We have not seen my mother since we moved to Japan last June so we decided to meet up in Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. She has always wanted to go to Hawaii and I will never turn down a tropical paradise. At first we thought we would be able to take a hop from Yokota Air Base in Tokyo but the flights I was watching disappeared and I got nervous so I looked for cheap commercial flights. We ended up dividing our trip between two airlines. We took a flight from Misawa to Haneda Airport in Tokyo and spent the night there in a tiny business hotel. We had two rooms but the kids had to share one double bed. Poor Bear was scooted out of the bed by her siblings.
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| Japanese bikes are so cool. We saw these cute moms in a park in Tokyo. |
The next morning we took the train (and got a bit confused) back to Haneda. We had a four-hour flight to Beijing,
China. Josh wants to go to China and is
thinking that this is closest he might get.
They had us do a security check just for entering the country and they
confiscated our lithium battery packs for our cell phones and tablets. We felt a little violated. We also bought a new carry-on bag because we
were over the weight limit on some of our bags.
Every time we fly internationally we have had to buy a luggage
piece. I need to start a luggage fund because I never seem to be able to figure it out. We had a 12-hour layover in China
and we got to know Terminal 3 well. We
did homework, ate two meals, played on tablets, played hide and go seek, found
the indoor play area, and walked on the moving walkways countless times. Finally, at 11:30pm (12:30am Japan time) the
kids fell asleep one by one on the benches. And we
still had two more hours to wait for our flight.
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| Josh is pretending he is in China by standing next to the display in the Beijing airport. |
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Out for the count- 11:30pm (12:30 am Japan time)
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| The second one gives in- 12:00am (1:00am Japan time) |
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| And Number 3 succumbs- 12:30am (1:30am Japan time). One hour to boarding |
The flight was 9 hours long, all through the night.
When I booked the flight, the information said that we would arrive in
Hawaii on 10/12, so the same day we left China.
This is because we cross the international date line. So, I booked our hotel for 10/12. Then when I received the flight itinerary, it
listed that we would be arriving 10/13.
I was really confused by this but did not change the condo reservation for fear of losing my spot. My mom’s flight was arriving on 10/13 as
well so that is when I booked our rental car. When we arrived in Hawaii, it was still 10/12 at 5:00pm, just as I originally
thought. My mom had not even left Utah
yet! Regardless of what day it was, we were happy to be arriving at our condo on Bellows Air Force Station.
We were excited to see the beach so close to us. Bellows has a white sand beach with gorgeous aqua water. They have an ITT and Outdoor Rec called Turtle Cove. We were able to rent chairs and boogie boards, my personal favorite thing to do at the beach. Here are a few things I did that day:
When it was finally time to greet my mom at the air port, we had a happy reunion. We gave her a candy lei which my kids promptly ate.
Our first adventure together was to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We went on a train ride that took us around the plantation and it was fun
to see what they grow there. We learned
about the history of the plantation as well.
We went into a beautiful garden and we walked through a maze to find 8
secret sections that represented eight Hawaiian Islands. The highlight was getting the Dole Pineapple
Whip. So delicious!
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| I found a way to do yoga here too. I found a Bird of Paradise. |
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| Yummy Dole Whip |
We drove to Haleiwa, an old
surfing village in North Shore. They
have some fun boutique shops and the famous shaved ice shop, Matsumoto's. I enjoyed seeing the Japanese influence in
some of the flavoring, things that I would not have noticed before we lived in
Japan. Josh bought a cool Matsumotos
shirt with Kanji lettering on it.
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| Two delicious treats in one day! |
We took a trip though the rain forest at the Monoa Falls
hike. It was a lush, green forest area
that never dries out. Jurassic Park and
Lost were filmed inside. It was a slippery hike but very beautiful and the
waterfall was stunning.
We headed over to the Pearl
Harbor memorial. We were led through an automated tour of the museum and it made the experience more personal to hear the accounts of the
tragedy that happened that day. It was
very sobering. Unfortunately, we were
not able to go on the USS Arizona Memorial due to high winds. It overlooks the sunken tomb where so many
lives were lost. The wreckage is only
eight feet down and part of the ship can be seen above the water. We did motor around it on the ferry but we
were all disappointed that we could not feel the full impact by looking into
the water. Bub really enjoyed the
memorial. He is interested in war books
and often checks them out from the library.
He just recently read a Pearl Harbor book so he was looking forward to
seeing the ships he had read about. He
and Josh went on the USS Bowfin submarine together as well. I reminded the kids that Lake Ogawara by our
home on base was a practice lake for Pearl Harbor.
I tried to impress upon them that the only reason we are living in Japan
is because the United States won the Pacific Theater.
Sometimes I do not think that these facts were memorable to me as a
child but I think it will be different for my kids.
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| USS Missouri |
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| USS Oklahoma Memorial |
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| USS Utah Memorial- Josh was able to go to this site because he has a military ID, general public are not allowed on site |
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| The Bowfin Submarine- "The Pearl Harbor Avenger" |
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| The Bowfin Submarine |
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| The Bowfin bell |
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| The USS Arizona Memorial. The black area just above the water is the turret of one of the guns on the ship. |
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| USS Arizona Bell |
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| The Tree of Life |
We drove to the National Memorial
Cemetery of the Pacific to see the statue representing the grieving mother and
the gravestones there. It was a good compliment to the Pearl Harbor Memorials. The view of Waikiki was pretty amazing from the Punch Bowl.
We visited
the Hawaii temple grounds and visitor center.
It is breathtaking, the white building, the blue sky, and the blue
fountains around it. The temple looks
like a tropical paradise all on its own.
I just don’t know how anyone could be unhappy in this beautiful place.
We
spent two days at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We had an Ambassador pass the first day so we went around
with a group and a tour guide. At the
very beginning we met the members of our group by exchanging leis. Pants was paired with a huge Maori man from
New Zealand and when the tour guide said that we had to look out for and stick
with our lei buddy, we noticed that Pants walked right by him. It was funny and sweet to see our little
blonde girl with such a tall, dark, giant of a man. We got some good chuckles about this all
day.
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| Bubs and his lei buddy |
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| Showing off our body art in Aotearora |
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| Weaving craft in Samoa |
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| Pants' lei buddy |
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| Canoe pagent |
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| Fuji |
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| Tahiti |
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| Hawaii |
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| Josh got pulled on stage for the Tonga show. He had to shake his hips, chant, and play the drums |
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| Showing off our body art |
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| Dancing in Tahiti |
In the evening we attended the luau where we had some great food and enjoyed some performances of dancing
and singing. The day was ended with a
show, Ha Breath of Life. There was a
loose story line but each country was highlighted with dance. The most memorable
was the fire dancers at the end of the performance. The kids all enjoyed seeing the ten
performing spinning the two ended fire sticks.
We found that we loved the North Shore. We spent one day beach hopping. We started at
the Haleiwa Beach Park. It was a bit of
a rocky beach but it was in an enclosed area so there were minimal waves. I like the waves but the kids had fun because
they could really swim.
The next beach area we went to was
Shark’s Cove. It is an area with
dangerous undertow but they have an enclosed reef area where we could
snorkel. It was hard for Bub and Pants because they are not great swimmers and we needed to stay on the top of water
looking down at the fish. There were a
lot of rocks and it was shallow in areas.
The rest of us just took turns being with the kids on the shore and
going out. I found it to be thrilling to
swim around with the fish and there were a lot of them. Bear and I followed a school of fish as they
swam. I saw a beautiful big blue fish
and an angel fish. I enjoyed my time
immensely.
Lastly, we went to Waimea Beach Park. Here the waves broke right on the shore and it
dipped down quickly. When we could get
above the break, we just floated with the waves. It was lovely! We had our boogie boards and just stayed on
and floated. We got Bub and Pants to
come out with us because they saw how we just rode the waves. Pants even swam out a few times. The trick was just to time it right. At one point the fish were jumping all around
us and hit Bear and Josh in the head a few times.
It was pretty funny because I thought they were lying at first until one hit me. We played
and floated until the sun sank below the ocean.
We also enjoyed snorkeling in Hanauma Bay. It is a natural
protected reef for snorkeling. Bear has grown into a great little swimmer and
we discovered a lot of beautiful fish together.
Sometimes we were right on top of them as the reef is shallow. We did have a tragedy though,
Josh lost his Air Force ring in the reef.
He looked for it for a while in vain.
It was so sad! On the way back to
Bellows we stopped at the Halona Blowhole, a molten lava tube that sprays water
30 feet into the air.
We went to the Makapu’u Point Lighthouse trail within the Kaiwi State
Scenic Shoreline. This was on the dry
side of the island, so we saw rocky beaches and cactus along the trail. When we reached the top, we had a view of Makapu’u
beach, Koko Head, the windward coast, and in the far distance, Molokai and
Lanai neighboring islands.
We visited the Iolani Palace. We learned about the monarchy and the eventual
overthrow in 1893 by businessmen in Hawaii.
Queen Lili’uokalani was imprisoned in the palace while waiting for the
US to give the power back to the monarchy.
This never happened, and it made me sad.
The building was lovely, and we enjoyed an audio tour to learn about the
features and history while in the palace.
We saw the statue of King Kamehameha who originally united all the
Hawai’ian islands under one rule. We saw
the Kawaiaha’o church, one of the first Christian churches to be built in the
Islands. We also went to Foster’s Botanical Gardens. It is the oldest botanical garden in Hawaii started by Queen Kalama in 1853. It was full of huge and unique trees that we had never seen before.
Unfortunately,
we had to say goodbye to Hawaii eventually.
We had most of our last day to play at the beach by Bellows. I really love, love, LOVE the white sand and beautiful
aqua water there.
Our flight back to Misawa was frustrating. We
took the first flight back to Beijing, and 11-hour flight. At security we noticed that Pant’s tablet was
gone. I just lost it. I was so tired, and I really hated China
because both times we had things confiscated things as we went through security. I went to information and
asked if they could look for it. We only
had about an hour and half until our connecting flight and luckily, our flight
was delayed. They did have the tablet
down in the lost in found. An employee
led me all over the airport toward the lost and found. I had to be given a 72-hour visa even though
I did not leave the airport. We had to
really hurry, and I was scared because I did not know how to talk to anyone and
I did not know what they were saying as they cleared me. When I got to Lost and Found and saw Pant’s
tablet, I was so relieved. I then had to
go back through security again and made it back to my family just in time to
board. I tried to show my appreciation
to the employee as best as I could without being able to speak to her. It was a frantic, stressful dash through the
airport.
The next flight was four hours from
Beijing to Tokyo. When we got to Tokyo, we were told that there was a typhoon
that was delaying flights. We were
delayed three hours there. By now, the
kids were so tired and sick of airports.
We were jet lagged because it was the middle of the morning in
Hawaii. We finally got on the plane and
landed in Misawa around 9:00pm. So, I have to remind myself that we either get cheap flights as we did in this case and deal with all this inconvenience, or we pay most of Josh's salary to fly across the ocean. Regardless, I now have a happy place to go in my mind, the beautiful blue and white of the beaches in Hawaii.
