Hawaii Eleven-O: Day 7

One nice thing about taking the red-eye flight home is that you at least get to spend that whole day still being on vacation. No mini half-day or something.

We started our final day in Hawaii (for now) by driving over to the southwest side of the island for some more snorkeling at a place called Electric Beach. It's called that because there's a power plant nearby that has cooling lines going out into the water, and where the warm air comes out of the lines, there's a lot of coral that has formed, and lot of sea life gathers there.

It was a little bit of a swim to get out to the main coral formations, though there was a fair amount of stuff to see along the way.  The coral itself was pretty cool, growing on top of what I assume are the cooling lines. Some kind of big structure at least.  And there were some large schools of fish swimming around down there too.  The water was pretty deep, probably the deepest place we snorkeled, and there were even some scuba divers down below.  Snorkeling always feels a little surreal to me, because you're looking down into the water and it pretty much feels like you are underwater. But you can still breathe and see.  Makes me feel like I'm watching a movie or something. Anyway...  Additionally there was a pretty strong current (at least compared to other places we swam) that made it so you had to keep swimming pretty much constantly to stay in place over any one particular spot.  I spent some of my time swimming against the current to the far end and then letting the current wash me back across while I looked down on the fish.  At one point I did see a turtle swimming around near the warm air outlet, but the temperature difference there made the water a little murky, and there were also a crowd of snorkelers over there who eventually blocked my view and I lost track of him before I could get a photo.  Oh, one other thing about snorkeling, because your view is so limited, it seems like whenever I was snorkeling near other people, the chances of someone accidentally kicking me was pretty high, so you kind of have to swim defensively. :) I hope I didn't kick too many people unknowingly myself.


A school of what I think are probably paletail unicornfish. The ocean floor is way down where you can see some faint dark spots.


George diving down for a closer look. Someday I'll feel good about doing that. :)


I really liked the view from where mom sat and read while we were snorkeled (as you may recall).

After we got done snorkeling, we headed back to Kaneohe. We discussed possibly going for a hike, but it seemed like everyone was pretty content to have some last time to relax at the house and just pack up their things and enjoy some family time together. For lunch we went to a place called Zippy's that is apparently a local establishment. I wasn't all that impressed with what I got (a sausage and eggs breakfast plate -- everything was a little on the cold side).  I swapped photos with George & Kimi and played with the kids some more. For dinner, I don't even remember. Maybe we had leftovers or a sandwich.

Elise playing with a crazy straw

In any case, eventually the time came to say goodbye and we headed back to the airport, dropped off our rental car, boarded the plane and headed back to Salt Lake. I am usually pretty good at sleeping on planes and this time was no exception, except that the temptation of free movies kept me up for a couple hours. I eventually got about 4 hours of sleep, which made for a tired next few days.

As usual, while I was sad to leave, I was happy to return home. I enjoy seeing new places, but I always like the feeling of coming home to my own bed and my own place and just being at home.


More photos from Day 7.

Hawaii Eleven-O: Day 6

After a couple days off from wearing my trunks, Day 6 found us back at the beach once again.  We checked out of "Uncle Jake's Beach House" and headed out to Waimea Bay for a morning of swimming, boogie boarding, and snorkeling.  Waimea had nice soft sand and a really steep slope up from the water to the beach, which made for some fun boogie board riding.  Just from the shore we were able to see a turtle and eventually some of us got in the water and went over to check out the rocks on the east end of the bay.

Unlike Hanauma, the water was much deeper here and more of a rocky bottom than coral.  The wave action made it a little trickier to stay in place and take photos and I was also a little leery of getting thrown against a rock or something, so I didn't get in too close to the bigger rocks at the edge of the bay.  Not nearly as stressful as my trip to Shark Cove in October, but a step up from Hanauma.

Natalie snorkeling

Looking down on some paletail unicornfish and convict tangs

There was a big school of whitebar surgeonfish swimming around through the rocks, but this was about as close as I wanted to get to the rocks while trying to take a photo

A small group of trumpetfish

After a nice morning at Hanauma, we drove over to Hale'iwa, historic surfing town, to get some shave ice (snow cone if you will) from Matsumoto's.  Oh, but first we ate our lunches.  Then dessert. :)  Among the interesting things at Matsumoto's is that they put sweetened condensed milk on top of the snowcone.  And if you want, they also put some red japanese beans down in the bottom. I was unsure of why you would want beans in the bottom of a snowcone, but I figured I might as well give it a shot.  Having done that, I'm still a little uncertain of why you would want beans down there.  I mean, they tasted ok. Like beans.  And there were a lot of them. So many that I didn't want to finish them. Beans to wash down a snowcone seems like an odd idea. But I'm glad I tried it out to see what it was like.

Little surfer girl

Eating our shave ice

After leaving Hale'iwa, it was time to head back to Kaneohe.  We drove past the Dole plantation again and back through Honolulu and back over the mountains to Kaneohe.

My younger brother Ben had been waiting for his mission call to arrive for a couple weeks before we came to Hawaii and it had been decided that it came to Grantsville on the Wednesday we were in Hawaii, that we'd have some friends at the post office overnight it to Hawaii so he could open ASAP, and also to open while we were all there together. It did arrive in Grantsville on Wednesday (Day 5) and overnight mail was guaranteed to be in Hawaii in 2 days. My dad was increasingly nervous that overnight mail from Utah to Hawaii would take more than the 2 days we had.  So when we arrived back in Kaneohe, Kimi called the post office just to find out what she would need to do the next day (Friday) to pick it up. While on the phone, she just asked to see if there was any way it would have already arrived. And amazingly, it had!  So Ben and Lucy loaded up in the car with Kimi and they went to pick it up.

While they were gone the rest of us made guesses as to where he might go. I guessed Maine or Honduras. They returned in short order, we shared our guesses with Ben and he got down to the business of opening it up:

Ben, ready to open his call

The moment of truth...

I'll let Ben tell you himself:


How crazy is that? Opening a mission call to Hawaii while being in Hawaii? Part of the reason we went to Hawaii was so that we could all go there as a family before Ben left this summer on a mission. In 2 years when he's done George's family will be finishing up their time in Hawaii as well, so we thought this would probably be our (and especially Ben's) only chance to go.  Well apparently he'll be getting as much Hawaii as any of us.  I'm excited for him to go and it will definitely be strange to not have him around for a couple years.  Looking back on my own mission, though, I'm very excited for him to have some great experiences learning about the gospel and about hard work and dedication.  Way to go Elder Tripp! :)

Ben and I were in charge of dinner that night, and thought english muffin pizzas might be a fun idea and would let people customize their toppings.  It was, understandably, a little hard to keep him on task as he was busy sharing his exciting news with friends and family, but eventually we had dinner ready.

I don't recall too much specifically from the rest of that night, other than just playing with the kids and enjoying some time together.  Here's a video I took that night of Austin showing off his number skills. (He doesn't quite understand the concept of counting, though he's pretty good at reciting numbers up through about 11 or 12. Not bad for a 2 year old).



More photos from Day 6.

Hawaii Eleven-O: Day 5

Day 5 started out with another lazy morning, after our late night at the luau and show the night before.  Not entirely sure what I did, probably read my book and played with kids. Eventually, we headed out for lunch from Fumi's Shrimp, one of the various shrimp shacks along the highway north of Laie.  The ponds where they raise the shrimp are right out in the field next to shack, and they even have a tank of live shrimp next to where you order.  We got ordered a variety of shrimp (garlic buttered, spicy garlic, tempura, and coconut) and I was able to sample some of each.  They all were great. I ordered coconut since no one else had and I was the last one choosing. If I had to choose again, I'd have a hard time picking as they were all so good. Probably try to convince whoever I was with to get something different and then share with me.

Fumi's!

Remains of the shrimp

After lunch, we headed up around the end of the mountains and back into the middle of the island to the Dole pineapple plantation.  They have a few different things to do there (Austin would get really excited every time he heard the train whistle), but we settled on doing their maze (not a maze made of pineapple plants though as they're only a few feet high).  George suggested that some us use the maps provided, and another group just try to work through the maze without a map and see who would get done first.  To make things more fair, the no map group consisted of just George, Ben, and Lucy, so not much dead weight in the form of old folks, babies, or pregnant ladies to hold them back. :) I took it on myself to head up the map group.

I took Austin on my shoulders for most of the time, and he enjoyed being up high, reaching out to touch the hedges, spotting helicopters, and bouncing up and down while I was trying to read my tiny map. :) Completing the maze consisted of reaching each of 8 checkpoint stations where there was a stencil for stenciling in a station-specific shape into a corresponding square on the map card.  Austin and Elise really enjoyed coloring in the shapes.

The team with maps

Elise completing a checkpoint

In the end, we completed the maze in just about an hour. George's group got done a little before us, although to be fair, George had done the maze before and had a general idea of where the stations were, so they weren't working completely blind.


The winning team

After the maze, we fed fish food to the koi, shared a pineapple ice cream sundae (I sat this one out), and watched a pineapple cutting demonstration.

Austin reported that the ice cream "tastes good!"

After the pineapple plantation we headed back to Laie, with a brief stop at Shark Cove because Natalie spotted a whale as we were driving past.  We saw a few spouts and I think some people saw more than that, but eventually we loaded back up and finished the trip to Laie.


I thought this service station had a charmingly run-down feel

Happily, not too much later, another whale was spotted from the back patio. And this one put on a show for us, repeated slapping its pectoral fin, probably 10 times or more while we watched.

Mom and Natalie put together a nice dinner of swiss cheese chicken, and then the grown ups (the two married couples and myself) headed over to the nearby temple for a session while Ben and Natalie babysat the grandkids.  Probably the smallest temple I've been to, to date.  Impressive when you think that it was one of the earliest temples built.  A nice end to our night.

More photos from Day 5.

Hawaii Eleven-O: Day 4

We started our first full day in Laie with some good old-fashioned laziness. Well, some of us did at least. :)  George and my dad took off fairly early to go scout out some snorkeling spots, eventually ending up at Kulima Cove, at the Turtle Bay Resort.  The rest of us spent the morning enjoying the view of the ocean and just generally relaxing.  I was able to finish up the book I'd been working on for a few weeks ("The Devil in the White City"), and start my next one ("The Book Thief").  And I hung out with Austin and Elise for a while, too.

Looking back toward Hukilau Beach

Austin spent a significant portion of the morning driving his favorite truck around the patio.

Elise came out to eat her plum next to me

 

And then ended up sharing some of it with her buddy. (A lot of times she refers to Austin as "my buddy".)

Our big agenda item for the day was a visit to the Polynesian Cultural Center, just down the street in Laie, so after lunch we donned our official family vacation T-shirts (pretty much a first for us, unless you count the Wintch Family reunion shirt I got when I was about 4) and headed over to the PCC.  At the PCC they have different areas ("villages") where the different island nations of the Pacific are represented, and they put on shows throughout the day as well as having a variety of activities and educational things to do during non-show times.

Guy climbing a coconut tree during the Samoan show

Fijian Dancers during the double-hulled canoe pageant

Hawaiian hula dancer

The show for the Tongan village featured a drum show where they got volunteers from the audience to drum along with the "drum master".  At the end of each volunteer's turn, the drum master would try to get them to help him with a "Shave and  Haircut... Two Bits!" rhythm. The 3rd volunteer was Chinese and for whatever reason, just wanted to do exactly what the drum master had done, instead of the "Two Bits" part.  It was definitely high comedy as they tried over and over to get him to do it right. He clearly didn't speak much, if any English, but was always enthusiastic in his drumming. :)

China?

The grand finale

Family portrait

At the end of a long afternoon of shows, we then went to a luau buffet where there was plenty of kahlua pork, rice, taro rolls, and other island treats.  Then George took the little kids home and the rest of us stayed for the night show ("Ha: The Breath of Life") that mainly featured the same types of dances we'd seen throughout the day in each village's show, but capped things off with some very impressive work by fire dancers.  Definitely the highlight of the day at the PCC, seeing people spin those flaming batons at blazing speed. Sometimes while sitting on the shoulders of someone else who was also spinning one. Very impressive.

More photos from Day 4

Hawaii Eleven-O: Day 3

After a day and a half of being in Hawaii without even getting my swim trunks on, Monday morning rolled around and we made the most of the day. :)

We started out with an early drive over to Hanauma Bay for some beginner snorkeling.  On my last trip to Hawaii, it was definitely my favorite place that I snorkeled and I still think it probably holds the title for now. For starters, the water is shallow (maybe a bit too shallow this time when the tide started rolling out), there's almost no wave action, which makes for easier swimming and less worry about getting scraped along the reef or rocks, and a plenitude of colorful fish and good chances of seeing turtles. At least I've seen them both times I've snorkeled there.  This time as I wasn't too worried about the snorkeling part, I remembered to bring my disposable underwater camera to Hanauma and was able to get quite a few pictures of turtles and some other good pictures of fish.  The shallow depths and lack of waves made taking pictures at Hanauma easier than some of the deeper, wavier spots we hit later in the week.  Maybe next time I can learn to actually dive down and take some closer pictures in the deep spots. For now I'm staying up at the surface. Oh, and insider tip for Hanauma: If you get there before 7, it's free to get in.  And since I'm usually waking up in Hawaii around 5:30 anyway, at least on my first few days there, it's not really that bad to get there by 7.

Starting things off with a nice Ringtail Surgeonfish

First turtle of the morning

This Pearl Wrasse may have been the most colorful fish I saw there

The crazy thing about Hanauma is how there are really just fish everywhere in the reef. You put your face under the water and they're right there. And most good snorkeling places are like that. On the land and in the air, at least in the places I'm used to being, I'm just not used to seeing that much wildlife up close.

Ben meeting up with the 2nd turtle of the day. Not sure if this is the same turtle as before or a new one.

Nice profile shot of the 2nd turtle

This pair of raccoon butterflyfish had great black & yellow coloring

Wrapping things up with my first encounter with a moray eel. He's back there in the rocks just poking his nose and mouth out.

After snorkeling for 90 minutes or so at Hanauma, we packed up and headed back toward Kaneohe, meeting up with Kimi and the kids at a private beach at Bellows Air Force base for some playing on the beach time. The grandkids had a great time playing in the sand.  Among other things the grownups tried out was renting a sea kayak.  After spilling out a variety of times, we pretty much came to the conclusion that it took at least 3 people to get 2 people into it without spilling. I'm sure with more practice we probably could have figured it out.  Anyway, I think most of the fun of the sea kayak was in paddling it back into shore with the waves. Well, that and watching other people try to get in and tipping over.

Natalie at Bellows

George and Ben boarding the sea kayak

George & Kimi with the sea kayak. Yes, we got the pregnant lady in and out without spilling her once. :)

Burying Ben in the sand

After a nice 2nd half of the morning at the beach, we stopped for late lunch at McDonalds, where the manager hooked up us with some free hot taro pies. Which were surprisingly good in my opinion. Why surprising? I guess because they were purple and taro is a starchy root, kind of like a potato.  Anyway, if you're in Hawaii, I recommend trying them out.

When we got back to George's, we cleaned up, and packed up all of our stuff to head out on our "vacation-in-a-vacation", driving up the coast to Laie to a "beach" house that my parents had rented for a few days. I say "beach" because really it was up on the cliffs above the bay and there was no sand in sight. Don't get me wrong, it was a great place to say and I think extra fun for the grandkids to actually feel like a vacation since they weren't staying at home any more. Later in the week, when told we were heading "home" after a day of activities, Elise asked whether we were going to their house or to "Uncle Jake's Beach House".  I don't know if that makes me the funnest uncle or not, but it seems like a good sign to me. :)

In any case, we got settled in, Grandpa Tom barbecued some steaks and chicken for dinner and we settled in for the night after a long day of Hawaii fun.

Back patio of the beach house. One of the coolest parts was the huge sliding glass door that opened up all the way on to the patio and made the whole downstairs feel like it was overlooking the ocean.

More photos from Day 3.

Hawaii Eleven-O: Day 2

Our 2nd Day in Hawaii was Sunday, and George's family doesn't have church until 1 pm (5 pm Utah time), so we had plenty of time to be lazy around the house, do some reading, and play with the kids until it was time for church.  Church was pretty much like church in Utah, except for everyone saying "Aloha" and the congregation saying it back.  Oh, and the part where the Sunday School teacher asked what a "parable" is and someone said "sounds that make up a word".  :)

After church, we headed back to George's for more playing and for dinner.  George and Kimi were in charge of dinner that night and they put together a quesadilla bar, complete with Napoleon Dynamite sign ("Why don't you just make yourself a dang quesa-dilla?")

Lucy and Elise jumping back and forth between the love seat and the ottoman

Can't believe I missed this photo from Day 2! Austin had lots of fun telling me what letter stands for what. Like "E for Elise!" and "L for Lucy!" He's so smart and so enthusiastic.I've got a video to share from later in the week with him telling me (and quizzing me) about numbers.


Quesadilla time

So, I guess there really wasn't too much photoworthy the first 2 days of our trip, but definitely my favorite part of this trip was just having everyone together and being able to hang out and play and chat. And yes, it was nice to be in Hawaii for that, but I would have enjoyed it just as much pretty much anywhere in the world.  Anyway, the rest of the trip was much more Hawaii-centric.

Hawaii Eleven-O: Day 1

Day 1 of our Tripp Family Hawaiian vacation (dubbed Hawaii Eleven-0 by my mother given that its 2011, and if you count grandchild #4 that's one the way, there were 11 of us there) started at the Salt Lake International Airport, where the security line was a little long but moved quickly and before we knew it we were on our way to the islands! And because our direct flight from Salt Lake to Honolulu was part of an international flight, in-flight movies were free! I watched "Red", which I found to be surprisingly entertaining, if a little silly at times, and then watched "Inception" for the first time since I saw it in the theater. And of course I still loved it, and was left with some questions still. Anyway, definitely a fantastic movie. Free movies made the flight go by pretty quickly, and soon we were touching down in Honolulu.

George, Kimi, and the fam surprised us by coming to the airport to meet us at baggage claim and they'd brought leis for all of us. It was great to see them and the kids after some time away (9 months for Ben and Natalie).

"Ben and Austin are the best!"

We got our bags, our rental car, and headed over to a park in the shadow of Diamondhead for a picnic, some kite-flying, and just some hanging out and playing time.

Diamondhead looking nice and green in the early spring.

Then we took the scenic way around the island to George's home in Kaneohe, where they'd also gotten us each a box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts with a tag that said "Welcome to the Tripp Ohana (Hawaiian for "family") Hotel". We played for a bit and then settled in for the night (Hawaii is 4 hours behind Utah, so 8:00 pm in Hawaii was like midnight Salt Lake time).