Whoohoo for O’ahu!

Whoohoo for O’ahu!

We have commenced our Hawaiian adventure, this time travelling as a team of five. Nathan and I, plus Lily and Nathan’s parents, Phylis and Bebee. Phylis and Bebee are celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary with this trip, and we are honoured to be celebrating life with them. 

We have spent nearly a week on the island of O’ahu, in Waikiki, and it doesn’t seem as if any time has passed at all! 

But I’m getting ahead of myself. I know your real question is, “how did the flight go with your perpetual-in-motion toddler?”. We took the advice of all our expert parent friends and packed books and toys, snacks and treats galore. We really didn’t end up using all the stuff, but we are happy to have had access to it all. The flights to Honolulu were both around 6 hours each, with a two hour layover in between. It really couldn’t have been arranged better. Lily napped for about an hour on both flights, the first one because we got her up at 3am. (Where she was so happy and thrilled to be going “up up high” on an “aeeeerplane”) and the second one because it was actually around her regular nap time. She played with my iPad and some games I downloaded. She watched a bit of Cars on the first flight. She ate lots of snacks, played with her cars and coloured. She got a little rangy towards the end of both of flights, but who doesn’t at that point? We are so blessed with a happy, easygoing baby. 

This is the first “big” trip we have attempted since Lily has come along that resembles in part the way we used to travel, pre-baby. Our road trip when she was 3 months old was pretty good, considering we were still figuring out how to be parents. Cuba, the following summer, was boring! :) We are ready to get back to it, which involves lots of moving around, activity and wandering. It helps a ton to have the extra pairs of hands with Gram and Grandpa who enjoy spending time with Lily Bean. It also helps to have a baby who’s ready to go - who upon getting up from her nap, immediately hands you your hat and shoes and says “ooussside Mommy?”

Let’s get back to O’ahu then! The place we were staying, was described differently by each member of our party, including “bohemian, dirty, wow! And eclectic”. It was a fun place, a very old building with lots of nooks and crannies to explore. Lily was happy there were chickens, big fish in a pond and a cat who sat on the roof. 

We were in a great location, 700 metres from Waikiki beach, which we walked back and forth from a couple times a day. 

Waikiki beach was stunning.  There was a great long stretch that had a break wall, allowing the huge waves to chill out a bit before coming in to shore. Thankfully, this time Lillian did not cry at the waves, or the sand.  She jumped right in and loved splashing, digging and swimming. Her reported favourite part of this trip was the "wa-teeeer and sand!"
Nathan tried to surf, but the waves were really too big for him. He says he got a good nose cleaning, instead. 
The area was lovely, with fantastic trees, including a big banyan tree to play in. Lots of restaurants and touristy things to look at.  it was your typical big city beach town. One remarkable thing to note was the large presence of apparently homeless individuals. Many of these people seemed to have mental health challenges, and so navigating around/past them was sometimes a bit finicky. What I did notice was that very few of them were actually begging for anything. Many had beat up cars to sleep in and really, if you had to choose your location to live, sleeping beside the beach actually seemed pretty nice. 

We did do some hiking. One day about midday we slogged up to the top of Diamond Head crater. It was a hot hike with too many stairs, but it was worth it to be perched on the top of a volcanic crater looking down at the city and beautiful many blues of the ocean below. 

Another day we did a hike to Manoa Falls, at a higher elevation in the rainforest. This was a slippery scramble at times, but every second was worth it to see the gorgeous sweeping views, colossal trees and pretty tall and narrow waterfall in the end. Lil was happy enough in the wrap carrier on Nathan’s back for both those hikes. 

Because we are travelling with Nathan’s parents this trip, and they don’t mind spending time with Lily we got to dive together again, which is nice to dive with a buddy that’s familiar. We dove on a wreak called the Sea Tiger, an old cargo ship, that shipped among other things, illegal Chinese immigrants. It was purposefully sunk to create an artificial reef and offered some neat, intact swim through. One of the members of our group used his air really fast and unfortunately we had to come up after about 17 minutes. I still had over 2000 psi left! The second dive we did was on a reef that was not very special, but it’s always a good day when you’re diving!! 

One day while Phylis and Bebee were golfing, Nate, Lily and I went out to the Kualoa Ranch. This was a spur of the moment trip and we really regret not being aware of this place to book some activities. It was spectacular. The property is massive - three mountains are part of it!!  Imagine - I own a mountain. It is still owned by the same family line that first purchased it, when property became something you could own. It has many many uses - cattle, taro, exotic flowers and has been the set for many movies. I was very excited to find out that many scenes for Jurassic Park were filmed on the site. Specifically, when Grant is running away from the herd and jumps over a log and hides. They have the log!! This place is one for the books - to return to! 

Later that day we went to the Dole Pineapple plantation and learned all about growing pineapples in Hawaii. It was Disney-like, but fun. 

One day we attempted to go to Pearl Harbour. Being the ignorant tourists that we are, we typed in "Pearl Harbour" into the GPS.  It took us to the actual working military base, where Nathan's driver's licence was confiscated and we were escorted off the property - with directions on how to get to the Arizona Monument.  Once we finally got there we were able to wander around the impressive monuments, plaques and celebrations of American military wonder and might.  It was an interesting study in prose. The Arizona monument's dock that you can walk out on was under repair, but we did take a boat trip around the harbour and listened to the story of how that dramatic day came to be.

Highlights of O’ahu

Jessica - hiking Manoa falls in the rainforest, watching a modern hula dance presentation, watching Lillian enjoy playing at the beach. Eating pineapple. All the beautiful flowers and greenery everywhere. 

Nathan - Waikiki beach. 

Lillian - playing in the “waaTER and sand”

Phylis - the beach. Walking around Waikiki. Learning about pineapples at Dole. All the hiking. Picturesque views on the golf course. Taking Lily to the zoo. 

Bebee - The golf course. Diamond Head views. 

Lowlights of O’ahu

Jessica - The heat, as always, and completely forgetting to go to the Iolani Palace (the only Royal residence on American soil)

Nathan - the plane ride there was long and tiring 

Lillian - missing her nap and having to adjust her sleep schedule. 

Phylis - the homeless people around the city. 

Bebee - falling down stairs and hurting his knee.  :( 

That wraps up our time on our first Hawaiian Island! Two more to go!

go!!