher course from noon-4? She is a linguist that speaks Russian and Urdu (Pakistani) I am so proud of her! Since she had to leave for class, she just met us at Hale'iwa, I don't think it is too far from where she works, but I don't know for sure!

Anyway, we thought we would hit some of the shops first. Only to find out that most of them weren't open yet. One thing about Hawaii, they kind of run on their own time. The sign may say that they open at 10:00, but it might actually be 10:30 or later. =) We walked down a little bit further to a T-shirt shop where my kids were able to scam.. er..talk my sister into buying them t-shirts. (they are very good at that!) Lilly had a great time throwing the little nerf footballs in the store, but she didn't get one of those!

After the t-shirts were purchased, we headed to the first beach. Since it is becoming summer, the waves weren't nearly as big as they are in the winter, but they were still pretty! The first area we stopped at was a lot calmer than I expected and there were lots of pretty shells on the sand. We spent a while looking for seashells and Geneva actually found a sandcrab for the kids to see. It was pretty neat! Emily and Ashley found some sea urchins on a rock just in the water. Of course the kids got COVERED in sand! We decided to head up to another beach called Waimea. It was amazing! The waves were big, but not huge but they crashed into these big rocks! It was quite the picture. I would love to go back in the winter and see the really big waves!

The view from the first beach, isn't that amazing?

Lilly digging in the sand. Her favorite thing to do in Hawaii.

Braxton collecting seashells.

Can you see the sand crab?

Chad in the ocean!

Since the beach was so pretty, we took a ton of family pictures! Emily and Ashley got a few pictures of their own. I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

The (cranky) kids and I at Waimea!

Chad and I. How cute!

Mom, Dad, Gwen, Kim

Dad, Gwen, Kim, & Grandma

Emily & Ashley with their new friend. I assume no responsibility for this picture.

Since Geneva had class, and Ralf needed his car that day for an appointment, we came up with a plan. We would keep Ralf's car and Grandma would come with us, Genny would go to class, and Mom and Dad would head back to Hickam for Ralf. This plan worked out perfect! We were able to explore some more of North Shore! We left Waimea and headed towards the "tacky souviner shop" and the macadamia nut farm. We found the souviner shop, and it was a total dive! Braxton found a bracelet and Lilly got a necklace. We have been promising Braxton a Hawaiian shirt, and he found a shirt/shorts set that he loved! We didn't find an outfit for Lilly but we did find a great housewarming gift for Ralf (long story)! Outside of the shop was one of the famous North Shore shrimp vans. Complete with outside sink. We had been told by Ruthie that the shrimp from these places was AMAZING, but I couldn't bring myself to eat shrimp out of a van. Maybe next time.

Cheese!

Would you eat shrimp from this place?

As we left the shop and went on our quest to find the macadamia nut farm, we passed some of the most beautful beaches! This part of Hawaii is so different from Waikiki. This is where a lot of the locals live. There were lots of little roadside stands selling vegetables including sweet corn which I found odd. There were cows grazing in fields. It was really neat! We never did find the macadamia nut farm, we found out later we turned around about 10 miles too early. That was OK though because the kids were starving! We headed back to Hale'iwa and Pizza Bob's! It was a good thing too, the kids were starving! Ironically, Grandma was the only one that got Pizza. hmmm.

After lunch we headed to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. After some goings on there earlier in the day, I will be a little wary of eating pineapple for the next couple of years! Love you Daddy! Tee hee!

We rode the train around the plantation and heard the history of Dole. It was pretty interesting. Did you know that it takes almost 2 years for a pineapple to grow on a new plant? The second pineapple that plant grows will be ripe after 15 months. I had no idea it was so long! Grandma and I shared a YUMMY pineapple ice cream then we headed back to town for our picnic. The picnic is getting it's own blog entry, so stay tuned!

Grandma, Braxton, & Lilly at Dole Plantation

Waiting for the train.

Chad & Braxton on the Dole train.

The pineapple express!

Hawaii day 5 ~ Hilo Hatties and the Parrots

Monday morning we decided to "bum" around Waikiki since Granny and Aunt Sue were heading home that night. Chad ran over to the Ala Moana hotel to get my parents and Grandma, meter parking was crazy! 10 minutes for a quarter or something. We hung out at the beach for a long time!

Lilly loved the little feet washing pools!

Braxton & Grandma Mimi

Across the street from the beach was one of the many ABC stores (I am sure I have mentioned those before right?) in front of the ABC store were two guys with parrots. The kids and I had our pictures taken with the parrots, as did Emily and Ashley. It was fun!

Ashley and the parrots!




After we found the somewhat lame free aquarium in one of the hotels, everyone decided to head to Hilo Hatties, a super huge souviner shop. Of course, the kids decided to both throw major fits right about then, so Chad and I took the kids back to the hotel while everyone else rode the trolley to the store.

On the trolley leaving Hilo Hatties.

After a while in the hotel, it became obvious that the kids were not going to take a nap, so we decided to drive over to Hilo Hatties. After we finally found it (my mom asked a guy who worked there to give me directions on the phone!) we went in and shopped. We didn't find anything too amazing, but we did get a couple of calendars with amazing pictures! Braxton wanted to ride the trolley back, so my dad rode back with Chad and I rode the trolley with Braxton. We all got off at the Ala Moana shopping center and decided to have lunch in the food court. Braxton just wanted cinnamon rolls, so Cinnabon here we came! Chad and Lilly shared some fried chicken and I had something from a japanese grill, so yummy!!!

My family decided to head to the honolulu zoo after lunch, unfortunatly we forgot our camera, hopefully Emily or Ashley got some pictures! Just as a side note, our Lincoln Zoo membership got us into the Honolulu zoo because of the reciprical zoo program. It was great! Their zoo wasn't as big as omaha, but was must bigger than lincoln. They had giraffes, monkeys, hippos, all sorts of stuff! It was really neat.

After the zoo, the kids had a playdate with Emily and Ashley while Chad and I went to dinner with my family. We went to an amazing seafood place. I had a wonderful seafood alfredo (I am afraid to know all of the different things in it, i just ate it!) and Chad had a wonderful prime rib! The dessert was amazing! I took a picture! It was a brownie sundae with a shortbread surfer dude and a white chocolate wave. MMMMM!

The yummiest dessert ever!!!

After dinner we brought the kids back to our room and went to bed. Next the real touristy things start! Stay tuned!