Just 5 Moores: Moore's Hawaiian Adventure: Preview

The shores of Makaha

Before I get into the huge task of downloading all of our pictures from Hawaii and really getting into the blog of our trip, I thought I'd just give a little preview of our time there. I love Hawaii, and I think my boys have fallen in love with it too.

After the first trip Tom and I took to Kauai, it became a dream of mine to get to bring the boys and spend a family vacation there. Tom and I also wanted to get to explore some more of Oahu too. When we decided to make it a reality, we saved up and saved up for this trip. The older boys helped to pay their way, which was the real reason we were able to make it happen.

One thing I love about being on the islands is how it makes me feel. Living here in Eastern Washington, the air is so dry most of the time. It reeks havok on my sinuses - and both times that I went to the islands I left home with a sinus infection. The air there is humid, and feels soft. It smells good too, because of all the flowers that grow there year-round. So after about a day in that climate, I really start to feel better. My sinuses clear up and I can BREATHE, my skin feels softer, my hair is softer... it just feels good to be there. Tom and the boys felt the same way too.

This time we were able to spend two weeks on the islands. The first week was in Oahu, which is where Honolulu is located. We stayed in Makaha. It is on the west side of the island and is fairly isolated from the rest of the tourist side. We felt right at home - it's a no-rush, quiet lifestyle there. Makaha is also where a large population of the Hawaiians live and we being white people (or Ha'Ole) were in the minority there. Some of the reviews we read about Makaha said it was a bit of a ghetto, and it is obviously a bit more depressed economically than say Honolulu or the north side of the island. But everyone we met there pretty much kept to themselves or when approached by us with a question, were friendly. We saw lots of families spending time together camping and fishing off the beaches. Family (O'Hana) I would say is very important to them from what I saw. We loved Makaha and would definitely stay there again.

We spent a couple of days driving around Oahu. It's not really that big of an island so it was easy to just drive completely around it with plenty of time to stop and see the sights. We also found out that if you want to get from the south to the north FAST you take the H3 highway. We accidentally got stuck on it while we were trying to find Pearl Harbor. Once you're on H3, there's no off ramp until you get to the north by Kane'Ohe. Then you can find an off ramp and get back on the H3 - which goes straight through the mountains in a huge tunnel - to get back to Honolulu. This probably is quite confusing to read, but in reality it's quite simple. If you get on that road, you don't stop until you're on the other side of the island. And it doesn't take very long to get there using the H3, 10 - 15 minutes tops! We did eventually find our way back to Pearl Harbor and had a very nice time there.

Another activity we really enjoyed was snorkelling. Winston and the boys learned to snorkel at Shark's Cove. Yes, I was a bit dubious about swimming in a spot with that name, but it was actually a very nice place. They say it was named not because there are sharks there, but because of the shape of the cove. We also just happened to be on the islands during 'Shark Week' on the Discovery channel, which the boys made a point of watching when we were having some downtime at the condo. They thought it was great fun to turn it on the TV and scare me. While we were on the islands there were two incidents of sharks biting people. One on Oahu, the other on Maui. We saw no sharks, for which I am grateful because I'd probably have had a heart attack.

We also went to the Dole Pineapple plantation. We were there too early to get to go in the shop or do any of the 'pay' activities, but they have a nice garden that we were able to stroll through and get pictures of pineapples growing and the beautiful flowers. I have to say you haven't really had a pineapple until you've had some fresh, vine-ripened pineapples from the islands. They are soooo much sweeter, juicier and less acidic than the ones we get at home. They ship them green to the mainland, so we don't get the full ripeness here. Going to Hawaii is something I highly recommend to do at least once in your life - if for nothing else than to taste a truly ripe pineapple!

The second week of our vacation was spent in Kauai. We took a jumper flight and joined Paul, Amber, Keirstin and Marcia in Princeville on the north side of the island. Princeville is a very nice resort area just to the east of Hanalei. Hanalei is a gorgeous, untramelled part of Kauai - although it seemed pretty tramelled the week we were there because they were having some boat races and a LOT of people were there.

While on Kauai we all got to do some fun and amazing things. There was the good old days at the beach, enjoying the sun and swimming in the waves and snorkeling. Then there was hiking the Na-Pali trail. Some of us went to a Luau and some went Kayaking. The boys joined Paul & crew on a Catamaran ride. So many things, the week went by quickly. I'm excited to post more about it all with pictures! So many wonderful memories.

We learned a little more of the hawaiian language, and I'll probably use some of it in my posts, so here's a little list of some of the words we learned to use...

O'hana - Family (oh-haunna)

Ha'Ole - White person (hah-o-lay)

Wahine - Woman ('wah-hee-nay' by the locals or as we

mainlanders seem to like to say 'why-hee-nee)

Kane - Man (kah-nay)
Bruddah - Brother (brah-dah) what the hawaiian guys call each other, sometimes shortened to 'Brah'.

Aloha - Hello, Good-bye, until we meet again (au-lo-hah)

You probably already knew that one.

Mahalo - Thank you and Your welcome (mah-hah-lo)

Pupu - Apetizer or snack (poo-poo) - I know, ewwww...

but this was a popular phrase with the boys.

Kapu - Something forbidden or really bad (kah-poo).

In the old days if you comitted Kapu you were

condemned to death.
I also saw a bumper-sticker that said "No Boddah Me".

Today we are kind of recooping after the long flight home. We lost 3 hours, and the guys had to get up early today to help with a college fund raiser. I will try to be timely with posting the pictures and telling more about our trip. It was such a great time!

And how did things go while we were gone?