Oahu - Day 2

I'm feeling much better today. It was just a 24 hr thing like my daughter and my brother caught on Kauai. My nephew goes to school at the University of Hawaii, and he put together a list of seven things that he recommends to do while on Oahu. Isn't he great?!! Here we are Day 2 on Oahu, we took a drive around the island and hit 2 of David's seven recommendations.

Oahu, Day 2 - July 5
Thanks to jet lag, we were up and ready to go by 6am. We started driving around the island. Our first stop was Hanauma Bay (#3 on David's list of things to do). He calls this the biggest tourist spot on Oahu, and it was beautiful!

We had to pay to get in, then watch a mandatory video about preserving the reef, before we could snorkel here. This is supposed to be the best snorkeling area on the island.

Here is Cheryl asking... "Where's the fish?"

Here's a few, but they were really few and far between...

I'm loving my new waterproof digital camera! Check this out!



Here's a couple more photos from Hanauma Bay.



After Hanauma Bay, we continued around the island, stopping whenever we saw a nice beach or a possibly good snorkeling spot. We skipped the Polynesian Cultural Center. We figured that if it was any good, David would have put it on his list of things to do. I wanted to stop for shrimp at one of the spots along the North-East side of the island, but the timing wasn't quite right for lunch.

East side, Chris feeling his jet lag with Chinaman's Hat in the background...

North shore, Pupukea Beach Park (in Sunset Beach) looked like a good place to snorkel, but still no fish here...

Well, being the tourists that we are, we also stopped at the State park to see Waimea Falls (which was was completely dry because of the drought), and the Dole Pineapple Plantation (where we dutifully bought some pineapple):

#2 on David's list was the North Shore and Matsumoto’s shave ice. We were just leaving the North Shore and figured that we must have missed Matsumoto's so we stopped at a little shaved ice place in a surf shop. After we finished our shaved ice, and drove about 100 feet, there was Matsumoto's with a line out the door and along the entire front of the building. Anyway, we missed Matsumoto's, but I'm not sure we would have stood in that line anyway.

We got back late, but in time for a swim and a quick dinner before bed. It was a beautiful drive. With a lot of "overlooks over-seas" (hahaha! That's for Cheryl) That's it for day 2... stay tuned for day 3.

And... WELCOME TO KAUAI, Mima!!!

Wall-e

Let's start with a review of Wall-e. Isn't he cute? He looks like Johnny-five from Short Circuit.

My hubby and kids went to see Wall-e last night. My husband and Chris loved it; my daughter didn't like it at all...

So, there you go... Wall-e is a boy's movie. According to Cheryl, I didn't miss anything.
I'll wait and watch it when it comes out on DVD.

We're home from Hawaii!!!

We got home late last night.
Today was spent doing laundry, the yard work, and going to the market. That's before I got hit by the yuckies. My hubby and the kids are at the theater seeing Wall-e, and I'm at home throwing up. YUCK! At least it waited until I got home.

For those on Kauai, Jim's hand is feeling better. For those not on Kauai, I'll go into the details on that later. I have over 800 photos of our trip, and almost 2 hours of video. The easiest way for me to share is to go through it day by day. Since I had comments about there not being any photos of me during our last vacation, I made an effort to hand off the camera during this vacation :o)

So pretend it's 4:30am on the 4th of July, and we are on our way to Oahu, LOL!


We arrived at Waikiki at 1pm... unfortunately our room wasn't going to be ready until 3pm. We tried walking out by the beach, but there was a big 4th of July canoe regatta going on right outside our hotel (we were staying at the Outrigger Waikiki Beach). There were so may people there, it was hard to find a place to walk.


But, the weather was beautiful and it was great just being on the beach. The International Marketplace was right across the street from the hotel. They have lots and lots of little booths there that sell trinkets. They also have a great food court with live music entertainment. We had dinner there several nights while we were in Oahu.


That night they shot off fireworks from Magic Island. We watched the fireworks, sitting on the sand in a warm drizzle... the perfect night!


Are we looking a little tired? With the three hour time difference, it's past midnight at home, hehehe!


I'll share more tomorrow!

Happy 4th of July!

We get up bright and early tomorrow (4:30am) to leave for Hawaii. We should be there in plenty of time to see the fireworks over Pearl Harbor.
Everyone have a safe and fun 4th!

Chris's New Summer Look

Well, here it is! The long awaited makeover, hehehe!

BEFORE:


AFTER:


They said that after the first processing, his hair was highlighter yellow! Chris was a little worried at that point, but he likes the final result. We all do! He looks so grown up!

More Graduation Pics

The graduation proofs are here! I may buy the one of her standing. I like it. The one of her getting her diploma, I'm going to pass on:

Day 7 - Saturday, June 28

Weeeee're hoooooome...

We just blew though Las Vegas, stopping there only for gas. Jim drove straight 7.5 hrs. Thanks to the time change we got home around 3:30pm. Since Jim usually drives 8 hours a day in a bus, 7.5 hours in his car is nothing.

It felt great to shower tonight with decent water pressure, and it's going to be great sleeping in our own beds. Cheryl is happy not to be sleeping between Jim and Chris... This past week, she had to deal with snoring in stereo.

What's a blog post without photos... so here's a few of my favorite photos from the trip:







We leave for Hawaii on Friday, so Jim will work M-TH. In between now and then, Cheryl needs to register for college, Chris has a Dr Appt for a sports physical, I have an appt to have my hair cut, and we have library books due.

It's going to be a busy week, but hopefully Chris and I can get back on the training schedule. We got in a couple days of hiking, but only ran one day last week.
It feels good to be home!

Day 6 - Friday, June 27

Welcome to Moab, the outdoor activity capital of Utah. You can do it all here: helicopter, jet boat, horseback riding, ATV, jeep, segway, camping, hiking... and river rafting.


We walked into Moab Outdoor Adventures at 9pm last night and booked a trip for 8am this morning. Our tour guide Parker took us through class 1 and 2 rapids on the Colorado River. In between the rapids we played games, where Cheryl, Chris, and Jim ended up falling in. We had a Jr. High and High School youth group traveling down the river with us. Needless to say, not only did we get wet by the river, we also got caught in the cross-fire between the youth group rafts! LOL! It's all in fun!


Here is a photo of our raft that the tour company took from shore.


After getting cold and wet, we headed to Arches National Monument to warm up. We did some hiking up to the arches, in >100F weather. It was beautiful!!!




Well, we are on our way home. Tonight we are staying in Beaver, UT, right off HWY 15. We may stop at Las Vegas tomorrow, or we may make the entire drive home. We take it one day at a time... LOL! Good night everyone!

Day 5 - Thursday, June 26

Are we tired of looking at ruins yet? Not yet... but getting close ;o)
We spent the morning touring Mesa Verde with a Ranger led group. The group of native Americans who built the Mesa Verde pueblos, aren't referred to as the Anasazi anymore. They are called the Ancient Pueblo Indians. The Anasazi were the group of Indians who mysteriously disappeared. The Ancient Pueblo Indians left their homes in Mesa Verde because of drought, migrated to AZ, and intermarried with the Navajo, Hopi, and Zuni tribes. It's more believable, but it doesn't make as good of a story.



We walked through the ruins, climbed ladders, climbed stairs, squeezed through narrow gaps in rocks, crawled through tunnels, and traversed narrow cliff trails. Good news, Jim didn't get stuck in the tunnel!






From Mesa Verde, we had a hard time trying to decide where to go next... We ended up going East to Durango, CO. We stopped at the old west downtown area, and visited the famous Durango Train Museum.

You might expect us to be in Durango right now, but we changed our minds and switched directions. We are spending the night in Moab, UT, hehehe! We are having a great time... who knows what we'll do tomorrow! But, we can tell you, it won't have anything to do with pueblo Indian ruins.

Day 4 - Wednesday, June 25

Welcome to Colorado!

We left Canyon de Chelly bright and early. Cheryl asks, "Are we going oversees?" Jim and I gave her a blank look. Chris turns to us and says, "she means overlooks!" That girl is a laugh a minute!

We hit the overlooks (or oversees) on the way out of Canyon de Chelly. It was really beautiful looking down from the rim! It's a much nicer view of the whole canyon than from the bottom.


Here's the kids messing around at the top of Canyon de Chelly.


Then we hit the road on the way to Mesa Verde National Park. What's a trip to Mesa Verde without a stop at Four-Corners. Here's the kids standing where Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico all meet. There is nothing much here except a plaque and a bunch of local jewelry vendors.


We drove into Mesa Verde kind of late. We got one of the last rooms at the National Park lodge and took a quick look around before sunset, when everything closes. Here is our first look at Mesa Verde.


We signed up for a couple of tours for tomorrow: Cliff Palace and Balcony House. Balcony House has an 18" tunnel that we need to crawl through. They had a virtual tunnel setup at the ranger station, and Jim had to make sure he would FIT before we paid for the tour.


So, We made it to Mesa Verde.
And touring Mesa Verde is on the agenda for tomorrow!

Day 3 - Tuesday, June 24

Happy Tuesday!!! We left Flagstaff early in the morning and drove to the Petrified Forest National Park. Cheryl says, "It's a forest right? Where's the trees?" LOL! Yep, nothing gets by that girl.


The Petrified Forest National Park is a drive through park with lots of overlooks and a few hiking trails. Here we are on the trail with the highest density of petrified trees.

That's it... just a few chunks of trees on the ground. There were some beautiful views of the Painted Desert.

They not only had rocks, but a few dinosaurs too.

We left Petrified Forest around noon, and headed to Canyon De Chelly National Monument. Jim heard about this place from a man that rides on his bus. We got in around 5pm (that's with a 1hr time change). There was a jeep leaving for the park, so we jumped on! The only way to get through the park is via 4-wheel drive... you can see why...

This is us waiting for our Navajo Guide, Oscar, to get back after pulling this guy out of the park.

You can see further on up the canyon, it's not so desolate.

Chelly is riddled with dozens of Anasazi, Hopi, and Navajo ruins. They are all over the cliffs, and we were able to drive right up to them. We can't enter them though, because they aren't reinforced and restored like the ruins at Mesa Verde. Also, there are petroglyphs scattered around the walls, and our guide was able to interpret some of them for us.

After our 4hr tour, we headed for dinner and a swim. Now it's time for bed. Good-night all! Tomorrow we are headed into our target destination... Mesa Verde National Park!