Saturday Odds and Ends

Friday for family movie night, we watched The Water Horse. It was pretty good. YB got a little bored in the middle and wandered off to play, but he came back to watch the finale. Overall, I think both boys liked it and it wasn't too scary or intense for them. Apparently they liked it enough that they wanted to watch it again today.


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Go Army! ...Not so fast.

This morning we packed up the car to take Grammy to the North Shore. On the way, we stopped to fill up the gas tank at Schofield Barracks. I pulled up to the pump and was really pleased to find they had the little locking device under the pump handle so you could prop the handle shut and not stand there holding it. At all the Navy bases I've been to in the past year or two, they have removed that device so that you HAVE to stand there holding the handle while it pumps.

So I flipped the thing on the handle and left it pumping. I opened the car door and said, "Go Army!" to LW and explained why I was so happy as I sat down in the driver seat. CLICK! The pump stopped. I got out of the car again to get the pump restarted, but it wouldn't restart. On the digital display on the pump, there was a message: "Please see attendant." Uhhh... okay.

We happened to be at the island with the little booth the attendant was in, so all I had to do was turn my head to the right 90 degrees to see him. He hollered out at me that I had to stay with the pump while it was pumping. Thbbbbbt! :-P I take back my enthusiastic "Go Army!" comment from earlier.

Jeez, it's not like I went into the store to go shopping. I was sitting RIGHT THERE. I HEARD the pump go CLICK! and immediately got out of the car to investigate. What's the point of having the little locking device thing on the pump handle if you have to stand there anyway?

On a positive note, gas was 11 cents cheaper per gallon than off base.

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It's Paid Off!

I had a feeling of satisfaction today because we got our money's worth when we bought the annual passes to Waimea Falls. We did the math and figured we needed to go three times in order to make it worth buying the annual passes, and today was our third visit.

Man on a Mission - Hiking to the Falls

It's amazing how much of a difference there is in the flowers in the botanical gardens over the course of two weeks. The flowers I took pictures of last time were mostly gone or brown and wilted, but there were at least half a dozen new blossoms along the path that weren't there last time.

LW had the camera today, so I didn't take pictures of what I saw. The photos below were taken by Forest & Kim Starr and are linked back to their website. Thank you, Forest & Kim, for granting permission for others to use the images on your website. If you click on the link, it'll take you to a sampling of other pictures of that species.

Some of the flowers I saw today were:

Gloria de Manana (ipomoea indica)

Hawaiian white hibiscus (hibiscus waimeae)

Rock's hibiscus (hibiscus ovalifolius)

Pink and purple bougainvilleas (bougainvillea spectabilis)

One new one I saw last time that I saw again today was a yellow shrimp plant (pachystachys lutea), but today there was like a ginormous bush of it.

We lucked out in that all three times we've been there, the pool under the falls has been open for swimming. They sometimes close the pool when it's been raining too much, because they get a lot of debris being washed over the waterfall.

Daddy, YB, Grammy, and ES under the waterfall

Today was actually my first time going in the water. The water was really nice - like mid-70's. I meant to bring my water shoes, but I forgot. The entry into the water is rocky and then a shallow-slope of gravel into the water. It was okay in bare feet, but it would have been more comfortable with water shoes on.

YB dries off and watches Daddy swimming.

Today was also the first time we've eaten at the Waimea Valley Grill at the welcome center to the park. The prices are a little on the high side, but the ingredients in the food were very fresh and delicious. I'm going to go back to my Waimea Falls summary post and add the menu and information about the food there for others looking for information on coming here.

This is the grill at the Waimea Valley welcome center.

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Turtle Beach

After we left Waimea, we went down to Turtle Beach. We've driven by here many times, but this is the first time we've found an open parking spot as we drove by. We've stopped here before and I've stayed in the car, but this time I got to get out and check out the turtles.
There were two of them on the beach today, both with the GPS transmitters on their backs.

Self-Portrait with the Sea Turtles

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Note to Self: Before going to the North Shore, check the Dole Plantation website and see if there is any BIG EVENTS going on. Today was the Family Fun Day at the Dole Plantation, and traffic on the little two lane road going to the North Shore was backed up for miles. It wasn't so bad on the way heading out to the North Shore, but coming back took us a LONG time to get home creeping forward inch-by-inch.

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Quote of the Day

Quick background: I think we should outlaw Lincoln Logs from our house. Anytime one of the boys builds anything with Lincoln Logs, then it ends in a fight because whichever son didn't built it will disassemble or otherwise destroy it, and the builder will then scream bloody murder.

Fast forward to dinner tonight: The boys finish eating and excuse themselves from the table and head back to the play room where they had been playing with Lincoln Logs before dinner. LW, Grammy, and I are still sitting at the dinner table talking when we hear...

YB: DON'T BREAK IT!!!

Based on his tone of voice, I can tell that ES has one of those mischievous grins on his face as he responds.

ES: I'm not breaking it.

(pause)

ES: It's breaking by itself.

(pause)

ES: I'm just standing on it.

(pause)

LW, MIL, and me: Laughing out loud.

Me: I'm SO blogging that!