A small break between visitors

After we dropped Spencer and Shana at the airport we decided to try to conquer Waikiki.  It was been a struggle maneuvering through Waikiki for Kyle and Waikiki is really where we spent most of our time 20 years ago when I came with Jan so I wanted to spend some time there again.  Granted it is very different now, but on one of our unsuccessful trips through town, we saw a souvenir shop called THE STUPID STORE and decided to stop at it and go in.

 It was just Andy and Brad Shelton-esque t-shirts and buttons.  My favorite said "Fat kids are harder to kidnap" and had a cartoon of a cute little fat boy holding a big ice cream cone.  If I didn't hate crew neck t-shirts so much I would have bought this one:

The kids each got something.  We took the boardwalk behind the big fancy hotels, back to our car.

 Picture postcard Waikiki.  This is one of the biggest patches of sand behind the hotels. I couldn't handle the wall-to-wall people.  The kids thought the boardwalk, with no beach at all was so cool.

 The beach access way was lined with surfboards, some rentals but also some storage.  People just pay to leave their own boards there so they don't have to haul them.  We saw some pretty cool ones.

We also stopped in the mall when a lady asked Emily if she would like to pick a coupon......oh dang. Well it was a "pick your oyster-and get a pearl" station and Emily's coupon was for 60% off so she decided she wanted to do it.  It was fun to watch.  Hers was a very pretty pink one.

This is in the lobby of a pretty hotel.  Honu- means turtle.  We love our green sea turtles.  Since we were feeling pretty good about Waikiki so far, we decided to drive down around the Southeast end of the island and see the sights down there. It was a literal sight seeing tour, we did not hike or swm anything, just saw them, but they were awfully neat to see. First we drove around Diamondhead, and up to Hanauma Bay, but it is closed on Tuesdays.....okay....then we stopped at the blowhole.  There was this one tiny beautiful beach you had to hike down a mountain to get to, and it was full of people.

I think the blow hole has impressive, Old Faithful like, qualities during some seasons, but I don't think we caught it at it's finest.  We did see a monk seal and found out the dolphins are called spinner dolphins.

The terrain is so different on each side of the island.

All the sides are beautiful.   This was looking North from the blowhole.  The ocean is just beautiful everywhere.  Not as approachable in some areas, but always beautiful.  This is one of the beaches where the whales come in the winter to have babies.

The lighthouse was the last new sight we saw, and then we had about an hour and half drive home.  We can finally say that we conquered Waikiki.  We are happy we did it and happy to not have to go back.  Oh, and Evan found a tree to climb.

Emily got to go with the activity days girls to learn how to paddle board.  Their leader, Heidi, is an instructor as her full time job in Hale'iwa.  What a life.  She is very sweet too.  Emily had a blast. We hung out on the next beach over and climbed on rocks and stuff!

Hale'iwa Boat Harbor.  The bridge in the background is  hundred years old.  You have to cross it to get to Matsumotos and into Hale'iwa town for anything.  It is so skinny you and a city bus can't cross it at the same time.

One of Evan's friends from primary is Eldon Meyers.  His mom is my friend Amanda and she is great, she is also one of George's Sunday School teachers and she just loves him.  I invited her boys over to play and she invited us to her house to swim.

  The Brown's came too and it was fun to get to know them also.  The people in this ward are really great. They are so diverse and yet have a great sense of charity towards each other, no judging just loving.

 Eldon's little brother Jordan was a little older than Matty, but the same size and George made sure they got to play some version of all the games the bigger kids were playing.

 Matty was practicing her diving, I have been grateful for that floatation device a hundred times over.

 Matty is not pushing him in, he grabbed her and threw himself backwards!  We were very lucky no one got hurt.  George started putting kids on his shoulders and jumping in...we were all very nervous, and should have put a stop to it.  Amanda is a nurse, but luckily we did not need her services today. They had a great time.