Hawaii - Day 6
Monday, March 7
Our last day on the island...and a long one at that. We started off with one last visit to the beach. Julie had really gained confidence in playing in the waves, and she and Joe had a blast splashing around.
We took our time and spent almost two hours out there taking turns swimming and playing with Julie. I put on my goggles and tried to swim out and look at the bottom a bit, but I was nervous about swimming very far from the shore (I'm not sure why since I used to be such a strong swimmer - I think it's mostly because I was by myself and didn't have someone to keep me company. That and I'm way out of shape). Where I was, the bottom was pretty boring where you could see it and the water was murky with wave-stirred sand most of the time anyway. If we ever go back, I'd like to go on a snorkeling tour.
Our hotel had a required check-out time of noon, but our plane wasn't scheduled to take off till 9:30 that night. We took our time packing up and eating some sandwiches, and checked out at noon on the dot. We left our baggage with the bellman (is that term politically correct these days) and headed off to the zoo with 7 hours to kill till our airport transport would pick us up. Julie fell asleep in her stroller as we walked towards the zoo, so Joe and I parked her under a banyan tree and sat on a bench reading magazines and chatting for over an hour till she woke up. I even got a little knitting in on my sock. One frustrating part of this day was that the data network for my Sidekick was down and stayed down till after we got home. It sure would have been nice to kill some time surfing the web and checking the weather back home.
Julie woke up after a while and we headed into the zoo. I had slathered us with sunscreen and it was a good thing since the afternoon sun was beating down on the concrete and reflecting back on us. It turns out the Honolulu Zoo is kind of a miserable place, or at least it was for us on that day. There was very little shade, and the poor animals were in depressing cages that didn't seem to mimic their natural environments very well. I took a picture of Joe and Julie in front of the peacock's cage, and you can see from their expressions that they are hot and uncomfortable:
After a while, we were all hot and thirsty and I started to worry about Julie getting overheated. We ended up at the snack bar, which was at least shaded. I had to argue with the woman there to give me a cup full of shaved ice without the syrup so that I could pour some orange juice over it for Julie. I ended up paying for a soda (for the empty cup) a snow cone (for the ice) and the bottle of OJ. I didn't care. I wanted to give her a cool treat without the high fructose corn syrup and the dyes. Bleah. She perked up well after cooling off a bit, and even tried to chase the pigeons around for a few minutes.
The best part of the zoo was a little playground they had - thankfully also well shaded. There was another family using it while we were there, and I think it was a grandmother letting the three kids run wild on the equipment, including a toddler not all that much older than Julie who was for some reason running around in a swim diaper. (For the uninitiated, swim diapers are not meant to be worn while running around for very long. They hold in the poo pretty well, but if the child pees, it's going to drip all over the place) In any case, Julie enjoyed climbing on the jungle gym and sliding down the slide. Joe got a couple of cute pictures:
The hot, tired, glazed-over look in her eyes is apparent to me, but even so she was having fun and saying "Weeeee" as she slid down, then coming around immediately for another turn.
We left the zoo around 3:30 and tried to figure out how to spend the last three and a half hours of our day. Joe and I were both somewhat hungry, but as we walked around looking for an open restaurant we found that most places were closed in between lunch and dinner. Neither of us wanted another hamburger, but we both thought it would be nice to sit on a patio overlooking the ocean. We settled on the grill at the Hilton hotel's patio and burgers for both of us. At least we had bought ourselves something to do for another hour, as nobody seemed to mind us sitting there watching the other tourists and the wedding party going on in the hotel lobby. We kept Julie occupied with eating up all our french fries. I cringe at the thought of how many french fries she ate that day, but we had plenty, she was enjoying them, and it kept her happy eating them as Joe and I sat around relaxing and hopefully reserving some of our energy for the long trip home.
We left the patio with a good hour and a half to kill, and took one last spin through the outdoor marketplace filled with booths of junky tourist trinkets - t-shirts, jewelry, knockoff handbags, tiki carvings, weirdly decorated candles and plastic leis. I actually found a silly little t-shirt to buy for Julie for only $4 and by the time we wandered back to the hotel, it was finally about time to claim our bags and board the van back to the airport.
I've already bored you with too many details...the rest of our travel home was not much fun at all. Joe and I were both exhausted. We slept fitfully on our flight from Oahu to L.A. and took turns getting a bit of sleep in the airport during our layover there. There was a greasy McDonald's breakfast involved, and it took everything we had to keep Julie entertained through the flights. By the time we got home at 4:30 p.m. the following day, we were stanky and cranky. But we made it home and Joe's dad was there at the airport to pick us up. There was a small matter about our checked luggage having been put on another plane and it ended up arriving at our house by courier later that night. But at that point, we were just grateful our luggage had been lost on the way home instead of on the way there.
Overall, it was a wonderful trip. Joe and Julie were at their very best the whole time, and I'd like to believe I was too, although I think - no, I know - Joe was awfully patient with me more than once. Next time, I think we'd choose to stay in a vacation rental away from Waikiki - some place without all the tourist traps and a more natural setting. Some place with a kitchenette where we can make our own meals and a little living room where Joe and I can hang out while the kid(s?) are sleeping. But that's way down the road.
As I write this, we have been home for three days now and are getting resettled into our normal routine. Julie and I have been going to our little classes each day, although she has been asking for Daddy a lot more than normal. I know she loved having him around all day for a whole week. It's been snowing on and off today, and I do miss the sun something fierce. I have to admit I wondered many times while we were there what it would take for us to move there and live comfortably. A pipe dream I'm sure most tourists entertain while visiting paradise.
Our last day on the island...and a long one at that. We started off with one last visit to the beach. Julie had really gained confidence in playing in the waves, and she and Joe had a blast splashing around.
We took our time and spent almost two hours out there taking turns swimming and playing with Julie. I put on my goggles and tried to swim out and look at the bottom a bit, but I was nervous about swimming very far from the shore (I'm not sure why since I used to be such a strong swimmer - I think it's mostly because I was by myself and didn't have someone to keep me company. That and I'm way out of shape). Where I was, the bottom was pretty boring where you could see it and the water was murky with wave-stirred sand most of the time anyway. If we ever go back, I'd like to go on a snorkeling tour.
Our hotel had a required check-out time of noon, but our plane wasn't scheduled to take off till 9:30 that night. We took our time packing up and eating some sandwiches, and checked out at noon on the dot. We left our baggage with the bellman (is that term politically correct these days) and headed off to the zoo with 7 hours to kill till our airport transport would pick us up. Julie fell asleep in her stroller as we walked towards the zoo, so Joe and I parked her under a banyan tree and sat on a bench reading magazines and chatting for over an hour till she woke up. I even got a little knitting in on my sock. One frustrating part of this day was that the data network for my Sidekick was down and stayed down till after we got home. It sure would have been nice to kill some time surfing the web and checking the weather back home.
Julie woke up after a while and we headed into the zoo. I had slathered us with sunscreen and it was a good thing since the afternoon sun was beating down on the concrete and reflecting back on us. It turns out the Honolulu Zoo is kind of a miserable place, or at least it was for us on that day. There was very little shade, and the poor animals were in depressing cages that didn't seem to mimic their natural environments very well. I took a picture of Joe and Julie in front of the peacock's cage, and you can see from their expressions that they are hot and uncomfortable:
After a while, we were all hot and thirsty and I started to worry about Julie getting overheated. We ended up at the snack bar, which was at least shaded. I had to argue with the woman there to give me a cup full of shaved ice without the syrup so that I could pour some orange juice over it for Julie. I ended up paying for a soda (for the empty cup) a snow cone (for the ice) and the bottle of OJ. I didn't care. I wanted to give her a cool treat without the high fructose corn syrup and the dyes. Bleah. She perked up well after cooling off a bit, and even tried to chase the pigeons around for a few minutes.
The best part of the zoo was a little playground they had - thankfully also well shaded. There was another family using it while we were there, and I think it was a grandmother letting the three kids run wild on the equipment, including a toddler not all that much older than Julie who was for some reason running around in a swim diaper. (For the uninitiated, swim diapers are not meant to be worn while running around for very long. They hold in the poo pretty well, but if the child pees, it's going to drip all over the place) In any case, Julie enjoyed climbing on the jungle gym and sliding down the slide. Joe got a couple of cute pictures:
The hot, tired, glazed-over look in her eyes is apparent to me, but even so she was having fun and saying "Weeeee" as she slid down, then coming around immediately for another turn.
We left the zoo around 3:30 and tried to figure out how to spend the last three and a half hours of our day. Joe and I were both somewhat hungry, but as we walked around looking for an open restaurant we found that most places were closed in between lunch and dinner. Neither of us wanted another hamburger, but we both thought it would be nice to sit on a patio overlooking the ocean. We settled on the grill at the Hilton hotel's patio and burgers for both of us. At least we had bought ourselves something to do for another hour, as nobody seemed to mind us sitting there watching the other tourists and the wedding party going on in the hotel lobby. We kept Julie occupied with eating up all our french fries. I cringe at the thought of how many french fries she ate that day, but we had plenty, she was enjoying them, and it kept her happy eating them as Joe and I sat around relaxing and hopefully reserving some of our energy for the long trip home.
We left the patio with a good hour and a half to kill, and took one last spin through the outdoor marketplace filled with booths of junky tourist trinkets - t-shirts, jewelry, knockoff handbags, tiki carvings, weirdly decorated candles and plastic leis. I actually found a silly little t-shirt to buy for Julie for only $4 and by the time we wandered back to the hotel, it was finally about time to claim our bags and board the van back to the airport.
I've already bored you with too many details...the rest of our travel home was not much fun at all. Joe and I were both exhausted. We slept fitfully on our flight from Oahu to L.A. and took turns getting a bit of sleep in the airport during our layover there. There was a greasy McDonald's breakfast involved, and it took everything we had to keep Julie entertained through the flights. By the time we got home at 4:30 p.m. the following day, we were stanky and cranky. But we made it home and Joe's dad was there at the airport to pick us up. There was a small matter about our checked luggage having been put on another plane and it ended up arriving at our house by courier later that night. But at that point, we were just grateful our luggage had been lost on the way home instead of on the way there.
Overall, it was a wonderful trip. Joe and Julie were at their very best the whole time, and I'd like to believe I was too, although I think - no, I know - Joe was awfully patient with me more than once. Next time, I think we'd choose to stay in a vacation rental away from Waikiki - some place without all the tourist traps and a more natural setting. Some place with a kitchenette where we can make our own meals and a little living room where Joe and I can hang out while the kid(s?) are sleeping. But that's way down the road.
As I write this, we have been home for three days now and are getting resettled into our normal routine. Julie and I have been going to our little classes each day, although she has been asking for Daddy a lot more than normal. I know she loved having him around all day for a whole week. It's been snowing on and off today, and I do miss the sun something fierce. I have to admit I wondered many times while we were there what it would take for us to move there and live comfortably. A pipe dream I'm sure most tourists entertain while visiting paradise.
posted by Shelly Kang at 9:12 PM
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