Summer Vacation Movie Marathon Weekend

You know your kids are done with summer vacation when...

...you find them in their bedroom playing "school" and ES is reading a book to YB.

That was a first for us.

Even so, they're going to seriously go into J & M withdrawal when school starts. They've been spending all day every day playing with J & M from the house across the street. Whenever we want to go run and errand somewhere (like to get haircuts this afternoon), regardless if we're only going to be gone for like an HOUR, and in spite of the fact that they've already been playing with J & M for like FIVE HOURS, you'd think we were driving the WAH-mbulance. They sit there and WHINE about how they want to go HOME to play with J & M.

Good Lord! There is MORE to life besides playing with your friends and making a disaster area of both our houses and our front yards and leaving toys strewn across the street between our houses (or at least sidewalk chalk drawings).

I also don't look forward to the goodbyes we will have to endure in a little over a month. It was hard when Z & C moved out of that same house across the street back in October. In fact, it took a while for the boys to even approach or start to play with J & M, because they were sad over loosing Z & C and it was weird having someone else living in Z & C's house.

Movie Marathon Weekend

Yesterday, J & M's mom B invited us to go with them to see Kung Fu Panda at the Sharkey Theater matinee. The Sharkey Theater is a really good bargain. Active duty are free. I think adults are like $3 and kids over six are like $1.50. It's amazing for all four of us to go to a movie theater and pay like $6 to get in and another $5 or so in refreshments.

The drawback is the place was packed. If you're tall like me, your knees rub up against the row of seats in front of you. Little kids were squealing and crying in various corners of the place. We actually saw several of our neighbors there, too.

Anyway, in spite of the drawbacks, Kung Fu Panda was really funny, and we all laughed a lot. Thanks to B for inviting us along!

Rounding out our movie marathon weekend, we watched the second part of our Tom Hanks double-header tonight - The Man with One Red Shoe. This one was WAY over YB's head and he didn't even attempt to watch it. He built a fort out of couch pillows and blankets instead.

ES enjoyed it, but it was a bit over his head and he had a lot of questions. I had to pause the movie several times to explain whether the spies currently on the screen were the good guy spies following Tom Hanks to protect him and make him look important to the bad guys spies or if they were the bad guy spies trying to figure out why the good guy spies were following him.

Two of the less comfortable questions ES asked... First, there was scene with Carrie Fisher in a leopard print bikini trying to seduce Tom Hanks in his bedroom and making monkey noises. ES asked what they were doing, and we told him they were playing a game. Then later Hanks' brother (Jim Belushi) is upset because his wife (Carrie Fisher) is "making love" with someone else and kept saying it over and over again and was really angry about it. This led ES to ask what "making love" meant.

So if you've got young children and you're reading my blog for movie recommendations - I guess in hindsight I'd hold off on the Man with One Red Shoe. (It's still a great movie though!)

Honolulu Historic Hike

Back a few months ago our Cub Scout pack did the Historic Honolulu Hike, but we were busy with some conflicting plans that day. So Saturday, I took ES and his friend E out with E's dad, and we did the Historic Honolulu Hike.

It's supposed to be a 5 mile hike, but we made one wrong turn along the way and it ended up being a 6 mile hike for us. Even so, it was a good hike and we got to see and learn a alot about the historic buildings of downtown Honolulu. The boys each had to answer questions about each of the 20 stops along the way to earn a patch for their cub scout uniform.

The hike starts out at the Maritime Center by the Aloha Tower.

I was amazed by the number and variety of tropical fish we could see just standing at the water's edge by the Maritime Center.

Traditional Blunoz Self-Portrait at Kawaiahao Church

"Kawaiaha'o, the first Christian Church in Hawaii, was built between 1836 and 1842 in New England style architecture. It is often referred to as the "Westminster Abbey of Hawaii". Fourteen thousand coral slabs, quarried by hand from reefs 10 to 20 feet under water, comprise the main structure. Each slab weighs more than 1000 pounds."

Washington Place

This house was built by some sea captain who married a Hawaiian princess. The princess later became Queen Lili`uokalani and was the last monarch of Hawaii. She is famous for composing the song Aloha Oe. After the captain and the queen were both dead and gone, they sold the property to Hawaii and made it the governor's residence in 1921.

State Capitol Building

The State Capitol Building was actually pretty cool. It's designed with three main elements to symbolize Hawaii. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but if you look at the base you'll see the sloped sections, and the inside is open up to the sky like a volcano. The pillars are designed to look like palm trees. All around the outside of the building is a reflecting pool symbolizing the ocean surrounding the islands. It was pretty neat to see.

Father Damien Statue

The Iolani Barracks

Iolani Palace

Even if you don't have kids in scouting, I would say this Historic Honolulu Hike circuit was a really good walk around Honolulu. I would encourage others who want to see the historic sights to use the same route and question sheet. However, I can't find the route and question sheet anywhere on the internet. I checked the Aloha Council website, but no luck. I may scan it later on and post it here for others who want to give it a shot. If I forget, and you want it, drop me an email and I'll send it to you (and/or post it here).

Diamond Head round 2

Sunday while the ladies went to the spa, E and I took the boys to see the Mighty Mo. N didn't seem at all alarmed that it didn't look like a giant lawn mower (see previous post where he asked if we were going to see the Mighty Mower).

ES reads the plaque where the Japanese surrendered.

E and I had a good laugh when we walked through the gift shop at the Mighty Mo though. Even this isolated non-profit organization across the harbor from the NEX couldn't escape the long-arm of the RIMPAC merchandising agent...


In spite of my initially positive review of the New Balance 1062's I bought a while back, I quickly found them not to be as comfortable as I had initially thought. P & E both know a thing or two more about running shoes than I do, and E went with me to a honest-to-goodness running shoe store called Runners Hi. I had heard about brands like Brooks and Mizuno before from reading friends blogs, but I had never actually SEEN a pair of said shoes before setting foot in the Runners Hi store. Sure, I was aware that I could order some online at places like RoadRunner or Running Warehouse, but they usually don't honor the free shipping or return shipping thing to Hawaii.

The guys in the Runners Hi store were very friendly and knowledgeable. They shook my faith in New Balance though. They told me with the pronation of my feet, I need a stability shoe, and they couldn't believe the NB store people sold me a pair of 1062's.

I walked out of the Runners Hi store with
a new pair of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 8.

Now, none of the shoes in this store had any price tags on them. Given the "specialty" nature of the store, I was cringing in anticipation of some serious sticker-shock when we went to the cash register. However (comma) I was very pleasantly surprised. The sticker price on the Brooks shoes were like $20 cheaper than the last pair of NB shoes I bought, and then the salesman asked if I was military and gave me a 10% discount. Cue Sports Announcer Sound Effect: He-Shoots-He-SCOOOOOOORES!!!

I took the new shoes out for a 2 mile run this morning to try them out and they were really comfortable. So far so good.

Diamond Head round 2

This afternoon I left work and ran home to meet up with my family and our visiting friends, and we headed off to try the Diamond Head hike again. We got to the parking lot about 4:30 p.m. and this time there were PLENTY of empty parking spaces.

This was my second time doing the Diamond Head hike, so if you want to know more details and logistics for planning your own trip, you can click here to see my previous blog post.

Our gang on the trail switchbacks

All four boys did a GREAT job on the hike. I was really pleased with how well it turned out. ES, YB, and 5 year old N all made it all the way to the top and all the way back down to the parking lot under their own propulsion. Little 3 year old A rode in the stroller on the paved portion of the path and had to be carried for a good portion of the trip.

ES was on point for most of the hike. Here he is, excited that he was the first member of our group to make it to the top of the steps.

These are the spiral staircase steps inside the old bunker / Army observation post near the top of Diamond Head.

Self portrait looking toward Hawaii Kai with the Koko Head crater and the ridge above Hanauma Bay in the background.

Daddy and ES Back at the Beginning of the Trail

I have to admit I was a little apprehensive about going this afternoon. The boys seemed cranky when I got home and it was hot as heck today. Plus, I was worried about the traffic. I was really pleased with how well the afternoon turned out. The late afternoon sun wasn't too bad and it wasn't too hot. The boys did great - the whining quotient was significantly below average. They seemed to have a good time and I really enjoyed the quality time with LW and them. Traffic-wise, we had a bit of congestion on the way driving home, but we still got home 30 minutes earlier than I had predicted when we started this adventure. In summary, I'm really glad we went!

Cue Sports Announcer Sound Effect: He-Shoots-He-SCOOOOOOORES!!!

Waimano Valley Hike

This afternoon, we made another try at the Waimano Valley hike.

I mentioned in a previous post that we had attempted this hike, but aborted it based on getting devoured by mosquitoes. This afternoon, we went armed with lots of bug spray, and I lathered up the boys with the bug spray before we left the parking lot. The good news is the bug spray worked wonders. We still had clouds of mosquitoes buzzing around us, but they didn't seem to land on our skin at all - just our faces (and YS's thigh when he pulled down his pants to go pee along the side of the trail).

My two little environmentalists opening a
trash bag to pick up litter in the parking lot.

While this was a very beautiful area and overall an enjoyable hike, I severely underestimated the difficulty of this hike. Friends had told us they did the hike with their two small children and that they enjoyed it. According to Ball Chapter 20, it's a "2-mile loop" with "400 feet" of elevation gain suitable for "novice" hikers. To quote Sir Robin in Monty Python and the Holy Grail: "Thaaat's EASY!!!" Since we just did over 5 miles with 600 feet of elevation gain at the Makapuu Ridge hike a couple of weeks ago, I figured this 2-mile loop would be a breeze for us. ...Boy was I wrong.

This is the trail heading down into the valley.

Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived down in the bottom of the valley by the stream, I tried to turn the camera on and found the batteries were dead, so that's the last photo you get of our hike today.

The parking lot is at 530 feet of elevation, and we hiked down a moderate slope (pictured above, and note the slope of the descent in the altitude profile) into the valley, bottoming out at 350 feet.

Down in the valley it was really pretty along the stream, and we grabbed a geocache. Then it started to rain. Since the batteries were dead in the camera anyway, I put the camera away in my camelbak and pulled out our rain parkas. The trails got really muddy and slippery. Then we tried to climb up the hill. Note the difference in slope from the descent into the valley versus the climb out of the valley on the altitude profile below. It was very slow going with the boys.

When we got to the top of that hill and joined the Upper Waimano Trail, I figured we had maxed out on our elevation at 660 feet (310 feet gain from the bottom of the valley) and it would be an easy hike back down to the parking lot from there. There was still another hill to go up and over where we eventually maxed out at 700 feet. All the while, we were getting soaked and slipping and sliding in the mud.

We enjoyed a spectacular view of the valley and a very nice sunset from the top of the ridge, but as the sun set, it got VERY dark. We were pretty isolated with no street lights around. I broke out my flashlight and ES led the way. He was a very good point man showing YS roots to step over and centipedes to watch out for. He later told me he was scared in the dark part of our hike, but he was a real trooper and did a great job helping YS through.

Altitude Profile from my GPS
Mileage in 0.2 mile increments on X-Axis,
Altitude in 25 foot increments on Y-Axis.
Note the mileage here says it was 2.9 miles.

We were some messy muddy boys when we came home very late for dinner tonight. I wish I could show you a picture of the expression on YS's face as he laid floating in his bathtub water. His smile was one of pure bliss.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, the boys said this was not as fun as Lego Star Wars. So if I were to draw a "fun meter", it would have muddy, slippery, after dark hiking on the left, sunny, dry paved path hiking on the right, and Lego Star Wars somewhere in the middle.

WAIMANO VALLEY HIKE SUMMARY: I know when I'm trying to decide on a new hike location, I search for an overview about the hike that will help me judge if it's doable with two little boys. For anyone else looking to do this hike, here's a quick summary:
Map: This hike is covered by Ball Chapter 20 (see this post for explanation).
Mileage: My GPS trip odometer said 1.6 miles, but reviewing the track history in my GPS after I got home, it says the total trek was 2.9 miles. Maybe I accidentally hit the reset button on the GPS while it was in my pocket.
Elevation Gain: From the bottom of the valley to the max elevation was approximately 350 feet of elevation gain.
Terrain: Mostly hard-pack dirt, but lots of tree roots and rocks to step over. Very slippery mud in the rain. There are some VERY steep drop-offs along the sides on the Upper Waimano Trail, so watch your children carefully.
Time: It took us 3 1/2 hours, but that was complicated by (a) the rain making the trails muddy and slippery and slowing us down, and (b) the sun went down and we were watching our footing very carefully for the last mile or so. My GPS said our average speed was 0.7 miles per hour.
Facilities: There were NONE - no bathrooms, no drinking fountains, nor any other sort of facilities anywhere in the parking lot or along the trail. (Luckily, having two boys, we watered a couple of bushes along the way).

Weekend Recap

Oh so much to write about, where to begin?

Chapter 1. If offending babysitters were an Olympic sport, we'd be GOLD MEDALISTS.

It's been an expensive weekend with two babysitter nights in a row. Friday night, LW and I went to a social for the Dolphin Scholarship Foundation. We invited back the same babysitter I wrote about last time with my open-mouth-insert-foot maneuver on gaudy Christmas lights. She didn't seem to hold it against me, so that was good. She said at least the boys didn't handcuff her this time. ...Um... I'm sorry, they did WHAT???

Saturday night, we had our boat Christmas Party. Tangent: I know, it's a little late for a Christmas party. It's a bit of a challenge figuring out logistics of something like that when you've just arrived on the island, but the families are still working on moving to Hawaii through the course of the fall. Most places were already booked by the time we got here, and it just worked out better to make it a "Happy New Year" Boat Party instead. Besides, this way, we were able to present a bunch of end of year awards like Sailor of the Year, Junior Sailor of the Year, Blue Jacket of the Year, and Junior Officer of the Year. Plus we got to pin on one guys' dolphins and CAP another sailor to E-5. [Aside: The Command Advancement Program (CAP) gives Commanding Officers the ability to hand pick a very small number of sailors each year and promote them one rank.] It seemed like everyone had a great time. There were a lot of cool door prizes, and a lot of guys were getting up on the microphone singing karaoke. I'll be interested to see what videos end up on YouTube later.

Anyway, back to the babysitter story. The babysitter we used Friday night was busy Saturday night, but she told us she has a German exchange student staying with them and she would be willing to babysit for us.

Now, ES has been rather obsessed with military history, and WWII history in particular since we're surrounded by WWII history in Pearl Harbor. We keep having discussions with ES about the fact that yes, Japan and Germany WERE our enemies back during WWII, but that was a LONG time ago and they are both our FRIENDS now.

Ahem... So LW and I returned from the boat party and asked the babysitter how it went. She seemed a little sheepish and embarrassed. She alluded to ES asking her questions about Germany and WWII, but wouldn't tell us specifically what he said. I figure she didn't feel comfortable telling us about it because it was the first time we had met her that night and she didn't know us well. This morning, we tried interrogating ES to find out what he said that offended the babysitter, but he essentially plead the 5th and wouldn't tell us anything. YS in his 4-year-old confident innocence came right forward, proudly and cheerfully informing us that they handcuffed the new babysitter last night - as if it were a normal right of passage and an achievement ANY babysitter would be proud to share with her peers. We've told them that it's NOT OKAY to handcuff the babysitter anymore... if any babysitter ever agrees to come back to our house.

Disclaimer: Mind you, these aren't REAL handcuffs that would incapacitate her from taking action in an emergency. Our boys "handcuffs" are usually made of zoobs that are easy to pull apart. Still, if I were a 17 year old German girl being symbolically handcuffed and interrogated as if I were a WWII spy, I think I might be a little offended and might not go back to that house again.

Again... My mind is wandering back to the The Ransom of Red Chief for some strange reason.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 2. Okay, clearly, I was gone for some vital portions of ES's upbringing during some very sensitive and impressionable years.

Saturday, we went to the Hale Koa Pool. This was offered up to ES as a bribe for going to the dentist earlier this week. Plus, I wanted to knock out the requirements for ES's Cub Scout Swimming Belt Loop. One of the requirements was to, "Play a recreational game in the water with your den, pack, or family." I googled "swimming pool games" before we left the house and had a handful of games up my sleeve to play with the boys when we got to the pool. One of them was called Categories. You can click on the link if you want an explanation of the game, but the point of my story is that we each had to choose a COLOR.

So you ask yourself, "Self, what sort of colors would you think a 6 year old would choose?" Yellow? (His favorite color is yellow.) Orange? Red? Blue? Nice, primary, simple colors? Oh, no, my friend. I guessed EVERY primary color and all I got was a SMIRK in response from ES and LW! LW assured me she did NOT help him and HE came up with the color he chose on his own. The colors that came from my dear little 6-year old SON's mouth were FUSIA (heck, I can't even SPELL fuchsia close enough for my spell checker to tell me what the CORRECT spelling is - I had to ask LW), and TURQUOISE, and CONSTRUCTION orange (not just "orange" mind you - CONSTRUCTION orange) and SCHOOL BUS yellow. When it was my turn, I pulled out the big guns and used PERIWINKLE. I only knew that one because that's one of the character's names on Blue's Clues.

Aside: I didn't even know roughly what color fuchsia was until I asked LW. She gave me an education on where the name fuchsia came from ala wikipedia. It's actually named after the flower of the fuchsia plant. Who knew??? For the rest of you manly-men out there reading this who also had no clue what color fuchsia REALLY is, wikipedia says it's "reddish purple."


Tangent: As LW scrolled down the Wikipedia page, she came upon the section "Fuchsia in Human Culture" where it states, "In the handkerchief code of the gay leather subculture, wearing a fuchsia bandana means one has a spanking fetish." Um... okay... if THAT wasn't ALREADY TMI, LW clicked on the "hankerchief code" link and started giggling and reading aloud what some of the other codes mean. OMG I did NOT need to know any of that!!!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 3. People have to WAIT in LINE???

Shifting topics, but still at the Hale Koa pool, we observed something new at the Hale Koa this time around. We've been there several times, and almost always on weekends. This was the first time we've seen a LINE of people waiting to get in. There wasn't a line when we got there, so we went right in and went to our usual back corner of the pool. We didn't realize that they limited how many people they let in to the pool until we were leaving about 1:30 p.m. The lady at the entryway who checked our IDs on the way in asked if we were leaving for the day so she could take our arm bands, and there was a line of about six people waiting to get in. I overheard one person explaining to another at the end of the line that the pool area was full and they had to wait for someone to leave before they would be allowed in.

Oh, and in spite of my advice in my last post about the Hale Koa pool, we managed to time our arrival PERFECTLY so we got there JUST as they blew the whistle for the "adult swim period" (no kids allowed in the pool for the first fifteen minutes of every hour).

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Chapter 4. The Birthday Boy

Once again, I don't know WHY our boys are OBSESSED with all things STAR WARS. It's not like we encourage it or anything...

Darth-YS
That little box hanging from his neck plays
either some pre-recorded Darth Vader
sayings, or it will also alter your voice as
you speak through the mask. (LW found
it on sale at the NEX for like 1/10th what
it cost on Amazon).

Sunday, since it was YS's birthday, we gave him his choice where to go for lunch. (You get three guesses what he chose, and the first two don't count.) We went to his favorite McDonald's with the big playground over behind the NEX. Otherwise, we spent a good portion of the afternoon playing Lego Star Wars (despite my efforts to convince him we should go for a hike). My thumbs were actually getting sore from playing so much XBox today.

Since we satisfied YS's daily chicken nugget fix at lunchtime, LW cooked up some fajita steak, sweet potato fries, and corn on the cob for dinner - all things that YS has been known to eat as an alternative to his favorite chicken nuggets. He actually loved the dinner and gobbled it all down. He even surprised LW and me by asking for "one of those taco things" (tortilla) and proceeded to put steak, sweet potato fries, and cheese in it, roll it up, and eat it. I guess it's time to take him back to California so he can get a California Burrito, eh? (California Burrito is like a carne asada steak burrito with french fries inside).

The Birthday Boy
Playing his favorite Lego Star Wars and enjoying
one of his race-car birthday cookies from Grandma.

Thanks to the holiday tomorrow, we're off to do some box car racing with the Cub Scouts. We'll be having YS's actual birthday party next weekend - this weekend we just had too many other plans.

Continuing to support Hawaii's Tourism Industry- Sunday Recap

First thing this morning, we got up and headed out to Hanuama Bay to go snorkeling. It's at the southeastern corner of the island, and has a reputation as the best place to go snorkeling in Oahu.

"Map" of Hanuama Bay from the State Park's website.

Logistics Summary:
- Parking costs $1.
- The average Joe off the street has to pay $5 per person to get in.
- If you're military AND stationed on the island (you have to show something that proves you have a local address in addition to your military ID), then it's free.
- On your first visit there, you have to watch a 9-minute cheesy video that sings cutesy songs about not feeding or touching the fish and not walking on the reef. After you've seen the video once, you can sign their "return visitor" list and you don't have to watch the film again for 1 year. (Cue Seinfeld Soup Nazi sound effect: "No film for you! Come back, one year!").
- It's a decent hike down the hill to the beach. There is a shuttle bus that will drive you down to the beach for 50 cents and carry you back up the hill for $1. (Children 3 and under are free). We hoofed it both ways.

Self-portrait of me and ES watching the fishies.

A rare glimpse of the very energetic and never stationary YS-fish.

We had a great time snorkeling and saw a TON of fish. We got enough pictures of enough different types of fish, I could make my own fish identification guidebook. We saw bluestriped snappers, reef triggerfish, lagoon triggerfish, multiple types of parrotfish, goatfish, bird wrasse, butteryflyfish, trumpetfish, puffer fish, convict tangs, sailfin tangs, flounder...

That's just off the top of my head. I could post dozens of pictures here, but I'll save most of them for Shutterfly later. Here's a sample of the scenery in Hanuama Bay from our measly little 4-megapixel camera (see tangent on cameras below):

A school of "Convict Tang" fish
(note the black & white stripes, hence "convicts")

Here's a picture of the hill you have to walk down to the beach (and back up again when you're through) unless you want to pay to ride the tram. Yes, the road coming down the hill looks "white" because that's the long line of MORE PEOPLE coming down to the beach.
Oh, so when you go to the beach and it's time to go, you tell you're kids, "Okay, it's time to go!" What do your kids do? Here's what YS does when we tell him it's "time to go":
What do the SEALS call that when they roll around in the sand and get themselves all nasty and caked with wet sand? Sugar cookies? Anyway, when we told the boys it was time to go, YS promptly DOVE into the sand and rolled around to get it EVERYWHERE (including in his mouth and all over his tongue).

Overall Assessment: We had a great time and saw a lot of fish. At the same time, I think I saw just as many fish when we went snorkeling in Ko Olina, but at Ko Olina we didn't pay for parking, didn't pay for tickets (for L & A), didn't have to sit through a lame video, didn't have to hike up and down that huge hill, and didn't have to deal with the crowds. Oh, the bathrooms at Hanuama Bay are a little nicer and cleaner than the bathrooms at Ko Olina, but when you're all covered in salt water and sand, I don't think it matters that much.

Tangent on Cameras: Over the past few years we have been very pleased with our Cannon PowerShot A520. We also bought the Canon underwater housing for it to use snorkeling and scuba diving, and were very pleased with it's ease of use and quality of pictures.

We were pretty sad when our camera died a little less than a year ago. The camera was no longer under warranty, and we'd been debating what to do. Should we pay the $100 to have it repaired, or should we give up the ghost and get a whole new camera? Unfortunately, Cannon no longer makes the A520, so we would have to get a whole new underwater housing to go with whatever new camera we bought.

Then, one day recently, we happened to walk into Walmart (so my LW tells me). There in the front was a table set up with a bunch of the previous-year's camera models they were trying to clear out of their inventory to make way for the new year's models. Wouldn't you know it? They had a brand-spanking new, still in the box Cannon PowerShot A520, and they only wanted $150 for it. The lady behind the table said something like, "Oh, nobody wants that one because it's ONLY 4 megapixels." We said, "We'll take it!" Yeah, it was $50 more than having our old one refurbished, but (a) this saved us the hassle of mailing the old one in for repairs and (b) this got us a working camera (and a brand new one at that!) in our hands before our relatives started arriving on the island. So we had it in the housing and ready to go in the water to see the fish today.

After we left Hanuama Bay, we continued our trek counterclockwise around the island and really enjoyed the scenery. Uncle A (otherwise known to YS as "that guy sitting next to Daddy in the front seat") was craving some (more) Jack-in-the-Box tacos for lunch, and who was I to say "no"? So we stopped there along the way. We drove up over the Pali overlook to check out the view on our way back home to get showered and cleaned up.

Tonight we went to dinner at P.F. Chang's (their lemon scallops are SOOO good!) in Honolulu and then went into Waikiki to see the Cirque Hawaii. Note, this show is NOT related to the Cirque du Soleil shows like in Vegas. I've wanted to see one of the Cirque du Soleil shows for a long time now, but alas, I have never been to one, so I can't tell you how they compare.

Overall, the Cirque Hawaii show was fairly entertaining, but nowhere near worth what we paid for the tickets (even with the ITT discount). The cast was made up of some very talented gymnasts who did some amazing things that I could never twist or bend or balance or twirl my body to do (without substantial injury to myself or someone nearby). The boys seemed mildly amused by it, but I don't think they have an appreciation for what they can and can't get their bodies to do at this young age in their lives. I know that I could NEVER do those stunts. ES says he didn't like it. YS wouldn't say, but he did clap several times during the performance. In any case, it was amusing, but I would NOT pay to see this show again.

Supporting Hawaii's Tourism Industry- Saturday Recap

Friday, my SIL and her husband (a.k.a. L & A) safely arrived after an unplanned night's stay in Houston. Unfortunately, they missed YS's Christmas pageant. That's okay, they didn't miss much. YS refused the participate and hid behind the first pew in the chapel and only periodically peeked over the top at us. I can't imagine where he learned that from (he takes after his brother).
Aside: In the past, I kept trying to explain to ES when he went to these school performances that he draws MORE attention to himself and sticks out like a sore thumb when he's the ONLY kid not wearing the costume and not singing along with all the other kids. If he'd just wear the costume and sing and do the cute little hand gestures like all the other kids, then he'd blend right in and nobody would be staring at him.

Saturday: We had quite the successful touristy day on the island and accomplished two out of the three excursions we had planned for the day, plus added one to the end.

#1: A Swing and Miss: First L & A tried to go to the USS ARIZONA memorial, but by the time they got there, they were handing out passes for the 11:30 boat, and that was too late for us to make it to our next event. We'll get the ARIZONA done at some point, but not today.

#2: A big hit! We picked up tickets at ITT (Information Tickets and Tours - where military members can buy discounted tickets to local attractions) for the Atlantis submarine tour this afternoon. That was pretty cool. They take you on a sort of ferry boat out to rendezvous with the submarine. They offload the people who were on the submarine and onload the people who rode out on the boat. The submerged portion of the ride lasted about 45 minutes and went down as deep as 112 feet. We saw one black-tipped reef shark, two white-tipped reef sharks, three green sea turtles, and TONS of fish of all sizes, shapes, and colors.

All Aboard!

Green Sea Turtle

It was a little weird watching the crew of this tourist submarine closing the hatch without a greenie and a bucket, and with no rig-for-dive procedure in their hand. I was a little nervous about it, knowing what I know about the extensive Quality Assurance (QA) that goes into the U.S. Navy's submarine force, and not having a CLUE what level of QA they put into building those tourist submarines. It didn't look like they were at all concerned or drafting an OPREP-3 Navy Blue after we "bounced" off the bottom, either. This company now operates 14 submarines in resort locations all over the world, so I guess they're doing something right.

#3: Another big hit! Next, we headed over to Diamond Head to hike to the top. We got there just before 5 p.m., and they told us at the gate that it took 30 minutes to hike to the top and they closed the gates at 6 p.m. We decided to take a chance and give it a go.

L & YS at the beginning of the trail.

LW and I weren't sure if we & the boys would make it all the way to the top in time, so we told L & A to go on ahead and make it to the top. I was very impressed with both boys. Both ES and YS made it to the summit under their own propulsion. ES stuck with me, and we made it to the top in about 27 minutes. LW stayed back with YS, and they made it to the top about 5 minutes after ES and I got there. The view from the top was spectacular, and it was a good workout - neither LW nor I did our PT this morning in anticipation of this hike. It was 1.75 miles round trip, with 525 feet of elevation gain and lots of steps.

Picture of me from L & A's vantage point a few minutes ahead of us on the trail. About the first 2/3 of the trail to the top is switch-backs like this.

After all the switchbacks, you go through a tunnel...

And then a bunch of steps up into what used to be an observation tower for the U.S. Army coastal defense artillery back in the first half of the 20th century.

Family portrait on the steps into the observation tower.

ES at the top of the steps.
Note the elevation inscribed in the step 733 feet.

Me and ES at the top, overlooking Waikiki.
(Yes, there's a geocache there, hence the GPS receiver in the picture).

For the most part, it was easier going down than it was going up. However, YS was pretty tired (justifiably so I'd say) and started asking us to carry him when we were on the steps coming down out of the observation tower. When we were only like a third of the way back with 10 minutes left until the gates closed, I finally gave in and put ES up on my shoulders and let him ride down. That way I could use the advantage of my long legs to take bigger strides and get us down the hill faster. We made it out just as they were closing the gates for the night.

ES riding on my shoulders as we headed back down to the parking lot.

So who could ask for a better way to end the day than to stop at Ala Moana Center and go to Islands for dinner? Man, I LOVE Islands. I always have a hard time deciding what to get when we go there because it's ALL SO GOOD!!! This time I steered clear of the burgers and tried to get something a little bit better for me - the baja chicken tacos. ...but we did share some onion rings and fries though.

Quick Tangent: Between that and the raspberry fudge LW made, I'm not expecting very good results on the bathroom scale on Monday. The chocolate peanut butter fudge was okay, but this raspberry fudge LW made is just AWESOME. It takes me active and strenuous self-restraint to not eat all of it at once.

When we were in the parking lot at the Ala Moana Center, we happened upon this odd statue of a golden monkey. We thought it was pretty funny, so YS, me, and A (left to right) posed with the golden monkey for a picture...
Standby for more stories of adventure with visiting relatives...

Weekend Recap

The weather was kind of blah (by Hawaii standards) on Friday and Saturday, with dark clouds and sporadic showers, so I didn't get out hiking or snorkeling like I had wanted to. Besides the Pacific Aviation Museum and jogging the bike path that I wrote about on Friday, we played some video games and I managed to finish watching Season 2 of HIMYM on DVD and caught up on Heroes on the NBC website.

Saturday, LW went on a shopping marathon and out to dinner with her friend L. While LW was gone, I took the boys on a bike ride out on the bike path. ES rode his own bike and I pulled YS in the trailer behind my bike. We rode out 1.5 miles to a park with a playground where the boys played for a little while. Then we rode half a mile to Best Buy to get some replacement headsets for our XBox. Then we rode the last mile home for a total of 3 miles.

I think ES is ready to have the training wheels removed from his bicycle. I really don't think he needs them anymore, and they're pretty beat-up and about to fall off on their own. I've been trying to talk him into letting me take them off, but he hasn't gone for it yet.

After we got back from the bike ride, I had a family movie night with the boys and we watched Over the Hedge. The boys had seen it before, but I had not, and L's husband keeps telling me funny scenes from the movie. I really liked it and laughed a lot. "Hammy" the squirrel was awesome, especially after drinking that fully-caffeinated soda.

Sunday though, the weather was perfect - mostly sunny but not too hot or humid. We loaded up our camelbaks and headed over to the Friendship Park in Kaneohe to hike the upper loop trail (the last blog post I wrote about this park, we only hiked the lower loop).

The boys on the trail.

It was only a one mile hike, but it came with 227 feet of elevation gain. We parked the car at 295 feet and the highest elevation we got to was 522 feet.

Altitude profile from our hike of the upper loop.

There's a beautiful panoramic view of Kaneohe from the top of the Friendship Park upper loop trail.

Me and YS hiking toward the summit.

Gumbo night was tonight at the home of one of my JOs. Mark and Denise took the carcass from our turkey on Thanksgiving home with them and used it to make turkey gumbo tonight for dinner. They invited everyone from the wardroom over and had a pretty large turnout at their place tonight. The gumbo was excellent. I never knew what roux was before Mark explained to me the finer points of making gumbo tonight.

Amazing Race: Man, those African dance-contest judges were just FULL of personality weren't they??? (sarcasm) They weren't exactly Simon, Paula, and Randy. At least Simon and Randy listened to Paula. The two African men judges didn't seem to listen to any of the ladies' opinions - not that any of them were all that talkative. (Note: I wrote this as I was watching the show and BEFORE anyone on the show made any references to American Idol).