And so began the long journey home.
So long a journey that we were all far too tired to take pictures of it except this one... it's the only way to fly!
As soon as we arrived home, I couldn't wait to pull out the two older ukuleles and compare their sound to the new uke on the right...
Cari was about to jump in the shower and was so excited to see her tan in the mirror that she wanted me to take a picture of her dark arms against the part of her body covered by her shirt...
It's not a great picture but it was the only one appropriate for a family blog. However, for $39.95 there is a DVD you can order.
As everyone was too tired to cook or make anything, we headed off to a brand new family restaurant right down the road. As you can see, Malia still eats her hot dogs in a most unusual way...
She thinks the bun is just for holding the hot dog...
I think our family has found a new diner for quick dinners -- Bob's Big Boy...
Unfortunately, Alyssa didn't join us for dinner because she said she wasn't feeling well. Either that, or she was just off being a teenager.
'Nuff said about that.
We let the kids watch television (something they really haven't done at all over the last three weeks) so we could get busy with the first phase of unpacking. We have so many suitcases that we're doing it in phases!
So it was only about 6 p.m. at home -- and really only 3 p.m. in Hawaii, but I think the last three weeks or so has finally caught up with Nalani...
And David...
And Kekoa -- look at how bright it is with the sun shining in the windows...
And even Bretty...
Who somehow managed to continue to hold the remote control even in his sleep.
In Hawaii, I had the opportunity to dig through an old box of stuff my mom had left downstairs in the Rumpus Room. We brought back a lot of it with us.
Unfortunately, there wasn't anywhere to display the stuff.
Or more appropriately, there wasn't anywhere Cari wanted to display the stuff.
So it was off to Home Depot to buy some new shelves to be built in the only room Cari would let me put this stuff out...
An homage to that greatest of all teams...
Books, videos, DVDs, collectors isues of Sports Illustrated, and classic playing cards of the Dallas Cowboys!
It's so very good to be home. Of course, central a/c kinda helps too.
Okay, it's not a Kamaka, but hey, it's still a nice uke!
My father once owned a couple of Kamaka Ukuleles which were absolutely beautiful. For the uninitiated, a Kamaka is the best kind of uke you can buy.
Unfortunately, one of my sisters obsconded with most of them, but there was this nice uke which was sitting under my parent's piano. It had no strings, no bridge, and no pegs -- but with a whole bunch of visits to Music Mac's and little work on my part, it's sounding pretty good...
It's actually a baritone uke (that's why it's so big), but I only know how to play a tenor. A baritone uses the first four strings of a guitar. A tenor is the traditional ukulele which uses a completely different set of strings and chords. So I restrung my new uke as a tenor but because of the baritone body, it has a very nice full sound.
Anyway, this is exciting for me since I'm taking the uke home! I have two others already, but neither is as nice as this one.
This is one of those lay around days, so Alyssa was showing her younger brothers and sisters pictures of themselves from our various days of vacation...
They were loving it immensely. And as we were searching for a few nice pictures to post for today, we noticed a distinct pattern of poses on the part of the three youngest kids -- Kekoa, Nalani & Malia. It seems the older kids will do whatever we ask them to when posing for a picture, but the younger three have to be who they are no matter what!
Consider, Kekoa.
If you look back through all the posts, Kekoa always is striking a goofy pose. Whether it be a kung-fu move, a power rangers super battle move, or jumping on his pretend surf board...
Kekoa always strikes a pose! He'd make Madonna very proud.
Nalani, on the other hand, absolutely loves having her picture taken and is ready to pose at a moment's notice.
Upon looking through all the countless pictures we never posted on this log from our trip, you can find lots of them like this...
Or with Nalani smiling away...
Or showing off her flower jewelry...
Or otherwise feeling really happy in front of the camera...
Just like Nalani in real life, her pictures always show her smiling!
Malia's pictures, on the other hand, run either hot or cold -- just like her.
This little girl likes things to be the way she likes them. She is, to put it politely, the quintessential Bicoy.
She can be giddy and happy at one moment...
Then be completely annoyed when you ask her to pose and she's not in the mood...
Okay, maybe we've seen that particular pose once or twice before...
The best part, though, is when you put Nalani and Malia in a picture together when they're in differing moods...
Nalani is posing and grinning away while Malia just looks at her like she's completely nuts.
Anyway, as the sun was setting in the sky above Pearl Harbor as seen from our parent's deck...
My brother James came over to start up a fire and set up a fine little meal. Of course, Jimmy is as meticulous and particular a cook as you'll ever meet so it's no mechanical tasting gas grill for him.
Jimmy brought out the old Weber and even cut up some Keawe wood to help give the meat a nice flavor...
Between Jimmy, our father, and a friend Richard Arakaki, the steaks and teriyaki were grilled to perfection...
Although the kids were ecstatic that Uncle Jimmy thought to cook up a few corn dogs as well...
And as has become a very bad habit over these last few weeks...
Yet another really unhealthy (but really, really good) meal under the stars.
It's going to be awfully hard to go back to salads next week -- but after this trip to Hawaii, I need it more than ever!
Here is a site you don't see very often in Hawaii...
Okay, yes, my family, but I was referring to the trees.
In 1877, King David Kalakaua had a row of Ironwood Trees planted near Waikiki through which he would regularly ride his carriage. He named the park itself after his wife, Queen Kapiolani.
Right across the street, though, is something the kids enjoyed immensely -- the Honolulu Zoo.
Their favorite exhibit, without question, was the White-Handed Gibbons. These South American mammals mark their territory by swinging in the trees and calling out for all to hear...
Seriously, these monkeys wouldn't shut up...
David thought they were the coolest animals he had ever seen in his life.
This sign, however, worried me more than a little...
"In case of an emergency, this way to the safe zone."
Exactly what emergency were they talking about at the zoo? And why would we need a "safe zone" to escape the emergency?
Thankfully, we left the big man-eating animals behind shortly thereafter to explore the Keiki Zoo -- which is a zoo for children...
I think they have children on display in cages or something.
After the zoo, Cari picked a restaurant on the second floor of the building at the corner of Kalakaua and Kapahulu -- which is the prime corner across from Waikiki Beach. It's hard to see in the picture, but it does give you a hint of the incredible view...
After we ate, we jumped back in the van and changed our clothes so we could hit the beach at least one last time...
This time we brought sand buckets and shovels, so a lot of time was spent building castles...
Which eventually led to the digging of holes.
Which meant that something had to be put in the deepest of those holes.
Which meant that something eventually became someone...
Although I think they gave me bird's feet...
On the way back to the car, we passed a statues of Mohandas K. Gandhi in Kapiolani Park...
What Gandhi has to do with Hawaii, Queen Kapiolani, or Waikiki Beach is never really explained, but Kekoa and Nalani clearly enjoyed posing in front of it.
Although if you want adorable, look at my oldest boy and youngest girl...
Okay, that's why we have six kids. Sometimes they actually get along!
After going around Makapu'u and the southeastern tip of the island of O'ahu, it seemed only naturaly to head out to Haleiwa and go round the northwestern tip as well.
Of course, no trip to Haleiwa is complete without a stop at the overpriced tourist trap known as the Dole Plantation...
The weird thing is that they haven't grown pineapple in Hawaii for years -- it's much cheaper to do so in South America -- but the tradition of Dole still runs strong in Hawaii. After all, it was Jim Dole who moved to Hawaii a century ago and founded the company that would eventually become the giant fruit company we now know as Dole.
When I was a child, there were huge fields of pineapple from which you could occasionally (and illicitly) grab a fresh one or two from plants closest to the side of the road.
The first time I did that, my cousin Dart sent me into the middle of a field because he said there was a really juicy one he wanted -- sort of like Kekoa here below, but with a much fuller field of pineapples...
Then, while in the middle of the field, Dart starting yelling, "truck!" Which meant the pineapple farmers saw us and were coming to chase us away. So I started tearing through the field toward our car. Unforunately, I was running through a field of sharp spines like this...
Only to find Dart laughing at the other end. "Never pick the pineapple from the middle," he laughed, passing along his sage wisdom since there was no truck at all.
Dart is a real funny guy.
Anyway, the Dole Plantation is now home to the world's largest maze -- at least according to the Guiness World Book of Records...
It is the absolutely huge maze of some 1.7 miles of trails -- most of which I think we covered...
The object is to explore the maze and find six "stations" where you mark your card proving you found it. Here are the boys after finding one of them...
It only took us 36 minutes to complete the maze. Only.
The girls stayed behind, exploring the gift shops, and clearly buying a few flowery things...
The weather turned a little cloudy, so we never actually hit the water, but we did reach Haleiwa for a picnic. When I was a kid, my father would get together with his brothers Stanely and Joe for an enormous Sunday afternoon meal at Haleiwa Beach Park right at this very corner where we ate...
In what is becoming a typical practice, though, Bretty, David and the girls eat sandwiches while our son Kekoa in the middle below shows how "local" he is becoming...
He's the only one brave enough to eat sushi with me!
Kekoa loves exploring and posing, like here on the rocks at Pupukea...
And we reached the enormous Mormon Temple at Laie...
With the girls posing a bit more closeup...
Laie is home to BYU-Hawaii, a branch campus of BYU in Utah. In fact, the Polynesian Cultural Center -- the most highly attended tourist attraction (that you have to pay for) generates revenue for the LDS folks.
The road around this part of the island could make you easily forget that the sprawling city of Honolulu is on this same island...
We finally ended up at the Valley of the Temples...
Where everyone rang the giant bell at the Byodo-In Temple...
To help awaken and enlighten us before standing before the giant statue of Buddha...
The Valley of the Temples is one of those places that just makes you feel more peaceful just standing there...
Of course, once we were at Grandpa's any thought of a peaceful evening went out the window...
Malia was desparate to climb on the wall...
So she crawled along to be with her brothers...
And thankfully Grandpa Bernie was there to offer a steadying hand...
Although eventually they just found themselves sitting around...
However, Cari found something in the paper which freaked her out just a bit...
It appears that Hurricane Daniel is set to arrive later this week...
Just as we are to fly out of Hawaii!
She is dreading the trip. I figure that maybe we'll get stuck here for a few more days!
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