The Montalvos came to visit us in Hawaii in November 2017.
Honey loves the beach. She'd be happy just spending all day there.
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| Lanikai Beach |
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| USS Arizona Memorial |
Stephen's cousin Amanda is an officer with the US Air Force at Hickam AFB. We love hanging with her and her fab kids, Makinley and Tyler. We met them on the North Shore for a day to snorkel at Shark's Cove. I thought it was a bit too cold for snorkeling, but Honey was so excited about her first snorkel experience that she turned into a mermaid and swam until her lips turned blue.
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| Shark's Cove |
We also enjoyed Thanksgiving with the family! Tyler helped make the pie.
Rene could only stay for a week and a half before he needed to head back to work. Honey got to stay longer, and we had more fun with Amanda, celebrating Makinley's birthday with the fanciest tea party ever at A Cup of Tea.
The Dehlers came to visit November 2018.
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| Seaside porch of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel |
We took them to our regular favs: Snorkeling at Hanauma
Hiking at Likeke Falls. (This turned out to be more muddy than our summer hikes.)
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| Lanikai Beach |
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| Waikiki Beach |
They'd heard a lot about the Polynesian Cultural Center and wanted to visit there. We had some mixed reactions. There's three parts to the day trip: the Polynesians villages, the Luau, and the evening fire show. If I did it again, I would only do the fire show. The Villages were interesting, but a bit Disneylandish. They may be more fun with children. The Luau seemed overpriced for what you got (especially without alcohol. PCC is run by the Mormon church. Soda and bare shoulders are okay for some reason.) The best part of the luau was the dancing, the the Fire Show incorporated all of that.
We went to dinner with Amanda and the kids at Haleiwa Joe's. The kids weren't in New Mexico last time we all saw Amanda there, so it was fun for them to meet more cousins.
The Wendls came to visit February 2019.
Also, traveling without kids!
Tippy and Markus got some cooler weather than we'd expected. This is just a half-joking picture about walking against the wind in Waikiki. You can't tell, but we were also being pelted with sand.
Train tickets for the plantation and history tour. This is not the main location for Dole's pinapples anymore, but there are still several fields, plus many other fruit and plants, including cocao.
Nearby was Green World Coffee Farm. They have a brief tour of their coffee fields and harvesting process, plus yummy free samples. They make a lot of fun flavored coffees, like chocolate caramel, or macadamia nut.
Waikiki Aquarium - I can never get tired of watching the jellyfish.
We spent one day with the most wonderful weather at Electric Beach with Amanda, her dad, and the kids.
Tyler and Makinley found a new crab friend. Everything was so perfect, we stayed until sunset.
Our new thing this trip was a deep sea fishing adventure with on board the Maggie Joe. We did the four-hour tour (there's also an eight hour option).
Although we only caught one fish, it was thrilling! They usually expect people to catch Mahi-mahi. But Tippy caught the best of all- Ahi, Tuna!
They chopped up the fish for us at the wharf and we got to take it home.
The Montalvos came again June 2018.
Since the weather was HOT, Honey and Rene rented an air-conditioned cabin for the weekend at the Marine Corps Base. (Our home is not air-conditioned.) It seemed like a place military families usually have to book a year in advance. It was near two beaches that we aren't usually allowed to visit. (Our base passes are only for work and eating at fast food locations.) They were on Secret Beach and a short drive from Pyramid Rock Beach. At Pyramid, we all had to get out of the water when there was a shark! (Sadly, we didn't get a shark photo.)
One day at Secret Beach, Amanda and the kids joined us. The snorkeling are was very shallow, so we all acquired a few injuries. (And sunburns)
During the week, we all flew to Maui to meet the Wendl/Kiehl family there.
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| Island Hopping |
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| Cheeseburger in Paradise |
Our condo wasn't too far from the beach, so we spent one evening relaxing while Lukas charged the waves.
One unplanned adventure was the discovery of Slappy Cakes. You can make your own pancakes at the table, with different flavor options and a squeezy tube to make any shape you want.
We went snorkeling at two different beaches, Slaughterhouse Beach and Honolua Bay. Honolua is a cool rocky beach, and Slaughterhouse has lots of sea turtles. (Bailey has all the footage from these adventures- our GoPro wasn't charged.)
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| Overlooking the beach |
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| Honu - Green Sea Turtle |
The Wendls stayed on island for their own adventures after we left. The Maui Ocean Center looks amazing!
The whole Dehler family came again in July 2019.
They got their own hotel room with kitchenette in Waikiki. (They recommend good travel deals from Costoc.) Let's overlook the 48 hours their whole hotel lost power...
Stephen is fairly bogged down with work during this point in the construction project, but we were able to visit several times.
A fun evening playing shuffleboard at Maui Brewing.
Though I prefer foosball-
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| International Market Place in Waikiki |
We always see tourists with bike rentals in our neighborhood, but never realized half of them were electric! Pedego Electric Bikes in Kailua was a fun, though confusing day. The shop recommended we ride to the Heiau, which had heavier traffic than expected. Then we squeezed through a gate to the nicer trail through Kawainui Marsh.
Ulupo Heiau is an old Hawaiian temple. A high rock pile with a pyramid like shape. There would have been more structures on top, but they are now gone.
The site also has a beautiful lo'i, kalo patch.
Stephen, by, the way, pedaled his own bike for some exercise while the rest of us had battery assistance. We made it much further that way!
Back home, the kids helped us assemble shish kebabs for dinner.
The Dehlers had lots of adventures without us. We're glad they got to see a turtle:
We had two snorkeling adventures with the Dehlers, which gave us the opportunity to try out our new GoPro.
First, snorkeling and a boat ride near Electric Beach:
The tour boat left from Ko Olina (West side of 'Oahu), a very crowded resort area. We haven't spent much time there, often there's no basically no parking. We had a little last minute panic when the Harbor lot was full, but apparently that's just a sign they leave up to keep up people without reservations. Once we show the gate our reservation, we're allowed inside.
Then snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. (This one is mostly fish)
We're so glad for all these wonderful visits.
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