Manta Ray Night Diving - Day 5

Bathroom signs at the Honolulu airport - loved them

Early this morning we left Oahu and flew to the Big Island, Kona. Todd's oldest brother Tracy and his family had just moved to the Big Island back in November. Our main goals were to see a little of the island and to hang out with the Hawaiian Yosts. I loved being on the Big Island. It's not as touristy and it has it's own beauty. I loved all the volcanic rock that we saw, we stayed on the dry side.

Kona temple

We arrived early in the morning, early enough that we couldn't check into our hotel for several more hours so we decided to catch a showing of the Hunger Games. I just have to say, I love Todd! He knew that I wasn't going to be able to go with my friends who were seeing the movie while we were gone. So Todd read the books and took me to the movie! I love that he knew what the story was all about and we were able to talk about it.

Our big adventure for the day was going on a Manta Ray night dive. Every evening there is a bay area that manta rays come to feast on plankton. There have been up to 32 mantas at one time. Our night there were 12 and 2 dolphins joined the show! It was the busiest night any of the companies had ever seen - 19 boats with a total of about 50+ divers and 100+ snorkelers.

Out on the boat waiting and watching the sun go down.

Beautiful sunset

After the sun goes down, we jumped into the water with our flashlights and found a spot to sit. We held our flashlights up and attracted the plankton which then attracted all the mantas. It was amazing! There was one manta that they call Captain Kirk, he has no tail, that kept swimming right over my head. I had to keep ducking so he wouldn't hit me. While down there you could hear the dolphins in the distance and then all of a sudden two dolphins came swimming into the middle of the feeding, did some spins around each other and then swam off. I think was my favorite thing that we did on both islands.

This video shows Captain Kirk swimming over me, look for the one without the tail.

Later that night when we had gotten back to our hotel room, I looked out off our balcony and there were two mantas swimming right below. There are such beautiful creatures.

North Shore - Day 4

Today was our last day in Oahu so we left mid morning and drove up to see the North Shore. We stopped off in Haleiwa for some more shaved ice with ice cream on the bottom and a stop for me to try the shrimp trucks. I ate the garlic shrimp and a warning to you all, if you eat the garlic shrimp you will reek of garlic for at least 2 days. A couple days after me eating them Todd was wondering what a "smell" was, it was my garlic breath still! Yuck!

One of the many shrimp trucks

LOTS of garlic - can you see it on top of the rice?

We stopped at several beaches to watch surfers. We made our way to Waimea Bay and Turtle Bay. At one spot we were watching some of the surfers on some big waves and I noticed something in the background. Off on the horizon was a humpback whale jumping out of the water and playing. It was so cool to see.

surfer crashing in the top left

It was a long day of driving but nice to see the other side. Different crowd of people and more laid back. We had a nice shabu shabu (Japanese) dinner and packed up for our early flight to the Big Island in the morning.

Swap Meet, Pali Lookout, Temple, and the PCC - Hawaii Day 3

Good morning Diamond Head!

This was by far our busiest day and we knew it going into it. To gear us up we headed out to breakfast at the Hula Grill and ate yummy Hawaiian bread French Toast with fresh strawberries. We are still getting up way too early on a vacation so we were some of the first patrons at the restaurant. How nice it was to just sit on the porch overlooking the ocean, listening to the waves, eat a leisurely breakfast and have a conversation without any interruptions. Glorious!

Today was going to be the only day that the swap meet was going to be open during our stay. My sister said that we needed to go to get all our souvenirs, most made in Hawaii but some of course were made in China. We arrived shortly after it opened and wasn't too hot. Todd was such a trooper and we walked all the way around the stadium picking up a little of this and a little of that. He'd let me go into a stall and he'd walk along scouting out the next area of tents. At the end I picked up a shaved ice and had my first Hawaiian shaved ice.

From the meet we were heading up to Laie to visit the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) next to the BYU campus and temple. But first we stopped at the Pali lookout. Talk about major wind! It got a little chilly there between some mountains but the view was breathtaking. Pictures do not do it justice. So beautiful!

Can you see how windy it is?! Just look at Todd's hair blowing around. Haha.

I had to keep my sunglasses on top of my head to keep my hair from flying up in the pictures.

We got to the lookout so fast from the swap meet that we thought it wouldn't be too much longer to Laie. We were wrong. We forget that speed limits in Oahu are only around 35 mph. We made it into Laie and stopped to do a session at the temple. We quickly grabbed lunch in the cafeteria and made it to our session (thanks for that tip Katie!). Beautiful grounds and beautiful temple inside.

Our last stop was the PCC, had I known how late we were going to get there I would have bought the discounted tickets from 4:00-. We made it to one show/demonstration, Samoa. The guy was hilarious! We hit the perfect show. Some of the guys climbed coconut trees, we saw how to start a fire with coconut husk, how to break and shred a coconut. Someday I may have to use that knowledge if I'm ever stuck on a deserted island. We walked around for a little bit since we were told to get into our seats for the luau. Nice show but it felt like we were at some ward activity with the way the setup was. We ended the night with show "Ha" that ended with a bang with the awesome fire twirlers (the main Samoan from the earlier demonstration.) It really was amazing.

Artist, fire twirler, host, and coconut shaver

check out his calves - they were huge!

Climbing the coconut tree

Mmmm Pig

What a full day!

Pearl Harbor - Hawaii Day 2

Seeing how we went to bed 2 AM Texas time and we didn't have kids, I thought for sure we'd sleep in. Nope, up at 5:30! Ugh! I woke up with a headache from the full day previously and lack of sleep. We went upstairs to have breakfast in the lounge and I started to feel queasy. On the ride back down to our floor, we had to make a few stops which made the elevator do the slight up and down that gives you butterflies every time it stops. That didn't help and neither did the man smelling like smoke standing next to me. By the time we made it back to our room I was in full migraine mode and had to run back to the bathroom to throw up. Glorious way to spend our first real day in Hawaii. I went back to bed for 5 hours and Todd chilled in the living room. I was so glad we had a suite so I could make the room really dark and sleep and he could go in the other room to watch tv, read, and play video games. He really enjoyed the down time.

By the time I got up it was a little after 12 and I was feeling much better so we decided to try for Pearl Harbor. I'm really glad we went in the afternoon because I think the crowds were much smaller. We needed to wait an hour and a half to get on our tour of the Arizona so we decided to tour the Bowfin submarine. Our headphone tour reminded me of all the audio tours we did in London with the Bairds - good times.

The first note on the tour mentioned how we won the war, if not we'd be speaking Japanese. As we turn around, we had to laugh because right on the entrance sign was the word enter in Japanese! There were a lot of Japanese tourist on the island and in our hotel. We joked that it was their Spring Break. We were in the minority.

To get to the Arizona, they have you watch a movie first on the history of how things were during that time and what brought us into the war. The theater was full of Japanese tourists too and Todd and I wondered what they thought. I guess we are a couple of generations out now and it doesn't hit so close to home now as 9-11 does.

The memorial was very somber and it was nice to see. So sad to think of the price that was paid with lives. All those young men who's lives were cut short. I really liked seeing how the flag that flies over the memorial is attached to the ship's mainmast.

After Pearl Harbor we did a nice little 10 mile drive on Round Top/Tantalus that we read about in our book "Oahu Revealed." The views from that drive were amazing! We stopped at Puu Ualakka Park for the real big lookout.

Diamond Head to our left

Punch Bowl, the airport and Pearl Harbor to our right.

You could see 25 miles left to right.

We ended the day with some Japanese food, Todd served his mission in Japan and there is a dish called Katsu Don that we love and can't find around us. Early bedtime so I don't wake up with another headache!

Hawaii - Day 1

It was a year ago that I woke up at 1:00 AM and had to be rushed to the hospital where I stayed on bed rest for 2 month. This year I was getting up to take a plane ride to Hawaii with Todd. You're probably thinking, didn't you just get back from the Bahamas?! Yes we did but our babysitter goes back to school in April and Todd is not working - side note on that, after 7 years of the consulting life, we have decided to leave it and now we are on the hunt for a new job opportunity.

We decided to celebrate our 10th anniversary a little early. We cashed in many miles and hotel points and headed out for a week of fun. Because the flight is so long, Todd really spoiled me and got us in first class. The plane had the seats that recline all the way back - it was nice. We landed and it was early afternoon. We called the kids when we landed - they were getting ready for bed. As I told Kaitlyn all we did was sit on a plane. She asked what else we did and I told her we read. She commented "that's not a lot of things mom."

Our rental, a brand new jeep with only 7 miles on it.

By the end of 4 days we put on 250 more.

After checking into our hotel, instead of taking it easy, I rushed us out the door to hike Diamond Head. It's a must do in Oahu and it's so pretty up there you can see why it's a "must do." After our hike we at a yummy Hawaiian dinner at Duke's right off the beach and walked around the International Marketplace. By the time we made it back to our hotel I was exhausted - it was 2:00 AM Texas time.

View from our balcony- it was great to wake up to this every morning

Helper

Awhile back I had a really bad migraine. When these strike I usually throw up. We have a throw up bowl that I sometimes hug during migraines for those times when I need it. This night was just like any other migraine night. I was laying on the couch, Todd was at work, and all 4 kids were watching a show. I needed the bowl but didn't want to get it myself because I knew what would happen if I stood up. So Kaitlyn went and got the bowl for me. Several days later in her Primary class the teacher asked the kids how they help their family. Kaitlyn of course shares "I get the barf bowl for my mommy."

Spring Break

My sister Laurie and her family came up from Houston so we played all week long. We enjoyed a picnic at the park, seeing the Lorax, playing Just Dance, lots of playing with cousins, lots of eating out, and the all time favorite family variety show, everyone was required to do an act (grossest act - Cade sticking 7 quarters up his nose, cutest act - all the cousins singing popcorn popping) . The girls still talk about the funny acts.

Gigi and Bapa playing with the two littlest cousins

The looks of concentration

In awe as Cade puts quarters in his nose.

Popcorn