Hawaiian Hike

Thursday afternoon we set out to hike the Makapu'u Point Lighthouse trail.  (You will notice we haven't done much in the mornings--that's how we roll, LOL.  We are slow to marshal the troops and actually get out the door when there's not a space-a roll call on the line.)  It was an overcast day, and that turned out to be absolutely perfect.  The hike was uphill (not too terribly steep though), and there wasn't any shade, so having cloud cover was great.  You can see in the picture that I am wearing my early birthday present to myself--my pink "mom to the 9th power" t-shirt that became outdated about as soon as it showed up on our doorstep!  Also, all you moms of just a few--observe how I have popped out and look 7 months pregnant, even though I am only 8 or 9 *weeks* pregnant.  Yeah--I don't want to hear you complain about how big you are getting so early!  I am so glad I found out we were expecting right before we left, because I went ahead and wore my early maternity jeans.  That turned out to be a fortuitous decision--I'm sure I wouldn't have fit in my regular jeans for the trip back!

Back to the hike--one of the great things about this hike is that it overlooks an area where humpback whales play around.  They travel back from Alaska in October or November, and then they have babies here.  The best time to see them is, coincidentally, from the end of January to the beginning of March!  Then they migrate back up to Alaska for the summer.  We stopped several times to watch for whales, and we got to see (and hear!) quite a few!  So exciting!  (Although I could never get a picture of one--the thing you see in the water is a boat with an orange sail, probably also whale-watching.)

The view from the top was, of course, stunning.  You don't actually hike to the lighthouse.  You actually hike higher than it, and you can look down on it.

This picture pretty much accurately summarizes Drew's mood--deviously uncooperative, we can call it.  He wanted to be out of his stroller, but then he only really wanted to go in the opposite direction from everyone else!

On our way home, we stopped to get shave ices at a place the C's recommended called Keneche's (sp?).  We got 4 of them (grape, strawberry, pineapple, and mango), and we were glad we didn't get more of them--they were huge!  We had no trouble polishing them all off, since the hike had made everyone ravenous and thirsty.  My personal favorite was either the strawberry or the mango.  Yum!  Everyone thought the pineapple had kind of an artificial flavor, like baby food banana.  Weird!

We got distracted on our way home, and we stopped by Bellows Air Force Station.  They have cabins there, right on a beautiful beach.  The younger kids all played on a really nice playground, and I decided that we should definitely come back to this beach, since it was so nice, but then we never made it back there.  Oh well--next time!

Next we got distracted by the Kaneohe Bay Marine Corps base.  We decided to try to see what its beaches looked like, but we couldn't figure out where they were on our own.  So Bob stopped a random walking woman, who gave us complicated directions to 2 different beaches including passing over 2 active flight lines ("just watch the lights--if they're flashing red, then don't cross").  We wandered around, and eventually we did miraculously find the beaches, but we certainly would never have stumbled on them on our own!  I'm sure we would have seen the "active runway" signs and turned right around!  The beach in the picture is one with bigger waves, better for surfing and bodyboarding.  We weren't wearing swimsuits or anything, but we let the kids get out to walk on the beach.  "Just don't get wet."  Ha!  Famous last words!  Everyone got soaked (well not me or Drew.  Drew stayed FAR away from the water, and he wasn't very happy about the sand, either.)

So eventually we arrived back at the C's house, wet, sandy, and tired!  We all went to bed pretty early for the whole trip, since we tired ourselves out so much each day!  The C's gave us 2 whole bedrooms all to ourselves, which was amazingly generous.  Drew slept in a pack-n-play with us, and either Caleb or Jonathan slept on a twin trundle (they took turns).  The other boy slept on the top bunk in the other room, Anna and Grace shared the bottom bunk, and Faith slept on a twin trundle.  Micah also slept in there, in Marie's crib.  Nathan and Luke slept downstairs in their garage/shed area with Eric on air mattresses.  It was so wonderful to come back home from a day of hiking or sightseeing, and have a delicious dinner with good company, and then comfortable beds to fall into!