Lost

Much like the day of the Maui luau was my favorite day in Hawaii during our last visit here, I believe that today is probably my favorite day this time around. Jon was so kind and generous as to offer to drive up to the North Shore again, so that I could see Papa'iloa Beach from "Lost" before the set was torn down for the season. While there, we found a man sitting a bit back from the beach, in the middle of nowhere, with several sprinkers running. It seemed very peculiar to me, so I waved and kept walking. Jon bothered to ask him what he was doing and if there was anything else "Lost" related for us to see there. It turns out the man, I think his name was Wally, had the job of making sure the sprinklers were running because that little area of land was Mr. Eko's grave and it needed to be kept green for the show.

Another amusing point was, there was a large object at the far end of the beach that turned out to simply be a large block of concrete. But, when Jon asked me what was down that direction, my response was, "well, that's where the underwater looking station is."

After the Lost beach and getting my pic taken at Eko's grave, we drove a couple of miles further to the Waimea Audubon Center. It's basically a huge botanical garden with a paved walk that ends with a waterfall. The neat thing about this waterfall is, not only can you swim in it, but there's a lifeguard and they provide free lifejackets for the little ones. Which was convenient, since of course the minute Evan saw people swimming there said, "I want to go in the waterfall." Fortunately I'm a strong swimmer and he was wearing a lifejacket, because, the water is about 30 feet deep. Of course, I took him in though and he loved it. Some nice European boys even helped us to get closer to the falls. Oh yeah, plus, this just so happens to be the waterfall where Sawyer and Kate take a dip too. Here's some more pics from our day:

Oahu Luau

We were delighted to find out earlier in the week that there was a luau within walking distance of our condo that was taking place on Sunday night, which meant, Jon could actually go. We were pretty excited because Evan did so well at the luau in Maui last time we were here and we all had such a great time.

While the location was great, with the sunset over a lagoon and palm trees in the background, the luau itself was not on par with the one we'd attented in Maui. Now, everything I've read has said that the best luau's are on the other islands, so I can't complain too much. The plusses were, the location, it was nearby to the condo, and the guys twirling flaming swords. The people we sat with were a woman and her daughter, from Montana. It was interesting how they ended up in Montana, they had lived in Chicago and decided they wanted to move somewhere away from the city. They were such nice people, the woman was there celebrating her birthday.

Evan got very antsy after being there for about two hours, since the entertainment didn't really start for awhile, so by the time the hula dancers came out, Evan watched for about five minutes then we headed over to the lagoon and stripped him down to his diaper and let him swim and play in the sand while we watched the rest of the luau from the side. We got to stick around to the end, so that was nice. Then we headed back to the condo and took a dip in the pool before it was drained for the week for repairs.

Back to Kailua Beach

Well, first off, I am losing my mind and can't seem to recall what exactly we've done each of the past three days. More specifically, on Saturday and Sunday. And no, it has nothing to do with alcohol consumption. I think we went to Kailua Beach on Saturday. Anyhow, Kailua is our favorite beach here. It's gorgeous and goes on forever, plus it's an easy half an hour drive from the condo. We finally convinced Evan to have a good time too, by first digging a large hole in the sand, large enough fo rhim to sit inside of. Then he discovered the shallow inlet of water that flows through the middle of the beach where all of the kids were playing. Getting him out of there was a little rough. That night we spent some time at the playground then ordered Thai food from Keo's. It may have been one of the best meals I've had here (besides my cold noodle and shrimp tempura combo from Sobaya at the food court).

Oh yeah, and I got a new bathing suit, the first time I've bought something other than black in at least five years.

Sea Life Park

I think Jon is starting to learn one of the tricks to parenting that I've discovered. Try to avoid situations where you know you'll have to say no. For example, going to Walmart and taking Evan into the toy section or pointing out the people swimming with the dolphins at the Sea Life Park. Fortunately, we'll be coming back here in January and bringing my mom along, so I am thinking we will all go to the Sea Life Park together and do the whole swimming with the dolphins thing then. Plus, as long as Evan is under two years old, he gets to do it for free with me and Jon.

Anyhow, the Sea Life Park was neat and we all had a good time, though it was very hot, no shade at the sea lion or dolphin shows or throughout much of the park. But it was nice, built much more for smaller children with all of the various displays close together, so that we saw everything in under two hours. I think mine and Evan's favorite part was feeding the sea turtles. You could get within six inches of them and feed them lettuce, celery and broccoli which was very cool. The park is also situated in a gorgeous location on the easternmost corner of the island, overlooking the ocean and Rabbit Island.

The rest of the day was spent sleeping and then we walked with Jon to work. I think we're headed to Kailua tomorrow.

For now, it's time to give Evan a bath and head to bed once he's done watching "Cars" for the 10th time this week.

Lost and Found

I forgot to mention, Wednesday night Jon found his wedding ring, he'd apparently set it down at the office.

Thursday Already?

Well, it is indeed Thursday. Evan is still napping, since he didn't fall asleep until 4:30pm. We had a good time today, drove about a half an hour up to Ko Olina Lagoons to the JW Marriott to hang out with a friend/coworker of mine who happens to also be here. A word to the wise. If you're driving up to Ko Olina Lagoons from Waikiki, make sure you either leave early enough to park in the very limited public parking or that you have the name of a guest staying at the Marriott there. After making the drive up and arriving about 10:45am, we discovered there is an entrance gate to the resort properties and lagoons. If all public parking is full, they tell you to turn around and try back again later. Umm...no. I would have been really ticked off. But, fortunately, we were meeting up with friends who were guests there. The security guy called the front desk at the hotel to verify their name and then let us in. We then paid $20 to park on the Marriott's lawn. So, point being, I'm glad we made it up there and got to hang out with my friend. It was nice to have had a chance to see the lagoons too and there were some fish and Jon got to do a bit of snorkeling. But, we won't be going back there. I'll stick with Kailua and Lanikai, still the two prettiest beaches here, or Hanauma Bay for snorkeling.

My friend and her husband also went up to th North Shore yesterday and went to Papailoa Beach, where the beach scenes from Lost are filmed. She showed us pics of "tent city" and of huge sea turtles right on the beach. We, of course, drove right by there the same day. So now, bless his heart, Jon has offered to make the trek back up to the North Shore while we're here so that I can see this beach. I've been receiving email updates regarding where Lost is filming, so maybe we'll even catch a glimpse of some filming while we're here.

I'll try to post more pics soon.

Headaches

Fortunately last night Evan stayed awake until 9:30pm so that he slept until 7:30 this morning. Which meant we were up for the drive to the North Shore. Unfortunately, before we left we discovered that Jon appears to have lost his wedding ring, either in the Hilton's lagoon or in the condo's swimming pool. No luck finding it yet. But, as with the last trip we had here where he added a scrape to the fender of our rental car, better him than me as I tend to blow these things off. Things happen, and there's no use ruining time in Hawaii over something which we have no control once it's happened.

Now that we were already in a poor mood, I did a terrible job of reading the map on the drive, adding another 20 minutes or so, plus there was a bit of road construction. Regardless, we made it to the North Shore in one piece. It didn't seem like there were any turtles at Turtle Beach as we drove by, which was our initial destination, so we continued another mile or two down the road to Waimeia Bay. The water there was gorgeaous and blue. Evan got to sit on a four-wheeler and meet a lifeguard. Plus he was once again adventurous and headed into the water. It's right in between the summer (calm) and winter (surf) seasons however, so we couldn't take Evan in very far while feeling safe. We still had a great time playing in the sand and a bit of water. And then headed over to Haleiwa for Hono's shrimp. Mmm...SO GOOD! I had the butter spicy shrimp like last time and Jon tried the Garlic Shrimp. Then we stopped by Matsumoto's for shave ice. I have to say, it was good, but...I'll probably get yelled at for saying this, it wasn't necessarily any better than a snow cone back home. Sorry. The Hono's shrimp though...I dunno, there's just something awesome about eating shrimp cooked up for you out of a truck.

We made it home safe and sound and the boys are both napping.