Sam and Misty: Mom's visit to Hawaii

Mom was here for the last week visiting us. She loves Hawaii and wanted to come for another visit before we were off to Germany. I'm really glad she was able to come. In reality we won't really be that much further away, but because it's not the United States somehow it seems further. She just went home Thursday night. We really enjoyed the visit, but it would have been more relaxing if we hadn't had so much going on. Just about every day we had to clean the house just in case someone wanted to come in with their realtor. It's getting very old living in a model home. I like to think we had a clean house anyhow, but knowing prospective buyers are coming in we feel an addition pressure to have it extra clean.

Mom was really tired when she got here so we didn't do much the first couple of days.

We went to Dole Plantation several times. We love their Dole Whips :) I had never gone through the Dole maze either, so we did that on one of our trips there. We had some rain most of the afternoons, but the mornings were pretty nice. Everything is more fun when family is here to experience it with you. As much as I've not like Hawaii at times, I know I'm really going to miss it. There is a relaxed atmosphere here that you don't find other places. For as different as they are, Alaska and Hawaii are alike in that way.

Here's a silly picture of Mom as a hula pineapple girl

Mom and I enjoyed feeding these birds out back of Dole Plantation. Mom would hold out a piece of her waffle cone and they would hover like little hummingbirds and eat from her hand. They were so quick that I missed most of the pictures. This one finally caught it.

Of course Mom and I had plenty of beach time. Sam and I have been to many beaches on Oahu, but one of our favorites is called "Snails n Trails". This was the beach I took Mom to most often. It's very private and really beautiful.

The first day we went there, we laid out for awhile and then went down to the water to cool off. Some young guy came running over and asked us to go back up on the beach because they were filming a TV show further on down the beach and we were in their shot. Well, of course we didn't want to be on TV, so we complied. I asked which TV show and he said it was 'Lost'. Sam and I have seen several sets for 'Lost' around the islands, especially when it first started. I have to admit that I've never watched the show, although it probably would have been interesting seeing places we know on TV.

Driving around the island one day we saw three sea turtles (honu) on the beach. Volunteers come and put ropes out around turtles to distract people from getting too close and bothering them. It's pretty awsome to see them up close.

Another picture of the sea turtle. The volunteers know them all by name and the different characteristics they each have.

Mom and I spent a nice day at the North Shore in Haleiwa. We went to the beach that morning and then afterward got a shave ice at Matsumoto's. Here they put vanilla ice cream in the bottom of the paper cone then shave ice on top covered with your choice of syrup. Neither one of us like the shave ice that much, but it's a tradition and I thought Mom should have the experience. Mom bought some beautiful shells at this stand along the road. We didn't think we got too much sun at the beach, but then walking through town gave us a little burn. We really enjoyed the day though.

The last day Mom was here we went to a really private beach near Kahuku on the North Shore. You have to walk through some woods to get to the beach. Mom loved it.

There were lots of crabs on the beach. I crumbled some pretzels and threw out toward them. The crabs came right up close to get the food.

We found lots of coconuts in the woods. We took a few with us. I think a lot of the locals take the coconuts to sell by the road. So that is a brief look at our week with Mom. Of course it was too short. There's never enough time and so much more we could have done, but I'm glad we had the time we did. Here are a few more pictures of the week.