Our vacation was amazing!  We should definitely do this more often (yeah, right).  First of all, thank you to Aunt Janet & Uncle Denny for taking us to the airport & for picking us up again, especially since we didn’t get back until late at night.  We appreciate it so much!  We didn’t do much on our first day since we were recovering from the jet lag & overall exhaustion from the flight.  The only thing we did was make it to the commissary for groceries to stock up our hotel, hit the pool, & then went out for dinner.  We stayed at the Navy Lodge on Ford Island (where the ships were docked in Pearl Harbor on that infamous day 58 years ago).  They gave us a large room with a full kitchenette—plenty of room for Joshua to run & play in the air-conditioned coolness when it was too hot & sunny outside!

The morning after we got to Honolulu, it went & rained.  Now I know it rains in Hawaii a lot & that it usually doesn’t last long, but this time it did.  It was sprinkling when we set out on our drive to Diamond Head, which we were determined to hike this time since Joshua’s older.  But by the time we got to the crater, it was pouring.  We sat in the car for a little while & it eventually tapered down enough that we started our walk.  Fortunately, the rain stopped after about 20 minutes but it lasted long enough that we could blame our wet clothes on the rain rather than sweat.  It’s not really a “hike” hike but when you’re carrying a toddler, it’s a little more work.  And that’s what we did for most of the way up (mainly Erick—he gets the credit for that).  Joshua had a great time & did walk some of the way but he had a better time in Mommy’s & Daddy’s arms.  Who wouldn’t?  Josh did enjoy walking up all of the stairs, which was a welcome break for our arms but slowed things down for us & those behind us.  But he had fun, & we pulled over for others to pass.  Once we made it to the top, we had a small picnic & ventured down.  After we left Diamond Head, we went to the zoo & then got some shave ice (not to be confused with “shaved” ice).  Waiola’s makes the most finely shaved ice you’ll ever taste in your life.  It really melts on your tongue—yum!

The next day, we made it to the USS Arizona, which I was really excited about since we missed it last time.  Joshua wasn’t the quietest kid during the mandatory 20-minute video but fortunately a lot better than I’d anticipated.  He did enjoy the boat ride to the memorial.  It was neat to go right next to a huge aircraft carrier (the USS Stennis).  Man, that thing can carry tons of planes!  One of the tour operators said that over 5,000 people live aboard the ship—it’s really a city at sea.  A few days later, we went to the original Arizona memorial on Ford Island.  They moved it years ago since it’s the most popular tourist attraction on the island (& probably the whole state, I’d imagine) & it was easier logistically to handle the large numbers of visitors from land rather than having them all drive onto Ford Island.  So it was nice to be allowed onto the island & to see the real memorial since most people don’t get to do this.

We made a couple of trips to the North Shore, of course.  The first time, we went to Turtle Beach—our first trip to the beach on this vacation.  We saw at least 3 large sea turtles.  Joshua wanted to go up & pet the first one we saw so I had to hold him just to make sure he didn’t try that.  One of the volunteers heard him asking to pet it & she tried to explain that he couldn’t do that.  She said “you wouldn’t pet a shark or lion, would you?”  When I told her he probably would if we let him, she looked surprised.  Then she tried explaining that the animals could get sick & the species go extinct.  Of course, Joshua didn’t get this so I just explained he & the turtles could get boo-boos.  The volunteer didn’t like my explanation—she obviously doesn’t have a little kid.  Whenever I got into the ocean, a turtle would swim up behind me so of course I’d get out of the way.  Eventually I gave up.  Joshua had a great time playing in the sand.  I’d gotten him a pail & shovel at the PX & he loved them!  If he had his way, he’d probably still be there digging away.  On our way back from both trips, we stopped at the Dole Plantation.  Joshua had fun riding the Pineapple Express train & I enjoyed the pineapple ice cream.  Yum!  Our second trip to the North Shore was to Sharks Cove, a cool tide pool where we waded around among the fish.  Joshua didn’t care much for looking at the fish after the first few we saw.  He preferred to pick up rocks & shells.  No big surprise.  The two of us hung out in the shallow area while Erick went snorkeling a bit further out in the water.

Without going into more excruciating details (sorry, I know this post has gotten pretty long!), I’ll be quick to describe some of the other things we did on our trip.  We went to Hale Koa for Sunday brunch—the restaurant was closed last year so we were happy to make it this time since I’ve been told they have the best brunch on the island.  We also went to the International Marketplace a few times, although surprisingly enough, we didn’t buy anything.  Another day, we went to see the Halona blowhole (the infamous beach scene in “From Here to Eternity” was filmed there), did a couple of pretty hikes, & toured the USS Missouri.  Joshua had fun running around on the ship but was upset when we told him we couldn’t make it go anywhere.  We went to the beach in Waikiki a couple of times & finally made it to the pool at the Hale Koa, which was another thing we never got around to last time.

On our last day, we went to Hanauma Bay.  As usual, Joshua loved playing in the sand, digging, & gathering rocks & shells.  We’d go into the water for a little bit & see some fish but then he’d ask to go back to the sand & rocks again.  The weather was great the entire trip, other than the brief rain shower on our first morning there—quite the opposite of last year which was cold & wet for much of the month we were there.  We made it out with only very mild sunburns on Erick & me, which is amazing considering how much we were outside.  Fortunately, Joshua agreed to wear his hats most of the time & wore his swimsuit & rash guard with UPF built in so he was spared.  For the flight home, Erick & Joshua sat in the very last row while I sat in an emergency exit row all by myself.  We did this for 2 reasons:  my main reason was that I wanted to see how Erick would do handling Joshua all by himself for the whole flight (on our way out, even though Erick was there that time, Joshua insisted I do everything for him, since he’s been used to only traveling with me).  The other reason was that Erick was being very nice & wanted me to relax & be comfortable with the extra leg room.  I’m happy to report that Erick did a great job of taking care of Joshua.  I didn’t hear a peep out of him (although I rented a dig-e-player & watched 2 movies on the flight so I couldn’t have heard anything if he had screamed).  From the photos, it looked like the boys had a great time together, as I was sure they would.  We had such a nice vacation & it was a good family time as our last hurrah before starting what I am sure will be a very difficult year ahead of us.  Erick starts work tomorrow with a month-long orientation before starting the horrendous internship hours on July 1st.  Good luck to us all!