Hawaiian Odyssey Part VIII - Surf and Turf

After church on Sunday we headed east to get out of the city and find a nice beach to play on. We found a great place on the south eastern corner of the island with nice big waves, great sand, surfers, and even a few tantalizing glimpses of Molokai. Cole brought along his coconut.

The waves were pretty big so we didn't go any deeper than this but the boys had fun running away from the crashing surf.

Afterwards we needed some shave ice.

We didn't really need it but it certainly made Bryn happy.

Then we found a sea life park and spent a while looking at turtles, sea lions, penguins, dolphins and other assorted fish.

The scenery was gorgeous.

Of course, the kids were riveted by the playgound. "We can look at dolphins any day but how often can we go down slides or sit on a bouncy whale?"

We did make it to the sea lion show and it became one of Bryn's favorite moments when one of the sea lions danced with the trainer.

She watched intently.

Then we went over to the dolphin tank to wait for the show.

Hawaiian Odyssey Part VII - North Shore Wanderings

After a drive across the island, with stops at Matsumoto Shave Ice and a sandwich shop we headed to Haleiwa Beach to consume our comestibles. After eating we spent an hour or so watching surfers and playing on the beach.

Cole found a coconut that still had half of its husk on and he adopted it.

Following the adage, "If you love something set it free..." he released it into the surf, where it soon floated far enough off shore that it seemed beyond recovery.

A short while later, however, it returned and there was a joyful reunion. The conclusion of the adage has now come back to haunt me, because we brought the coconut home with us.

We drove a few miles down the highway to another beach where a crowd of people gathered around some of Hawaii's wonderful wildlife.

Well, those were Bryn's favorite animals at that beach. Most everyone else was focused on the three sea turtles lounging on the sand.

And here we found an urchin.

Here's another one, holding that spiny sea creature they caught!

Continuing around the north point of Oahu we stopped at the Laie Hawaii Temple visitor center.

And got another group photo in front of the temple.

As we were leaving we walked past a plumeria tree in bloom and did what comes naturally to girls of all ages.

Hawaiian Odyssey Part VI - Davy Jones' Locker

Day three of our Hawaiian Odyssey dawned and we headed out early. The briny deep awaited and everyone had their buddy.

The official photographer took a shot that didn't turn out great.

Our unofficial photographer took a much better shot.

On the ferry out to the submarine we amused ourselves with close up photos.

Then we headed up top to look for whales and enjoy the scenery.

You can see our submarine waiting for us to the right of Diamond Head.

Once we were submerged the silliness continued.

Anyone up for sushi?

Our maximum depth.

In the unlikely event of a water landing...

Heading to school.

What kind of fish are those?

I'm king of the world!

Oh wait, I'm just a turtle on a sunken ship.

Hawaiian Odyssey Part V - Let Them Eat Cake

Throughout the day of March 2nd, Grant expressed his discontent at having no cake yet. We finally came through after dark when we headed up to the roof. The view was pretty great.

And there was cake! Two cakes, actually, with six candles each, and ice cream.

Bryn was pretty excited about it, too.

After the cake we headed down to the beach for the fireworks.

I'm pretty sure most people don't get fireworks on their birthday.

Of course, we did make them pose for a family photo.

But I think Grant came away satisfied that his birthday was a success.