Rainy Day

Today we learned to check the radar. I wanted to drive across to the east coast of the island to Kailua and Lanikai, two of the most beautiful beaches in the country. As we drove along the Pali Highway we realized this wasn't going to happen today. It was raining. As is typical on the Leeward coast, so now we know better. But, we decided to drive south along this coast and find some sun, and we did, at Sandy Beach. It worked out well.

This beach, is, well, sandy. And, it also has lava ledges to walk around on and explore and some neat tide pools.

We were able to find urchins as well as a small little pool cut out of the lava rock by the surf that Evan referred to as his own personal hot tub.

Additionally, this is the place where locals come to bodysurf. Jon actually considered going in the water. I thought it was best if Evan got to go home with a dad who didn't have a broken neck:

No fun was lost today, despite the rain on the Leeward coast.

What a Difference a Year Makes

Last year at this time Evan would have been very mad at you had you placed him down on the sand, and especially if you tried to make him stand on the sand while in the water. Today, he ran around chasing Jon through the ocean, squirting a large fish with a spray bottle, and running around on the beach with pidgeons.

I remember a time when Jon and I were convinced we would never be able to spend a day at the beach due to Evan's fear of the sand and ocean. Today we discovered that the beach at Ala Moana park, about a ten minute walk from our condo, is perfect for Evan. It is as calm as a bathtub, so he has no fear of being knocked down by a wave. And he had lots of fun with his new sand toys and construction trucks. Since Evan was feeling particularly "self-directed", he and daddy hung out while mommy had a much needed rest on the beach. It was divine.

Diego and the Aquarium

Today we took it easy and went for a visit to the aquarium. I think we'll probably have a pretty low-key first week, as we want to do a lot of the really neat stuff next week once my mom gets here. She'll be out here with us for two weeks. Jon was pleasantly surprised to find out that our admission was half-off because we have a family membership to the zoo in Cleveland, so all three of us got in for $9 total.

The park outside of the aquarium has a large banyan tree, so Evan took a stab at swinging on the vines ala, "Go, Diego, Go!" He did a pretty good job, I was surprised at how well he was able to hold on and naturally figured out to wrap his legs around the vines for a better grip. The aquarium was awesome, it is really a great aquarium for small kids, and we spent over two hours there, which is a feat in itself for Evan. We had fun comparing some of the exhibits to the ones Curious George finds in the book where he visits the aquarium. Plus, Evan loved the touch pool, where he got to hold a hermit crab who tickled his palm.

Evan's done pretty well with adjusting to the time difference, Jon and I both have the sniffles. Other than that, we're all doing pretty well...I hear there's lots of snow in Cleveland.

The View From Here

We arrived without incident in Oahu on Saturday afternoon. The group relocated to a new condo, called The Watermark, a couple of blocks away from the old one. Amusingly enough, in checking out Google Maps, I discovered a Food Pantry grocery store smack dab in between the old condo and new one, within a very short five minute walk. This is amusing because, the last two times were were here we could have very easily walked to this grocery store, rather than drive to the mall for groceries. We just never knew this grocery store was there, because it is situated down a side street that we never ventured down! So, I am very happy. I was excited about this grocery store, it seemed to have more variety than the one at the mall. And besides, we are now even closer to the mall, which means we can now walk there in a matter of minutes!

Anyhow, this condo is ridiculously nice, check out this link if you don't believe me. It's new, and it is designed much more like a hotel than a condo complex, with large manicured grounds and a big infinity pool that Evan and I took a dip in last night. As we walked through the gardens we realized there are several little areas with new barbecues for hosting friends, as well as one large covered pavilion with a gas grill and dining room set-up, where a small group of people were having a nice steak dinner (I wanted to join them!). Like I said, ridiculously nice.

I can't yet take a picture of the view this morning because I can't figure out how to open the remote controlled floor to ceiling screens on the windows, so the above are photos the group had sent to us. But I enjoyed making coffee in the granite-countertop-Viking-decked-out kitchen!

I'll write more later.

Byodo-In Temple and Halona Beach

Jon celebrated his 33rd birthday on Tuesday, but we decided not to do much that day other than give him cards and bring him Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We were all pretty tired, so we decided just to head over to the lagoon at the Hilton, Evan's "pretty beach" with the construction trucks. It was a lot of fun. We actually met a woman from Australia who is from Cleveland and knows people who live in our neighborhood. What a very small world. She had 3 little boys who Evan was playing with on the beach.

On Wednesday we drove through the island on the H-3, an absolutely gorgeous drive. It was raining in the mountains, so there were waterfalls decorating several of the lush green slopes, plus one place that I would love to go called the Haiku Stairs. It is literally a steep staircase going up the side of one of these mountains. It looks amazing. The stairs below are not these stairs, this pic was taken of Evan feeding the Koi at the Buddhist temple.

Our destination was the Byodo-In Temple, for several reasons. Jon had mentioned wanting to see a temple, it has a giant Koi pond and Evan is now obsessed with Koi, and it was used in Lost. Despite a bit of drizzle and then downpour, we all had a great time. The only part we missed was there was a large area of beautiful Japanese graves up a hill near the temple and we had wanted to walk around to see if there were any Suganos buried there but we didn't have a chance due to the rain.

We decided to drive down 72 on the southeast corner of the island and ended up at the Halona Blowhole lookout. We discovered it isn't actually that difficult to walk down to the beach below, famous for being the beach in "From Here to Eternity" that has inspired every grown person since to want to roll around on the beach smooching a member of the opposite sex. Interstingly enough, this seems to have been one of Evan's favorite beaches. We were there for about an hour as he and Jon explored tide pools and climbed rocks as I watched locals jump off the rocks into the surf below.

I also have to mention one of the strangest things I've ever experienced. Once Jon had left for work Evan and I headed over to the playground. There was a group that walked through the park of about 20 Japanese tourists taking part in a tour with a woman narrating. I found this fascinating and was watching them for a minute or so. Once they had exited the park I stopped paying attention. Three Japanese men, probably in their 30's, left the group and walked over to me and Evan. One said, "He's beautiful," but clearly they didn't speak English well. I said thank you. One of his friends then reached out to Evan, I had thought it was because he thought Evan was going to fall climbing up the stairs to the jungle gym. I was then very surprised when the man then lifted Evan up and placed him on his lap in order to pose for a photo that his friend was ready to take. So, I'm not sure if this was one of those situations where you turn to a friend and say, "I dare you to go over to that stranger and take a picture with them" or if maybe they could tell Evan was part Japanese and found a blonde-haired blue-eyed Japanese little boy was cute, or maybe it's perfectly acceptable to take a picture with a little blonde-haired blue-eyed kid because it's novel. Who knows. But I called Jon on the cell phone immediately, not because I was concerned in any way, but because I found it such an amusing and unbelievable story to tell that I had to share it, and everyone else I knew would have been sleeping by then!

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.