August 17, 2017-Hawaii Adventure!

(click here for today's pictures)

We first woke up around 1 last night with Whitman getting into our bed. He was quiet until 4 and then he began calling the hogs and singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I was pretty convinced that we were never going to get back to sleep. Thankfully, we were able to doze until at least 6 when we started to hear others stirring.

When I told Whitman that it was morning and we could get up, he looked out our window and said, “we are not floating.” He had been asleep when we arrived at this house and thought that we might be on the boat already. His next question was “where is everyone else?” In a hotel, we are all right on top of each other but in this house everyone was spread out.

Pops and Anderson made a run before 7 to pick up McDonalds coffee. The rest of us were busy getting ready and eating breakfast. Robby and Pops had bought some cinnamon bread yesterday and that along with some waffles, pop tarts, orange juice and milk everyone was full.

We had talked about leaving the house around 9 this morning but with our bodies being wide awake, we were out the door around 8. A few miles from the house was our first stop of the morning, Lanai lookout. It was a decent view...or so we thought.

I say “so we thought” because another few miles down the road we stopped again and the scenery was absolutely breathtaking. Halona Blowhole Lookout was this stop (or I think-I forgot to take my computer on our day trip today so I am trying to remember everything tonight and it is pretty tough!) I have been to Hawaii three times now and I really don’t think that there is any other place this beautiful. I am not even a beach person but the scenery here is just unreal. The water is multiple shades of blue and the mountains are covered in greenery along with all of the different types of trees and the flowers here. Robby even said that he wanted to live here.

We saw a turtle swimming in the surf and then watched the blowhole for a bit. It probably wasn’t shooting at its highest but it was pretty neat to see the sea water shoot towards the sky. Robby had a neat app tour on his phone and the man would talk to us every once in awhile telling us information about where we were. Most of his stops, were ones that we already had on today’s itinerary but it was still very interesting.

Makapuu Lookout was our next stop (I really think that I have forgotten a stop though). It had a lighthouse on it and we could have walked a 2 mile trek to the lighthouse. However, we opted to just drive another few hundred feet and pull off at the parking lot to see the lighthouse. The stop there was pretty and the rocks were black lava-y. Now, I know this because some of the kids and Jason picked up those rocks to bring home and all I could think about was the Brady Bunch episode when one of the kids brought something home from Hawaii (rocks maybe?) and then they had bad luck. Hopefully, it wasn’t rocks that caused their bad luck.

Next up was a short trek to a beach area. The app man said that his favorite beach was Lanikai Beach. He was correct in that the beach was absolutely breathtaking. The only parking was on the street and beach access was every few blocks. The kids changed into their suits and we headed to the beach. Now, there weren’t too many folks at the beach at 9.

The kids loved the water. It was clear and the waves were small which made me love it even more. Now, the longer we were there the more familiar Whitman was with the water and the further out he would go. Since he had on his life jacket this wasn’t too big of a deal but I sure didn’t want to have to go out there and get him. The place that we are staying at had sand toys and boogie boards (but not hot water) for us to take to the beach with us. Keaton and Graham probably enjoyed the sand toys the most. Whitman would occasionally work on a hole or chase a shovel around in the surf. Anderson and Reagan were the ones who really enjoyed the boogie boards. Campbell worked pretty hard at trying to see some fish using her goggles.
Now, it was fairly warm in the hot sun. Robby took off walking one way down the beach and then went off the other way. He found out that the beach area was fairly small but gracious it was sure pretty. The houses nearby were million dollar houses, or so they man on the app said, but they weren’t million dollar houses at home. However, the view was just priceless though.

Having everyone change into their suits for the beach is a lot easier than having everyone change out of their wet suits after the beach. Robby and I were the ones drenched after getting everyone re-dressed. We were passing out clothes, wringing out shirts, wiping sand off of feet, handing out drinks and snacks-I had sweat dripping down my face by the time we sat down in the car.

We weren’t too sure how far we had to go for the next stop, the Byodo-In Temple, so we found a McDonalds on the way and stopped there to eat. I was a bit disappointed because I was ready to get a spam burger or something Hawaiian. There was only one different looking thing on the menu but I didn’t order it because I had no idea what it was. Later I did look it up and it was a vegetable, ramen noodle, spam dish. I am just not that much of a risk taker.

The parking at that McDonalds was crazy though. It was like they were the only place to eat in town. I don’t even think that it was noon yet but it took a long while for us to find somewhere to park. Soon though, our tummies were full and we were on our way to the Temple. When we explained that this was a Buddhist temple, Graham, my thinker, asked why we were going to it. Well, good question so I explained that it was a place of historical significance, it was beautiful and we got to ring a bell.

Upon entering the temple, you can ring a large bell. When you ring the bell, they say you will be granted many things including good luck (we certainly need all of that we can get) and a long life. Needless to say, we all rang that bell. We walked around the grounds of the temple which were again beautiful. A man even let the kids use some of his fish food to feed all of the fish. There were also black swans which we had never seen before.

After walking around all of the temple grounds, we left for our next stop-an after lunch snack. Yes, we had just each lunch but we stopped at Mike’s Huli Huli Chicken which was a food truck kind of deal. I bought a plate of pulled pork, rice, pineapple and macaroni salad and Pops bought a plate with chicken and the same sides. Everyone climbed out of the cars and sat around and gobbled up the food like we hadn’t just had lunch an hour ago.

It wasn’t too far after Mikes, that we pulled into a fruit stand. The fruit there was really pretty and already sliced and bagged up to buy and eat. I bought a bag of pineapple and a bag of mango for our breakfast in the morning. The lady handed me a yucky smushed bag of mango for which I quickly sat back down and traded for a nice fresher looking bag. Reagan saw all of this and thought it all was very funny-that sneaky lady handing me the old fruit to buy and me changing for the one I wanted. Pops bought him some apple bananas there along with a fried banana (banana with cinnamon and sugar wrapped in an egg roll wrapper.)

Now, I usually would feel bad about spending 10 dollars on two ziplocks bags of fruit but the last time that we were in Hawaii, I got a pretty big souvenir-Reagan. So I feel pretty confident that Robby will let me have whatever I would like this time that we are here so long as I don’t return home with the same souvenir as last time.

And at our next stop, I did buy our first Christmas ornament of the trip. Matsumato’s Shaved Ice was our next stop. We didn’t let the crazy parking or the line of 50 plus folks to stop us. We jumped in line and were pleased that it did move swiftly. It was a neat little area with quite shops nearby, but the most famous of those were the shaved ice place. The prices were very reasonable so we even all had larges. Overall, we were pretty pleased though some of the flavors were pretty muted. I had mango and it was very good, but it was sure a lot. After we ate our icees, we headed on around the island.

We passed the Banzai Pipeline were huge surfing competitions take place. It was a neat place to see but the huge waves come mainly in the winter time. There was also a swimming place where we saw people diving off of a huge rock. All of this was pretty neat to see though we didn’t stop.

The Dole Plantation was the next stop and I had forgotten how touristy that it was. We did watch a lady cut a pineapple and I did learn that you are supposed to rinse a pineapple. The citrus on it can cause your tongue to burn if you don’t rinse it properly. How interesting!

Robby bought a Dole Whip and we passed it around. It was gone in a heartbeat-my big 3 liked it but the littles wouldn’t try it at all. The kids really wanted to do the pineapple maze but gracious me, we couldn’t stomach paying that much! Maybe next time-though I have wanted to do that stinking maze that past two times that I was here. Today though, not so much-it looked long and it was kind of hot in the sun. I guess I am getting old!

There was a hula show at Waikiki Beach so that was our next destination. I kept looking at the GPS-it said 15 miles but 50 minutes. The road was moving wonderfully and wasn’t curvy or anything that would slow us down. But once we made it to Waikiki traffic started to crawl. It really wasn’t even crawling-the traffic was going backwards! Craziness.

We found a parking spot around 6 and walked to the hula show. It was interesting and boring. Interesting in that the hula girl was neat to watch. Whitman didn’t think that she was moving her hands correctly though. Boring in that there was too much talking and not enough dancing. We watched a few hula songs and then snuck out to take our picture by the Duke Statue.

From there we walked down to the beach to see the last sliver of sun go behind the clouds as it set for the evening.   The kids got their feet wet in the water and I do think that playing in the surf is more fun when you aren’t supposed to get wet.

Afterwards, we walked back to the cars. We drove near our house and bought pizza from a make your own type place. As Robby waited for the pizzas to cook, he ran to the grocery store which was right next door. We got our pizzas to go and were soon back at the house eating pizzas.

Next up was shower time for my people. This morning we quickly realized that there was no or little hot water and tonight there was none at all. The kids still needed showers so they still took them. But gracious, we have never taken showers so fast around here.

Robby did call the owner man since they had already told him that the hot water had been fixed today. He had called them this morning about that and another issue here. As I have been writing this blog, I have been looking out to the patio watching a man stand in a chair trying to fix the hot water heater. My guess is that he has no idea what he is doing and I will again have to take a cold shower tomorrow. I know that it is paradise and I shouldn’t complain but a cold shower is not refreshing-that is just a lie that someone who didn’t pay their electric bill came up with!

The kids went to bed without a fuss tonight. I do believe that they are completely exhausted! The blog is now finished but I still have a load of clothes to fold and one more just starting in the washer. I do believe that that load will be folded tomorrow and not tonight...hopefully after my hot shower!

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