Friday, July 3, 2015

Hawaii vacation -Sunday and Monday

Sunday was suppose to be the day we could get some sleep to catch up for the jet lag. It was not to be. Afire alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. It started off in Japanese and we could not figure out what woke us up until it then went to English. We walked down the five flights of stairs and then waited at the pool until the all clear.Someone was cooking at this hour of the morning and burned their food and then opened the door into the hall way which set off the alarm. See the smiling faces?


















We got cleaned up, had breakfast without burning it and then went to church. After church we went back to eh condo for lunch and then went to Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately we could not go to the memorial itself since a boat had damaged the off ramp a week ago and they did not know when it would be repaired to receive visitors. We got the kids airplanes so they had something to do while we walked around and saw the various historical information items.



































From there we drove over to the Punch Bowl Cemetery which is the inside of an old volcano crater and is a memorial to those who have died in the Pacific wars.





There is a great overlook of Honolulu from the Punch Bowl.
















We then decided to go into town since Sunday would be the least crowded day. We saw the statue of King Kamehameha and also the Iolani Palace across the street from the statue.






We drove down Waikiki and realized why we liked the west and north shores because there are not the crowds everywhere and you can enjoy the beach. We then went back to the condo for dinner and getting in the water again  and another beautiful sunset.






Monday was the day to go to the North Shore for a variety of activities. Shannon, Nic and Maddie wanted to  go on a swim with the shark tour. We made it to Haleiwa where the tour goes out from and got them booked and on the boat. The rest of us went to the beach along Waiallia Bay and played in the water and watched sea turtles.









The shark tour went out about three miles and by the late morning the winds make the ocean a little rough. They say they go to the location because the crabbers often leave scraps out here and the sharks hear an engine and relate that to food. Actually it is the tourist chumming the water at this point with breakfast which is what Shannon and Maddie did.


They did get into the cages and had some remarkable views of sharks circling them to the side and below them.



We waited for them to get back into harbor and they were a little longer than expected and even though most of the people on the boat did not look that good as they came in they said they had fun.
From there we went into Haleiwa for lunch. We ate at this great little burger bar that was our favorite last time we were here. I had a grilled Ahi sandwich.


From there we drove along the North shore to the Turtle Bay resort. There is a public beach and parking just next to the resort and a protected bay for our first time snorkelers to get an experience where the water was very calm.



Connor did not like it and was happy to play in the water and float in a tube. Payton learned how to do it and soon she enjoyed it.


After swimming and snorkeling we then stopped at a local fruit stand and got some various fruits such as lychees that were in season and some sugar cane to chew on as we drove back to the condo for dinner that evening.