Oahu in pictures -- Day 5

Friday was an awesome day. Basically we did nothing and vacationed from the vacation. We spent some time on the balcony, and then I went to the spa for a massage and Chris took Megan for a most of the day swim. Round that out with a three hour nap and a great Sushi all you can eat dinner, and it makes for a GREAT day. Not really a photo filled day though, so here are a few that relate.

The room -- bar area, bathroom, and sleeping area (note that balcony is through the double sliding doors / screens were actually also installed so this was great. We could hear the ocean. Megan was a big girl, and never even asked to sleep in our bed. She happily slept in the rollaway that you see here at the foot of the bed.

This is the spa which sits just across the parking lot. Nice pool, saunas, salon, and general happy places. Even basketball courts out back.

Here is our tiny bit of ocean view from our balcony (off to the left of the balcony). We decided not to pay for the upgrade for an ocean view room, but rather booked the "mountain view" economy view. We were lucky and got a high floor (15 of 17) and a corner room with the larger balcony and thus the corner "ocean view" It was a bit of a rainy afternoon when the pics were taken.

Here's a funny bit of vacation. Chris kept noticing all the trucks going up the small mountain in our mountain view. We got interested as we thought it might be a quarry or something related to our normal jobs. A bit of investigating turned out they were garbage trucks. So the mountain is also a landfill. I wonder if they can sell landfill view rooms????

Some ocean view rooms (with a view of the south) can also see the nearby refinery (refinery view!) and those on the north can see the stack of the power plant, although the plant itself is neatly tucked behind a mountain. Mountains are good for hiding things.

Ok, so it really wasn't bad or anything, the resort and location were outstanding. But it is something to ponder. This side of the island is definitely poorer, and Marriott is really pushing this as a stand alone resort. It has four lagoons, a timeshare, and it was announced just this week that Disney is breaking ground on their own resort also there at Ko Olina. The ocean view is great, and it really is better water than at Waikiki for lagoons and for cruises. We saw several tour groups from Waikiki (which is 45 minutes away) drive out to Ko Olina and the marina. But it is a resort surrounded by a lot of industrial things.

Oahu in pictures -- Day 6

Saturday took Chris and I to the vacation club presentation (which was a nice tour one on one) and they had childcare for ages 3+ (and they thought Megan looked old enough anyway!). She played for a few hours, and then we took her down to the pool there to play.

Our road hazard on the walk back

We had the seafood buffet that night, and Megan found a love for crab legs. Alaskan kind crab apparently tastes good, but is hard to get into (see the SPINY video below!) Chris was, of course, quite pleased!

Oahu in pictures -- Day 7

Have you ever wondered where a pineapple comes from? Well, neither had we. But they recommended this tour, especially since we had a kiddo who would love the train ride. So we set out for the Dole Plantation, near the north shore.

We learned a few things quickly.
1. Pineapples are quite prickly. Megan touched one, and nursed this "owie" the whole tour through. She called them spiny like the crab that got her at dinner the night before!
2. You get a pineapple plant by HAND planting the top (green leafy part) of an existing pineapple. The plant will only yield two pineapples (one per crop) and it takes about 18 months to grow one.
3. You can easily SO VERY EASILY get too much pineapple. It was great, good, and then nauseating to eat so many pineapply things.






Boarding the train

Views on the train ride -- some gorgeous landscaping and fields of pineapple. They also had many other tropical plants and fruits planted along the train ride.

Continued nursing of the attack of the spiny pineapple

Day 8 -- boat

Monday morning we head out to the marina. The weather was supposed to be rainy, but it turned out beautiful. Almost no one booked for this time (due to the forecast) so there are 6 adults and one Megan plus four crew on the boat. It was great!

It's so early


Waiting for our boat



Boating

Day 8 -- dolphins

The dolphins swam in to the area where we were. Here you see them swimming among another group of snorklers (the yellow masks in the water)

I HOPE those really are dolphins!

Here they come over to our boat -- they swam right up to the boat and said "hi"

Then, they swam off to play. These are spinner dolphins and like to show off their play! They are even playing like that among the snorklers in the foreground of the photo. It was really wild and amazing!

Day 8 - in the ocean

Last year for my birthday, Chris got me a little Olympus point and shoot camera. Now being that we have gotten used to a great digital SLR, I have been mostly frustrated with the response time and picture quality when I don't take the big camera and I use the little Olympus. One big plus to it is that it is rugged and highly shockproof. This has helped it survive Megan's photography practice and it has been dropped on more than one occasion.

Little cool feature -- it is also waterproof! Small, lightweight, and it swam around the ocean with us! So now, I am pretty happy with this little camera!

Snorkel family. Chris IS smiling, I promise!

hanging out in the water with Dad

The swimming below us around the reef. With a few bread crumbs that the crew gave Chris, they actually swim up and eat out of your hands! Amazing!

Ahhh! What's that? Oh, that is snorkel Chris!

Sea turtles -- they look so close, but when Chris tried to swim down to one, it turns out that the bottom that you see so clearly is like 40 feet down, the water is just very clear.

However, this one swam right by as he came up for a breath of air!

end of Day 8 and Day 9 -- the wrap up

After all the fun on the boat, we headed back to the hotel to rest. Megan actually swam like another two hours in the pool that evening. She went to bed so well, that we decided to swim again all of Tuesday morning to tire her out for that evening's plane ride. It worked, but we were also exhausted and we didn't get to sleep much on the plane! Oh well. This is the last of the Hawaii photo ops!

Oahu -- The 9 day synopsis

Day 1: Monday
Traveling. Really this day began the night before. We spent much of Sunday getting ready and packing. The packing lasted well into the night, and I finally called it quits at 1AM. We headed to bed (Megan went to sleep at 8PM talking about going to “Hawaii!”) to catch a few Z’s before all of the Monday morning.

Monday morning we got up early. Chris took Zoey to her kennel while I packed up snacks at sandwiches for the 8 hour plane ride ahead. We got in the car and then drove up to meet a friend of ours who was nice enough to take us to the airport (Donna) and wait for us to unload our MANY MANY bags from the car. We only checked three bags total, but must have carried on DOUBLE that. I was so nervous about how Megan would do on such a long flight that we had a movie player, ipod, coloring books, computer, ANOTHER computer just in case the battery ran out, a cooler, other misc snacks, and then a whole backpack full of random dollar store toys or surprises to keep her entertained.

She did well. She did NOT sleep at all on the flight, so neither did we. But she played and watched movies and ate snacks, and arrived without creating much of a disturbance. She then passed out completely asleep on the way to the hotel, and could not be revived to life. So we gave up and put her on the roll away as we made tons of noise around her unpacking. She was pooped.

Day 2 Tuesday:
Started terrible. Megan woke up promptly at 8:45 AM TEXAS time, which was 3:45 AM. Breakfast downstairs. Off to get some groceries – Megan still terrible, visited Denny’s. Megan still terrible. Time out, finally some ok behavior. Back to the hotel to get GPS and then driving about the island. West coast across the south to Honolulu. Quick venture to shops in Waikiki, and then up to the Diamondhead crater, which was unfortunately mostly closed for the week. Megan wakes up, still grumpy. We call it a day and drive back to the hotel for a quick swim before an early bed. Time change is a killer.

Day 3: Wednesday
Started well, we went down to feel the fish at the shore. They have a 7:30 AM fish feeding for the kids, and the fish just swim right up to the shore at this time of day. Somehow there was a swimming incident at the lagoon, Megan said that it happened when she put on her goggles -- but I missed it. Anyway, she ended the day with a large forehead scratch clearly visible in all great photos. Oh well. vacation is a time of activity. Then we set out to see Pearl harbor. We took Megan to the USS Arizona. Very moving location, and we even learned a lot from the movie that you see while waiting to tour. I learned more than Chris, who took Megan out of the theatre after she began to get annoyed and pitch a fit. Fortunately she settled down in time for the boat ride out to the memorial, and liked seeing the exhibits. She said back to us -- "the boat sank and made people sad?". So somehow, she understood a little of what she saw. We then came back to hotel, and Megan and Daddy played at the pool after dinner. Mommy worked on pictures. We then drove up the west coast of Oahu. Saw different scenery. This is the dry side of the mountain. There are beautiful beaches, but some poorer sights on this the side of the island. Lots of tents where the poor live on beachside property with long term tents set up – some even had shopping carts and other materials around. We talked to a few locals who said that every few months the police force the vagrants to at least move and camp somewhere different on the island. Although I must say that if you are going to be homeless, this is the place to do so! Consistent comfortable weather is a real feature, especially coming from the miserable DFW area (there is hot, hot and humid, cold and icy, and a few nice days in between).

Day 4: Thursday
North Shore. We drove up to see the sea turtles at the north shore – it was really amazing. The surf was quite big even in this calm weather, and then out in the surf we saw them. They weren’t onshore as they sometimes are, but were right where the surf breaks just swimming and presumably eating. Then we headed for lunch in Halewai, before heading to the Polynesian Cultural Center for a very full day. We arrived at 1PM, and left at 9:30. Megan made it to 9:15 – almost!! Luau, evening show, firedanceers, etc. She say through an Imax film and really liked it, went to the luau and watched the Horizons evening show. Only one incident -- she fell forwards out of her IMAX seat and hit her face on the back of the seat just in front of us, so this added a small black eye mark for several days of photos, which complemented the day 2 face scrape just perfectly in photos.

Day 5: Friday
Lazy day. Lounged in the morning, went for donuts (the first thing Megan said when she awoke) and then came back to the hotel. Sitting on the balcony watching a bit of rain. Then, Megan and Daddy headed out to the pool for swimming and a poolside lunch. Mommy got to go to the spa for a massage and hair treatment. So relaxing.. I came back and Megan was sleeping so well, on the 3rd hour of her post swim nap. Apparently, she told Daddy she needed a rest, climbed in our bed at the hotel (she normally sleeps on the rollaway) and then requested jimmies and a pull up. When she woke up, we went for great dining at the Sushi place. Afterwards, Megan and daddy had another swim while Mommy watched poolside. At 8PM we called it a night and headed up so we could all take a rest. Tomorrow we go to the timeshare proposal.

Day 6: Saturday
Timeshare day, with a visit to Marriott Vacation Club at Ko Olina. Megan went to the nursery room and had great fun playing with Legos and then making things with glue and shells. Her Mommy and Daddy almost bought the timeshare. Really, almost. If it was a little more in our planned budget right now we would have – maybe in a few years. After this, we spent the day at the timeshare vacation property with our free pass. We checked out their pools, had lunch and then headed back to our hotel. We all took a nap, and then went to the Seafood buffet downstairs before swimming again. It was nice to have a calm day, and Megan really had fun.

Day 7: Sunday
Visited the Dole pineapple plantation. I never knew how pineapples were really grown. It was amazing. They are all planted by hand, and one plant will yield only two pineapples – one on its first season (after 20 months) and the second after a second season of 15 months. I also learned that as good as fresh pineapple is, there is easily such a thing as too much! We had fresh pineapple, pineapple juice, and pineapple ice cream, before declaring that there could be no more pineapple. My tongue had no protective coating left.

Then, we drove the whole north and east coast of Oahu. The north shore has some great waves and beaches, and the east side is just beautiful and green. We were staying on the dry side of the island, so this lush tropical view was really breathtaking.

Day 8 Monday:
A really fun day. We started this by getting up early to take a shuttle down to the marina for a snorkeling cruise. We were going to go Sunday, and the weather was bad (gray and lightly rainy). So we scheduled for Monday even though the weather looked like it would be the same. Wow were we lucky. First of all, it was a beautiful day. Second, everyone else thought it was going to be bad, so there were only 7 of us total on this snorkel cruise (two Japanese couples and Chris, Megan and me). So we got a lot of attention and a boat all to ourselves. We weren’t going to snorkel with Megan but the guides felt comfortable, and since there were only a few of us, we took her off the boat with us and swam around above the reef. We had several sea turtles around us (we got a few good pictures) and the fish at the reef even ate out of our hands. Several dolphins swam right up to the boat. It was fantastic. Megan didn’t like the idea of a snorkel, so she missed a lot of the great underwater views, but had fun swimming with us in the ocean anyway. We went back to the room to clean up and rest and then swam again that afternoon for about two hours in the hotel pool. She loves to swim. Really if her vacation had a pool and a rental car bus, she’d be set.

Day 9: Tuesday
The last day. We had the whole day to spend in Hawaii before leaving on a 7:30 PM flight – catching an overnight back to Dallas. Our entire goal was to tire the child out so that she would sleep. We got up, finished packing and went down to swim at 9AM. We swam for over two hours until it was time to shower and check out. Then we headed into Honolulu (you really have to emphasize the “lu-lu” to say it like Megan. She napped a little, but we had lunch and went shopping before heading out to the airport late in the afternoon. Megan did great – she went to sleep about 30 minutes after take off and slept almost the whole 7 hour flight. ONLY if she was laying on me in some way, so needless to say her parents didn’t sleep all that great. At 8AM, our friend Donna picked us all up and then we headed to pick up Zoey and go home. Everyone got naps. Chris and Megan did well and slept a enough to be rested and still go to bed. I slept way too much and now have time to stay up and blog.

So I will update this later with some photos and memories from each day, this is my first pass to make sure that I don’t forget.

Aloha!

What a week! I have lots of blogging to do to catch up so that I can share many of the great photos and fun that we had in Oahu over the last week or so! Mostly fun. Traveling on an 8-hr flight with an almost-three-year-old to Hawaii probably doesn't make the "fun" list. Oh and since we are heading to the airport in a few minutes, the trip back may not make the "fun" list either. And Megan doesn't like sand, which is a tad inconvenient since we are staying at a resort on the beach. But, her favorite part so far is the rental car bus, and we get to ride that AGAIN in a little while. She is swimming for like the thirtieth time right now so that we can get her good and tired for the plane ride -- so please pray for a sleepy kid for us, ok?

Party Time

Today, we went to a baby shower for a friend of ours who is having a little girl. They have a daughter Megan's age (Emily), and therefore had the shower more like a kids party. Megan and I were running a little late and missed the cake, but got there just in time for all the fun in the gym at the Little Gym (where they had the shower). It was a lot of fun -- maybe we will check it out for Megan's upcoming birthday (which is talked about ever so frequently!) Here are a few shots capturing the fun events.


The diaper cake that Megan helped me make


some fun climbing and on a balance beam


Megan and her friend Emily

Setting up the inflatable tumble track