Rewind and Fast Forward

Looking back through my pictures, I realized that there were quite a few things I failed to blog much about the past couple weeks, like our trip to Chinatown or our visit to Pearl Harbor. Chinatown was worth seeing, and I have a few pictures from the trip that I will send out on Snapfish, but it definitely wasn't like going to Chinatown in San Francisco or Seattle. Pearl Harbor, on the other hand, never disappoints. Incidentally, we went on September 11th, so they were flying all flags at half mast. I absolutely love this picture of the kids under the flag, with the beautiful storm clouds in the background.

We didn't tour the Arizona on this day because we had the kids with us, but there is a ton of other stuff to look at, read about, and play on (for the kids anyway) at Pearl Harbor. The weather was perfect and the place wasn't too crowded, so it made for a good visit.

As you know, last week we spent two nights at some beach cabins not too far from Brian's work. And let me tell you, we had the BEST TIME EVER. It was such a cool place to stay, not too expensive, and the kids had an absolute blast. I purposely didn't take even one regular toy for them (just some sand buckets, a stack of books and their new flashlights), but it didn't make any difference because they wouldn't have needed them. They had so much fun just hunting for shells, building castles, hiding in the closets of the cabin, checking out bugs, and looking for all sorts of "treasures." And as a result of them having so much fun, we had a great time too. The cabins come fully equipped with two air-conditioned bedrooms, all linens included, a kitchen fully stocked with dishes and everything you need to cook, a bathroom with a regular shower (woo hoo!), and there was even a television with cable (that we didn't use too much). It was sort of a good compromise between regular tent camping versus staying at the Hilton . . . sort of an in between. The cabin was right on the beach, had it's own BBQ and beach chairs, and it is even in a gated area because they are located on military property (which means they are pretty safe). It was such a cool experience that I would encourage any future visitors to try it out . . . just let me know if you are interested as far in advance as possible because they book up pretty quickly.

Here was our view from the back patio.

Here is a front/side view of the cabin . . . okay, so it doesn't look like a traditional "cabin" . . . more like an apartment . . . but it was still good . . . clean and pretty comfortable.

These are some cool tide pools that we found nearby that were perfect for the kids to swim in.



My naked babies . . .
Somebody was a bit worn out from the day's excitement.




So I guess that catches us up to the present. On Monday we are leaving for our first ever inter-island trip, to the Big Island. The first two nights we will be staying on the windward (eastern) side of the island, at the Kilauea Military Camp in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. While we are there, we will probably do a little hiking and try to see as much of the volcanoes as we can, and we will also tour the town of Hilo while we are on that side of the island. Then we will head over to the other side of the island, where we are going to stay two nights at the Hilton Waikoloa Village, and while we are there we will also check out the town of Kona. We can't wait to get out of town and relax for a few days, and the kids cannot wait to see a volcano because not only has Dora seen a volcano, but the Wonder Pets have too. And if the Wonder Pets have seen one, then we MUST see one too. :)

So things might be a little quiet from this end for a few days, but I promise to fill in the blanks when we get back. Until then!