#7 Sunday-Hawaii-Scott/Gray-June 19, 2016

Wow the week has gone by in a blur. 

Went to church this morning. Almost everything is the same as in Oregon. Except.... More people came in late than in OC I. Everyone who spoke into the microphone, with exception to those saying the opening and closing prayer, said, "Aloha!" at the beginning of their comments. And, the congregation answered in kind. 

Afterward we went to the Temple Visitor's Center and watched a good video on the history of Laie. 

Came home and ate left over Thai food

Watched tv, read books, played in sand, rode surf on boogie boards, ate anything in the house that resembled candy, picked up/cleaned up, ate left over Thai food for dinner, ready to go  

We leave Monday morning at 8:00am. Flight leaves around noon. We'll be home 9:00 pm. Back to reality. 

Reminiscenses:

Natalie- shaved ice is the best thing that has ever happened to me. And... Polynesian men are beautiful

Evan-I really liked the zip line. 

Camille-I loved the shave ice,body surfing with dad and Tyler, and playing on the beach. And zip lining-I loved that too

Tyler-body boarding was really fun

Logan- he is asleep and no one is going to wake him up to get his opinion

Abby- I liked playing in the ocean 

Jessica-playing with kids on the beach; reading my book on the deck; eating shave ice

Ryan - I loved zip lining. I wish that I had done one more hike. I loved having all my children with me on vacation. 

Ray - I loved the location of the house and the warmneds of the water. 

Kim- I loved being included in with Jessica's family. The zip lining was great. I wish the wind hadn't blown so hard and so continuously. 

#6 Saturday-Hawaii-Scott/Gray-June 18, 2016

Natalie had the idea today to go on a hike up a steep ridge to a beautiful overlook. The trailhead was opposite Kahana Valley State Park and was call Crouching Lion Trail. Ryan and I wanted to call it Crouching Tiger hidden Dragon Trail. Nat didn't think our idea was funny. 

Trail was really steep and the surface was slick and predisposed us to a lot of slipping. In places there were ropes tied on to trees that helped is pull ourselves up the mountain. 

Got to the first overlook---safely

Then Nat and Ryan continued uphill searching for the dragon. I remembered our hike in Austria when we hiked up Traunstein;  the memory helped me to stay at this nice midpoint and wait for them. 

Here they are going up. Ryan is in his yoga position that indicates his is going to summit. 

Then back to the car. You can see how steep it is. 

There was a nice fruit stand on the way home. Natalie was introduced to mangos and dragon fruit. 

How about snorkling at Sharks Cove?  With nose plugs, goggles, and snorkels everyone had their first experience with seeing tropical fish - most common was a yellow fish with vertices black stripes. The kids (N, E, C, T) said it was the best thing they've done. A picture of them but none of Shark's Cove-guess I zoned out. 

What would a day in Hawaii be like without shave ice?  

Dinner was at the Elephant Truck. Delicious. Thai food. No pictures because it was dark with only candlelight. 

#5 Friday-Hawaii-Scott/Gray - June 17, 2016

The super big activity for the day was going to a Zip Line place that Ryan found with a Google search. Ryan and Natalie had done this before but Evan, Camille, and I were first timers. The location was on a farm about three miles from us. It was neat because the course started on the mountainside and then went down through areas of the farm that were cultivated. 

Getting gear on

Everyone ready?  Check!

Receiving instructions

Now lots of photos

M

Some of the zip lines were exceptionally long. To make sure we all were able to make it to the platform at the end of the line, we were instructed to "ball up" by leaning back, fully extending our arms, and raising and pulling our knees to our chests. We knew that we had done that correctly because the next day our lower abdominal muscles were screaming with pain- well mine were, anyway. Evan and Nat said they didn't notice anything. Ryan says his hurt too. 

For the afternoon activity all of us drove south to Honolulu. We went to the Halona Blow Hole, a molten lava tube that can shoot water up in the air up to 30 feet. Unfortunately, on this day we just got a little spout of water.  Yeah.....you can barely see it. 

On the other side of the parking lot is the Hoana Peering Point which is a famous site in the movie From Here To Eternity......Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's love scene. It is also the home of the endangered Green Sea Turtle which we could see in the water. 

Nope - I didn't get any pictures of the turtles but I did one one of Evan looking very much like Burt Lancaster and Dad looking like Sean Connery

And Natalie and me looking like Deborah Kerr. You decide which of us looks like Debbie who is trying to look....ahh - sullen and alluring

And the somehow we ended up at, yet another, shave ice establishment. 

Last stop on the way home was where King Kameameha won a battle with warriors from Oahu by pushing 400 soldiers off a cliff to their deaths. Finally the king had United the islands. 

It was so windy and cold that all we did was take a quick look and then run to the car. 

#4 Thurs-Hawaii-Scott/Gray-June 16, 2016

POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER today!!  We're all in clean clothes, fully rested, and tummies are full of breakfast. Should be a great day. 

We went full blast the whole afternoon. Got to all the villages, the canoe parade (that isn't real name), fire building, as much as we could. 

At one of the villages there was a traditional wedding ceremony.  Jessica and Ryan were overcome with love and emotion and renewed their vows along with other lovebirds. 

At Fiji we got to be part of the orchestra with percussion instruments made of bamboo

Afterwards Natalie auditioned with other dancers

Ate dinner at the luau. We were pretty amazed that the staff could serve everyone so efficiently

Then to the show. We saw it two years ago. It is the same, but I think some changes had been made to make it a bit shorter. Everyone loved the fire dancers

We ran the gauntlet of gift shops. Camille got this which she later gave to Abby 

And Evan???  Very cool in his new shades

#3-Wed-Hawaii-Scott/Gray-June 15, 2016

This morning I headed north up the beach planning to walk three miles and then turning around and coming back

I hadn't walked very far when I came upon these signs. 

And there it was. - a monk seal lying on the sand. Actually I thought it was dead as there was no sign of breathing, or twitching - nothing. 

Later on Natalie walked to see the seal. She arrived just in time to see the seal lumbering toward the ocean and then swimming away. Not dead at all. 

I had hoped to spend the three miles on the sand, but the sand turned into rocks. I noticed there was a beach campground between the highway and the ocean

I walked through the campground to the bike path next to the road and walked back to the house

Cows along the road

Jessica and I stayed home with the little kids while Dad an Ryan took Nat, Evan,Camille, and Tyler to Pearl Harbor. The favorite museum was the submarine

After slugging through the museums and learning everything about Pearl Harbor, food was required. 

Then on the way home a quick stop at Leonard's Bakery for yummy Portuguese doughnuts

Dinner was Indian curry from a Fijian restaurant. Three kinds of curry-beef, chicken, corned beef. Pretty spicey!!