Hawaii Vacation - Days 7 & 8

On that Saturday of our vacation, we went to the big swap meet at Aloha Stadium.  The swap meet encircles the entire stadium.  It was fun to walk around and see the different things the vendors had for sale.  Below is a picture of Josh at one of the shops that sold different polynesian swords.   We were able to get some fun souvenirs to bring back for the kids.  We had a plate lunch at one of the food stands there, and then we also bought some coconut drinks and fresh guava.  The guava was very interesting.  The flavor was really good, but it was full of all of these hard little seeds, so it was kind of a pain to eat.  Fun to try though!

Guava:

After the swap meet we went to Pearl Harbor.  It was neat to see the memorial and learn more about what went on during the attack and afterward.

For dinner we ended up finding a Samoan market.  We wanted to try some authentic Samoan food while we were there.  We got some purple sweet potatoes in coconut milk, bananas in coconut milk, Poke (sashimi with vegetables in a coconut milk sauce - kind of like cold soup), and Palusami which is taro leaves filled with a coconut filling.  I think traditionally it has corned beef, but the ones we had didn't.  It was all really good!  The Samoans love coconut milk (and so do we!).  :)

After dinner we had to take one last walk down to the beach and watch our last Hawaiian sunset.

After the sun set we took one last walk through Waikiki and got a few last souvenirs.  We also got some yummy dried coconut!

On the last day of our vacation, we packed up all of our things and checked out of our hotel.  It was funny because in the parking garage there was a little older Japanese lady who worked at the booth.  Every day Josh would jokingly ask here if we could have a discount on parking because it was SOO expensive.  The last day she really did let us go without paying.  :)

We then headed to Waipahu to meet up with one of Josh's old friends, Johnny.  We went to church with him and then Josh was able to visit with him for awhile.  I have no idea why I didn't think to get a picture of them!!

We went and grabbed some breakfast at another polynesian market - spam & egg musubi with pickled mango (better than it sounds haha), palusami, and we decided to try one of the Samoan pies that we had been hearing about.  Those were pretty disgusting actually.  They looked like one of those hostess pies, only HUGE.  They were filled with a yellow goo that was sweet, but otherwise flavorless.  The crust was very bland.  Needless to say, we didn't finish that one.  :)

Our flight didn't leave until the afternoon, so we had some time to kill.  We drove downtown and went to Chinatown.  We had never been to a Chinatown before, so it was kind of interesting to see.  Shop after shop just packed together.  It was interesting because each little street seemed to have a theme.  One street had all beauty parlors.  Another one had all florists.  Josh and I mainly looked through the produce shops.  We were hoping to find a mangosteen fruit, but found out that we had just missed the season.  We bought a few unique fruits to try - a dragonfruit, a eggyolk fruit, and some longon fruits.  The big thing in Honolulu's Chinatown is Bubble Drinks.  They are pretty much a fruit smoothie with marble-sized black tapioca pearls in the bottom (the "bubbles").  If you notice the picture, the straws are huge - big enough that you can slurp up the tapioca pearls through the straw.  The drink itself was pretty good, but I wasn't a huge fan of the bubbles.  They were almost like slurping up a big flavorless gummy bear. 

After we finished walking through Chinatown it was nearly time to head to the airport.  On the way there we drove past the Iolani Palace and the Aloha Tower.

The flight home went well.  It was weird because we left at sunset in Hawaii and with the time changes, etc, and arrived in Las Vegas after sunrise.  The flight was long, but went well and we were able to get some sleep.

Josh's dad picked us up at the airport.  We had one mishap.  Our luggage didn't make it to Vegas from Hawaii.  Apparently it was still there!  They ended up sending it to our house through FedEx.  Luckily we just had one suitcase that was checked.  After we got that straightened out the best we could we headed back to St. George to see our kids!  We were all so excited to see each other.  That was a long time to be away from my kiddos and the first I'd been away that long.  I hadn't been sure how Quinn would do, but he ended up doing really well!  When we got back, he looked at us like, "Whoa, I remember you guys." Definitely not as excited to see us as I thought he'd be. :)  

We spent the night and headed home in the morning.  It was such a nice vacation, and nice to be home too.

Hawaii Vacation - Day 6

That Friday morning we got up and went to the Keaiwa Heiau State Rec. Area to go on the Aiea Loop Hike.  We met some people in the parking lot who had just finished and they told us it was a two hour hike.  So we found the trailhead and started on our hike.  (Actually, we ended up unknowingly hiking the trail backwards, but it worked either way!)

The forrest was full of eucalyptus trees.  It was so neat to see them!  You could smell them as you walked too.  So cool! This is a picture we took of one of them:

This trail was SO cool.  Once again, moss and ivy covering everything.

Well, the people who told us about the hike at the beginning must have totally booked it through the hike because it took Josh and I over 3 hours!  Granted, we were stopping to take pictures here and there, but it was definitely longer than we thought.  We came out covered in mud, but it was so much fun!  Such a beautiful hike. 

After our hike we were pretty hungry, so we just found a restaurant that was nearby.  We ended up going to one called the Highway Inn.  We didn't know it until we got there, but apparently it was a restaurant featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives from Food Network.  It had a big signed poster of Guy Fieri on the wall.  The food was pretty good.  I had their Kalua pork sliders and Josh had their chicken laulau combo.

After lunch we headed up north to see the Dole Pineapple Plantation.  When we got there, we saw these cool trees.  They looked like they were painted, but they were not - that's how they all looked naturally:

We saw all different varieties of pineapples at the plantation:

This is a red colored variety:

We went on this little train ride tour through the plantation.

We got to see all different kinds of tropical fruit trees.  This one was a lychee tree:

Papaya tree:

Some of the pineapple fields.  We learned all about the history of pineapple and how it came to be grown in Hawaii.  

Pineapple harvesting machine:

We even saw a rainbow!  Pictures never do them justice though. :)

Sugar cane:

Mango tree:

After our tour we tried some of their pineapple ice cream.  I'm not usually a

fruity ice cream fan, but this was pretty good!

Next, we drove back to the north shore and went to Laie to see the temple.  It was so pretty and peaceful there.

We then drove up to a nearby beach to watch the sunset.

After the sun set, we stopped by a nearby fruit stand.  We bought some more papayas and apple bananas, coconut juice in the coconut, some fried bananas (it was a banana wrapped in a egg roll wrapper type thing and fried.  It was pretty good!  We also got a bag of sugar cane to try: