Hawaii - Day 6: spending money

We took the free shopping shuttle to the Hilo Hattie store. At the entrance, we were greeted with free shell leis as souvenirs. Joy-Anne got a lei too. looking cool with cookie monster's shades

Hilo Hattie is home to the world's largest Aloha shirt.

After the Hilo Hattie, we went to Baby Emporium to get a new stroller. I was quite happy with it. Paid USD83 for the Combi Flare. Combi strollers are no less than about RM800 in Malaysia.

We spent the entire afternoon/evening at the Ala Moana Shopping Center. I did quite some shopping.

We entertained Joe with a paper bag. Kept him occupied so I could eat. Retail therapy is good.

Hawaii - Day 5 : Grand Circle Island Tour

We set out early today for a 120 mile tour of Oahu. The bus picked us up at 7.55am. Joy-Anne was all excited.
Joe was excited too. He woke up early at 6am and was sitting in his stroller, waiting by the door by 7.30am while all of us were still getting ready.


We set out from Waikiki and headed east. First stop was at the Diamond Head lookout.

Then we stopped to see Hanauma Bay. This has been voted the best place to snorkel. We will be coming here again on Wednesday morning. The beach is far down. There are 2 ways to get down and up i.e walk or take the tram. The tram costs 50cents to go down and USD1.00 to come up. Fuel is expensive!

We made another scenic stop at err....I can't remember. This was near Sea Life Park and Joe was fascinated looking at a hang glider.

This is the Pali Lookout. It's was breathtaking.




We made a 90-minute stop at the Dole Plantation. I've never seen so much pineapples in my life.

The highlight of today for Joe was riding the Pineapple Express. He was so excited waiting for the train.

Joy-Anne was pretty excited too even though I don't think she'll remember anything.


Pineapple faces...

This was the Pineapple plantation garden. It was actually quite hot!

We cooled off with some Dole Whip. It's soft serve ice cream in pineapple flavour. We also got the Pineapple Float. Refreshing!

After Dole Plantation, both kids were totally tired out. They both slept for over an hour in the bus. We drove pass the North Shore, Sunset Beach etc but I didn't go down.

The final stop was at a macadamia nut factory. We had complimentary macadamia nut kona coffee and sampled various kinds of macadamia nuts. There was also macadamia nut popcorn which made Joe very happy.

The tree behind me is a macadamia nut tree. It can grow up to 30ft tall.

We finally got back to our apartment at 4.30pm. Joe was quite happy to take a bath.

All clean and happy! And tired....I hope he sleeps well tonight.

Hawaii - Day 4 : taking a break.

After plenty of walking yesterday (my feet hurt!!!) my sister and I decided to take a break. Walking is not a problem. But when you're also carrying a 8kg baby while breastfeeding at the same time and walking in the hot sun....it's a very long back-breaking walk.

So while we stayed home, my parents went on a tour of Pearl Harbour, the USS Arizona Memorial and the city.


The kids played at home and Joe was happy with the familiarity of Playhouse Disney on TV.


Joe playing pretend-cooking with yee yee.
And feeding his new Doc Hudson milk! (using a bottle of sunblock)

Hawaii - Day 3 : Fun at the mall and fireworks

Friday 25th July - the day started rather late even though I was awaken before 8am because Joe woke up whining. Joy-Anne got up to feed. and then went back to sleep until noon. So it wasn't till 1pm that we left the apartment.

My parents had gone out earlier for a 45-minute bird's eye-view tour of Oahu (helicopter ride). Unfortunately he took photos using his kuno 2.0mega-pixel Nikon camera and forgot to bring the USB cable so no photos of the tour available now.

It was sheer madness (to me at least) to be walking in the hot midday sun with 2 kids. I covered myself and them in sunblock before we went out. Joe fell asleep in the stroller 10mins after we set out for the mall.

Yee yee bought fried rice for Joe's lunch at the mall. USD3.99. Most expensive ever fried rice he has eaten.

Nana and Kong Kong met up with us at the mall after the got back from their helicopter ride.

We visited the Disney store where Joe was so fascinated to see plush toys of his favourite Playhouse Disney cartoon characters.

He hugged Handy Manny and Darby and obediently posed for a picture.

And hugged a giant Nemo...

He was also very happy to see his friends, the Little Einsteins.

This picture is especially for Hui-Wearn. I bought a pair of tights for USD0.99.

In the evening, we walked from the mall to Hilton Hawaiian Village to check out the wedding chapel where Rebecca's wedding will be held. It's a huge place.

Joe saw some ducks and flamingoes in the pond at Hilton but refused to take a photo. He kicked up a fuss and we caught in on camera for a good laugh. Getting full of nonsense these days without his father around.

We found out that there's a fireworks display at 8pm every Friday night at the Hilton Hawaiian Village so we went to Tony Roma's for dinner...

Joe licking butter from the small bowl

the real original ribs at Tony Roma's.

...before going back to Hilton for the fireworks display. Joe absolutely loved it. He laughed and clapped his hands.

My photography skill with fireworks sucks. But we will come back again 2 Fridays from now when Joe's daddy comes.

Just for laughs...

As we were landing in Honolulu, I asked Joe, "Who will meet us at the airport in Hawaii?"


Joe : Ummm..... yee yee.


Me : So what must you say to yee yee when you see her?


Joe : Konichiwa!


Me : (with eyes wide open coz I'm very stunned he knows this word) Huh???? Who taught you Konichiwa?


Joe : (smiling cheekily) Konichiwa!!!

Hawaii - Day 2 Part 2

After exhausting himself by trying so hard to defaecate without any positive results, Joe fell asleep from 1-4.30pm. I mysef managed to get some rest as well.

In the evening, he was so happy to eat his regular Quaker Oats again and after that, we went out to Walmart to get yoghurt, ice cream etc.

Rebecca stayed back to babysit while I went out to spend her money.

She did such a good job with Joy-Anne.

Joe pooped (5th time on throne for the day) after taking yoghurt and was much happier after that.

And I had leftover lunch for dinner.