Stay Tuned For the Conclusion Of...

I'm thinking this 3rd post should wrap-up the Hawaii business!

One morning we trekked up the mountain-side to this historical land-mark.

This place totally brought tears to my eyes and heaviness to my heart. The pictures do not do justice to the scale of these ruins. To think that thousands of people spent their life hauling these heavy rocks up the mountain to build this temple...out of fear. They felt they must make sacrifice to their gods or suffer punishment. This place was at one time a HUGE temple. Countless Hawaiians and Westerners were murdered here as sacrificial offerings. The reality of it just touched my heart--such a lost people.


On a lighter note, we found an amazing beach where Humpbacks were breaching...again...and again...and again. It was AMAZING.




Alek and Walt and I chatted with a young couple who had a 1 year-old baby girl. She was adorable and I wish so much I would have taken a picture of her and Alek playing together in this sandy little tide pool (above.)

We saw whales several days...they were doing their thing in the distance beyond Shark's Cove the days we hung out there, too. Here's my mom and Keiki standing on the little bluff above the Cove. The whales were beyond the rock barrier.

And speaking of Shark's Cove, here's another miscellaneous shot of Keiki and Walt playing there in the water on a different day. Those two had a pretty special bond. I'm pretty sure "Uncle Walt" turned to mush every time Keiki reached his pudgy arms up to be held by him...

We met SO MANY neat people on this trip! I love that about traveling with a baby. Babies are the best "ice-breakers" in the world, aren't they? Here's my keiki playing with 2 year-old Mark from Pennsylvania:

Betty volunteers on Turtle Beach as a naturalist/educator. She had to work one afternoon so Mom and I went down the road to Shark's Cove for the day. Betty called us, totally excited because there was a "baby" turtle there along with two snuggling adults. Here are the snugglers:

...and the baby..... Awwwww!

In addition to being a honu naturalist, Betty is an amazing jewelry artist. She makes jewelry from her beach-combing finds. She totally spoiled my mom and I and made us each two sea glass/silver pendants:

Gorgeous, huh? (Shameless plug...)

One more amazing sunset shot. Our friends live one block from the beach, so Mom and I ran down to catch some pictures over the water one night:


Funny how when you reach a vacation destination, it feels like you have all the time in the world spread out before you...and then you blink....and it's time to go home again. I totally loved every moment of this trip, but I was excited to get home to my guys, too.

On the day before we left, Walt and Betty told us we were free to go...but the baby would have to stay with them!

Sorry, Guys. The baby goes with the mama! Aren't they just the cutest couple? Such gracious, kind hosts and friends.

Somewhere over the rainbow...we headed home to Alaska...

With one quick lay-over in Seattle:

My happy, traveling baby! I am SO thankful that on every flight, God placed very kind, children-loving people in our seat row with us. We met 1. a teen-aged boy who was overly generous with sharing his picnic pack with us 2. A very kind Japanese? man who as far as I know didn't speak English but made many kind gestures toward Keiki (pictured below), and 3. a 40-something father of 2 boys from Anchorage.

So that's it for Hawaii photos, folks....that is, until next year. HA HA.

More Aloha 2010!

One more shot from Jessica's Beach:

That one will be going up on our wall. :)

You just can't beat Shark's Cove for taking little ones, particularly if the wind is blowing. It's clear, shallow, and protected.

Keiki loved the water, particularly playing with the boogie board in the water! He crawled right up onto it and then proceeded to stand on top of it. I'm sure he'd be a gifted surfer dude if given the chance!



Incidentally, Shark's Cove is also a great snorkeling spot, which suited me just fine. I could spend day after day in a mask and snorkel. Sort of creepy in some ways, but how amazing to see underwater creation!

There was a little "excitement" going on early in the week. The ocean and critters therein are to be respected:

Look at this amazing pineapple field! Isn't it beautiful?

I saw these little pineapples with a renewed fascination this time around. Betty mentioned to me how cool it is that in each plant there's the old and the hope of the renewal...

I took the pineapple pictures on the way down to Kailua. I love this little outdoor restaurant.

They have GREAT tropical smoothies!

I have a photo of my mom and I in front of this same fountain two years ago.

Here we are! How amazing to think--there was no Keiki Honu yet! I had NO idea I'd be in that same spot two years later with a precious baby son...

Kailua Beach was super-windy that day, but you can't win 'em all. We stayed just long enough to snack Keiki and then headed out. For him, beach = food + POG.

Felt a little slap-happy that day:



And I'm pretty sure it took me about....36? tries to achieve the desired effect of this photo of China Man's Hat Island:

I was totally intrigued by this Civil War-period sugar mill:

Reminds me of Scotland or something....not sure why...


From another morning walk....ahhhh... These Spider Lilies were amazing and smelled just like Lilacs:



Then on to Ka'ena Point for some 4-wheelin'. We are an adventurous sort. :) Actually this photo doesn't look real impressive, but I'm still feeling a little jostled from the foot-deep ruts.




We took Betty's Jeep out to Hidden Beach. We had the beach all to ourselves. Betty is a beach-combing extraordinaire; however, I found the mother-lode on this trip! I just happened upon a glass bottle cap from an1800-1900-period apothecary bottle. Apparently, the expensive medicines, perfumes, elixers, or poisons were kept in such bottles. The cheap ones had cork tops. Remarkably, a few glass tops remain intact. It was really amazing to hold that in my hand and think, "Who was the last person who held this?" It made for a great history lesson when I came home. The boys are CERTAIN it came from a pirate's ship. Who knows?

It took a couple of days, but Keiki and Millie made friends:

Ka'ena Point is an amazing place. You're on a relatively narrow strip of land with beach and sea on one side, and emerald mountains on the other. It's a beach-comber's paradise, and there are new discoveries to be made around every bend. Most of the beach is lined with lava rock, which creates tons of little coves and tide pools. There are critters EVERYWHERE--anemones, crabs, tropical fish. It's a super-fun place to spend a day....or several days...

On the way out I had to stop for a picture of this cool Yucca:

After the Yucca pic, we maneuvered our way past all the vehicles and equipment used to film Lost. My mom and I tried desperately to figure out HOW IN THE WORLD one could be lost on Oahu. Sigh. The magic of television (I guess anyway... I've never watched Lost.) Ok so once again I thought I could wrap things up in this post, but I'll need to let the sun set here and keep you guessing until tomorrow!