We went to the Pacific aviation museum with the cub scouts. I hadn't been out there before, it was a good tour. We started out in a flight simulator room, where the kids all had computers with flight joysticks and controls. The instructor walked us all through how to takeoff and land, even on an aircraft carrier. We toured through the museum of planes, and then into a hangar they use for restoration (pic on upper left). A closeup of the hangar windows is on the upper right, hopefully it shows up int he small picture, but there are a lot of bullet holes in the windows - those are the original bullet holes from when that hangar was strafed during the attack on Pearl Harbor. The kids got to climb into a couple of the planes, and met a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack who still volunteers at the museum.
The last bit of June, we went to the Polynesian Cultural center, they were running a June special for residents, so we went to enjoy the cheap entry fees...
Now we're well into July already and the kids go back to school Aug 1. This summer is flying by!
Quickie recap, just more fun stuff. A lot more beach time in June, the kids at a magic show at the library, and Dan and Adam showing how we pick papayas at the house :) Also, I made my first lei! It's about time, three years in Hawaii and I finally made a lei from the plumeria trees we have in the yard. It turned out pretty, and very fragrant!
Another full month of fun, the kids went to a birthday party that was held at a horse rescue farm just near our house. The people running the place were very nice and friendly, they told us about the different horses that had come to live with them and taught the kids a few things about horses. There was a petting zoo with ducks, rabbits, guinea pig and a goat. Then the kids got to ride a horse. Cole was thrilled, he had the biggest smile the entire time he was on the horse. Adam was not so sure, he said he liked it, but he didn't look like he was having fun!
Straight from the birthday party we headed to camp on the windward side at Bellows air force base. The beaches are so gorgeous on that side of the island, and bellows beach has great bodyboarding for the kids. We had a good time at camp (again!)
Three of us moms managed to plan a mom's weekend out last month, we took a 4 day trip to San Francisco! It was an awesome time, we did a city tour, an evening show, and a napa wine country tour, as well as eating lots of wonderful food. It was such a nice little trip, I definitely could have stayed longer - there was so much to see there.
My favorites of the weekend were the Napa wine tour and the tour of Alcatraz. The wine tour was so relaxing and it was beautiful there (not to mention warm! San Fran was kind of chilly the weekend we were there). We toured four wineries and did the tasting at three of them. That was one happy busload of people by the time they loaded us up from the last winery. We sampled some good wine, had a wonderful lunch and just enjoyed a beautiful day on the tour.
I also really enjoyed the Alcatraz tour, but I kind of enjoy all those history channel shows too... It really is beautiful out on Alcatraz island, I'm sure it wasn't if you were in innmate, but you can't beat the views of San Francisco. It was interesting to hear all about life on 'the rock' and some of the people that were incarcerated there. The thing I noticed is that it was so cold and windy there, I'm sure it was a miserable place to be a prisoner. You'd probably be cold all the time living there.
Other fun stuff: the food was fabulous in the ferry building - lots of good restaurants and bakeries. We had the best garlic crab meal in San Fran one evening. Golden Gate park looked really cool, if I had more time to explore, this is definitely one place I'd go back to see. And lastly I think it is actually more expensive to live in San Francisco than in Hawaii. Real estate there is even expensive by Hawaii standards!
Here's a photo recap:
(Clockwise from upper left) Golden Gate Bridge, Mina in Lori's Diner, cable car, ferry building, yummy cupcakes in ferry building, seagull at the bay, chinatown, Sotto Mare restaurant
Boat to alcatraz island, entrance to Alcatraz, me at Alcatraz, alcatraz, inside alcatraz cell, the painted ladies (victorian houses), Jen and Mina on the tour bus, victorian house
Trolley car, view of San Fran from Alcatraz island, wine casks on winery tour, poppy, cable car, Mina and Jen on winery tour, me with the aging wine
Ru and our new bunny Mr. Bun Bun (originally Mrs. Bun Bun we were told when we got him that he was a girl. Oops!). They still aren't getting along too well, the bunny tries to chase and bite the cat. Mr. Bun Bun may have to go in for a little 'attitude correction' (i.e. get him fixed).
I had my 40th birthday, the kids got me a really awesome card and of course I got a cake. So now it's another year older (and another decade!).
Adam also had his end-of-year party for school. Here he his hamming it up with some of his first grade buddies.
More pics to come of my fun, fun, fun trip to San Francisco at the end of May...
We got a Groupon deal along with our friends to go for a one night stay at a local bed and breakfast on the windward side. The place was called Paradise Bay Resort - super good deal, we rented a two bedroom unit in a house and the other family rented the one other unit in the house. The house sat right on the waterfront of Kaneohe Bay. It was beautiful and so relaxing!
What was really awesome is that the rental included a pool and also use of their kayaks and a boat ride out to the sand bar in the bay, as well as a continental breakfast. So we made the most of our 24 hour stay :)
We headed out in the kayaks into the bay, and the kids got kind of scared as land pulled away behind us, but then they seemed to settle into it. As we got out into the middle of the bay, we found a sea turtle wrapped in some fishing line, so our friends hopped out and luckily he had brought a knife and was able to cut the turtle free. Hopefully the poor thing hadn't been trapped there too long.
The boat ride the next morning was a lot of fun too, first they took us out to a nice reef in the bay and we swam and snorkeled a little while, then they took us to the sand bar area. At low tide, the sand bar is exposed, we were there close to high tide, and the water was only up around my knees in a lot of places. Adam is sitting down in the picture above. And this is out in the middle of the bay.
We had an awesome deal at Paradise Bay, if you can get a good price I would definitely recommend it. I don't know that I'd want to pay their full price rates, I thought they were too high.
Adam's school had a big May Day festival. First they had a court of princes and princesses each representing one of the hawaiian islands. Then each class had a dance that they performed. The weather wasn't ideal, but the real rain held off until it was over. Adam's class dance was very cute. We made surfboards out of cardboard and they danced to 'Wipeout'
There is a big scouts fair in the spring here called the Makahiki festival. The various packs set up booths with games and there are also fun activities and hands on activities by other organizations and the branches of the military. Adam's scout pack was chosen to start out the festival by singing 'God Bless America'. The mayor gave opening remarks after the boys sang. Here is a picture of Adam with the mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, Peter Carlisle.
And here is a video of them singing...
The boys had such a good time there. It is an obvious recruiting opportunity for the military (start young!) and the boys loved it. They got to crawl in all the big military trucks and hold the big guns, even the rocket launchers!
At least I have a few years to wait before they want to run off and join one of the armed forces.
Here are some of the other fun things: fishing (Cole won a goldfish and then dumped it in the stream to join the other fish as we walked back to the car), obstacle courses, ride teh bull, and a zip line. Even Cole did the zip line, I was proud of him.
Adam on the zip line
Cole on the zip line
The scouting event was a lot of fun, I'm definitely glad we went!
This seems to have turned into a monthly blog update, that is about how often I get around to updating it lately! Well, this month might be another recap in photos. We had tons of fun again ranging from a scottish festival, Cole's 5th birthday, bike riding, scout camping, and a trip to MN. No wonder I never have time to blog lately! I think we need some leisurely time...
I've known about the Ice Palace here on the island for quite some time. Adam's school had a Family Fun night there a couple of weeks ago so we decided to go. I'm glad we did, it was a lot of fun! Adam really took to skating quickly. After a few minutes he was off on his own. Cole needed quite a bit more help, but he went from having his feet going every which direction to skating along holding on to us.
I'll definitely have to keep this activity in mind for a hot summer day.
