Sunday and Father's Day

The watch below is what the kids gave to their dad for Father's Day plus a huge coffee mug since a regular size mug doesn't work for him anymore. Probably looks tacky to some, but we love it. Hopefully it will become a  precious keepsake in the family as this is our first time ever.

Our Sunday was pretty laid back. After lunch, we decided to ride some paddle boats at the nearby marina. Unfortunately, although the website did mention about the boats, once we got there nobody seemed to know what happened to them, not the front desk lady, and especially not this  one old man  with lots of tattoos who looked like a grumpy Willie Nelson who was supposed to help us with the boats, but was too lazy/drunk to even get up from his seat. What a bummer! Can somebody update the website please?  

I think that our next impromptu plan was even better than the boats. After passing by the place for millions of time hoping to go there at least once before we leave the island, finally our wish came true that Sunday (our wish = me and the kids :-)) 

 

The State Fair!

The boys' favorite ride. It makes them feel like they were flying high.

I would not ride this thing again! I felt like losing all my lunch and just closed my eyes throughout the entire ride. The boys didn't like it either.

Brothers 

Another favorite ride

Didn't taste as great as it looked. And the price - a whopping $5 per stick!

Diamond Head (Le'ahi) State Monument

We went hiking at this place somewhere in mid Feb (**googled the 2 pics above =)). It was totally a sunny day but for once, I didn't complaint about the weather (when I first got here, all I did was whining about how hot it was although I knew it was in fact summer time), in contrary I think it was perfect! It was breezy all the way and the boys had fun running all the way to the summit. The two older boys reached the top probably 15 minutes earlier than the rest of us. The trail length is about 1.6 miles round trip and it took us less than 2 hours to complete the hike.

A little background information about this place - The name is Le'ahi, an ovoid-shaped crater believed to have been formed about 300,000 years ago during a single, brief eruption. It covers 350 acres with it's width being greater than its height. The trail to the summit of Le'ahi was built in 1908 as part of the U.S Army Coastal Artillery defense system. Diamond Head Fire Control Station was also built at the summit between 1908-1910. The word Le'ahi Hawaiian means fish forehead since the summit resembles the forehead (lae) of the 'ahi' or tuna fish (now that reminds me of fresh poke - yum!) Nowadays Le'ahi is more commonly known as Diamond Head as in the late 1700s, Western explorers and traders who visited Le'ahi mistook the calcite crystals in the rocks on the slope of the crater for diamonds.

Pretty blue sky. See the mountain? That's where we went. The place where we parked our car, the trailhead is located on the crater floor at an elevation of about 200 ft.

One of the pretty views on the way up.

Walking on concrete portion of the trail is much easier. The dirt trail is much steeper but is not difficult since the boys could handle it. Ezzat was slower than his brothers though and was with us all the way up. By this time, Emir and Farhan were no where to be seen since they were so much faster.

The first tunnel - we had to climb steep stairway to get to this point. It's a narrow one, about 225-foot long according to the information leaflet we got.

This is the second stairways - 99 steps! The cross-beams above supported camouflaging as this place was used as a site for coastal defense of O'ahu.

At the top of the stairs is another tunnel which is the entry to the lowest level of Diamond Head Fire Control Station.

There is also a spiral staircase that we had to climb to get to the exit of the crater.

And this is the beautiful view we came upon once we're out! Thank god for that coz I began to feel a bit claustrophobic with the small narrow spaces.

See the space in between the ground and rock/concrete? That's where we exited. The slit is pretty narrow in height and we had to bow really low to get in and out.

Look closely to see the light house.

Going to the uppermost level of the Fire Control Station

View of the crater from the summit.

View of Honolulu from above.

One of the viewing stations



The not so fun part for me

I see light at the end of the tunnel!

Going down the 99 steps was way easier but looking down at the height - yikes!

Some views on the way down. Almost back to the Comfort Station!

Overall it's not a difficult hike, in between easy to moderate, and the kids had fun especially Emir. Here's Ezzat looking a bit tired.

Fun time climbing up a tree. It's the boys' first time!

Emir thinks he looks like Alvin in Alvin and the Chipmunks

I really want to ride that trolley one day just for fun before we leave this island =)

Our House

This is our previous apartment. It's pretty small for five people but it's easier to manage. It has 2 bedroom, one bathroom - the whole area is probably around 650 - 700 sq ft and it has coin-operated washers and dryers on each floor. What I like about it is that it's a low rise apartment (only 3 floors) so it's pretty convenient to get down to the car plus it's inexpensive.

This is our current apartment and it's just one block way from our previous place. We just moved in on the 26th Feb. It's so much bigger, same number of room and bathroom, I think it's probably around 1000 sq ft with a nice view of the mountains. This is the view from the front door.

And this is the view from the front windows at the living hall.

This is one of the mountains, it's greener now since it has been raining lately. That's where the kids' school is situated, it takes less than 5 minutes to get there by car.

This is one of the views from the window, on the right side.

And this is on the left side. And the boys love the pools!

This is the kitchen which I love =)

This is the living room.

We use the master bedroom as the kids' room because it's way much bigger for the bunk bed.


The bathroom.

  And this is the best part, washer and dryer in the house!