Aloha #4

Tuesday:  Me and PW started the day playing in the ocean (as I promised).  It was kinda cloudy, but the air was warm, and the water was warm, so it was perfect, so we just had fun playing in the waves for about an or two, and trying to figure out how that boogie board was supposed to work.  I'm really glad we did that cuz it turned out to be our last chance to do it.  As we were heading back to the cabin, Chuck met us on the way, informing us that the news of his dad's health had gotten to the point where we needed to head back home ASAP.  So while Chuck was on the phone and the computer trying to change our plane tickets, I packed everything up and cleaned up the cabin as best as I could.  (didn't wanna leave a bad impression for the maid, ya know!)  

So what do we do with those tickets that we bought for the Polynesian Cultural Center?  There's no refund for those, unfortunately.  It turned out that the next available flight was in the evening, so we decided to check out of Bellows and go to the PCC for as long as we could.  We decided we needed to leave the PCC no later than 5:00, which was when the luau was supposed to start.  And that was a major bummer because the luau was the main attraction that I wanted PW to experience, and here we are, leaving right at the moment when we could've gone to it.  But life is full of unexpected unpleasantness and we just have to simply accept them.

By the time we got there, we had about 4 hours to walk around and explore.  One thing PW wanted to do was learn how to make a lei, and luckily this stand was one of the first things we found:

I'm glad we found it early cuz we were able to wear the leis for the rest of the day and they smelled really good.

Then we noticed a crowd of people gathering behind us so we went and sat down to find out what kind of performance was apparently about to happen.  It turned out to be representations of several different islands in the area, like Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, etc.  They came out on canoe platforms and did their dances, each island represented by a different color.

My favorite one was Tahiti cuz they were doing the traditional hula dancing.  I didn't know that hula dancing came from Tahiti, so I learned something there.

We walked around some more and watched other shows and demonstrations, and then PW tried her hand at spear throwing:

I was disappointed that he only let her try three times.  It's not like there were other people waiting!

Oh well.

There's those roosters again.

According to the Waimea Valley bird guide, they are actually "Junglefowl".  Huh?  To me they are "Farmfowl".  If it looks like a rooster, walks like a rooster, and crows like a rooster, it's gotta be a rooster.

Then Chuck found this dispenser for fish food, but apparently someone didn't inform the birds that they are not fish.

It was so cute the way this duck just stood there looking up at Chuck waiting for him to slide the coins in and surrender the goods.

And of course it drew a crowd:

I think PW found herself a new BFF.

Our time was running out, so me and PW checked out the gift shop, while Chuck went to the main gate and tried to give away our luau tickets.  He said people were giving him weird looks, cuz who goes to the PCC and gives away their luau tickets???  Everyone he asked had already bought their tickets, and he didn't want them to go to waste, so he took them to the counter and told them they could let someone else have them.  Hopefully our sorrows turned into someone else's joy.

So that was our trip.  There were a few things we had planned on still seeing, like the USS Arizona, and the Macadamia Nut Farm, and PW never did see the famous Waikiki Beach, or Diamond Head (except from a distance).  But we made the best of it, and hopefully she will have a chance to return there some day if she wants to.

Aloha #3

Monday was a busier day.  First we went to the "trailer" and bought tickets to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which is what we planned for Tuesday.  And then we drove our way north towards the Dole Plantation.  But on the way there, something caught Chuck's eye:

...so we had to stop and check it out.  

I've never been to a coffee garden before, so thought this might be interesting.

We got to walk around and see how they grow their coffee beans.  I've never really seen a "coffee" tree before, so that was kinda cool.  They grind the beans and sell their own coffee of course, so naturally Chuck had to buy some.  Since it was kind of a "cool" cloudy day I asked for their chai tea latte, which was very very very good (better than Starbucks).

At last we make it here:

First we rode the Express train and took the 20-minute tour through their plantation.  

We saw pineapple fields...

banana trees....

macadamia nut trees...

koa trees (whatever that is)...

...just to name a few.  There were others that I didn't get pictures of, like sugar cane.

Anyhoo, after the train ride, PW finally got to do what she mainly wanted to do there:

This turned out to be different than what I was expecting, but not in a disappointing way.  I thought the maze would be too easy cuz I imagined that the maze was made with short pineapple plants that we would be able to see over.  I don't know what kind of trees these were, but they were not pineapple plants.  They were tall enough to actually create "walls".

When you buy your ticket they give you this paper and you're supposed to find all 8 stations, and stencil them in the designated squares on the paper.  And I guess if you get it done in a certain amount of time you get a "prize".  From past experience in something similar to this, I was guessing that the "prize" was probably something like a 10% discount on anything in the store, or something like that designed to encourage us to spend more money.  That was my GUESS, but we never found out cuz we didn't find all the stations.  After about an hour or so of endless walking through the maze that never seemed to change scenery, PW decided it was okay with her if we stopped.  

So after emerging out of the leafy walls, we wanted to try their special treat, the Dole Whip:

It was pineapple flavored ice cream with fresh pineapple chunks.  Yum.

Before we left, we walked around on the premises a little more and took some more pictures of interest, like this conspicuous pineapple:

...and this lizard who was chasing a bug.

There's those roosters again.  They were everywhere!

Now we are off to a place called Waimea Valley, which is a huge huge botanical garden kind of place with unique trees from different tropical islands.  It was very pretty, and the hike ended up at a swimming hole.

Here are just a few things that we saw (this post is getting too long):

really weird lily pads...

...some kind of weird fruit tree...

...some flowers that Chuck was fascinated by...

...a big viney tree that looked like a woolly mammoth...

...bright pink fuzzy pom-poms...

... and lots and lots more.  But I don't wanna sit here all day, so let's fast forward.

Here is the end of the trail where we find the waterfall and swimming hole:

It looked very inviting (and reminded me of "Lost"), but alas, we didn't bring any swimming clothes, plus it started to rain.  Rain doesn't seem to bother people there; they just kept swimming, and we stood there getting drenched while we watched.  If you're swimming, I guess it doesn't matter that you get wet in the rain, right?  So maybe we should've just jumped in.

So we hiked back in the rain, which really wasn't that bad cuz it was a warm rain.  My only complaint is what it does my HAIR!

When we got back to the cabin, the weather was still too cool (for me) to play in the ocean, so I promised PW that we would go swimming in the morning.

So we grilled some burgers and brats, and played card games.  

End of Monday.

Aloha #2

The next day was Sunday, so we went to church.  We chose to attend the Pearl Harbor church of Christ, which is on the navy base, or close to it.  I'm not sure, but I do know that the navy owns the land that the church building sits on.

I'm really glad we chose this one because the members there create a very friendly loving atmosphere; they all seemed to have a close family type bond with each other and of course were eager to welcome all visitors, giving each of us a shell necklace.  But what I really liked was meeting people who know people that we know up here in Alaska.  The preacher there used to preach up here in Anchor Point, so he knows our preacher really well, and we also met other members who know some of the members in our congregation (there were a few people there that used to live up here).  It's weird how the world can seem so small when we're traveling to other faraway places.  It's really neat to be able to visit other congregations and have that web of connection with mutual friends.

Here is a picture of PW standing by a tree in the church yard.  The necklace they gave her complimented her dress really well.

We didn't know what touristy things would be open on a Sunday, and the day was half spent by now, so, since we were at the navy base, we decided to visit the NEX (Navy Exchange) and let PW satisfy her urge to go shopping.

The was a very nice NEX.  It was like a huge mall.  At first I was confused because they had a big food court in there, and it seemed funny to me that they just let anyone (non-military) come in and eat from their food court. (apparently this navy base is open to the public?) But entering the stores in the NEX required a military ID, so I guess that's where the limits are.  The NEX store was really big (compared to our BX/PX).  It had two levels and lots and lots of clothes.  I felt like I was in JCPenny's.  So we hung around in there for awhile (wasted time looking for Chuck after we separated), bought a few items, and then tried to go to an outdoor marketplace that someone from church suggested.  But we got there half an hour before they closed (at 3:00!), and we didn't wanna pay for parking for half an hour, so we didn't go there.  

So we went to Hickam AFB, and drove around - Chuck was looking for the spot where he worked when he was on a TDY in the Guard.  He said they were building steps for a building and he eventually found it, and said "those are the steps that we built".  Too bad I didn't get a picture of it, but it's just some cement steps.  Use your imagination.

Then we came to a place to sit down on some rocks by the shore and just do nothing.  And we ate the macadamia chocolates that we bought at the NEX.

Doing nothing was one of Chuck's favorite things to do cuz it didn't cost any money.

Eventually we went back to the cabin and PW decided to test her skills at boogie boarding.

Evening came, and Chuck wanted to hit some balls on the driving range.  On Bellows they have this little trailer where you can go in and rent all kinds of stuff for pretty cheap.  I think Chuck paid $5 to keep the golf clubs for 24 hours.

So that was pretty much it for Sunday.  Just kind of a very relaxing day.

Aloha! #1

I wasn't sure how I wanted to post our trip to Hawaii.  Should I just mention the highlights? Or should I risk being a total bore and giving all the details?  I tend to get kinda chatty, which would result in a very long tedious yawner, so I think I'll try to divide it up into several posts, one post = one day.  That would be kind of a happy medium between "not enough" and "too much".  Our trip was cut short sorta unexpectedly, so we were there only 4 days, so I will divide it up among 4 blogs.  See?  I am already getting too chatty.  (don't yawn already, it's contagious!)

This is my daughter Kayla.  By habit I call her PeeWee, so if I type in PW, you will know who I'm referring to.  She just graduated from high school, AND she's turning 18 in a couple weeks, so we decided to combine the two celebrations and do something "big" for her and take her somewhere where she's never been to before.

We arrived in Honolulu on Friday night.  It was DARK and very HUMID, two things that we are not used to this time of year.  I knew right off the bat that I was gonna HATE my hair the whole time we were there.  Anyhoo, after we got our rental car, we raced to the commissary on Hickam AFB to get some vittles before they closed (we barely made it). We knew that Oahu was a tourist trap, so we figured eating CHEAP was one way to save us a bit of excessive spending.  We lived on PB&J as much as we could.  Ate cold cereal for breakfast.  A little note here:  I found out that I was no longer used to consuming regular milk (...stomache ache!)

Okay, at Bellows Air Force Station, this is the cabin we stayed in:

The background is  not the sky; it is the OCEAN, and it provided a very soothing sound at night to lull us to sleep.

When we settled into our cabin on Friday night, we found our cabin counselor right away:

He was there to reassure us that we could sleep well because he had us covered, as far as bugs go.  After we went to bed we could hear him calling "gecko!"  which means "another one bites the dust".

Every morning I thought maybe I could sleep in a little bit, but no, those loud birds woke me up around 5:30 every morning.  So we'd lay there for about an hour (trying to sleep) but always ended getting up before 7:00 because those birds were just too loud.  But it was all good because the  morning is the BEST time to go for a stroll on the beach.

After eating our "stomach ache" cereal, we decided that we would go horse backing riding at the Kuaola Ranch where they had these "roosters" and "chickens" running around all over.

And some mangy-looking cats that looked like they needed some food and vet care.

So here we are on the horses.

My horse was named "Blue".  Chuck's horse was named "Hercules", and PW couldn't remember the name of her horse.

I really liked those trees they had there.  I guess they are "monkey pods".  

When we came to a fork in the path, our guide wasn't sure if we were allowed to go the way they usually go (on the one-hour tour), so she called back at the office and asked them.  They said we couldn't go "that way" because they had some movie sets down there and weren't allowing anyone in there.  So we had to take a different route and wonder what movie they were making down there.  

We opted to take the one-hour tour, but if we had taken the two-hour tour, this is what we would've seen (for all you "Lost" fans out there):

We were SO CLOSE to the site where they filmed Hurley's golf course!!!!  Cool, huh?  BTW, this is actually a picture of a framed picture that they were selling in their gift store.  

So after we got done with the horse tour, we drove around for awhile and then went back to the cabin to eat, and then me and PW played in the ocean.  In the evening, we went for a walk on Bellows AFS where they had some trails.  They had this nature trail with different kinds of trees in it that were pretty cool to see, like this banyan tree:

Does this tree look familiar to all you "Lost" fans?  The banyan tree is the tree that you can hide in when the smoke monster is chasing you.  The interesting thing about the banyan tree is that the roots grow from the branches downward into the soil.

So that was Day 1.