vACATION sUMMARIES

The gang (minus me)await their bus ride to begin the vacation!






Pearl Harbor. Up early in the morning to go see Pearl Harbor. Oldest sis's hubby made arrangements for the shuttle ride $8 person. Once there, we were in group 3 and wandered around the museum before our "movie" started. It was really informative and even narrated by Ms. Rizzo (Stockard Channing) herself. The short boat ride out to the memorial was a little on the quiet side. Once there, pics and videos were taken. You can actually really see the boat really well under the water. A little bit un-nerving, but on the same side, not. Can't explain. Knowing that the thousands lives that were lost that day and didn't make it out of that ship is something. Definately a something to see kind of thing in your lifetime.







The point of land that extends out into the ocean is called, "Laniloa". According to legend, this pennisula was originally a "Mo'o" or lizard standing upright ready to kill any intruder.

After Kana, a lengendary warrior had rescued his mother from Molakai and reutrned her to Hawaii, Kana set out on a journey to kill all the Mo'os in the islands. He arrived in Laie where the Mo'o had been killing scores of people. Kana easily defeated the Mo'o. He took the Mo'o's head and chopped it into 5 pieces and flung them into the ocean.
That's what at least the legend is out there. The actual rock we're standing in front of according to a book about the island is the head of the lizard but the hole that is in the middle of it was caused by the 1946 tsunmai.
That's a pic of me , the boy and the girl!




On Friday, we all rented mini-vans and toured the island. Stops were Haunauma Bay, the "fake" blowhole, the "real blowhole" (story and pic to come later), Giovanni's orignal famous shrimp truck, Chinaman Hat, Laniloa rock, and Dole Planation. Here is our people in our van. That's Gma, baby sis and her 2 girls and me. We had a nice ride. Can't say that everyone else did though :)






On Sunday, we all went snorkling at the bay. Now that was fun. So much fun that hubby went back on Monday by himself to snorkel for 4 hrs. I've never snorkled so when my head went into the water I started to almost hyperventilate. i was almost gasping. It was strange but I got the hang of it. My kids were like fishes. They really liked it. Gma wasn't going to get into the water but figured she'd have time to get dry by the time we left. And boy did we dry. At the end of the day, not a one escaped severe sunburn. We all had lotion on , but by the tiime the two whitest of the white kids got back to the hotel, they were lobster red. Not red, more like purple, the rest of were all red. While we were there, we heard a big "thump" and looked up to see that a big ol whales tale was slapping the water. It was sooooo big and loud. That was really cool. Not sure if anyone got pics of that or not. I know I got it on video though, but hubby was taping so i'm sure it's a Blair Witch video of the tail.
Here's a pic of Gma looking for fishies the ol traditional way! She didn't want to put the snorkle on at all.