"Stuck" in Hawaii...our bonus days

The flight that we were hoping to catch from Hawaii to Japan had a roll call time of 2am, so at midnight we carried the kids from their beds to the rental car and said goodbye to our fun little cabin on the beach. We drove to the terminal, made it thru roll call, made it onto the plane. An hour later, while it was still on the ground, it was determined that there was a problem with the plane and we all needed to go back to the terminal. Fortunately this terminal has a family room for those traveling with small children complete with cribs, couches, DVDs and a playground.

We waited there until noon when they finally decided that the airplane would not be fixed that day. Asher and Journey had made friends with two little girls, Kaida and Hiro and their parents ended up inviting us to come wait it out at their house. It was a very kind and generous offer as a hotel downtown would have been expensive. We had no idea that it would end up taking 3 days to fix our plane. In those three days a wonderful friendship blossomed with our new friends Debbie, John and our five kiddos, including baby Kyle.

That first night we had a pizza party on the beach. Did I mention they live right by the beach?!

The next day we went to breakfast then spent a couple hours at their neighborhood water park.

While the guys made dinner, Asher and I went for a walk around the lagoon. We found hundreds of conspicuous sea cucumbers in the water of Pearl Harbor. They were so odd-looking, kind of like a bungee that would stretch and retract with tentacles on one end.

So many of them.

I also saw the largest snail I've ever seen outside of the terminal.

The third day we all went to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet together. If you want to buy souvenirs, this is the place. There are hundreds of booths set up in rows outside the stadium. We bought a couple t-shirts, plumeria hair clips and of course the kids bought another coconut, though this one wasn't quite as fresh as we had at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

We watched people carving wood sculptures.

And I fell in love with a bird. When I first saw this Eclectus Parrot, I thought she couldn't be real. The owners let me hold her. She's from the Solomon Islands. If I ever have another bird, it just might have to be this one!

Finally we had a new roll call for our flight, midnight. John and Debbie drove us all to the terminal and we waited together to board our flight. At one point both Daddy and Debbie were in line while John and I waited with all of our sleeping children. An older man walked by and looking at a couple of the kids said, "aww", then he saw another and another and once he realized we had FIVE little ones, he said, "well you just have a whole litter". Which made John and I crack up. 

They were SO tired after having their sleep interrupted and then playing non-stop 

with their new friends for three days and then having to wait for a 1am flight. Oh man.

Finally we arrived in Japan together. It was so sad to have to say goodbye, but I'm sure we will see them again someday!

Our last day in Hawaii... so we thought

We spent our last day at our cabin on Bellows Beach enjoying the sun, water and making new friends. Asher and Journey met another set of twins, Ben and Nate, who are also five years old, at the playground and spent the entire day playing with them.

While we were here, both kids learned how to master the monkey bars! The trick was having the bars only half as tall as usual, so they had a shorter fall. So amazed by their strength and desire to learn new skills.

Everyday they practiced their cartwheels on the beach. They have yet to fully master this skill yet.

Nate and Ben's grandma is an art teacher so she put together a lesson for all the kids. 

She helped them quite a bit, and their paintings came out beautifully.

Hard to say goodbye to this view and our cute little cabin.

Dole Factory and admiring the streets of Oahu

A visit to Hawaii just doesn't seem complete without a stop at the Dole Plantation. Of course the first thing we did was jump in line for a "dole whip" (pineapple ice cream cone). It was delicious.

We walked thru the gardens and saw many different types of pineapples growing. 

I've heard of the colorful Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree, 

but this was the first time we've seen one in real life. The kids were so in love!

We enjoyed learning about the process of growing pineapples. They plant around 28,000 pineapple plants per acre. They cut off the top of a pineapple, just like you do before eating, and plant the top in the ground by hand. Each plant produces three pineapples. The first at 18 months, second at 32 months and last at 45 months.

Someone was kind enough to give us free tickets to enter the pineapple maze, so the kids and I went thru using a map to navigate to the different stations where you'd do a pencil rubbing of a metal picture.

Driving around Oahu is just fascinating seeing all of the green mountains rising up to the sky. 

 Here's a few photos I took while just driving around.

One day we stopped at a remote controlled airplane lot to watch people fly. I took a walk around to see if I could find any interesting birds and was amused to see this cat sitting in a tree. When I went closer to investigate, I found a whole colony of cats living right here. Most were hiding, but I saw about 10 different ones hanging around. 

Another day we drove past a truck that had 2 large pigs tied to the hood of his truck. 

I guess he'd been out hunting. Quite a strange sight for us.