Hanauma Bay is the reason why the children hanker to go back to Hawaii. It was memorable for me because I mindfully played with the children for once and the fun time we had stuck in my brain. In 2013, I had herniated discs and basically couldn’t lift anything heavy. How bad? If I didn’t take things easy, eventually my right foot would start tingling, signaling compression of a nerve. Not good.
Itinerary: Hanauma Bay, Ala Moana Shopping Mall
This morning, after some fitful sleep by both kids, they woke up at 7 and 8am. We walked to the corner Micky D’s for some breakfast. Other than the breakfast sandwich we got, I couldn’t resist the Eggs, Spam Rice combo. Astroboy liked it. Thumper wouldn’t try it.
I couldn’t decide if we should rent a car for the day to go see the island, check out the luau show at Polynesia Cultural Center, or just go to Hanauma Bay. I wanted to do an easy day where we don’t walk much so my back can rest. So we came back to the hotel to do some research. Unfortunately, same day car rental is way too expensive and time was running out, so we rushed out the door again and walked to the bus stop to go to the beach.
Even walking takes way longer with 2 kids. They like to stop and climb on top of bicycle shaped bicycle rack whenever they see one. I was in a hurry because I’d heard Hanauma Bay fills up w/ people and cars early. We luckily made it to the bus stop with 1 minute to spare.
Astroboy thoroughly enjoyed the bus ride. And both children counted the number of palm trees in the median strip as the bus whizzes by them. He has been really into counting to 20 in both English and Chinese lately.
We hopped off one stop too soon because some people got off and I thought this was it. I’d forgotten that the end point for the #22 bus WAS Hanauma. So we ended up having to walk down to the parking lot. The kids liked the required video we had to watch about not stepping on coral reefs. I’m really thankful Thumper had learned about recycling this semester in school, because she really took to the message.
Unfortunately, since none of us can really swim or snorkel, the fish we saw in the video was way diverse and better than what we saw the rest of the day. We got to the bay around 10am probably and didn’t leave till 4pm. It’s easy to lose track of time when you’re playing.
It took a long time for Thumper and Astroboy to get used to playing in the water. But by the end of the day, Astroboy was semi kicking in the water while holding onto me and Thumper swam without strokes. She didn’t want to do that for some reason. Of course, neither kids wanted to leave. But both fell asleep half way home in the bus.
We took a transfer bus home. Why didn’t I discover the bus yesterday? The bus system is pretty good other than the fact that the bus never comes even when it says it will. Kind of expensive though ($2.50 adult, $1.25 child). I’m glad we took the bus instead of renting a car, even though the parking lot wasn’t full at all since it’s light season and a Friday. It would have saved me from my blister on my toe. Well, this is what happens when I don’t plan in advance. I have a knack for getting lost or wound up not doing much except staying in the hotel and watch TV. We’ve gotten semi lost 3-4 times already in the last 2 days.
After shower, we took the bus to Ala Moana where the kids had some Loco Moco Don (2 hamburger patties egg over rice with sauce) and some Curry Don. The public food market at Ala Moana has lots and lots of Japanese food, they even take Yen! The kids had more ice cream and Jamba Juice. I think Astroboy is being sustained by smoothies of various sorts the last 2 days. He has been such a trooper all day even though he’s barely taking naps. But maybe we shouldn’t have tried to potty train right before we left cuz we’re having some issues on that front now.
We came home and tried to crash. But somehow the kids still didn’t go to sleep till 9:30pm, which is like 11:30 PST. I guess they’ve adjusted to the time change.
All in all a very good day. I find that I’m finally slowing down a bit, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to take a trip with the kids; to be more mindful when I’m with the children rather than be on the phone reading emails or news. Basically with my mind elsewhere.
I had not planned to spend the whole day at the bay. Normally I’d be bored after an hour or so, as I tend to not want to play with the children, and being forced to be their only caretaker slows me down more. I barely used my phone and I played with Astroboy in the water, not thinking of anything else: where we have to be, what we have to do. I was just there, in the moment, enjoying his laugh and sharing his joy at being able to float in the water.
Now the bad news. Dragging Astroboy around in the water, or holding into him while he slept , or having a sleeping Astroboy on me while I lug two bags down the bus, has done my left hand in. This is the worst it’s been. The tendons are in a lot of pain and the hand can’t move at all. This needs to all away by tomorrow somehow!
