Hawaii - Day 14 and Day 15

That was one of the longest days ever, since it was two days combined into one.  We spent one last day in Hawaii before taking an overnight flight to Vancouver.

The day started by running out to the beach for some family pictures.  After that, we returned to the resort room and I took the older three boys to the pool while Sandra packed everything up.  At checkout time we left and then drove down the road for an hour to a historical coffee farm.  They had coffee available for tasting, as well as raw macadamia nuts, which due to shipping restrictions, can only be consumed on the islands (all nuts that are shipped are roasted or cooked in some manner).  While telling us about the coffee farm, the entrance worker also drew a quick map of all the local attractions so that we would know where to go once we were done.

The farm was really fun - the guide to the farm part of the tour was funny and he kept the kids engaged as he showed us the farm, the garden and the machinery used to separate the coffee bean from the shell.  He even knew a bit about the Roughriders, since he went to Auburn and had kept track of the star quarterback when he was at school - Reggie Slack.  The farm seemed very much like the old farms here in Saskatchewan - you grew all of your own food, reused everything, there was a bounty on rat tails (instead of gopher tails) and you skipped out of school during harvest.

We then had a tour of the farm house, which amazingly enough, had been occupied until 1994 - no electricity or running water and all cooking was done over a wooden stove.  After all the tours, I really wanted to buy some coffee that was picked from the farm, but the shop was closed when we got out, as the farm closes at 2:00pm and they pretty much shut the entrance down at 1:00pm.

Armed with a map of the local attractions, we decided to skip the modern tour of a coffee farm, though I did drive over to that farm to buy some coffee.  We then drove down to the bay where Captain Cook arrived, before driving over to a Hawaiian City of Refuge national park.  The actual name is Pu'uhonua O Honaunau, which is a mouthful, even in Hawaiian.  The park contained a beach area that showed what things would have looked like back before the Europeans arrived and was a very nice walk.

Our final destination was a local Catholic church that had been painted up by one of the first priests to server in the area and was known locally as the Painted Church.  After that, we returned to the modern coffee farm so Grandma could buy some coffee and then we headed to the airport.

We dropped off the cars, somehow managed to get all of our luggage onto a shuttle bus and we were taken down to the terminal.  However, we were 4.5 hours early for our flight, and the WestJet gates did not open until 3 hours before the flight, which meant we were basically stuck on the road outside the airport with a giant pile of luggage and four children.  Luckily there was a small snack bar with picnic tables that was outside the airport, so we managed to get some questionable food and waste a couple of hours.

Then it was check in time, and sit around in the airport time.  The kids were exhausted by this point and could not wait to get on the airplane.  We finally boarded and I had Jonathan and Bradley fall asleep before we took off.  Unfortunately, at take off, Jonathan woke up because he was uncomfortable and he started screaming and kicking, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't 100% awake, so he wasn't really aware of what he was doing.  I somehow managed to pass a sleeping baby back over the seats to Sandra and got him calmed down.  The flight to Vancouver was not very fun for me, because Jonathan kept waking up every 20 minutes or so and had to be calmed down and it wasn't until past the halfway point of the flight that he had slept enough that he wasn't screaming every time he woke up.

In Vancouver everything went downhill and I was reminded how much I despise airports.  There had been strong winds over the Pacific, and all four of the WestJet flights out of Hawaii were late, meaning there were 800 people racing to get to connecting flights.  People on 8:00am or 8:30am flights had been bumped before we arrived and our flight left at 9:00am, meaning we were in a rush before the disaster that was Customs.  I foolishly checked off the checkbox that said we had goods coming that weren't with us, which meant we got bumped to a secondary screening line (which was no big deal), but because he didn't have the form we needed, we got bumped to the area where they screen all the people they aren't going to let into Canada.  That area was not busy and the workers there moved extremely slowly.  We also lost Grandma and Grandpa at this point, as they weren't allowed in this area, so it was just us, the four kids and all of our luggage.  We must have waited at the front of line for 15 minutes before a worker even showed up and once we talked to him, he disappeared for another 10 minutes to find the form we needed.  It turns out that all this form is for is to allow us to challenge the duty on the painting, since we had enough exemptions from our trip to cover it.  If I had known that before checking off the checkbox, I would have just paid the duty on the painting and had an easier time making the connecting flight.  Obviously that is what everyone else does, because the customs agents had no clue where the form even was.

After exiting Customs, there was a massive lineup to get luggage onto connecting WestJet flights, and when Sandra talked to a WestJet agent about the fact that we were on a 9:00am flight (it was currently around 8:30am), they panicked and had us run to the front of the line.  We then had to run through the Vancouver airport, which is huge, just to get to security.  We went as quickly as we could through security, though Jonathan was tired and cranky and refused to go through the scanner, so they let Sandra carry him through.  We then ran another huge way to the gate, arriving just after the final boarding call.  We got onboard, got the kids plugged in to the TV and flew to Calgary.  Luckily we did not have to change planes, so the kids just sat there watching TV while they loaded the plane back up for the short flight to Regina.

At Regina, our day was still not over, as our luggage did not make it onto the plane in Vancouver.  Unfortunately for us, a lot of oversized luggage was not loaded onto the plane in Calgary, so there were a lot of people waiting for the one baggage person to deal with them, and it was almost 2:30pm by the time we got out of the airport.  Twenty-six hours with no sleep, but we were home.  (Oh, and our luggage arrived on the 6:55pm flight out of Vancouver, so it was back at our house by bedtime.)

Hawaii - Day 13

Today was our last full day in Hawaii, though we have lots of time to do things tomorrow, as our flight doesn't leave until 10pm.

We went a little bit north of the resort in the morning, to a historical site called Puukuhola Heiau.  The site contains a temple that King Kamehameha built - he was the king that united the Hawaiian islands.  There wasn't much to see - just a bunch of lava rocks piled up in a square, but it was a nice walk in the hot sun.  Apparently there is a reef just off shore where sharks are often spotted, but we could not see any during our walk.

After that we went to the attached beach, which is a very nice local beach area and probably the nicest beach we've been on in the Big Island.  The kids played in the sand and water while the adults rested on benches in the shade, as it was extremely hot today - somewhere around 30 degrees.  This part of the island is much more like a desert - the landscape is just black rocks with scrub and it is very hot.  Quite the difference from the rain forest we were in on the other side of the island.

Once the kids were done at the beach, we drove to a nearby village and found a little burger and taco shop to eat at that was actually extremely good (and extremely busy).  It only sat about 12 people and was pretty much empty when we arrived, but by the time we started eating, it had filled up, with people waiting in line almost out the door.

With lunch out of the way, we returned to the resort and after resting for part of the afternoon, took the kids on a short hike to see petroglyphs that were carved in the lava rock by ancient Hawaiians travelling through this area.  The resort preserved a bunch of them and made a walkway that you could take to see them.  We then went to the pool again before supper.

Grandma and Grandpa fed the kids, while Sandra and I went out for a nice meal by ourselves.  Before supper we went to an art gallery that Sandra had visited a couple of days ago and fell in love with a painting of the moon over a black sand beach.  I did not think that we could afford anything in the gallery, as it was all extremely amazing art, but it turns out that the reproductions of the paintings aren't too expensive, so after our fancy supper, we returned and purchased the art for our bedroom.  The reproduction is actually enhanced by the artist (he puts a bit of paint on it, which gives it some texture) and it will be shipped to our house in the next couple of months.

Tomorrow we're going to check out, tour some coffee plantations and then board our flight home, which I'm not certain anyone in my family is looking forward to.

Hawaii - Day 12

Well, the end is in sight.  Just a couple more days of warmth and fun before we return to the chill of Saskatchewan.

We did nothing today, as befitting time in a resort.  The boys went to the pool in the morning, we ate lunch in our room and then we tried to go to the beach in the afternoon.  However, it was exceedingly windy today and whenever it got really bad, it would blow sand into you and it felt like (and was) a bunch of tiny rocks hitting you at high speed.  Not the most fun time, so once the kids were cold we left.

For supper, the kids went back to the pool, while I barbecued some steaks at a nearby barbecue area.  Probably the biggest excitement of the day was when Evan spotted a lizard on the dining room wall during supper - a little tiny black lizard that I coaxed onto a piece of paper and then let outside.

Tomorrow, we're going to explore a bit around this part of the island and then we have our last night in Hawaii.

Hawaii - Day 11

We left the rain forest behind and drove to the other side of the island today, where we will finish off our vacation.  I loaded up the van in a downpour and then we drove to the Moana Loa macadamia nut factory just outside Hilo.  They have a pedestrian walkway that lets you look in the upper windows and see the factory in action, but as it was the first day back at work after the Easter long weekend, nothing was happening when we arrived.  We did buy a bunch of macadamia nuts before we left.

Our next stop was an orchid nursery for Grandpa, before we drove back to the black sand beach and stopped for lunch.  It was extremely windy, but there was a sheltered picnic table area that we ate at.

We then headed to the most southern point in the United States, which takes you through a very narrow road - you have to drive off the road in order to pass cars.  The road ends at a very rocky area, where I imagine many a rental car has met its demise.  We found a somewhat OK place to park and walked down to near the edge of the cliff, where a bunch of crazy people were jumping into the water.  No one in my family went near the edge, though we had to fight Evan to keep him away, but Grandpa went and looked and said it looked to be about a 40 foot drop into the ocean.

Near the southern point is a green sand beach, but it is a 3 mile hike to the beach, so we did not plan to go out there.  Luckily some locals were selling jewelry made from the rocks that make up the green sand beach.  I bought Jonathan and Evan necklaces made out of the rocks with sea turtles on the end of them.

That was the end of our fun, as we had to drive another couple of hours into Kona and then on to the resort we are staying at.  The resort is a resort.  It's a bit out of the way, but it makes certain to provide all the amenities you need.  There is a mall with a supermarket and a food court, a mall with all the expensive shops, various hotels and places to stay, a beach and a golf course.  We are staying in a very large townhouse - two stories with three bedrooms and a patio that looks out over one of the golf holes.  At this point I'm content to sit around here and do nothing for the rest of the trip.

We went to the food court for supper and then took the kids down to the beach to do their Easter egg hunt before the sun set.  It all went well, except for one egg that opened in the sand, so we had to clean a bunch of sand off of Evan's jelly beans.

Hawaii - Day 10

Happy Easter!

We started the day by heading out to Rainbow Falls, which is just a couple of blocks north of the house we are staying in.  It was a very impressive waterfall, though as I type this, I must admit it was dwarfed by waterfalls we saw later in the day.  Unfortunately, it was not sunny, so there were no rainbows to be seen.

After that, we drove a short way away to attend church for Easter Sunday.  The church was extremely friendly and welcoming and after the service was over they had an Easter egg hunt for the kids.  They hid eggs in a yard and up into an attached building.  Once the kids had found all of those eggs, they kept coming out with boxes full of plastic eggs and dumping them on the floor for the kids to scramble and pick up.  Our three oldest ended up with 113 plastic eggs filled with money and candy.  Makes most other egg hunts pale in comparison!

We returned to our house for lunch before heading out to explore the area north of Hilo.  The rental car agency had given us free tickets to a botanical garden, which was our first stop.  It was an OK walk - not great, but you couldn't beat the price.  The highlight for the kids was a hedge maze, where the three oldest quickly ran off and got lost.  Sandra and I managed to track down Jonathan, while Alexander found his way out of the maze.  Evan kept running past me, even when I had figured out enough of the maze to know he was heading the wrong way.  He eventually tired and I went and lead him out of the maze.

Our next stop was that Akaka Falls.  The area north of Hilo contains some very impressive valleys and the Akaka Falls are in one of these valleys.  You take a short walk on a path to a very large waterfall that is also very far away, before continuing on to the main attraction - a very nice view of a 450 foot waterfall.  We stopped for pictures and a rest (since we had been carrying Bradley).

We returned to our cars and then headed out to try and find a beach where we could do an Easter egg hunt on the beach like we had promised the kids before we left.  After many missed turns and wanderings down steep and narrow roads, we gave up and returned to the house.  It turns out there aren't any actual sand beaches on this side of the island - everything is just rocks and there are limited swimming areas.  As we are heading to Kona tomorrow, which is on the other side of the island, we decided to do the Easter egg hunt there.

We ate supper at the house, gave the kids baths and then settled down for the night.  The house has an enclosed deck, where you can sit and listen to the frogs and the waterfall and the older two boys are going to sleep outside tonight.  We'll see if they last the entire night.

Hawaii - Day 9

As I looked through all our pictures for ones to add to the blog, I realized I had neglected to say anything about Bradley and the beach.  In short, he despises it.  He cries the moment you put him near the sand, screams when you put his foot or hand in the water and will grudgingly accept sitting on a towel, if his parents are right beside him.  Very, very different from his brothers, though he may start to like it more once he spends a summer or two in our sandbox.

Today was our first full day in Hilo and for the majority of the day, it rained.  In fact, we dug out our jackets for the first time this trip.  Hilo is on the east side of the island and gets quite a bit of rain.  Part of the area we explored today was a rain forest, with 100 inches of rain per year.

Anyway, we started the day by going to a local farmer's market.  I tasted a bunch of different types of coffee, as coffee is grown on the Big Island and ended up buying some that I really liked.  Sandra and I also discovered a guy who made his own chocolate and we bought some for a treat.

We then headed out to Volcanoes National Park.  The Big Island is the last island in the chain of Hawaiian islands, and is therefore the only one with active volcanoes on it, as the plate movement has moved the other islands away from the crack where the lava is escaping.  The park encompasses one of the volcanoes, but it was quite rainy at the top, so we weren't able to see in the crater.  We did get to stand beside some steam vents, which were extremely warm.  The biggest draw at the top was a seismometer in the museum that recorded you jumping up and down.  Alexander and I lucked out and managed to land at exactly the same time, causing the needle to move a really long way.

The next road we took headed down the side of the volcano to the ocean.  This road winds through a bunch of places where lava from eruptions has flowed in the past 40 years.  Before we got there, though, we stopped and walked through a tunnel created by a lava flow a very long time ago.  The tunnel was really cool - it felt like you were walking through a giant worm hole.

On the way down, we stopped a couple of places and walked through the hardened lava, which the kids really loved, especially as it wasn't raining once we got off the mountain.  I have to admit that walking through the lava rock was very cool.  At the very end of the road, you can stop your car and walk a ways to where an eruption from 2003 covered the road with lava.  It was a long walk, but the boys were really excited to see the lava and ran ahead of us.  After a few pictures, they took off over the lava like little mountain goats.  I chased after them, as the strollers could not follow.  We ended up walking out to a Road Closed sign sticking out of the middle of the rocks, snapped a few pictures and then headed back.

After the park, we headed a bit farther south to a black sand beach, where the entire beach is black, as the sand is completely made up of lava rocks.  Due to the black sand retaining heat, the beach is a favourite resting spot for sea turtles and there were four of them out sunning themselves when we arrived.  All in all, the beach was extremely cool.

We then returned to Hilo, went out for supper and then collapsed in bed.

Hawaii - Day 8

Today was another travel day.  The day started as we rushed around the hotel room packing all of our stuff.  After all the panic, it was a day of sitting around, as we waited until 10am to check out, then waited until 12:50pm for our ride to the airport and then waited until 3:40pm for our flight to leave.

During the morning, we did a bit more shopping, grabbed a pizza for lunch and ate in the hotel's outside common area, while the kids played with all the free sand toys that the hotel had.

The flight was short and we arrived in Hilo (on the Big Island) just before 5:00pm.  We have quite a few bags between all of us, so a porter offered to take our stuff for a tip, so I took him up on his offer, especially since he knew where the Alamo kiosk was.  We went there, got our rental cars, spent a long time getting the car seats installed and then drove to the house we are renting.

The drive was OK, as I brought my GPS and I had my phone (with a GPS), until the end, as the map showed there was only one road into the area where the house was.  We turned down that road only to discover that the entire road was closed.  Confused, we stopped a short distance away, and while I look through my maps to figure out what other possible way we could could go, Charles went to a nearby house and asked the lady who lived there.  It turns out there is a detour a few blocks away, though you have to drive through a bunch of "Dead End" and "Private Driveway" signs to get there.

The road the house is on is extremely narrow and there is nowhere to stop or park.  The driveway down to the house is very steep and you are advised to back down it, since backing up it would be impossible.  (Frankly, I think backing down it would be impossible as well.)  There is a parking area for about four cars just beside the driveway, but when we arrived it had three cars in it, leaving us one spot short.  Eventually we parked the van on the start of the driveway and then hauled everything in to the house.

The house is very nice and sits in a secluded valley with a waterfall in the backyard.  I tried walking down to it in my sandals, but there is no path and I fell down as soon as I got off the stairs, so I headed back to the house.  I may try again when I am wearing proper footwear.

By the time we got a bit settled in the house it was late, and since the sun sets at 6:30pm, it was also dark.  We drove off to a supermarket to get some food and ordered some pizzas from a Pizza Hut in the parking lot.

After supper, the kids were exhausted, so we got them all into bed.  The plan tomorrow is to explore Volcanoes National Park and the Black Sand Beach.

However, the best part about being in a house in Hilo is that we once again have working wireless!  I have taken the time to go back and add pictures to all the blog posts from this trip, so feel free to go back through and see those.

Hawaii - Day 7

Today was another rest day, after all the excitement of Pearl Harbour the day before.  The morning was real lazy, with the kids playing video games and me reading.  After awhile of doing that, we drug them out to the beach and let them play in the water.  We found another family to give the beach chairs to and then returned to our hotel room for lunch.

We tried to feed the kids all the food that was left, since we are leaving for Hilo tomorrow, and when that ran out, I went to a nearby food court to pick up food for Sandra and myself.  
Grandma and Grandpa went out to visit Iolani Palace, while we put the kids down for a nap.  When they returned, they took the older two kids back to the beach, while Sandra and I sat on the deck and read while the younger two boys napped.

For supper, we went to a local cheeseburger restaurant and had some giant cheeseburgers.  After that, we put the kids to bed and started organizing all of our stuff, since we check out tomorrow.

Hawaii - Day 6

Today was our big day at Pearl Harbour.  We got up really early and headed out to catch an early bus, since it is an hour and a half bus ride and the tickets to the Arizona memorial are first come, first serve.  On the bus, we could see one of the small Marine attack carriers docked at Pearl Harbour, with Ospreys and Harriers on the deck.  We arrived and checked the bag we brought, since no bags at all are allowed in the Pearl Harbour area.  We got tickets for the 1:15pm tour and then headed out to the USS Missouri, the battleship where the treaty ending the war with Japan was signed.

I’ve never been near a battleship and was not really prepared for how massively big it is.  The deck is way up above sea level, and then the superstructure rises far above that.  Once you get on the deck, you can see how wide the ship is as well.  We started by exploring the deck and the big guns, though the kids were far more interested in the small anti-aircraft guns mounted on the railing.  They kept pretending to shoot down plane after plane while we tried to drag them around the deck.  Just up from the main deck is the area where the treaty was signed.  It felt interesting to stand in the same spot where something so historically important had happened (even though the boat was in Tokyo harbour when the treaty was signed, and not in Hawaii).

We then went down to the first level below the main deck and explored all the eating areas, as well numerous crew areas and all the other stuff used to keep a ship with 1600 people on it operating when out at sea.  The final part of the tour was part of the superstructure, including the bridge.  We sat some of the kids in the chair on the bridge and snapped pictures, before leaving the Missouri and heading back to the main entrance.

At the entrance, we took the older kids through the USS Bowfin, a submarine from World War II.  Jonathan and Bradley weren’t allowed in the submarine, so Sandra stayed out with them because she had been through the Bowfin the last time she was in Hawaii.  After the massiveness of the Missouri, the Bowfin was miniscule.  You start out in the torpedo room, where torpedoes are stacked with beds in-between them, and then you head through a bulkhead door that was just big enough for Evan to climb through without ducking his head.  The rest of the ship was very cramped - I cannot imagine how the sailors survived their time out in open sea on such a small ship.

We then grabbed a quick lunch before heading over to the entrance to the Arizona memorial.  We got there just as the 1:00pm group was leaving, so we did not have to wait long before we went in to watch a short movie about the Pearl Harbour attack.  Then it was on to the boat and out to the memorial.  The kids were pretty interested in seeing the boat sitting under the water, though I’m pretty sure only Alexander has grasped the significance of what happened there.

On the way back to the shore, we passed an empty boat heading to the memorial and when we went to retrieve our stroller, we discovered that all the tour boats after ours were cancelled due to high winds, which I found odd, since it did not seem very windy to me.

Anyway, we then headed out to the Pacific Aviation Museum, as our last stop of the day.  The museum starts with another short movie and then goes into a small area with just a few important planes from the Pacific Theatre.  There was a Zero, a B-25, a Dauntless and a Wildcat.  Jonathan was very excited to see the planes, and really liked when I showed him different parts on the aircraft.  We then walked over to another hangar, where they had a bunch of newer aircraft, including an F-15 and a P-40 painted up in the Flying Tigers paint scheme.  There was a rescue helicopter that you could walk in, which was a big hit with the boys.

That completed our day at Pearl Harbour, and all that remained was another hour and a half bus ride back to the hotel.  Bradley slept for the majority of it, but he was quite upset when he woke up and did not look like he could take any more constrained areas.  I decided to take him back to the hotel and let everyone else go out for supper.  I got him fed and bathed before everyone returned.  After getting the rest of the kids into the bath, Sandra and I went out to do some shopping at the market and to get me some supper.

We’re getting close to the end of our time in Waikiki, as we only have one more day left.  In two days, we fly to the Big Island to continue the rest of our vacation.

Hawaii - Day 5

After the long day yesterday, Sandra had planned for today to be a fairly light recovery day.  We let the kids play for a bit in the early morning, while Grandma and Grandpa headed out to explore Honolulu.  Later in the morning, we took the kids to the market, where I bought a hat and we bought towels for the beach.  We then headed to the beach for the rest of the morning.  The older kids played in the water while Bradley fell asleep in Sandra’s arms.

We returned to the hotel for lunch, after which Alexander and I headed out to hike up to the top of Diamond Head.  He had expressed interest in the hike and this was a great opportunity, as we could go out while the other kids had a nap.  We walked to a bus stop, took the bus to the entrance and then hiked into the park, which takes a bit of time as the park is in the middle of the crater and the bus stop is outside the crater.  You walk through a very narrow tunnel, so that you don’t have to hike up and down too much, until you begin the actual hike.

We entered the park, stopped for some sunscreen and then headed up the hill.  The first part is paved and not too steep, but it quickly turns to nothing but rocks and a whole bunch of stairs.  After the first hike up 70 or so stairs, you come out at a ledge where there is a staircase that seems to rise up forever.  After that, you are at the top and can see out over all of Honolulu.  If the weather permits, you can even see Maui and the other islands near it, but it was too foggy out off the coast for us to see any land.

Xander did great on the hike and did not complain at all, though he asked to stop and rest after the stairs.  He did drink an entire bottle of water on the way up and he looked pretty red in his face, so when we got back to the bottom of the hill, I bought him a shaved ice cone to cool him down.  The combination of that and the fact that it rained for a bit cooled us both off, and we headed out of the park to catch a bus back to the hotel.  We arrived just before supper, though most everyone was still asleep.  When they woke up, we headed out for a walk to the nearest Taco Bell, which wasn’t actually all that near.

The food was normal Taco Bell, though we ended up with a bunch of tacos with sour cream on them, as I didn’t realize that their regular tacos came with sour cream.  Before we left, Jonathan really wanted to eat at Taco Bell, and he especially wanted a Doritos shell taco, which I was able to buy him.  Unfortunately, he is still using supper as a power struggle with his parents and the moment it came time to actually eat, he refused.  Sandra eventually “convinced” him to eat three bites, which is all he had of the special taco that he really, really wanted.

Hawaii - Day 4

Today was a very long day and possibly too long a day for small children.  We took an 8:15am bus tour of the island, which ended at the Polynesian Cultural Center - a park of sorts that celebrates the cultures of the Polynesian islands.  The bus tour was OK at best.  Like all bus tours, you spend tiny bits of time at various tourist spots packed with all the other tour buses that are making the exact same tour.  In the end, you spend less time seeing Hawaii and more time seeing a bus.

As an example, we got to “see” the Dole Plantation, where “seeing” involved getting half an hour to explore the gift shop.  I immediately took Jonathan through the long line for ice cream and got some whipped pineapple ice cream for everyone to try.  It was very good and very sweet, but that was basically all we got to do before we had to pile on to the bus to get to the next stop.

The bus tour took five hours, which turned out to be about one hour too long.  Bradley is a fairly content baby and only cries for a bit when things don’t go his way.  However, with about a half hour to go, he had a meltdown due to the fact that he was trapped on our laps and unable to go anywhere else.  He only calmed down when we arrived and were able to get off the bus.

At the PCC, we rented a couple of strollers, since there was no room on the bus for ours, though we ended up with two of their crappy stock of strollers, since strollers were rented out on a first come first serve basis, and by 1:00pm, all the regular strollers were gone.  We then had a quick lunch at the restaurant before starting our tour of the center.  There was a canoe ride that Grandma and Grandpa took the three older kids on, while Sandra and I wandered through park.  Each area of the park is devoted to one specific island, and has some activities that are unique to that island.

About half way through the park, we stopped for a show, where people from each island performed traditional dances on the canoe boats.  While watching, we saw Grandma and Grandpa and the boys on the other side of the river, so we headed over there to meet them.  The park was definitely more fun with the older kids, as they had passports where they had to do something in each area for a stamp, so we took them bowling in Hawaii, tried to start a fire in Samoa, and played musical sticks in New Zealand, just to name a few things.  The kids also got skin stamps, which they were pretty excited about.  Jonathan and Bradley were pretty exhausted and spent the day in the strollers - Jonathan got out for the bowling and the skin stamps, but nothing else.

After we were done in the park, the kids took their passports to the gift shop, where they were able to pick out a tiny little toy.  Then it was time for a luau, which wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be, since there were a ton of people and they served everyone in a buffet line.  I also wasn’t feeling very good, so I didn’t eat very much, and there was nothing that my picky children would eat.  I did get some pork and some fish, but didn’t feel up to  trying the raw fish.

Finally, after the meal, we went to a dance and music show, which was very good.  There was loud music, shouting and dancing and it ended off with fire dancing and all three of the older kids sat entranced the entire time.  Bradley was exhausted and fell asleep in Sandra’s arms and only woke up when three warriors ran up the aisle beside us, stopped and shouted.

With the show over, we headed back to the bus and took a very scary hour and half drive back to Waikiki.  The bus driver seemed to think that speed mattered more than anything and I was constantly putting my arm out to hold Evan as he slammed on the brakes.  All four of the boys fell asleep on the bus and hardly woke up when we arrived back in the city.  I carried a groggy Jonathan up to our room and then we got everyone into bed.

Hawaii - Day 3

The rain was a bit heavier this morning, but it is interesting that everyone still seems to ignore it.  We started the day by walking over to a local church and after the service, we went to a small outdoor market and did a little bit of shopping.  Grandpa bought the boys Hawaiian shirts and then we returned to the hotel for lunch.

After lunch we went out to the aquarium.  They handed out small handsets that would tell you about each exhibit, and Evan studiously ensured that he listened to each and every one, even when that meant he was being left behind by everyone else.  Jonathan loved all the fish from Finding Nemo, as well as the sharks and the jellyfish.  (Actually, the jellyfish were quite cool, as the "regular" ones were in a tank with purple lights in it, which made them glow in a cool purple colour.)  I personally liked the octopus the best, as it is always amazing to watch how fast they change colour.

After the aquarium, we took the kids down to the beach and let them play in the waves.  The first time at the beach, we went in the main area, where there are breakwaters and lifeguards.  This time we went to the beach closest to the hotel, which has neither.  However, Evan and Alex love waves, as they sit in the water and let them crash over them, and they spent a lot of time doing that.  I think it was a bit more stressful for my wife, as she kept imploring them to come shallower.

I swam in the ocean for the first time, as all the other times we've been at the ocean, it's been too cold for swimming.  It was fun and it was far easier to float than it is in non-salt water.  We have discovered that Hawaii has a communal set of beach stuff that gets passed down from tourist to tourist, as both times we were at the beach, we were approached by someone who was leaving the island and wanted to pass on something.  We now have a floating toy, two beach chairs and a beach umbrella that we will have to pass on to someone else by Friday.




We left the beach when the sunset (at 6:30pm) and then Charles and I headed out to Pizza Hut to pick up some pizzas for supper.  Unfortunately, the Pizza Hut did not exist anymore, but luckily, on our way back to the hotel, we encountered two English guys carrying a bunch of take out pizzas.  They pointed us to a pizza restaurant that also had takeout, so we headed there and ordered some pizza.  Unfortunately, it took quite some time for the pizza to be ready and we had four hungry kids at the hotel, who weren't expecting us to be gone so long.  We hurried back with the pizzas, quickly fed the kids and got everyone into bed.

Hawaii - Day 2

Wireless problems continue to plague me, so I'm not certain I'll be able to add any photos to this post.  The hotel wireless works sporadically when no one else in the hotel is awake, and while I was able to obtain a temporary prepaid SIM card today, the data plan is not working on it, so I'm not able to use my phone for data either.

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, this day started at 4am, when the kids decided to get up, since they were no longer tired.  Stupid time zones.  After hours of playing, watching TV and eating breakfast, it was finally 9am and time to go out and do something, as things were finally open.

We decided to head to the zoo today, so we walked down the beach to the zoo.  Kids love zoos.  Alex took the map and lead us around as we saw a Komodo dragon, some tigers, some lions, a bunch of birds and monkeys and turtles.  The turtles were the biggest hit with Jonathan, as he sat and watched them for a long time.  In fact, one of the monkey enclosures was surrounded by water that had a few turtles in it and he spent the entire time there watching the turtles instead of the monkey.

After the zoo it was lunch time, so we stopped for a quick bite to eat before heading across the street to the beach.  The kids started playing in the water, while I left for a quick walk to try and find a store that sold the SIM card I wanted.  I could not find it, so returned to the beach, at which point Grandma and Grandpa took Bradley back to the hotel for a nap while the rest of the kids played in the water.

The weather has been very nice.  Warm, but cloudy so that the sun isn't beating down on you.  Interestingly, every half hour or so a small rain cloud passes overhead.  The rain is so short and so warm that everyone just ignores it.  Because of the heat, we had the kids keep their shirts on (and covered them in sunscreen), which didn't go over very well with them, but we really didn't want them to get sunburnt on their first full day in Hawaii.  Sandra got burnt a little bit, and I got burnt on my feet, but other than that we survived our first day in the sun.

After the beach, Sandra and I left the boys with Grandma and Grandpa and walked to a mall just outside of Waikiki, where there was a grocery store.  We found the mall easily enough, but it was very large and there was no inside area - you basically walked around the outside of the entire mall to see all the stores.  That made it difficult to get to the other side where the grocery store was, and it took us quite some time to get there.  We bought a few things and discovered that Sandra's membership card at the grocery store, which she signed up for 14 years ago when she first came to Hawaii, was still active.

Upon our return, we went out for supper, choosing to go to a Denny's that was really close, just to keep things simple.  We finished supper with a few extremely exhausted children, so it wasn't long before everyone was in bed.