November 2015 ~ This Little Adventurer

We had a great family trip to Hawaii where we met up with David's parents and his brother and his wife Alan and Alicia.

One of the first things we did while waiting for his parents to fly in was to walk the beach in Waikiki. It was pretty and touristy but most of what you see when you think Hawaii in TV and movies. It has a nice view of Diamond Head and features all the ritzy hotels and high end shopping.

We stumbled upon a wedding while we were walking

The next day we all took a drive to the northern shore to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. On the way we stopped at the Dole Plantation and learned a whole lot about pineapple farming in Hawaii. The best part was getting some fresh Dole whip and it was amazing!

The Polynesian Cultural Center was wonderful! We loved going to the different "countries" and learning from the locals about the culture and traditions of each place.

In Samoa we learned from the "chief" all about the many uses of the coconut palm including how to weave with coconut and climb a tree. We also learned how to start a fire and fire dance. Eisley loved chasing the ducks.

We also learned that the Samoan men do most of the cooking, they offered us some green bananas cooked in coconut milk with onion and other savory spices.

The best part of the whole visit we weren't allowed to take pictures for. It was the Ha, Breath of Life show and it was amazing. It was live performance about the traditions and families of the island cultures and it was really inspiring. Eisley loved the dancing and was dancing along most of the time.

Another one of our "bucket list" items for Oahu was to visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial. We have visited the place of the event that precipitated the end of WWII (Nagasaki) so it was really interesting to visit the place where the war for America began. We enjoyed going through all the museums and seeing what events and world pressures led up to the conflict and the reasons why Japan attacked America when they did. In my mind it cemented the reasoning for the use of atomic weapons and the desperation and lack of resources on both sides. Coming out of the depression we were unprepared to fight a drawn out war and with the Japanese being so acutely desperate for victory the ultimate loss of life on both sides would have been staggering. It is always sobering to go to a place where lives were lost.

It was interesting to see the drops of oil that are still leaking up from the remains of the USS Arizona. They were described as the black tears of the men whose lives were lost.

Along with the memorial park, we also visited the Punch Bowl National Cemetery. It sits well above the city, nestled in the crater of an extinct volcano. Similar to Arlington, it is a beautiful, quiet resting place for military members and their families.

We loved seeing a rainbow, it was crazy how clear the purple was. The views from up there were pretty spectacular too.

We continued our drive over to Lanikai Beach. It was gorgeous! Lanikai means "Heavenly Sea" and it more than lives up to its name.

We weren't really dressed for the beach, but Eisley was insistent about getting in the water. We didn't really have much of a choice but to strip her down to her diaper and let her at it. This girl absolutely loves the water (even if she gets bowled over by the waves sometimes)!!!

While in Hawaii we stayed at the beautiful Marriott Ko Olina Resort. It was great just to spend time there as well! The little man made coves were perfect for small kids and the pools were pretty nice too.