Saturday

The fam at Benne Hanas last night, Aloha!

This is where we started off our Saturday:

Notice how excited the whole fam is:

Stay awake for me Kora:Taylor says, 'huh?' And here is Kora, all smiley and sweet and ready to eat:
Picture this as Erika, she hates me taking pictures of her so I don't anymore, Kora will be her stand in:
Skip, adding up all the receipts he has accumulated on our trip thus far and wondering if our credit card will make it:
Not such a good thought when he hears the word, 'shopping': Kora's hair braided after we waited over an hour for someone to get to her, long story, but it sure looks cute on her:And YES! Erika did get three chairs saved by the pool this morning at 6:00am! So the girls lounged by the pool and the boys played catch in the ocean, until they began to chaffe so they HAD to go shopping for new swim trunks. The girls played:
For a chance to win this:Back up to the room and this is what Skip finds:Guess who gets in on the game:
Now look at the two of them!

Road Trip Day

Today, we were to go on our snorkeling adventure:

Here we are waiting at the hotel bus depot for our adventure:These are the rest of the tourists waiting for their adventures...let's just say it was not a very good system of identifying who was to go where and so on:Then we find out, after waiting 45 minutes for our guide, that the weather is windy and overcast and if we still decide to go, we won't see anything in the water when snorkeling. Also, the tide was too rough to boogie board, SO we cancelled our adventure and decided on a road trip around the island:Just thought I would throw in this picture of an interesting bird we saw on our way out: Our first stop, Hanamo Bay. Beautiful scenery, this is where we would have gone snorkeling:
More stops along the water, the water was so blue:"I'm not understanding what you are saying about a blow hole": Oh, that blow hole!The youngins'
The end of our road trip, hope you enjoyed it too: Now it's time for the beach, just what Erika wanted:

Kora building a much bigger tower than what we saw close by:
Taylor misses the pass:
Skip says, oh darn it!
Just like home, I did five loads of laundry. Taylor was my runner and helper and change maker. We got all but one load done before dinner at Benie Hana's. We plan on sleeping in tomorrow morning, but Erika really wants to sit by the pool, but you have to wake up at the crack of dawn to claim a seat as they are marked and all taken for the entire day! I took this picture of the pool chairs at 6:30am:
We wish everyone a wonderful weekend! Love to all!

Wednesday Night and Dolphin Day

Ok, really I'm more on the ball than you think and I am taking pictures. It is just this blogging thing that I am not good at AND I did have this post all ready to go and then find out I posted it on Erika's blog! Who knew I couldn't post on my blog when Erika was signed into hers?!!! Ugh!! So, take two...actually more like four!!

Wednesday night, we did some more shopping. First, had to show another rainbow outside our hotel room:

Kora has sure 'grown up' hasn't she???

Taylor, wow Hawaii really works for you and wow wa wee woo Erika!!

All of my 'kids' playing' Ukalele Hero' Kora sittin with her new friend

Now for our Dolphin Day: We started the morning with a stroll to iHop at 6:20 in the morning. Come to find out some sticker shock comparing iHop prices back home as to here in Hawaii so here is our receipt from breakfast. Not too much in a hurry here, as we waited and waited for our bill. Then find out later that the fruit bowl was not taken off as our wait staff said she would take off since the fresh fruit, yes here in Hawaii, was not 'ready'...then they didn't have hot chocolate but we were still charged for it...

Then we all got cheered up by our driver for the Dolphin adventure. His name is Sunshine, really it is. He's 64 years old and asked Taylor how strong was he so Sunshine tested him on his strength and quickness. Taylor failed according to Sunshine

Sunshine loved Erika and Kora and tested the two on their quickness. Then this is Sunshine showing how strong he is. This was his second time doing this, as I wasn't ready with my camera the first time he did it. He then he did it a third time for the other participants:

We were sad when we found out Sunshine wouldn't be our driver the whole way to our dolphin adventure but we did learn a lot about Hawaii along the way from our new driver and saw some beautiful country.

We all swam with the dolphins. We got to pet and kiss the dolphin as Erika is demonstrating here:

We then got to have a dolphin 'belly ride'. This is where we grabbed onto the dolphins fins while he was on his back and you hold on tight! Our dolphin was named Maui. Kora is demonstrating the belly ride:

Erika said this is me, blending in like all the Japanese tourists in my funky outfit and peace sign. I thought I looked like I was a triathlete in my swimming gear:
The sea turtles eating lettuce and celery, there were lots of them in this area:
The boys enjoying the view of the ocean and watching a surfer trying to catch a wave.

Then the dolphin show started, but not before everyone scattered under the bleachers because it started to pour down rain!

You learn something new everyday. We learned that here in Hawaii, there is the only known 'whalphin'. Pronounced like it is spelled. It is a half dolphin and yep, you guessed it, WHALE! The mother was the dolphin and the father was the whale...cha! So this is the picture of that whalphin, may not look any different than the other dolphins, but this whalphin weighs 800lbs. compared to 400lbs. his half sister weighs...they share the same mommy. The whalpin also is much darker in color:
This is Erika not letting me take her picture(who does that remind everyone of...)

This is Erika before her tanning hoping she will turn into the Hawaii'n goddess that she is. Been funny with the locals thinking Erika is a local and a native Hawaii'n. She even titled her blog 'Erika visits her 'Homeland':

Taylor is going to try his hand at boogie boarding...now why is it that knomie thinks he can do it too? We have been having a wonderful vacation so far. So much walking and this island is so much different from Maui, but still great to experience Waikiki. We have a lot planned while we are here, new adventures and old adventures. Tomorrow we are off to snorkel. We miss everyone back in the mainland states, but ya know we are liking it here too.