Oahu Day 3

We decided to visit Pearl Harbor and the USS Missouri.  We ended up at the Missouri and spent a couple hours there.

Then we decided to go to the Dole Pineapple plantation and do Pearl Harbor another day.  Ben had really been loving pineapple and pineapple juice on this trip, and he really wanted to try the giant maze.

Check out the sailor hat from the Missouri gift shop.

After the maze we took a train tour of the grounds.

Then we drove north and went snorkeling at Shark's Cove.  After the shark attack here last week, it was a little nerve-wracking for me, lol.

Then, as usual, the sun set, lol.

We drove the rest of the way around the island, but it was dark by then, so we didn't see much.  Will kept trying to point out sites, but we were too busy reading Harry Potter to pay much attention.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Day 2 Oahu

Kevan and I hung around the hotel room while Will, Grandpa, William and Ben ran around town, grocery shopping and stuff.  After lunch, we headed off to visit Micki and Bob, old friends of Grandpa and Grandma Kay, who live in Pearl City.

Will and Kevan at Micki and Bob's.

View outside on their porch.

Bob and his granddaughter, registering for college courses.

Micki and her daughter Lisa.

Micki was camera shy, but this a great picture!

We went out to some delicious sushi with them for dinner, and then headed back to the hotel. 

Ben saying goodbye to their dog.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Day 7 Maui/Day 1 Oahu

We checked out of the hotel and flew from Maui to Oahu on Island Airlines.  We landed around 3:00, and one of our bags did not.  By the time we rented our new van (traded in the first one they tried to give us which seemed to be falling apart at the seams) our bag was there, so we went to pick it up.  The bag was a new one we had to buy at Kmart on the way to the airport to fit all the stuff we had added to our inventory (purchases, snorkel gear, food...)

We headed to our new hotel, which is about a block from Waikiki beach.  Unfortunately, although it is large, it is not nearly as nice as our condo in Maui.  But it is good enough.  We walked down to the beach.  There is a wall creating a calm shallow area along the beach.  The kids swam for a while, and we watched the sun set. 

Then we had dinner and went to bed.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Maui Day 6

7/23

We headed up to Haleakala volcano yesterday; the highest point on Maui.  We got in a lot of Harry Potter reading along the way (we're almost halfway through now). 

And one last Maui sunset.

We went to the beach one last time.  It was too choppy to snorkel, but we boogie boarded a little bit.  The kids went swimming in the pool for a few hours (!), and then dinner and sleep!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Maui Day 5

We headed off early this morning for a snorkel cruise out to Molokini Crater, a small non-inhabited volcanic island off the coast of Maui.  There are many cruises out here daily, and a boat was the only way to get out there to snorkel.  Most of our pictures were taken with underwater disposable cameras, so I can't add any until we get them developed and scanned.

Here is Molokini as we approached.

The snorkeling here wasn't actually all that exciting; we had better luck just snorkeling off the beaches.  Grandpa decided to try out snorkeling, but didn't like it much, so he got back on the boat.  The water here was pretty choppy, and we actually ended up having to leave early because the waves were getting too large.  It's not fun snorkeling in big waves, as they tend to end up in the snorkels.  Also, grandpa had to use the snorkels they had available on the boat, which weren't as good as the ones we rented.

After Molokini, we headed to "turtle town" which is on Maui.  The snorkeling here was fun, although we saw more turtles at Ulua beach! 

On the way back in we stopped in an area where several turtles were hanging around, coming up for air.

They fed us lunch on the boat as we rode in.  We were exhausted when we got back.  Grandpa and I rested in the hotel room while Will and the kids swam at the pool.  When they came in we watched Goblet of Fire again, and then headed out to watch Order of the Phoenix finally. 

Powered by ScribeFire.

Maui Day 4

Well, today will be more pictures than talking. In the morning we were plotting out how we were going to find the new Harry Potter book.  I was checking around online, but Will had gone grocery shopping early in the morning and found the book while he was out.  I read it aloud as we drove around most of the day.  We headed off first to the Maui Swap Meet. We found some cool stuff there for way cheaper than it was being sold elsewhere. I wish I could show a picture of my awesome monkey pod wood turtle sculpture I bought, but I'm having it shipped and I didn't take a picture of it. It's a sea turtle on driftwood. The kids got some cool stuff; Kevan got a drum, Ben got a fossil shell, a crystal, and a little wood turtle. William didn't want anything. Grandpa got a cool windchime at the same place I got my turtle and is having that shipped to.

Then we headed off to do the "road to Hana". This is a long scenic drive through the rainforest side of Maui. It took us over 6 hours all together to do, with stops along the way.

Here we got out and walked to a waterfall (had to wade through a river and got pretty muddy along the way. Those necklaces were from the swapmeet. The ones Ben and I are wearing were selling for $20 at the Luau and we got them for a couple bucks at the swapmeet. Kevan's was a dollar.

Grandpa reminded me of Gilligan in this picture.

Here are some of the cool plants and scenery along the way.

Bananas!

Powered by ScribeFire.

Maui Day 3

We decided to go snorkeling in the morning, since we had read that visibility is better; the wind picks up in the afternoon and makes the waves bigger (and sandier).

This time I was able to convince Ben to come out and snorkel for real this time.  We had purchased a life jacket for him so that he could just float and snorkel without having to worry about swimming.  He held onto my shoulder as we swam out, and was able to snorkel for long periods of time.  He had a blast!

Getting ready.

Then more boogie boarding.

We were pretty tired, so we headed back to the hotel room to eat our lunch and rest for awhile.  Well, everyone else rested; I ended up taking Kevan and Ben to the pool because Ben wouldn't leave me alone long enough to rest.

That night we went to the Royal Lahaina luau.  We had reserved our seats a couple months ahead, so we were pretty close to the stage.

On the way, it started raining, and a full rainbow was visible.

Here we are waiting to go in.

Here's one of the pigs they roasted (with a waitress in the way, lol).

Me, Kevan and Ben went up to learn how to hula (we are in the back).

After an incredible dinner (in spite of the sprinkling), there was a dancing show...

(this guy was a crack-up)

and a fire dancer.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Maui Day 2

We had signed William up to go parasailing, so we headed over to Lahaina harbor in the morning.  On the way out, Kevan and Ben got leid.

Grandpa signed up to go out on the boat with him to take videos and picture so we dropped them off and went to find parking.  We stopped by Burger King for breakfast, and then wandered down the harbor area watching the parasailers.

While we were watching, a grizzled local came up and pointed out a place to go look for shells.  He mentioned that if they found one like his (can't remember the name) to bring it back and he'd put a hole in it to make a necklace.  So we went to look for shells.

Kevan found a good one and we took it back to the guy (Terry as it turned out).  He worked on it for a good 20 minutes or so. 

He ended up carving a turtle into it, and putting a hole in it.

He was also making fish out of coconut leaves, and gave Ben one of those.  He said he could make birds, crickets, hats, etc. out of the leaves.

He pointed out an ancient birthing stone as well.

We wandered around the town of Lahaina for a bit while waiting for our submarine ride.  Check out the U.S. largest Banyan tree (all of those trunks are actully one tree, and that's only part of it! I think the sign said it shades an entire acre all together)

Then we went into the old courthouse to look around.  Kevan and Ben tried out the jail.

and I got a flower for my hair

Finally we got on the boat that would take us out to the submarine.

We got to see the sub come up to the surface with the people that had gone before us.  Here we are going down into the sub.

Once inside, we submerged to a depth up to 134 ft and traveled around the reefs looking at fish.  We had a couple great views of moray eels, and a sea cucumber, but mostly fish.  There was also a large sunken boat that had been intentionally sunk to create an artificial reef, as well as an anchor from the 1800s.  Unfortunately, it is hard to take pics from inside a submarine, but we got a few good ones.

After the sub ride and lunch at Hard Rock

(this was on the way to Hard Rock)

we headed up north to find Costco and Walmart for some supplies, and then back to Lahaina for the Ulalena show. 

This show was an amazing musical, dancing, acrobatic, mythological and real history of the islands.  Will has a friend at work whose son is the main dancer in the show (he was amazing!) and he got us tickets for free, including the "Producers Package" where we got to stay behind when the show was over to talk to the cast.

 
And here's me blogging in our computer lab, er, hotel room.

Yep, that's 3 laptops on the table, plus William's is in the other room.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Maui Day 1

Will, Grandpa and I headed to the Expedia center to pick up our tickets and make some plans.  The kids stayed behind and William took Kevan and Ben swimming for awhile.

We made our plans for the week in Maui, purchased tickets for things (not telling what til it happens), and were on our way.  We watched the kids swim for awhile, and then got everybody dressed and ready to go.

We headed off to the Maui Ocean Center, an aquarium that goes through each level of the coral reef showing all of the creatures that can be found. 

After the coral reef section there are seaturtle tanks and shark tanks and a tide pool with critters to touch.  We had audio devices that described things along the way.

From there we headed to Snorkel Bob's to rent some snorkeling equipment and boogie boards for the week.  Then we went to Ulua beach.  The water felt like a mildly heated pool, not the kind that actually feel warm when you get in, but the kind that don't feel cold at all.

William, Kevan and I went out snorkeling a little while Will and Ben boogie boarded.  William and I saw a seahorse, but nothing else so we put our stuff on the shore and just swam a little. 

Then Will wanted to snorkel so I went out with him to the rocky area that looked like it would have more critters. 

William and Ben were boogie boarding, and Kevan was just swimming around.

There were tons of beautiful fish around the coral, and sea urchins, etc.  Then I saw it!  A giant sea turtle!  I literally shouted into the water when I saw it, and then grabbed Will to show him.  I couldn't have grabbed both ends of his shell with each hand, he was so big, and only a few feet away!  We showed him to some snorkelers near us and Will and one of the other snorkelers chased after the turtle and touched him (you're not supposed to do that, but he didn't know that.)  So we decided we should get the kids. 

William came over but didn't want to use his snorkel anymore.  Kevan and Ben came out then, and Kevan got to see a few different turtles.  Ben was having a hard time with the snorkel and staying afloat so Will and I were dragging him around trying to get him to look.  Finally, he saw one!  In the meantime, while trying to hold him up and swim I scraped my knee up on the coral (you're not supposed to do that either; you're not supposed to touch it at all).  Oops! 

We headed back to the hotel, and then to dinner where Ben crashed out instead of eating.  On the way home Kevan was laughing hysterically about this stupid reggae song that came on (Will is listening to "island music" all the time in the car), and when we got back to the room him and Will were quite delirious.

Oh yeah, on the way to dinner we stopped to enjoy the sunset.

Powered by ScribeFire.

Maui - the first night

We left LA at 4:30 our time.  The plane took off on time, and the flight was uneventful.  Kevan was nervous beforehand, but had no problems after take-off.  Ben was quite excited and bouncy and bored to death on the plane.  He brought stuff to do in his carry-on but didn't actually do any of it.  Except when we played a partial game of checkers with his travel board.  He didn't want to finish the game.  We started to watch "Goblet of Fire" (we're re-watching all the movies before we see Order of the Phoenix) but with only one headphone each and the airplane noise we couldn't hear well enough.  So, he looked out the window, and talked.

Here we are on the plane:

William and Grandpa

Will and Kevan

Me and Ben

Flying above the clouds; most of the flight we were so high that when we looked down all we could see was sky.

Almost there!

Wow! Gorgeous!

We landed around 7:00 local time (3 hours difference since they don't observe daylight savings here).  After getting our car and checking in to our room, we headed out to eat.  We found a Denny's nearby... strangely, it had no windows!  They had apparently painted them open some time ago and since they never close they just left them that way.  Very strange.

By the time we got back to our room it was way past midnight to our brains, and we crashed out.  Our room is great. We are staying at ResortQuest Maui Banyan.  We have a kitchen (full kitchen with a little island and bar) living area with a table and sofa bed, two bedrooms and two bathrooms.  Plus a balcony with an ocean view!  Free wireless internet, and a great pool (I think there are actually two pools).

Well, we had an incredible day today, but I will wait until I load those pictures before I post.  We're going to eat dinner now.

Powered by ScribeFire.