Maui - The Second Island

Day One:
The first day on Maui, we went whale watching, and it was AWESOME! We were in the middle of whale season in Hawaii, and by all accounts, we went out on the best day of the year. About 10 minutes into our trip we saw our first 'breach' - when a humpback whale jumps out of the water and lands with a huge splash. We were told that this was the grand-slam of whale watching. This must have been all star whale weekend because we were witness to about 50 breaching whales during our 3 hour trip.

These pictures don't do it justice, but they are still impressive.





Who knew 40-ton whales could jump this high?



After seeing about 40 whales jump out of the water, Jonas got a little tired, and took a little nap.


At the end our boat captain told us if this is our first whale watching trip, we should stop now, because it will not get any better.

We also drove around the island to get an idea of what we wanted to do for the next 4 days.



You can actually see the top of a whale in this picture just behind the tree.





Day Two:
Letha and I decided to try surf paddling. We saw several people doing it along the shore next to our condo the day before, and it looked pretty easy - on a calm day...

Not as easy when the wind and waves kick up. It was pretty rocky along the shore, so Letha and I started to paddle out past the rocks while laying, sitting or kneeling on the board. About 100 yards from shore we see this huge head pop up 5 feet right in front of us, Letha screamed. It was a HUGE sea turtle. Its head was as big as mine. It took a long time to get out past the rocks. Over the next hour or so, we tried to stand up and paddle - unsuccessfully, and you will notice that there is no video of this, because by the time we got back to shore, our video crew (family) was 3 miles back up the beach where we took off from. We were exhausted and we both had cuts on our feet from getting knocked off the board onto the rocks. Since no one knew where we were and we had no cell phone, Letha walked back on hot concrete to get the car and I stayed with the boards. Not as much fun as we had hoped. We will probably try again...someday - maybe on a lake.




Not sure why, but we could not convince anyone else to try out surf paddling.

Day Three:
Our big hike was in Haleakala National Park. It's about a 12 mile hike through a huge dormant volcanic valley, with cinder cones and lots of lava rock.

Here is our hiking crew:




A view from the top:

Here is a pretty large cinder cone.


And this is a rare species of Silversword that can only be found here.


Here is McKenzie hiking back up to the top.


Here is a small lava tube:


We stopped to have some lunch.


McKenzie and I went to check out a cave up on the hill.


We had a visitor for lunch, the state bird of Hawaii the Nene - Hawaiian Goose


Day Four:
On our last day on Maui we decided to do a little more sight seeing. We went to see the Needle in Iao Valley State Park. The needle is a 2250 ft peak in the Iao Valley.






Off to the Big Island...

The First Island - Oahu

Day One:
The first day we started everything off at Mac 24-7 Resaraunt and Bar in our hotel. They had my favorite - pancakes! 3 14" pancakes for $15. And if a single person finishes them in under 30 minutes, they get them free!


I tried but could not finish them. Mommy and Daddy tried to help me out too, but we still could not finish them.

Next we were off to visit the Dole Pineapple Plant located on Oahu.




We took a train ride around the grounds of the Pineapple plant, you know how I like trains!




Mommy had to leave to go to a work meeting, so we spent some time in the largest maze in the world - according to the 2008 Guinness Book of World Records. It took a while, but we found all the hidden shapes, and had a lot of fun.




When Mommy returned from her meeting we were off to the North Shore.



When we got there we found out they were having a Surf Competition. We watched for a while, but soon Daddy and McKenzie came up with a new competition - Touch the rock while avoiding the big waves.



Day Two:
The next day we were off to Hanamu Bay to go Snorkeling. I didn't do much snorkeling, even though Mommy and Daddy said it was nice. I was more interested in making sand castles.







Hiking Koko Crater - Try Number 1
That afternoon while I was taking a nap, half the group went out to go for a little crater hiking. After some quick searches they found Koko Crater. Mommy read some guys blog and found a potential hiking trail to the top.


After a short climb, it was clear that this was not the safest trail - it would have involved a little rock climbing with no gear, so everyone headed back to the car.





Hiking Koko Crater - Try Number 2
On the way back to the hotel, mommy saw a few things moving on a path on the side of the crater. It was people! So everyone decided to try and get the hike in before dark. When they arrived they saw that it was an old rail track and people were climbing to the top - 1200 feet straight up a hill. It was 6:00 and sun sets at 6:30, and we were told it took about an hour to get to the top and back.



On the way up we saw an excellent sunset and Daddy saw his first sunset green flash.





On the way down it got pretty dark. Daddy and Mommy had to use their cell phones as flashlights to see.

Day Three:
On our last day on Oahu Mommy and Daddy, went to Pearl Harbor memorial to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers, and learn about the attack that brought the United States into World War II.



U.S.S. Arizona Memorial

Back from Hawaii

Well we had a great time in Hawaii. It was a long trip 3 nights on Ohau, 4 nights on Maui, and 4 nights on The Big Island. We had 8 people in our group - Grandma and Pa-Paw, Aunt Kelli and Uncle Kris, my cousin McKenzie, Mommy and Daddy and Me. Here are McKenzie and I getting on to the airplane. Yes, that's us leading the group, plus I wanted to show everyone my new backpack. I can carry lots of important stuff as you can see Baby Ugly Doll in the side pocket, and you can't see him, but my puppy is on the other side.



More to come from our trip soon...

I think I have a real problem!

Yes, here I am asleep again! It is hard work riding bikes...I didn't think anyone would notice with my sunglasses, but Daddy said I was quiet for far too long...





Anyway, we had a great bike ride, 68 and sunny is not a bad way to spend a day outside in late January (Sorry to all you all my coast buddies, but you should come visit).

Adolescent Narcolepsy

It is a real problem!

Do you Yoda?

I keep my parents highly amused with my new Yoda dialect. Some of my favorite (and most useful) phrases include:

"The park and big slide, tomorrow we will go."

"Buy milk at Safeway, maybe we should."

"Eat at Ronald Donald's, today maybe we will."

Guess Yoda translates pretty well, because we have plenty milk!

Where Google gets its brains!

As I was driving down the 280 today (well, technically Daddy was doing the driving) - I snapped a picture of a car we passed. Where did you think those maps came from???

Google Brains