Doing the Touristy Thing

We've been busy doing the touristy thing around the island lately with friends visiting from the mainland - P&E and their sons N and A.
P was LW's college roommate and maid of honor at our wedding. I always like it when I am able to get together with E. We have very similar geeky tastes in movies, electronic gadgets, good beer, etc, and he always introduces me to really cool new things that I might not have happened upon if he hadn't told me about them.

Case in Point #1: Land Shark Lager. When we went to the package store to stock up the fridge, he spotted this on the shelf and picked some up. Man this is really good stuff!


Case in Point #2: The Lego Ultimate Collector Series Death Star. From the Lego website: "Movie-authentic Death Star environments include the Superlaser control room and target monitor, Imperial conference chamber, TIE Advanced hangar bay with moving launch rack, Emperor's throne room, droid maintenance room, detention block, trash compactor, and much more!"

I also really like the Imperial Star Destroyer, the Millennium Falcon, the motorized walking AT-AT, and the Sandcrawler, too.

While exploring the Lego website, I also discovered that you can make a custom Lego design using their free software download. They'll make the kit for you, and they will make it available for others to buy on the website.

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Quotes of the Week: P&E's 5 year old son N thinks it's pretty cool that I work on a submarine. My two favorite quotes from N so far this week are:

"Uncle Kevin, your submarine costume is spiffy!" (I was wearing my summer whites to take P&E on the COMPACFLT Remembrance Tour.)

"I love you, Uncle Kevin. You're a banana dipped in chocolate."

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Sight-Seeing Recap:

Monday night we went to the Paradise Cove Luau. This was the second time we've been to this luau. Differences between this time (in late June) versus last time (in December):

- It was hot as heck. I was uncomfortably warm and sweating profusely. Then I looked over at poor red-haired, fair-skinned E and saw that he was about to MELT. We sought shelter in the shade and anxiously awaited sunset.

- ES Participation. I was pleasantly surprised that ES was more "in the mood" for this luau and actually participated in some of the activities.

ES Throws the Spear at the Target.

He actually threw the spear pretty well with good aim, but he wasn't strong enough to get the spear to stick in the hay target.

- We got to see the tree-climber guy drop the shower of flower petals this time. Other people who have gone to this luau have commented on it before, and we somehow missed it on our last visit.


- They changed the middle-priced option. It used to be that the mid-priced ticket got your food delivered to you at your table instead of having to wait in line at the buffet (in addition to getting a real flower lei instead of a shell lei and a couple of extra drink tickets). They've changed it so that now the middle-priced tickets have to go stand in line at the buffet, too.

The Buffet

I didn't think it was worth the extra $20 per ticket (from the lowest priced to the mid-priced) just for the flower lei, sitting in the middle section, and extra drink tickets.
(a) We have flower leis at home we just gave our guests when they arrived.
(b) The seating area isn't that big. I thought we could see fine from the side seating for the lowest price tickets - except for an annoying Japanese lady who kept leaning one way and then the other in front of me and tilting her head WAAAAAY back to look at the stars and put her hair in my lap.
(c) We didn't use all our drink tickets last time and we didn't use them this time either.

The line for the buffet wasn't bad, and there was plenty of food. My main complaint was the food didn't seem as fresh this time. Last time, the fish with the macadamia nut sauce was just to die for. This time it kinda seemed like we were eating leftovers, and I wonder if it was because the food had been sitting out there on the buffet line for a while (and ours was the last table called up to the buffet). The kahlua pork and the fried chicken were both really good though.

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Tuesday morning, I took P&E on the COMPACFLT Remembrance Tour.



Then in the afternoon, we went on the Atlantis Submarine ride.

All Aboard!

Where's his rig for dive procedure???
Where's his bucket and greenie???
Did he inspect the hatch seating surface???
This aspect of the ride still gives me some anxiety.

112 Feet Beneath the Surface

Fish on the YO Wreck

Today we went to Ko Olina to enjoy the beach and snorkeling. The snorkeling was a disappointment today. The water was really murky and I didn't see a single fish. Even so, it was nice to just relax in the nice warm water. It was partly cloudy, and the clouds helped provide some shade and keep the temperatures down. During the periods when the sun came out of the clouds it got really hot really quick.

ES and Daddy at Ko Olina.

Nano-Seconds before getting doused by ES's Noodle-Cannon

Up Next: Our new community swimming pool finally opens tomorrow, so I foresee some swimming pool action. Then we've got 4th of July festivities here in our community on Friday.

Big Island - Part 4 - Snorkeling Trip

Today we took a trip on the Fair Wind II charter boat to go snorkeling in Kealakekua Bay on the western side of the big island. What a great trip. It was similar to the trip we took out of Maui in April, but both trips had things that I liked about one versus the other.

Historic Note / Aside: Kealakekua Bay is where Captain Cook was killed on his third trip around the world in 1779, and there is a white monument on the shore where he was killed. The monument is surrounded by a fence made up of cannons and cannonballs with chain links hanging between them. This square patch of land is actually the property of Great Britain. The Hawaiians gave the land to Britain as a memorial to Captain Cook.

Captain Cook's Monument

YB was dancing on the bow of the boat on our way out to the snorkeling site. I turned on the camera and caught the last ten seconds of his dance.


Now that I watch it again, I suppose it's not that exciting of a video. I hope the grandparents at least enjoy watching it.

The snorkeling was awesome. Similar to the Maui trip, this boat offered boogie boards with viewing windows for kids to ride on.

YB riding his board and watching the fish.

As in previous snorkeling trips, I took tons of pictures of dozens of beautiful tropical fish, but I won't inundate you with a lot of those photos here. I thought just one photo to give you a feel for the visibility (clarity of the water).


Then I said to myself, "Self, still photos just don't capture how ALIVE the reef is. You should take a quick video snapshot." So I took a 30 second video of the reef to give you a feel for it.



The video certainly doesn't give you the resolution of the still photo above it, but still, I think all the MOTION of the fish really gives you a better feel of how much life there is on the reef.

Besides the extraordinary visibility and gajillions of tropical fish though, we had two big highlights today. First, I saw a spotted moray eel and got a pretty good picture of him, too.

Spotted Moray Eel.
(If you click on the image and look at the hi-res,
you can see his mouth and eyes).

Second, and the BIGGEST deal about today's trip, was that we got to swim with a pod of spinner dolphins. The boat crew explained to us that the dolphins were sleeping, and when they sleep they use half their brain to swim like a figure-8 pattern, breathe periodically, and keep an eye out for predators. This is the closest picture I got, unfortunately this was a pretty horizontal shot right after they came up for air, and there was a shimmer in the water near the surface from fresh-water runoff mixing with the salt water. The result is a little blurry image.

Spinner Dolphin Mommy & Baby

The whole pod of dolphins just kept drifting back and forth underneath us slowly and gently, and periodically came up for air. Here's a video I took of the dolphins drifting by underneath us.


Aside from the shimmer near the surface though, the water visibility was on the order of a hundred feet or more. It was good enough that YB didn't need the window in his boogie board to watch the dolphins swim back and forth underneath us.

YB watching the dolphis swim under us.

The boys watch the dolphins from back on the boat.

Overall, it was a great day. We made it back to the hotel in time to spend a couple of hours in the swimming pool before getting cleaned up for dinner. I'll write more about the rest of tonight later, but wanted to share the images from the snorkeling trip for now.

Plunk!

I love seared ahi (rare / raw tuna). If it's on the menu, then chances are, I'm gonna order it at least as an appetizer if not an entree.

If you had asked me before tonight, "Kevin, what's the best ahi you've ever had?" then you would have solicited a sea story from Guam.

Let's see... So how do sea stories start again? Oh yeah, "So there I was..." in Guam for a port visit. Two of my JO's practically kidnapped me and dragged me kicking and screaming off the boat to go snorkeling. Even though I had charts to review, I gave in to their skulduggery and went along.

This photo was taken just before we got in the water.

We went to a little beach just to the north of the power plant on the west side of the island. We were just sort of floating around out there watching the fish about 50 to 100 yards off shore. The water was only about 3 or 4 feet deep. It was clear and warm water with plenty of cool fish to see.

Most of the sounds around us were the soft rush of light waves on a shallow sandy beach. There was another sound out there though. Plunk. I'm not sure how long this one particular sound had been going on before it broke the threshold of my consciousness. Plunk. It wasn't so loud as to draw immediate attention to the sound, but over the course of time, gradually worked its way into the back of my brain. Plunk. I said to myself, "Self, that's an odd noise. I wonder where it's coming from?" Plunk. "Now that I think about it, Self. That sound has actually been going on for a while now." Plunk. It still wasn't very loud or threatening, so I just kept drifting along with my two shipmates. Plunk.

Meanwhile, about five feet away from me in the back of Jake's brain, the noise crossed his "What the Heck?" threshold, and he stood up suddenly to see what was going on. Remember the water was only like 3 feet deep, so his entire torso is now sticking up out of the water. Suddenly, there was a new, intense sound that immediately broke the threshold of all of our brains: It was the scream of a grown man on the beach who had just been scared out of his wits.

AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

JR and I then also stood up in the water to see what the heck was going on. It took a few seconds for my brain to analyze and decipher the scene before me. There on the beach stood a man. In his hand was a golf club. There was a big bucket of golf balls on the ground next to him, and there was a look of horror on his face at the three men who suddenly stood up in the water where he was hitting his golf balls. He was immediately profusely apologetic and swore up and down and sideways that he hadn't seen us in the water and he really honestly was not trying to hit us with the golf balls. I think his vision might not have been 20/20, but I believed him.

The three of us snorkelers-turned-targets had been out there a while and decided it was time to go in anyway. We got up on the beach and found the guy had his pickup truck backed-up to the beach where he was hitting the golf balls. On the tailgate of his pickup, he had a cooler of cold beer, a ginormous slab of extremely fresh, rare ahi tuna, a knife, and a bowl of shoyu (soy sauce). He genuinely felt an overwhelming sense of guilt for having hit those golf balls toward us, and he insisted that we have some of his beer and tuna.

Now, I will say that eating raw tuna off the back of some stranger's pickup truck in a far away Pacific Island is probably not the smartest thing I've ever done. However (comma), that was absolutely THE BEST tuna I'd EVER had.

...until tonight.

We have some friends visiting from the mainland, and we went to dinner at Duke's down in Waikiki. I was a little apprehensive about going there. I expected a LONG wait for a table and the potential for a typical tourist trap with horrible service. Because our visiting friends are still dealing with the jet lag and the six-hour time difference between here and the east coast, we went to dinner early at 4:30 and got a table within 20 minutes. At first, it seemed my apprehensions were confirmed by the rude bar waitress who came to take our drink orders. I'm happy to report it all changed from then on. Our server, Dave, was awesome. The prices were pretty reasonable (I'm still recovering from the restaurant sticker-shock in Maui I guess). The food was really good. They have a huge salad bar with a very nice selection of fresh veggies and tropical fruits, plus a few different choices of rolls and muffins.

I've had seared ahi at many restaurants all around the world, and the seven-spice seared ahi I had for dinner tonight at Duke's was just to die for. [Cue sound effect: Angelic choir singing the hallelujah chorus.] THE BEST I've ever had.

BT BT (Shifting topics)

Follow-Up WRT aiming at things in the water and in response to Amy's comment on my "pee and poop" post, maybe blinders aren't necessary after all. Maybe we should try some of these.

Maui - part 3 - snorkeling trip

This is Part 3 of 4 about our trip to Maui. Click on the links here to visit Part 1, Part 2 (Iao Needle & drive around the island), and Part 4 (Trip to Lahaina). Also, for a comparison of Maui versus the Big Island, see this post.

We got up at the crack of dawn this morning, put the boys in their bathing suits, grabbed our snorkel gear, towels, and sun screen, and got in the car to drive 30 minutes to the marina for our snorkel trip. A few friends of ours recommended taking a snorkeling trip to Molokini. In the Maui Revealed book, we read good things about the Four Winds II charter out of Maalaea.

When I checked out their website, I noted their afternoon snorkel trip was considerably cheaper than the morning trip. When I called, I tried signing up for the afternoon trip, and the lady on the phone explained to me the difference. The Trade Winds generally pick up here early in the afternoon. She said if we went on the afternoon trip, we had about a 50/50 chance of making it to Molokini because conditions are frequently too rough. If we went on the morning trip though, she said we had about a 98% chance of making it to Molokini because it's generally calm in the morning. So I signed us up for the morning trip.

It was very windy when we boarded the boat at 7:15, but the guide book said Maalaea was the windiest spot on the island, and the Captain didn't seem concerned. We got underway and headed out toward the Molokini Crater. About half way there, the Captain noticed all the other charter boats were LEAVING Molokini and heading back toward Maui. He got on the radio with them and found out the winds were bad and the conditions too rough. Big bummer :-(.

Since it was too rough for Molokini, we went and anchored in the lee of the western end of Maui and still had a great time.

This is where we ended up anchoring.
(View looking east toward Maalaea)

Customary Blunoz Self Portrait.

YB initially went in the water with me like this. He wore his swimming goggles and enjoyed sticking his face in the water periodically to see the fish. Eventually he opted for one of the really cool plastic things that kids could ride on and look down through the window to see the fish. ES snorkeled for a little while and then decided to join YB on a white board, too. (You'll see pictures of these in a minute).

There is a professional photographer on board who goes in the water in scuba gear and takes pictures of everyone. On the way back to the harbor, he sells the pictures on CD for you to take home.

This is the picture he took of ES and LW.

This is the picture he took of YB and me. This is that white board with the window I mentioned earlier.

ES really impressed me with how calmly he handled that hungry shark that tried to devour him. Oh, wait, that was just one of the goofy things the professional photographer did with his toy shark.

We did see a LOT of tropical fish (too many to name them all). I figure you can look up pictures of tropical fish on the internet and don't need them here. They'll be on shutterfly later.

Here's LW, ES, and YB watching the fish, while Daddy swims ahead pulling the boys along.

Periodically I would dive down to check something out and pull the boys along to watch me.

LW took this photo of me looking back up to her and the boys.

I took this photo looking back up at the boys.

There was a cool glass-bottom section of the hull where the kids could sit and watch the snorkelers and fish. ES went back up on the boat first because he wanted to watch YB and me out in the water.

Later, when we went back on board for lunch, I took this photo of the boys watching the fish.

Daddy keeping YB warm on the boat while everyone else is looking for whale spouts.

On our way out and on our way back, we saw several whales and a couple of sea turtles. That was pretty cool to see.

ES took this picture of LW, YB, and me during the ride back to the harbor.

In spite of our disappointment over not going to Molokini, I give Four Winds II two thumbs-up. Captain John and his crew were all very professional and friendly. Captain John was really funny and provided a nearly-continuous commentary on the PA system that kept us laughing most of the trip. The food was decent and plentiful. The boat and the trip were all very kid-friendly.


The boat got back to Maalaea about 12:30. We took a drive through the business area in Kihei, stopped to get some Lappert's ice cream and look at some souvenir t-shirts. When we got back to the hotel it was still early enough that we were able to spend a substantial portion of the afternoon at the pool. I didn't bother taking any pictures since it was just more of the same, but we had a blast playing in the kids' pool and rode the water slide what seemed like a hundred times. YB got so used to the water slide that he stopped waiting for LW or me to go with him. He just started heading up the steps and coming down on the water slide on his own.

For our last dinner in Maui, we decided to splurge on the hotel restaurant again and enjoyed a delicious meal with fantastic service and another spectacular sunset.

Tomorrow we hope to do a little bit more exploring around the island before we fly home.

Best of Oahu ...so far

UPDATED 9/01/2008. As we find new favorites or cool things around the island, I will keep coming back and adding them to this post. There is a link on the upper right corner of my blog to come back to this post for quick reference.

Someone in our housing area asked for our inputs for a "Best of..." thing she wants to put together for new people who move here to the island. I told her I would compose a list of my inputs for her, but I figured it'd do just as well to post it here for anyone else looking for our list of favorite things on Oahu.

So here we go in no particular order. In most cases, I have written a blog post (or two) about it, and I've linked to my previous blog post that described that place. In those cases where I haven't already written a blog post, I wrote a paragraph about it below. Note that this is derived from our vast experience of 15 months on the island.

Restaurants: (Sorted by geographic location)
Pearl Ridge / Kam Hwy area closest to the Naval Station:
- Firehouse Restaurant on Ford Island. Right across the street from the Pacific Aviation Museum and the old air traffic control tower (you know - the one where Ben Affleck valiantly charges up it and tries to single-handedly stop the attacking Japanese planes with a shotgun). Looks can be deceiving. This place is pretty old and not fancy, but it's clean and the food and service are excellent. There are a variety of things on the menu, but there's a heavy Mexican food influence. I had the New Mexico Pork Burrito and it was AWESOME.
- Boston Pizza. Make sure you print out the coupon from the ValPak website (they periodically expire and change the link, so if the link for the coupon is bad, just do a Google Maps search for "Boston Pizza, Aiea, HI" and click on "coupons" and it will come up). For our neighbors - it's just about as fast to walk there as drive. It took me exactly five minutes to walk there, including waiting for the traffic light to change color to cross the street.
- Moe's in the Pearl Ridge Mall. Like a Mexican version of the Subway sandwich assembly line. On Wednesday nights, kids eat free and there's a guy making balloon animals for the kids.
- CPK is also at the Pearl Ridge Mall.
- Bravo's in Aiea (across the parking lot from Circuit City, under Anna Miller's). I wrote about it in my previous post here.
- Diego's Taco Shop on Kam Hwy in Waipahu for REAL carne asada burritos.
- Sam Snead's at the Navy Marine Corps golf course over behind the NEX. I'm surprised to find that I haven't written any actual blog posts about this one. I've mentioned it in passing a couple of times. It's a great place - good service, reasonable prices, and the grapefruit vinaigrette dressing is FABULOUS! (Note, you don't have to show any ID to get into this place, so I think anyone can dine there even if you're not in the military).
- Thursday Mongolian Barbecue at the Hickam AFB O'Club. You scoop up whatever raw ingredients you want into your bowl and pay the cashier by the weight of your bowl. Then hand your bowl to the guy at the grill and he'll grill up your stuff and hand it back to you on a plate. There's as much rice, lo mein noodles, soup, soft drinks, and fortune cookies as you want after you have your stuff grilled. Note: Unlike a lot of commercial Mongolian barbecue places where they provide some recommended sauce recipes (X scoops of olive oil, X scoops of shoyu, X scoops of sugar water... ginger.... garlic... hot pepper oil...), there are no suggested recipes posted here. I recommend googling it or having something in mind the first time you go, and keep notes on the way YOU like it so you remember what to do next time.
- Wright Brothers Cafe on Hickam AFB. Right next to the Hickam AFB O'Club, and right on the water overlooking the channel into Pearl Harbor. Our wives normally go out here to watch the boat pulling in or going out to sea. The cafe serves decent breakfast and lunch stuff for very low prices.
- Sea Breeze restaurant on the beach at Hickam AFB. WARNING: They had a bad kitchen fire at the Sea Breeze in late June 2008, and they had a very limited menu (hot dogs and hamburgers on an outdoor barbecue) at the Sand Bar outside while rebuilding the kitchen.
- Buzz's Steakhouse. We've been there three times now. The salad bar is fantastic - fresh avocado, pineapple, and other fresh and delicious veggies. The food is superb. Two out of three times we've had really good service there, too. It's a little pricey, but certainly good for special occasions. Reservations recommended on the weekends. They have another one over in Kailua. Our Oahu guidebooks said they don't take credit cards, but that isn't true anymore. At least the one here in Waipahu takes credit cards.

Honolulu / Waikiki:
- Ryan's in Ward Center. My first rave review is here. We went back again here. We've been back a couple more times, and always enjoyed the delicious food, the excellent service, and the very reasonable prices.
- Azteca in East Honolulu for mole poblano and the best Mexican food on the island.
- Islands in Ala Moana Shopping Center. Another post here.
- Duke's in Waikiki.
- KoKo's at the Hale Koa in Waikiki. (Military ID card required here).
- Compadres in Ward Center (next door to Ryan's).
- Orchid's in Waikiki is the fanciest place we've been on the island. The sign in front of the place said "appropriate evening resort attire required." I'm not exactly sure what that meant, but I wore khaki pants and an aloha shirt with close-toed shoes. The food and service were extraordinary, but you get what you pay for.
- House without a Key in Waikiki is next door to Orchid's an a little less fancy. I have not eaten there myself, but my wife went there with some other wardroom wives and said it was really good.

Windward Side:
- Zia's in Kaneohe (there's another one in Kailua that is also excellent).
- Haleiwa Joe's at the Haiku Botanical Gardens in Kaneohe has the best Sunday brunch on the island.
- El Mariachi in Kaneohe
- Sunday brunch at the MCBH O'Club.

North Shore:
- Breakers in Haleiwa. Good food, good service, reasonable prices, no long lines like the other super popular places (Chollo's is NOT worth the wait!).
- Giovanni Shrimp Truck. Legendary. There's at least one in Haleiwa and one way up by Turtle Bay.
- Jameson's in Haleiwa. A little pricey, but excellent food. I LOVE their chicken curry salad served in a papaya.

Snorkeling / Beach:
- Ko Olina. First post. Second Post. We've been back more times than those two, but I didn't see the need to write more of the same.
- Hanauma Bay. We have only been to H-Bay once just to be able to say we did it, but we actually prefer Ko Olina.

Scuba Diving:
- Ocean Concepts has several shops around the island, including one by the ARIZONA memorial / Rainbow Marina and one on Schoffield Barracks. They have two positive recommendations on www.tripadvisor.com. I am going to try them out next and will post what I find here.
- DiveOahu runs a sort of mini-dive shop in the NEX, and they periodically have tent sales on the sidewalk in front of the NEX. I thought their prices were pretty reasonable. I also went on a boat dive with them out to the YO-257 wreck and had a pretty good time.
- Do NOT use Island Divers. They run the shop on Hickam AFB. They are terribly disorganized and unprofessional in both their charter boat operations and their equipment repair. I later found other complaints on tripadvisor about them.


Hikes we've done with our kids: There are a LOT of great hikes around the island. I recommend picking up Stuart Ball's Hiker's Guide to Oahu. You will hear other hikers refer to "Ball Chapter 20" - they're making references to this book.
- Aiea Loop Trail (leeward side overlooking Pearl Harbor) - Probably the closest place to our housing area. The whole loop is like 4.5 miles, and I hear the last mile or so is pretty tough, steep ups and downs. I took my boys and just went out a mile and a half (clockwise, leave from the upper parking lot) then turned around and came back again, and we had a good time.
- Kaneohe Waterfall (windward side / Kaneohe) - I'm not sure what the real name of this waterfall is. Park in the parking lot for the First Presbyterian Church in Kaneohe. To get there, take H-3 to Exit 11. Turn left off the exit onto Kam Hwy. After going under the freeway, take the next left, follow the road back over the freeway and just keep following the road all the way back to the end. Park in the back left corner of the parking lot where the trailhead starts. At the big water tank, turn left up the hill. Less than a mile up the hill, make a sharp right turn onto a side trail that you have to make about a 2 foot step down to leave the main trail and get onto the side trail. This will lead you to the waterfall. You'll probably see a lot of Hawaii guided tour vans parked in the corner of the parking lot, and you'll see a good number of people on the trail going back and forth to the waterfall, so just ask someone for help if you can't find it / aren't sure where you're going.
- Diamond Head - 1.75 miles round trip, but a lot of stairs. All paved, but the trail is a little bumpy and not conducive to strollers. Great views. Please note! Before you drive out there, have a contingency Plan B ready to implement if you get there and either (a) they're closed for renovations or (b) the parking lot is full and they're turning people away. You COULD park WAY outside Diamond Head and walk all the way in, but that's a LONG walk that I wouldn't want to do. See this post for our aborted attempt, and see this post for our second successful trip to Diamond Head.
- Friendship Garden (windward side / Kaneohe) - The first time we went, we just did the shorter lower loop that doesn't go all the way to the top - see this post. The second time we went, we did the upper loop - see this post. The upper loop trail was only 1 mile, easy trails, great views.
- Makapu'u Ridge (eastern tip of the island, not far from Hanuama Bay) - About 5 miles round trip, but paved pathway most of the way to the top with spectacular views and potential whale sightings. Lots of people on the path with babies in strollers. We went back a second time and then again a third time.
- Waimano Valley (leeward side overlooking Pearl Harbor) - First aborted attempt post here. Poorly planned second attempt post here. It would have been a fun hike if (a) we had started earlier in the day so it wouldn't have gotten dark, and (b) it hadn't started torrentially raining and turning the trail to mud.
- Waimea Falls (North Shore) - About 2 miles round trip, but paved pathway the entire way and very gentle slope. If it hasn't been raining, then you are allowed to swim in the pool below the falls. We went back again, and again.
- Manoa Falls (Honolulu) - About 1.5 miles round trip, expect a muddy trail through a rainforest (i.e. you're gonna get wet, even if it's not really "raining").
- Wiliwilinui Ridge (East Honolulu/Hawaii Kai) - All the way to the end of the trail is 6 miles, but we just went out 1.8 miles to an awesome geocache and came back again for a 3.6 mile round trip. It's on top of a ridge, so the sun and wind tend to dry out the trail.

Kayaking
- Chinaman's Hat (Windward side) - Not sure whether to list this one as a hike or a snorkel or a beach or a scuba dive, but you could do them all here. There were several scuba divers and snorkelers in the water around Chinaman's Hat when we kayaked out there and hiked around the island.
- Pearl Harbor from the Rainbow Marina.

Other favorite places or things to see:
- Sea Life Park.
- Hale Koa pool.
- Paradise Cove Luau.
- COMPACFLT Remembrance Tour.
- Atlantis Submarine Tour. If you're military, then be sure to buy discounted tickets at ITT by the NEX (link to the price list is down lower on this page). We've done this twice now and really enjoyed it both times.
- Dolphins at the Kahala Resort. Parking costs $4, but otherwise it's free to stand by the pool and watch the dolphins jumping and splashing and swimming with the people who pay extraordinary amounts of money to get IN the water with the dolphins.
- Hawaiian Adventures Water Park. Second post about it here.
- Swap Meet at the Aloha Stadium. Every Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday in the Aloha Stadium parking lot. Want Hawaiian souvenirs or gifts, this is where you need to go.
- Box Car Racing in Kunia. This would be a great place for a birthday party or any other large group activity.
- Tropical Farms - Macadamia Nut Farm tour on the windward side. For directions, look up directions to the Polynesian Cultural Center. As you're driving north on the windward side headed toward the Polynesian Cultural Center, Tropical Farms will be on the right side. The tour is great - a short bus ride through the farm with explanations of all sorts of local plants and their useful purposes. A show in a small amphitheater by the water where you'll learn how to shuck a coconut and try some fresh coconut, then watch some cool twirling fire stick stunts. This farm is where they have filmed a lot of movies and TV shows like Lost, Fantasy Island, Giligan's Island, 50 First Dates, Tears of the Sun... In the store they have tons of free samples of different flavors and varieties of macadamia nuts plus samples of Kona coffee. You could make a meal just eating all the free samples.
- Round Top Scenic Drive. If you don't do the whole drive up Round Top and down Tantalus, then at least go up to Puu Ualakaa State Park and admire the view.


Local Services:

- Aloha attire.

- Movies: Sharkey Theater is the base theater on the sub base. Active duty get in for FREE. I paid $1.50 for the boys to get in, and spent $6 on two popcorns, two bottles of water, and one medium soda. Can't beat those prices at any other big screen movie theater!

Sharkey Theater occasionally has sneak previews, too. Be alert and check the schedule. For more logistical details of how they orchestrate the sneak preview, see this post.

- Tickets: You can find military discounts on tickets to a lot of local attractions at Information Tickets and Tours (ITT). Here's the price list.

- Outdoor Recreation Rentals: At Bloch Arena (just inside the Nimitz Gate) there is an outdoor equipment rental place (bicycles, camping gear, kayaks, etc). Here's their price list. For kayaks, I find that Go Bananas has very similar prices, but much better service.

- Children's Dentist: LW got this recommendation from other people here in our housing area, so someone else probably already put this on the list.

- Birthday Cake: Commissary.

- Birthday Ideas for Kids: Box Car Racing. Magic show. Hawaiian Adventures Water Park. Jungle River Miniature Golf.

- Commissary Note: The Commissary over at MCB Kaneohe and the one on Hickam AFB are not as big as the Commissary here on the NAVSTA Pearl Harbor side, but they're significantly less crowded. The lines at the Commissary on this side can be outrageously long and wrapped all the way around the back of the store past the meat section. Since we go to church in Kaneohe, we will often go to the commissary while we're on that side of the island. Othewise, LW will frequently opt to go to Hickam instead of the Pearl Harbor NEX / Commissary.

- TV: Dish Network. We hated the Time Warner Cable and really missed our Dish Network service. We submitted the form with Forest City to get permission to put in a satellite dish and got approval within a week. There is a booth set up right in the foyer of the NEX, and they offer a pretty good deal on the installation.
Note that FCC rules say a HOA cannot prohibit you from putting up a satellite dish (as long as it's less than 1 meter in diameter). Here's an excerpt from the FCC website:

The rule prohibits restrictions that impair a person's ability to install, maintain, or use an antenna covered by the rule. The rule applies to state or local laws or regulations, including zoning, land-use or building regulations, private covenants, homeowners' association rules, condominium or cooperative association restrictions, lease restrictions, or similar restrictions on property within the exclusive use or control of the antenna user where the user has an ownership or leasehold interest in the property. A restriction impairs if it: (1)unreasonably delays or prevents use of; (2) unreasonably increases the cost of; or (3) precludes a person from receiving or transmitting an acceptable quality signal from an antenna covered under the rule. The rule does not prohibit legitimate safety restrictions or restrictions designed to preserve designated or eligible historic or prehistoric properties, provided the restriction is no more burdensome than necessary to accomplish the safety or preservation purpose. [Emphasis added is mine.]

Note that they are allowed to impose certain restrictions. For example, Forest City says you can't mount it to the house. What the local satellite dish installers do is put a cinder block base down in your yard and mount the satellite dish to the cinder block base. Reception is great.

Revision 9/8/2008: Okay, we have had occasional minor interference on the screen that we never experienced while we had Dish Network on the mainland, but it hasn't been bad. I started keeping a log of the outages in March 2008, and I only logged one outage in April and one in May. So it happened less than once per month.

Note the satellite is over the continental U.S., so the dish will need to aim to the EAST-southeast. Functionality is ten times better than Time Warner Cable.

I have anecdotal evidence from one of the other officers in my wardroom that DirectTV requires a larger satellite dish than what is allowed, and he was forced to take down his DirectTV satellite dish.

Visiting Other Islands:

I highly recommend hopping over to visit at least one of the other islands while you're stationed in Hawaii. On our first inter-island vacation, we went to Maui (blog posts part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 wrap-up). On our second trip, we went to the Big Island (blog posts part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5 wrap-up). Next on our list was Kauai, but we ran out of time.

If I had the opportunity to make one more inter-island trip, and I could only choose between Maui and the Big Island, then I would go back to Maui (see the end of Big Island Part 5 Wrap-Up for a side-by-side summary of Maui versus the Big Island).

Christmas Day snorkeling at Ko Olina

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas!

The boys got us up about 6:45. We checked out the goodies in the stockings, then LW made gingerbread waffles for breakfast, then we opened the rest of the presents. The biggest hits with the boys were the Star Wars figures, the Tie Fighter, the new Lego Star Wars video game, the red light saber (see a trend here?), the legos, and the remote control dump truck. The boys didn't seem too interested in the Wii - I think LW and I may have more fun with that than the boys.

After lunch, we headed over to Ko Olina to do some snorkeling. We figured it would be pretty quiet there on Christmas Day. ...Apparently, so did a few dozen other people. You see, Ko Olina is all a big resort run by Marriott, but they have a limited number of public beach access parking spots - like ten spots per lagoon (there are four lagoons). Today, not only were all the public access spots full, but there was a line of two or three cars waiting at the entrance to each lagoon waiting for someone to leave so they could park.

We contemplated giving up, but then figured what the heck - we decided to pay for the parking and park in the Marriott parking garage. That worked out just fine.

ES Sculpting his Sand Castle
Ko Olina Lagoon #1
Christmas Day 2007

Revisiting my previous commentary on the pros and cons of Hanuama Bay versus Ko Olina, I made a few more observations today that the two sort of balance out.

On the positive side for Ko Olina, even though all the public access parking spots were full there today, the beach was NOT crowded (notice the population density on the beach in the background in the photo above). It wasn't even close to the crowds we encountered at Hanuama Bay (see the picture with the previous post on H-Bay).

On the down side though, it occurred to me that there are lifeguards at Hanuama Bay, and at Ko Olina you swim at your own risk.

The water was a little murky at Ko Olina today. I had to swim out along the rocks at the mouth of the lagoon to get to clearer waters and see some cool fish. I did see some new fish today that I hadn't seen before. These two little guys hanging out in the coral were really cute and fun to watch. I need to look up what their name is.


We also saw a bunch of different kinds of butterfly fish and pennantfish.


After I swam back to where the boys were making their sand castles, I didn't want to get out of the water. It was really nice just floating in the shallow water next to the shore...

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.