Hart Family News

Sunday, June 05, 2011

Aquarium, Ala Moana, Pearl Harbor, and Sunset beach

Aquarium, Ala Moana, Pearl Harbor, and Sunset beach

What a busy and fun day we had today! We woke up to thunderstorms…AGAIN, so we said, “Hey- this would be a great day to spend in Honolulu”. So, we headed down and met my brother Jonathan and his friend Diana.

Waikiki Aquarium

It was a pretty small aquarium but the kids really liked it. My favorite thing was the huge tank of moon jellyfish. It took about an hour to go through.

Ala Moana

The largest open air mall in the world with about 300 stores and restaurants! We went to “Islands” for lunch and did some souvenir shopping as well as window shopping. Tyler and Alayna got to ride in the convertible with Jonathan and Diana!

(Godiva store)

Pearl Harbor

I have been wanting to go see Pearl Harbor forever!! I was so excited to see this. I was so glad we showed the movie to the kids so they could visualize and appreciate what really happened. We didn’t take the boat out to the USS Arizona because it was hot and crowded, so we decided to come back right before we leave back for home. Kayla said this was her favorite place of the day, even over the shopping!

(Standing on the world)

(The USS Bowfin)

(Memorial to all submariners lost during WWII)

(Anchor from the USS Arizona)

(You can see the USS Missouri in the background and the USS Arizona Memorial)

(Memorial to those who died- we were surprised at how many kids)

We took the historic H3 highway through the gorgeous mountains on the way back to our house. We also stopped at “Uncle Bobo’s” for pineapple and strawberry snow cones!

Sunset Beach

We planned to go to a beach nearby but everything was pretty crowded, so we ended up at the famous Sunset Beach. The kids did some boogie boarding and we got to watch TONS of surfers catching waves which was so cool to watch! We want to go back.

Friday, June 03, 2011

Sometimes it Rains in Hawaii…

Sometimes it Rains in Hawaii…

Today didn’t exactly go as planned. We planned to go to Turtle Beach, Hidden Beach, and some places where they filmed “Lost”. However, we woke up to this freak thunderstorm (which was actually kind of awesome) and so the kids played cards for a bit.

We decided we wouldn’t let it ruin our day. So, we headed out into the wet chilliness anyway. We had flashflood warnings and the roads were covered. Then, we got caught in standstill traffic and were there for 40 minutes before we found out it was because of a downed power line with a live wire, so they shut down the road. We were literally 2 minutes from turtle Beach. But its better than risking electrocution so we headed back home for lunch and to regroup.

So, we decided to try out a beach close to our house. Since it was raining and cooler we had the ENTIRE beach/bay to ourselves!! Bob taught the kids how to Boogie Board and they had such a great time! It rained and poured, but they were wet anyway, so it didn’t matter.

We came back, got dressed, and went to tour BYU Hawaii. Such a beautiful campus! The kids are certainly intrigued but not sure they like the idea of not being able to head home when they want to.