Hawaii 0.5 (part 3)

We started the day hiking a Pillbox hike right by Sunset elementary school. When you go far enough, you get to the peace sign Pillbox and a beautiful view of Bonzai Pipeline and the surrounding beaches.

Eric pulled out his binoculars to try to watch the surfers.












We stopped for some breakfast/treat.

(And had a whopper of an argument but can you even tell?)


Our next destination was Waimea Falls.

It was such cold water! But worth it to swim near the gorgeous waterfall.


Eric was yelling at me to smile but the girl in the corner of the picture thought he was talking to her and turned and smiled. They had a good laugh afterwards.

We made a quick stop at the Dole plantations for some infamous whip, but mostly I was hoping to catch a glimpse of pineapples growing.

And I did! I think I was picturing pineapple trees haha. So this was fun to see the cute pineapple.

We bought tickets to Hanauma Bay. Which ended up being our least favorite experience of the whole trip. It was super crowded, choppy water, and the boys said that the snorkeling was better at shark's cove.

But we did see a seal on the beach, which was super sweet!

I got some more reading time on the sand while the boys were in the water.

We loved Hawaii!! I am currently scheming trying to get our whole family down there. Such a beautiful place! Though next time Eric and I have learned to have a clear plan and hopefully that will save us from all the ridiculous bickering we did during the trip. Always good and bad in the same experience.

But it was incredible spending time with just Kyler! I am so happy we made this trip happen.

 

Hawaii 0.5 (part 2)

The great thing about a time difference when flying to Hawaii was that we were up and ready to go much earlier than anyone else. We got to Waimea Beach when a couple other people were out. It was quiet and beautiful.

And this is probably the point when Eric and I were short with each other about the day's plans and Kyler put his foot down on anymore paddleboarding (the one thing Eric and I agreed on hahaha).

 



So we sent Kyler off to cliff jump before calling an end to our Waimea beach play.

The next stop was snorkeling at Shark's Cove. This was the best snorkeling Kyler and Eric did the whole trip.

I love swimming and paddleboarding but not snorkeling. So the boys went off to explore while I sat on this rock to read and write. Rain bursts kept coming in so I would run and take cover under a tree to try to keep my papers dry. It was such a beautiful, busy spot.

Our friend sent us a map to super secret tiny beach that the turtles go. It wasn't the right time of day for them to be out I think, so we didn't see as many as our friend did. We only saw one. But it was so cool to watch it move in from the water and then turn and head back out. Can you spot it? The turtles camouflage with the rocks so stinkin' well.

These next to pictures are our spot the difference pictures to figure out which "rock" was actually turtle.

We found a great burger place for lunch. And experienced the free roaming chickens like in Moana!

Next stop was shaved ice.


Then we cleaned up and headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

We really had so much fun here!

We spent the most time in New Zealand. Because Kyler.

Kyler and I were amazing at the stick games.

Eric's talent was in the fire making.

I'm not sure who had the talent of this one, but we had fun trying.

We got tattoos together.

We took a Ukulele lesson along the river from a man with an Elvis impersonation.

And the highlight of the experience was the luau.

The food and the entertainment were amazing!

I want another one of these.

We had the best seats for the night show, too.

A close up of our tattoos to end the night...