Foster Fun House: March 2016

We're moving to Hawaii!!!

Just kidding. But, we want to! After just one wonderful week, we are very tempted to quit our mainland lifestyle, move to Hawaii, live in a hut and teach our kids to be surfers. I'll teach yoga and Mike will brew beer. Ah, to dream.

Coming back to the real world after this vacation was really tough. Hawaii is everything you imagine it to be. Sunny, tropical, happy. It is the bluest water I've ever seen, gorgeous green mountains, beautiful beaches and endless activities, if you can manage to pull yourself off the beach. It's truly like visiting another country where you don't need a Passport and there's a Costco. The pictures cannot do the scenery justice, so trust me when I tell you to book a trip there... now.

A little back story on how we got here: My Grandmother died last year at 101. And my incredibly generous (and very wise) mother decided a good way to use her piece of the inheritance from selling Grandmom Palm's home was to take a family vacation in her honor. We all agreed that Hawaii was on our bucket list. So, Mom found villas at Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu's North Shore, and less than a year later - we were off.

Leaving on a jet plane:

Should we bring these, mom?

Valentine's night was spent in a hotel in Oakland to catch our 9 am flight and avoid the traffic that was not
(it was President's Day, which we totally forgot about until we were driving to the hotel).
Oh well, the lack of sleep just made the 5 hour plane ride of doing nothing that much more enjoyable.
*insert sarcastic snicker here

Always smart to read up on airplane safety.

This was our first flight with 4 paid seats. Coach has never felt so luxurious.

We arrived (after meeting up with Gram and Pop at the airport, renting the minivan, putting in the carseats, stopping at Costco and then driving 45 minutes to the North Shore)!
We had the two bottom villas, which was so convenient to be able to walk right out to the pool and beach.

Upon arrival (over 10 hours on their flight - yikes), Amanda and her Mike asked Andrew and Addison to be in their wedding!
The obvious answer when someone gives you a ring pop is to say, "Yes!"

The next day we went out to watch the sunrise, hit the breakfast buffet at the resort, went grocery shopping and then spent the rest of the day relaxing and exploring Turtle Bay:

Andrew is now into having his picture taken and will pose and give the cheesiest grins every time.

Turtle Bay Resort

On Wednesday, we all headed to Waimea Bay Regional Park to hike through their gardens and swim in the waterfall. The gardens were very nice, the path was easy (paved all the way), and the waterfall was... freezing! We were hoping for a little more of an impressive sight, and maybe a little more tropical temperatures, but I can now cross "swimming under a waterfall in Hawaii" off my bucket list!

These are called Monkey Pod Trees. We learned that the military used these trees to hide fighter planes during the war.

There were recreated Hawaiian villages throughout the park.

The waterfall!

Yes, they made us wear life vests. Mine smelled mildewy. Gross.

It was just too cold for the kiddos. Oh, and Gram and Pop didn't even TRY! (They were the only smart ones!)

Look at this gorgeous gum tree!

Later that day, we headed to Haleiwa for the best shaved ice on the island (supposedly) at Matsumoto's. Gram, Andrew and I waited in a pretty long line, but the kids were very happy we did. I got traditional flavors (because I wanted the kids to eat it after I waited for 15 minutes), but Gram got tropical flavors - guava, papaya and lilikoi shaved ice on top of beans (yes, beans! and no, not vanilla or cocoa bean), drizzled with condensed milk. Points to Gram for going out on a limb... but I don't think she was all that excited about her dessert!

While the kiddos (and Pop) ate, the girls shopped!

After the surf town we went to Waimea Bay Beach, to do a little body boarding in the same spot that the famous "Eddie Would Go" surf tournament took place a week later! Ok, so maybe Mike F. was the only one who actually did any body boarding, but we all had a nice time (except Addison who had enough sun and sand and just wanted to watch Caillou).

We got home and quickly changed into our luau gear (both Mikes' shirts were Christmas gifts from me) and then headed to the resort for their "luau". This was definitely not your large scale, pig roasting, big stage luau. It was a 3 guy band, 3 hula dancers and 2 fire dancers, and no pig. The fire dancers were very impressive, and so were the hula dancers - and by hula dancers I mean, Mike McKinstry. Although all three men went up (I did too when it was the girls' turn), Mike M. was picked on to be the center of the show. (I think Mike F. purposely took both children up with him so he would be excused early.) It was great fun!

On Thursday, Amanda and her Mike and me and my Mike had reserved tickets to visit Pearl Harbor in the afternoon. Since Gram and Pop had already seen it and it's not exactly the type of place you want a 4 year old running around in, Gram and Pop offered to take the kids for the day while the "big kids" explored the south side of Oahu. We left in Amanda's Jeep rental and cruised down the east side of the island with our first stop planned to hike Diamond Head.

Diamond Head is a peak on the south east side of the island. It overlooks Honolulu and is on all the "Top Ten" lists of things to do in Oahu. So, you can imagine our disappointment when we got there to find it already mobbed at 10am, and no one was allowed to park. Well, there went that plan! No worries, we're in Hawaii! We'll just spend more time in Waikiki shopping and sunning ourselves! So, that's what we did. After an hour of snorkeling (Mike F) and working on our tans (the rest of us), we had a wonderful lunch at Duke's and then left for Pearl Harbor.

This drink was called a Lava Flow - coconut cream, strawberries and rum. It was delicious!

Photo cred: Mike M

You may have noticed, there are no Pearl Harbor photos that follow this paragraph. That is because we showed up about an hour after a civilian helicopter crashed into the Harbor, and they closed the park for the day... disappointment #2. At this point, we decided to cut our losses and head back to the North Shore (after a stop at Costco for more beer).

Gram and Pop took the kids to the Dole Pineapple Plantation while we were busy not doing half of what we planned... :) They learned a lot about pineapples and even put on a very entertaining and informative demonstration on the proper techniques for picking, cutting and growing pineapples (that Gram and Andrew practiced several times) for the rest of us. Gram and Pop even bought a special pineapple knife... which was confiscated by TSA on the way back to FL.