Straw House: February 2014

For the last week of January, we took a trip to Hawaii with Juliet and Chase's mom.

Day 1: Tuesday, Jan 21st: SLC->SEA->HON

We picked up Jennae and had Shauna take us to the airport where we caught an afternoon flight to Seattle, a short layover, and then a 5 1/2 hour flight to Honolulu. The second flight was pretty miserable. Luckily Juliet slept the whole time, but I had to get up every two hours to prevent blood clots. Chase was miserable in the tiny seats and finally had to get up also to escape the pain from the seats in front of him in his knees. (I realize as I write this that these are totally 1st world problems!) We made it to Honolulu about 10pm and, after grabbing our luggage, caught the shuttle to the rental car office. When we went in, we noticed how warm and humid it was. When we walked out the door maybe 5 minutes later, it was a complete downpour! Some of the heaviest rain I've ever seen! We had a great time trying to load up our car (we got an Impala which was the perfect size for the four of us and our luggage) and navigate to our hotel in Waikiki in the downpour. It was a fun adventure! We got to the hotel and unloaded our luggage, but we refused to pay the $35/night parking fee, so Chase drove the car to the Zoo parking lot and parked it there for $1/hr. He had to walk the mile back to the hotel in light rain (luckily it had lightened up by then) and was pretty soaked when he got back. We all decided we were starving (it was about midnight by then, 3am Utah time) and set out to find some food. Most places close by seemed to be closed, and we were all getting wet in the rain, so we settled for whatever we could find at the mini mart next door. Pretty brave (or stupid) on our first night there! We all ended up ok the next day though, thankfully. Finally got to bed soon after that. Our hotel was pretty nice, with a nice little kitchenette, tile floors, and nice furniture with plenty of storage.

Not afraid to go get on that plane all by herself!

Lunch at the airport during our layover

Sleepy girl

Finally in Hawaii after a nice long nap!

Day 2: Wed, Jan 22nd

We woke up and joined Chase in his mile walk back to the car. We stopped at McDonald's across from Waikiki beach from some breakfast along the way. We then headed over to the Aloha Stadium for the Stadium Swap Meet. We walked around and bought some sweat shirts, a Christmas ornament (our souvenir we get on every trip), some yummy sweet bread, macadamia nuts (of course!), a beach towel for Juliet, and Chase bought a coconut that was cut open so he could drink the water. Juliet loved it the most! Then, we headed over to Pearl Harbor to tour the USS Arizona and the USS Missouri. We got tickets for the Arizona and decided we had some time to kill, so we drove over to the Pearlridge mall and got some lunch at the food court. We decided to try a local restaurant, L&L Drive In. We got some shoyu chicken, some kalua pork, and lau lau pork, something we had never heard of before. Boy were we surprised when we opened that container of lau lau pork! It was wrapped in taro leaf and look awful. Chase didn't realize it was wrapped in it and actually tried a bite of the taro leaf and immediately spit it out! It was pretty funny how disgusted he was! Needless to say, we ate the other two meats and knew to not get lau lau pork again. While we were waiting for our food to be done, we realized that I had the wrong time on my phone and that we were supposed to be back at the USS Arizona in about 10 minutes! So we rushed out of the food court and hurried back over there. As soon as we got there and parked, someone in the parking lot let us know that they had actually cancelled the tours for the rest of the day because it was too windy to send the boat over there. So we finished eating and then bought tickets for the USS Missouri. We took the bus over there and explored the ship for the next 3 hours. It was a self guided tour this time, whereas it used to have a tour guide. So we let Juliet walk around it and explore also, which she loved. After taking the bus back to the parking lot, we drove over to downtown Honolulu to take a picture in front of the capitol building. A new goal of ours is to take a picture in front of all 50 U.S. state capitol buildings. We thought it was funny that the first two we got were the hardest ones to get, Alaska and Hawaii! We then drove to and shopped at Walmart and Sam's Club for some groceries so that we could eat in the hotel instead of eating out every meal. They have a great big parking garage connected to the entrance of the stores and the Sam's Club is on top of the Walmart. We decided to eat dinner inexpensively that night at Sam's Club. Then we headed back to the hotel and dropped the groceries off and found some parking along Ala Wai Blvd, one of the two places in Waikiki with free parking. After circling a few times, we found a spot about 8 blocks from the hotel. It was about 1/3 of the distance it was from the zoo, so it was great we found a spot. We ended up finding a spot to park on this road all the rest of the nights we were there, some closer than others, and some only after we had given up and were on our way to pay for parking.

Stadium Swap Meet

Coconut Water!

Yummy Yummy!

That nastiness in the upper left corner is the lau lau pork! Edible???

Bus ride

Commemorating the end of World War II

In the mess hall

The dental office on the ship! Loved seeing it!

In the bridge

Waiting for the bus ride back

These beautiful birds with bright red heads were all over the island!

The capitol building

The price of a gallon of milk! Ahhh!

Loved sitting in her car seat while it was out of the car!

Cute baby after her bath!

Day 3: Thurs, Jan 23rd

We had breakfast in our hotel room and then drove over to try again for tickets to the USS Arizona. We got tickets for 2 hours from then (this time for real!), so we decided to drive to the southwest side of the island to the Ko 'Olina resort lagoons. They are man made lagoons that were really pretty the last time I was there. This time, not so much! We went to the furthest lagoon where the beach park is and took the lunch we packed over to the water. When we saw the water, we were a little disgusted. The water was foamy and stinky...not what we expected. We had lunch anyways and walked over to watch the big waves splash over the rocks. We headed back and, after watching the introduction video, boarded the boat to go the USS Arizona. There is such a reverence being there in that building and looking down on the ship under the water. After taking the boat back to the parking lot, we drove around looking for lunch and ended up at Taco Del Mar. It was a pretty yummy little place. Then we drove over the the Punchbowl Veterans Cemetery for a little bit and then drove along Tantalus Drive. I love this drive! It is so pretty and fun to be in the trees. Then we drove over to the Makapu'u Lighthouse Trail. We hiked up this mountain and saw some whales in the water. Loved it! So great to see them! We also encountered some interesting people that were a little too in to their dog, a guy that kept riding his bike up and down the mountain playing the loudest music possible, and a unicyler riding up the mountain. On our way back to Waikiki, we stopped and ate at Teddy's Bigger Burger. Pretty yummy burgers! Back to the hotel after that.

Juliet and Gma at the lagoons

Picnic at the lagoons

Big waves crashing over the rocks

She carried kukui nuts all the way back to the car

On the boat to the USS Arizona

The ship under the water

Names of all the men and women on the ship

Lunch at Taco Del Mar

Panoramic of Punchbowl cemetery

Punchbowl

Makapu'u trail

Dinner at Teddy's

Playing in our hotel room

Day 4: Friday, Jan 24th

We had breakfast at our hotel. Then we drove along the Pali Highway, including the small stretch of the Old Pali Highway, stopping at the Pali lookout, and on to Kailua Beach Park. We didn't take our swimsuits with us, unfortunately, because this beach would have been perfect for Juliet to play in. The waves were very calm and the beach was not crowded. It was absolutely beautiful! We just stopped here for less than an hour on our way up to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We drove up and enjoyed the view of the rest of the Windward side of the island on our way. We stopped and ate lunch at a Beach Park just before Laie Beach Park. We saw a little bit of surfing while we were there. We went on to the PCC and got there at opening. If you want to see all of their presentations, they keep you on a pretty tight schedule. So we did see them all, but we wish we would have stopped and done some more of the hands on things they had in each village instead. Next time. We stayed for the Island Luau and the "Ha" show that night. We were worn out when it was over and drove back down to our hotel. This is the night we found a spot (and had to race back around the circle to get it!) just as we gave up and were about to pay for parking at our hotel because we were so tired. So glad we found a spot!

Why did the chicken cross the road?? Haha! How can this be real?! -Old Pali Hwy

Pali Lookout

Kailua Beach Park

She loved playing in the sand

Hoarding more nuts

Lunch

Demonstration on how to make coconut oil

Tasting the raw coconut

Playing music with bamboo

Waiting for the river show to start

Cool baby

Aloha!

Coconut tree frond weaved fish

Luau

Juliet slept through the entire luau

"Ha" show intermission

Day 5: Saturday, Jan 25th

We planned on going snorkeling at Hanauma Bay this day, but when we drove over there, they said it was closed due to jellyfish. Eek! No thanks! So we kept driving and stopped at a lookout near the trailhead of the Makapu'u lighthouse that looked down over Makapu'u Beach Park. The waters were a beautiful teal blue and we were able to watch a few body surfers in the big waves. Then we drove on to the Makapu'u tide pools. We really didn't see much at all in the tidepools besides a few small fish and a crab. Maybe it's better at a different time of day or time of year. Then we drove up to Waimanalo Beach Park and went swimming there. We threw Juliet in her floaty and took her out into the water with us. The water was a little colder than expected, but I guess it's not the Caribbean, is it? There were some waves that were too big for Juliet, but if you went about about 5-10 feet, the sand just dropped off and there were no more waves, just swells. It was pretty nice for just standing in the water. Juliet was pretty uneasy about the swells the whole time, even with us holding her in her floaty, so she sat on the beach with Gma most of the time. We didn't stay there very long so that we could see other parts of the island. We drove up the road and had lunch at my family's favorite place on the island, Keneke's. We got a few plate lunches with a few different meats, all of them good this time! Keneke's is a hole in the wall, but the food is great, so it's worth it! After lunch, we drove back down to the Halona Blowhole near Hanauma Bay. The blowhole was not very impressive while we were there, but we did get to watch some sea turtles and snorkelers down below for a while. We drove past Hanauma Bay again to see if it was open yet, but it wasn't. We then drove back to Waikiki to see if we could get some snorkeling in at San Souci beach. We found parking and walked all the way out to the beach just to realize that it was way too windy to even enjoy being on the beach, let alone get in the water. So we went back to the car. We decided we were going to go get better shoes from the hotel and go on the Manoa Falls hike. When we got to the hotel, the valet attendant told us that the Pro Bowl block party would be starting just a couple blocks down in a few hours and if we left, when we got back there would be absolutely no parking and that traffic would be horrific. So we decided to go find some parking along the canal and stay in for the rest of the day. We changed clothes in the hotel and walked down to Chili's for some dinner. It was surprisingly empty, but it was still a little early for the block partiers to fill it up. We walked back to the hotel through the block party, much to Chase's dismay! It was interesting and crowded. Showered and enjoyed a little time out on our balcony for the rest of the night.

The lookout

The tidepools

Sweet little beach baby - I'm in LOVE with her swimsuit!

Interesting to have pine trees on the beach

The walls at Keneke's are lined with scripture graffiti. :)

Chillin'

Sea turtle right in the center of the picture

Blowhole

Good daddy to rescue the binky that went over the fence

Dinner

The block party

Day 6: Sunday, Jan 26th

We went to 9am church at a building in Waikiki. After we circled around the building on stupid one way streets for 15 minutes, we finally found the parking garage we were supposed to park in for the church! Parking is so frustrating in Waikiki! The building was absolutely amazing! The chapel was huge and very different than any other chapel I had ever been in. Outside the chapel was an atrium surrounded by all the rest of the rooms. It was so awesome! After church, we went back to the hotel to change clothes and then started driving up the west side of the island. Our plan was to drive all the way up the west side of the island to the north shore. Luckily, before we got too far, Chase realized the road didn't go all the way through, so we had to turn around and go up the middle of the island. It had started to rain by this point, but it was still some good sight seeing. As we drove along the north shore, we stopped to take some pictures of the crazy waves and choppy water. We were a little disappointed that the surf competitions that were supposed to be happening were cancelled because of the rain and the choppy water. We drove to BYU Hawaii and drove through the campus to see it. Then we drove over to the temple and walked around the visitor's center and the temple grounds. It was still raining a little bit, so we didn't stay long. We drove over the Laie point to see the rocks and the waves, but again, didn't stay long because of the rain. On our way back down the windward (east) side of the island, we stopped at North Shore Tacos for lunch. We quickly realized that this place was very similar to Cafe Rio and happened to be owned by a guy from Salt Lake. We stopped for some shaved ice at Keneke's on our way back to Waikiki. We hit up Walmart for another 1/2 gallon of milk and some more chocolates/macadamia nuts. We went back to the hotel and had cereal for dinner to try to finish up our food. I packed our suitcases later that night while everyone else got some food at Subway down the street. I wasn't feeling that great that night and ended up getting sick in the middle of the night.

Banzai Pipeline

The surfing competition that was not occurring

That's a window, not a painting. :)

Laie Point

North Shore Tacos

Day 7: Monday, Jan 27th - Tuesday, Jan 28th

Chase and I were planning on heading over to snorkel at Hanauma Bay early this morning and being back in time to check out from the hotel, but since I got sick in the middle of the night, we decided to just sleep in a little bit and not go. We were still a little afraid of jellyfish still anyways, so it was ok. We packed up the rest of our things and checked out of the hotel and made it the car before 8:30 when street sweeping along that street began. We decided to go to the Waikiki Aquarium. We got there a little before they opened at 9, so we walked along the beach for a little bit until 9. We went through the aquarium and watched their feeding/demonstration on the seals. Juliet was afraid of them when they swam by under water real fast, but she loved them when they were on land. She didn't want to leave. Then we drove up to the Dole Plantation. We stopped and had Jack in the Box for lunch before we got there. We rode the train around the plantation and, of course, had to get Dole Whip ice cream cones. They were SOOOO yummy! I had no idea! After we left, we drove up to the north shore again in search of some surfers. It was another cold and somewhat rainy day, so still no competitions. We did see a few surfers braving the Banzai Pipeline, so at least we saw something! We drove as far west as we could to find the end of the road. We did. :) Then we drove down to Hale'iwa to the Kua 'Aina Sandwich Shop and had some good burgers for dinner. The employees were so nice there! Then we decided to head back closer to the airport and got some gas at Sam's Club by the Pearlridge Mall, walked the mall for a little bit, went in search of a donut for my pregnant cravings!, and then ate another little bit at Sam's Club to hold us over on our flights home. We returned the rental car and took the shuttle back to the airport. We made it through security and to our gate where we changed Juliet into jammies and got to gate check two of our 3 carry on's for free, which was so nice to not have to worry about those and all the other things we have to lug around the airport. Our flight back was of course, just as bad as the way there because of the squished seats, but I was able to sleep most of the flight. We had 100 knot tail wind over the ocean and made it back to Seattle in 4 hours! We had a short layover there and then got on our final flight home. This one was not completely full, so we got to spread out a little bit. I again slept the whole flight and held Juliet as she slept too. She was so great on our flights back. She was awake and happy until we got on our planes and then promptly fell asleep as soon as we took off and slept until we got off the plane again. So nice!! I think I love red-eye flights for that reason alone! Shauna came and picked us up when we got back to SLC, we dropped Jennae off at home, and then headed home to start laundry and try to nap, although Juliet was well rested and wide awake! We had such a great trip and loved every minute of it!