East Coast Oahu

We got up this morning at about 8. I thought about what time it was in Utah and decided the children should be about to St. George. I was surprised they were only in Cedar. We texted for a minute and then Aaron sent this text: "You have reached our atomatic texting system. The party you are trying to reach is not available. See you on the blog." Aaron hasn't been too thrilled that I brought my phone. It has been good though because we got some calls confirming some reservations. Other than that we haven't been using it.
We were off by 9 and went to the Halona Blow Hole. We had good timing there. There weren't a lot of people at the time and the blow hole was doing it's thing. We tried to figure out when it would "blow", but that wasn't as easy as you would think. We only stayed 10-15 min. and it didn't seem to be doing much anymore and there were suddenly a lot more people.
We then stopped at a place where we thought we might see the Makapu'u Lighthouse. When we got to the lookout Aaron automatically started talking to some Italians. He asked if he could take their picture for them and then talked about why he knows Italian etc. They were from the Milan area and touring all the islands here. They talked for about 5-10 min. and then we were on our way. While they were talking I walked around and couldn't find the lighthouse. We drove down the street about 1/2 mile and could see it from the road.
We had tickets to go to the Sea Life Park. We had won one of these tickets on Tuesday at the welcome breakfast. We saw some stingrays and a lot of fish we had seen in the ocean. Then we came upon the dophins and Wolphin. This is the only wolphin in the world. We watched some people having their adventure in the water with the dolphins. We watched the people move the dolphins from tank to tank. This was the best part. We watched a dolphin blowing air rings and swim through it. We saw turtles and sea lions too, but all this was very anti-climatic. After been in the water with all these animals the day before and seeing how happy the wild animals are, these just didn't seem happy and too caged up. We were there about 2 hours.
We then went North up the East coast. On our way to Chinaman's hat, we found a Macadamei Nut Farm. Or we thought we did. The sign is a little misleading. We paid $20 each to go on a tour. As we waited we found some raw nuts to open. That was fun. The raw nut made my mouth itch though. I got 4 extra to take home to the kids. Our tour guide was hilarious. He was always saying funny things and making wise cracks. We saw a lot of plants and trees; flower and fruit plants and the macadamei nut plant. We got to pick some starfruit and eat it. It is really good. That was our lunch today. We also saw where they filmed "Lost", "Fantasy Island", "Giligan's Island", "Off the Map", "Mighty Joe Young", "Jurasic Park", "50 First Dates", "You, Me, and Dupree", and "Pearl Harbor". There are many shows filmed here and this is all I can name tonight. It's a beautiful place and very famous. Our tour guide showed us how to start fire with just wood, what "material" to use when making a grass hula skirt, we smelled the ginger root flower, MMMMMM, and a little how they use the Ti leaves here. He also showed us how to open a coconut. I wasn't shy this time and got to drink the juice. Aaron and I both liked it. We then tasted the fresh coconut. I'd eat coconut if it always tasted fresh. That was way good. The tour guide also did a fire dance for us and gave all the women a crown with a hibiscus flower. Aaron got to blow into a conche shell. He did a great job. He was an excellent guide and we were very happy with the tour.
We then went to Chinaman's Hat. The wind was blowing a lot and it had been raining on and off all day. The original plan was to Kayak to the island but we didn't have any way to rent one. We talked about snorkeling over but with the wind and current and everything we decided against it. I was dissappointed we didn't get over there but we did get as close as we could without getting in the water.
We then grabbed something at Burger King (it was after 3:30 now) and went to Nu'uanu Pali Lookout. When we rented the car the guy said we had to go here. The wind was sooo hard, you could lean into it without falling. The lookout was great but cold, raining, and VERY windy. I didn't want to stay very long. One of the locals said it is always windy like that there.
We no longer had our directions to Manoa Falls so we went into Honolulu where we found Hilo Hattie. This is the company that made my hawaiian dress that I love. It is a very expensive store and I can't believe I got my dress for less than $20. We then did a little shopping for a CD that I've been wanting to get. I didn't like the price at the "ABC Store" so we looked at "Sam Goody's". It was a dollar less there. We decided to look at Walmart and see if they had it since we were going there anyway. Apparently at Walmart they have vendors who bring in the CD's and stuff and so they didn't know when they'd have it or even send it store to store. Bummer. It would have been $3-4 cheaper there. We went back to SamGoody's to get the CD in the long run. We tried to find "Coconut Pudding" at Walmart too. That's the white dessert both of us like. They didn't carry that either. What a cheap Walmart. We did get Aaron some material though to make him a Serong. They didn't have sub sandwiched at this Walmart so we went across the street and got Subway for tomorrow's food. We are still trying to keep the sabbath the best we can.
We had Panda Express for dinner and got smoothies at the mall where SamGoody's is (Aaron's Ocean Breeze and mine Strawberry Pina Colada).
My right arm has a rash or something all over it. This is the same arm that lady rubbed $160 lotion all over. I'm hoping it's not bug bites. I don't know where I got it but they itch. Aaron is tired and wants to sleep all the time. I guess he's not used to going quite so much. I'm tired too, just not nearly as much. Tomorrow will be a nice day. Hopefully the weather will be too.

Day 6 Activities Photos:


Halona Blowhole: