Turtle Beach

Today is the last day of the kids winter break, so we decided to go check out turtle beach on the North Shore. It's a beautiful beach and when we got there, it wasn't exactly what I expected.

Honu = Sea Turtle in Hawaiian

I'm not really sure what I expected...maybe a whole bunch of little turtles crawling around? No, there was just one really big turtle! They say the most they usually have at one time is 5, but that doesn't happen very often. Usually, during the warm day light hours there are a couple though.

Kierian watching the surf for more turtles

While we were there we only saw one. She had pulled herself up onto the beach to sun for a few hours. When the waves washed up close enough to touch her back-end, she scooted farther up the beach and that was that. Other than that one time, she just laid there...LOL

Andi posing outside the "perimeter" they had set up around the honu


We did see another turtle in the surf and thought he might be trying to come on shore, but he kept washing back out, so we finally gave up and just called it a day. We'll try back another time and maybe we'll have better luck:)

The girls anxiously watching the surf for another turtle

Happy New Year!

Or as they say in Hawaii, Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!

Dave and I went to a dinner show at the Hale Koa the other night, and just being in Waikiki for that little while made me want to go back and see more. And THAT made me think about all there is to see and do while we are here and while I KNOW we have 3 years to take it all in, we still have life going on here. Also, while following this train of thought, my mom called and reminded me that my family is coming to visit next year and so I need to scope out all the tourist spots and attractions so I know where to take them when they get here.

So I have decided that at least every time we have a long weekend, like we did this week, we should go and visit at least a couple of the hot spots here on the island. Who knows, maybe somewhere down the road we'll save up enough to catch the superferry to one of the other islands:)

Yesterday, Dave and I took the girls to a couple of cool places. (Kierian was being a poop and didn't want to go). First we stopped and visited a site that is very sacred to the Hawaiians, it's called the Kukaniloko Birthing Stones. Fifty generations of Hawaiian royalty was born here. The women would come out here and give birth on these stones in various positions with 36 high-ranking men or "priests" standing around them...talk about awkward!!

Anyway, it was a very peaceful, beautiful and humbling place.

Then we went down the road a little way to the Dole Plantation. This is really more of a tourist trap than anything, but we did learn about how pineapples grow and are harvested and how they first came to Hawaii etc. We also did a garden tour while we were there and learned about some of the different flora here on the island. But the best part was the Dole whip...basically it's like a soft serve sorbet;) But very YUMMY!

Today we decided to visit the Bishop Museum. This museum was funded by the last direct decendant of King Kamehameha the Great. Unfortunately the Hawaiian Hall was closed, so we will deffinately have to go back another time. But we did get to see some pretty awesome displays. I think our favorite was in the science building where we got to see a lava melting demonstration. Although the Megladon shark display was pretty cool too:) And the Polynesian Hall wasn't too shabby either!

I am going to TRY to get them all to go with me to Turtle Beach up on the North Shore tomorrow...but I think they're starting to get tired of my enthusiasm already! Party Poopers!