The Arboretum is a big huge garden that has different themed spaces: the vegetable garden, the Australia garden, the African garden, the prehistoric garden. There was a little pond in the middle, as well, and a little cottage on the pond. Peacocks roamed the whole place, and the kids loved looking for peacock feathers on the ground. It was fun. But so hot that day, and we stayed a little too long for the kids. They were really hot and tired by the time we had to walk back to the entrance of the gardens. I was really proud of my girls. They had fun with their friends, but they were also such troopers, despite having to walk so much and it being so hot. Particularly Camille. She's such a little girl and has such big spunk and attitude that when she's so strong, I'm always pleasantly surprised (though I probably shouldn't be). They were awesome, so I bought them some icy drinks on the way home.
The Saturday before we left, Daniel told me to get Jack's hair cut. Actually, he'd been telling me for weeks that we needed to do it, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I loved his hair, and I thought that cutting his hair would steal away any remaining babyness left in him. And that made me really sad. But, I'm so glad we did! He looks so cute and handsome with his hair cut. And yes, a little more grown up. He's not a baby so much anymore, but little boy. Which is both good and bad. I love this age more than any I've come across so far, so I'm just loving it. This little man owns me. He's the cutest person ever.
Mom flew into LA late Sunday night, and Daniel went to pick her up from the flyaway in Van Nuys. The next day, Daniel and I were rushing around finishing our trip preparations. We took the girls to Emily Thompson's house for a couple hours so that mom could drop us off at the flyaway. Jack was the only one with us when we actually left. I was a little sad and nervous to leave my baby; to leave all of them really, but I knew the girls would really be fine. I was mostly worried about Jack. He didn't seem to realize what was going on when we got out of the car, thankfully, because Mom told us that he didn't really cry or fuss at all! But I missed him.
It felt so weird to be going somewhere big without the kids. Or anywhere without the kids, really. I struggled that first day, when we flew to Hawaii. I was nervous about leaving them and about the whole trip without them. But on the other hand, it was quite luxurious to be in an airport, waiting for a plane, flying, etc. without them!
We missed our flyaway, and then we hit traffic on the way to the airport, so both Daniel and I were stressed out that we were going to miss it. We barely made it on time for them to take my bag. And we had just enough time to buy some ridiculously expensive airport food to eat on the plane. But once we were on the plane, we could both relax and enjoy the fact that we could just be together.
We landed in Hawaii, and a guy from the travel agency took us and a bunch of people to get our bags and catch our shuttles. It was not hotter than LA, but definitely more humid. And it smelled a lot nicer! (Of course, that could've been the lei that the travel-agency-guy had brought for us) Our shuttle took us right to our hotel, where we checked in and got settled before going out to explore!! It was about 7pm or so when all was said and done, and we'd seen a very interesting kind of market right outside of our hotel that we wanted to check out. It was mostly just a big area with a dozen food stands and trucks, with some tables and chairs, and a couple of guys with big parrots you could take pictures with. We got some dinner (Thai and Indian food) and then walked around the city near our hotel for a little bit.
Waikiki and Honolulu felt very much like any other city, to be honest. All the buildings were the same off-white color, there were lots of buildings and highways, shops and restaurants. There were homeless people hanging out all over the place, and lots of people. Waikiki itself was very crowded, so so many people, and there was a lot of shopping and restaurants and things going on. The beaches on Waikiki were gorgeous, with white coarse sand and such clear blue water. The water was warm, too, and very fun to swim in. BUT ... thong bikinis seem to be the Hawaiian uniform for women on the beaches, which neither Daniel nor I appreciated. It was not as hot as LA, but more humid. The trees and plants were so beautiful, and the air did seem fresher. But, it was just another city.
It wasn't until we explored other parts of the island that I began to see what all the fuss was about. On Tuesday, Daniel and I rented a car so that we could take a circle tour of the island (with the help of a cool app, Shaka Guide). It was incredible! We drove through these huge cliffy, green and lush mountains to the other side of the island, and it was just such a difference. Trees and plants, green and blue ocean everywhere!
On that day, we saw a lot of things: the Byodo-In Temple, the Macadamia Nut farm (the best glazed M Nuts I will ever have), swimming at Sunset Beach, snorkeling at Shark's Cove, the Laie Temple, and garlic shrimp on the North Shore (MMMMMM!). It was an amazing day! We took our time, which meant that we didn't get to finish the tour before we had to get the car back.There was a lot we missed that I would've loved to do: Waimea Valley and Beach, the Dole Plantation, and walking around Haleiwa. But it was an amazing day.
Snorkeling was a bit of an experience. Shark's Cove was really rocky, and it was hard to get out there with all of our gear. I was fairly disgruntled about it all, and Daniel was really patient with me, bless him. And when we got out there, there weren't that many fish, and the water wasn't quite clear enough to see everything. Plus, we left our water shoes on a rock, and one of Daniel's and one of mine got washed out. Daniel was able to go out and retrieve mine, but his was lost forever. I got all kinds of beat up trying to get in and out of the water there, and was bloody in a few spots. Needless to say, we were unimpressed.
But the garlic and coconut shrimp that we got on a food truck... AMAZING.
Wednesday, we hung out on Waikiki, went swimming in the ocean and relaxed on the beaches. We took a walk around Waikiki in the morning before going swimming. And then we walked down the beach quite a ways to another snorkeling spot. So we went out again, but again we were disappointed. There weren't many fish out there again, and Daniel wanted to go out farther, but I wasn't quite comfortable with that. Who knows if the snorkeling would've been better farther out. Either way, Daniel was a little sad. Snorkeling was the one thing that he was really excited to do on Hawaii.
Thursday, we took public transportation out to Pearl Harbor as early as we could manage in the morning. We saw the USS Bowfin Submarine and the Battleship Missouri, and it was incredible! We had headphones that took us on a little tour for the Bowfin, and then we had a tour guide for the Missouri, and it was really cool to hear some of the history of WWII on Hawaii. The Battleship Missouri has quite a history in itself. It served in multiple wars, which I never knew, and the WWII surrender documents were signed on it, as well. We saw the pictures and copies of the signatures and hearing that story was very touching to me. I really loved Pearl Harbor and wished we could've stayed a little longer to see the Arizona Memorial and other things. But we had a bus to catch.
We took a bus out to Kualoa Ranch for the Movie Site Tour. A whole bunch of movies and TV shows have been filmed in Hawaii, with many scenes shot in the valley at Kualoa Ranch. It was raining cats and dogs there when we were there for our tour, but it was a pretty fun experience. We learned more about the island's history, got to walk inside a WWII bunker and see where some great movies were filmed.
It was still raining pretty hard when we were done, and we learned that taking the bus to other places we wanted to see was going to take way too long. So we hopped the next bus back to Waikiki. It was interesting how on one side of the island, the weather would be one way, and on the other side, it was completely different. So, even though it was raining at Kualoa Ranch, when we got to Waikiki, it hadn't been raining at all. We rented a couple of bikes and took a ride over to a pretty well known donut shop, Leonard's Bakery for some fresh hot malasadas. They were pretty good, and I really enjoyed our little bike ride.
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