Hawaii as Saren sees it!

So we recently made our first, and likely LAST, trip to Hawaii!  Oahu is a beautiful island, and reminded us a lot of the scenes we watched on Lost, our all-time favorite tv show, but it is SUPER FAR AWAY!!!!  Having been to several islands in the Caribbean and Mexico, Randy & I think we'll steer clear of crossing so many time zones in the future and just take advantage of the beautiful beaches here in the East.  The travel took nearly 24 hours each way (including stops and travel to and from the airport) and SIX hours in time difference, which threw US off a lot, but REALLY threw Red off.  Its taken us a whole EXCRUCIATING week to get him back on schedule and just now is he going to bed without screaming bloody murder at us.  

So if you have a family with young children, and you live on the East Coast, we full-heartedly do NOT recommend travelling this distance to Hawaii.  Go as a couple without kids and still expect quite some jetlag in either direction.  To be completely honest, some of the beaches were pretty nice (and very windy) but even Waikiki (world-renown as it is!) really wasn't amazing and we've been to much nicer beaches in the Caribbean and Mexico.  Here are some pics and details:

Red wasn't a huge fan of his pool floaty thingy except for when it was NOT in the pool. :)

Samya Rose, Harmony's 5-year-old daughter, is just so sweet - she and Red played so nicely together. :)

The neighbors brought red-velvet and chocolate cake-pops over for us - yum!

Red would fall asleep by around 8:30 am because he'd been up since 3 or 4AM.  Lots of random naps during vacation. :)

We visited the Dole Pineapple Plantation - pretty cool train ride around that Red enjoyed. 

Red never gets in his stroller at home, but it was a huge help on vacation, even though he ended up sneaking out of it half the time and "helping" mommy push it.

The food at the Dole Plantation was a lot better in the pictures than in real life.  But Red enjoyed the french fries, no surprise there!

My surfer dude.  

Okay, so if you've been to Oahu or are planning a trip there, you'll inevitably here about the Polynesian Cultural Center - the island's largest and "best" paid attraction.  Well let me tell you - what an EXPENSIVE DISAPPOINTMENT!  We paid $100 for the Island's best luau (and you have to pay for parking!) and it was AWFUL.  I mean cafeteria-style disgusting.  We were starving and bitterly disappointed leaving there.  The entertainment was mediocre at best and the whole thing lasted about an hour and a half, most of which was us waiting to be released from our table so we could go up and get our cafeteria tray of food.  I have to say, the grounds are beautiful and the villages they have for each of the Polynesian Islands look like they'd be fun if you want to spend SEVERAL HUNDRED MORE DOLLARS on making a day of it there.  But since we had a 1 and a half-year-old in tow, we weren't about to do that.  So although I can only comment on the overpriced luau, I will say that the day activities and night show looked appealing, all-be-it SUPER expensive.  We sat next to a family with 5 kids from Utah and estimated they must've spent easily $700 on spending the day there.  WOAH.

classy, Randy.

Kayak tours through the Polynesian Cultural Center.

This was the ONE night Red was a total disaster and tired - our last night in Hawaii and he was just seriously spent.  He hardly ate the food and it was a rough ride home.  The PCC is REALLY far north on the Island so it took us an hour and a half to get home that night. 

The pig.

Hiking Diamond Head was fun!  6 months pregnant and a 1-year-old who wanted to be independent proved to be slightly challenging, but we were up to the mile-long zig-zag up to the top of the crater.  It's SUPER windy at the top (as you can see) but the views of Waikiki and Oahu were stunning - really a fun hike!

That's Waikiki and Honolulu behind us.

 The Honolulu Aquarium was TINY (and I do mean TINY) but fun for Red.  The whole thing took us about an hour but Red really loved saying "FISH!" and it was fun to see him so fascinated.

Some of these pics are out of order, but here are more views from Diamond Head.  

Red insisted on slapping every single one of these poles on the way up and on the way down - HEY, whatever keeps him entertained!

Randy snapped this on his IPhone, I love my snuggles with Red!  Red grew VERY attached to daddy on this trip and it was hard for me to sneak in kisses and snuggles - he much more freely gives them out to daddy these days!

 Okay - so lets talk the Honolulu Zoo.  It's a MUST SEE!  If you're going to Hawaii with kids (which like I said, I don't recommend if you live on the East Coast), its the best $14 you've ever spent.  HOLY MOLY, this zoo is way under-priced and has a TON to see.  We were there for several hours, including having a tasty lunch (yummy salads and burgers).  Red absolutely LOVED spending time with his cousins seeing all the animals and as parents, it was just a lot of fun to see!

Samya, Red & Tosh, posing on the hippos.  The kids did great and had such a blast that day! Harmony & Ben are so lucky to have year-passes to such an awesome attraction!

I swear, this monkey had funny nipples.

Cute picture of Tosh!

 PEARL HARBOR!  So amazing and obviously, probably the BIGGEST must-see on the island.  Before you go to the ship itself, you can tour the 2 museums (free) and then you sit and watch a half-hour long video about the event itself to get you in the spirit of what you're about to experience.  This was tricky with Red, so Randy took his time through the museums and then I sat through the movie.  Then you get on a 5-minute boat-ride over to the US Arizona memorial - really neat.

Don't know if you can see, but there is oil that STILL leaks from the ship every day - a constant reminder of what is below.  

Probably one of my all-time favorite pics to date.  :)

Samya and Red had a blast playing together - even if it was just playing in the sliding door's blinds!

This picture was at Cafe Rio in Las Angeles.  I am SO MAD because we took pictures when my oldest brother Shiloh came to the airport and we went to lunch and somehow I cannot find any of the pictures from that particular camera.  I'm sure they'll pop up somewhere on this computer at some point.  

Sleeping on the plane.  Most of planes were not completely booked so we were able to get 3 seats rather than sharing 2 seats and having Red truly on our lap.


Thanks to Harmony and her kids for putting up with us and our crazy sleeping hours for the time we spent in Hawaii.  Thank you to Ben, although he wasn't there, because he graciously allowed us to use his car the whole time we were there!  We're glad we made the trip while Harmony  & Ben are currently stationed in Oahu and we both, Randy especially, felt rejuvinated and relaxed when we returned home, having taken so much time off of work and the daily grind so it was just what we needed!!!