Baby's REAL First Zoo Visit

Today was my first REAL zoo visit! You may remember reading about my en-utero visit, but this one was ALL me! (Except I slept through the entire event...)

Mommy and daddy didn't even know what this thingy was! It is like an alligator or crocodile but it has a long snout jaw thing! See?

Mommy called this the drunken elephant because he was playing with a KEG! Silly frat boy elephant! 

Last but not least, mommy put me on this hippo sculpture's butt for a photo op. I am still passed out, but apparently daddy and granma Katy played on this SAME hippo when they were little! Man thats one old hippo!

Fireworksssss!

Every Friday night at Grammy's condo you can see fireworks from the balcony. Mommy and daddy were being silly while we waited with anticipation.

Mommy has a firework setting on her camera. Look how great they came out!

Granma Katy held me to see the fireworks! Boom!!!

Into China Town

We went into town to have dinner with Shirley and Red, my great grammy's friends from Maui. They have a HUGE dog named Phoebe. I met her here. She likes to sleep in the hall on the tile where it is cool.

Auntie Annie tickled my tummy and I was all smiles!

The sun was setting and the view from the balcony was pretty great!

Then daddy cuddled with Phoebe. Look how big she is! That's just her head!

Granma cuddled with me and walked me around until I got sleepy. Then we all ate yummy chinese food straight from China town- That's the best place to get it!

Sea Lions, Dolphins and WHALphins Oh My!

We went to Sea Life Park today. It was really hot out but we saw some great shows and cool animals! This is an Atlantic Bottlenose dolphin jumping for us! Now compare this picture with the one below it.. What does that look like? A dolphin? A whale? A Whalphin....?

That's right! It's a whalphin! What is a whalphin you ask? Well it's half whale half dolphin! How does this happen you might ask? Well, when a whale loves a dolphin they have a baby.. Either that or someone accidentally leaves the whale in the dolphin tank! Yeah- she was a suprise, not an experiment. But she weighs about 1200 pounds and is dark, almost black like her father- a false killer whale. Her mom was a dolphin! She is the highest jumper at the park, just look at her! She was amazing!

The sea lions were pretty cool too! This was feeding time!

Look! I'm riding a dolphin!

Daddy said this sea lion is whale food! I am sure sea lions are good for more than that!

They even have penguins at the park! This one was so cute swimming around in his little pool.

After all that fun at the park, I saw the stingrays swimming around! Man, sea animals are cool!

Happy Faja Day

Faja-or Father for all you that are not in the know- had a special day last weekend! Well, the 14th really, but Mom is a bad blog poster.


I bought Dad some tickets to one of his favorite things- UFC! Thats Ultimate fighting. There were fights and mom and dad went to watch and left me with grandma!

First the guys come out in all this smoke.

Then they duke it out with not only boxing, but wrestling and submission. That is why it is called MMA- Mixed Martial Arts.

This is the winner. Normally they dont get a cool lei, but this guy did because it was the main event fight, and he is from Hawaii! Everyone was cheering for him. He knocked out the other guy in like 15 seconds! It was really eventful.

Dad had a great father's day and a great first present from ME! (Almost a smile caught on camera...)

Visit to Pearl Harbor

Grandma Katy took the day off and we went to visit the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. Mommy thinks she is artisitc and took this picture of the flag through the top of the memorial.

We rode a boat to get to the memorial because it is out over the water and on top of where the actual USS Arizona fell.

This is the anchor from the Arizona that was recast to be preserved... I am the one passed out in a sling.This is the memorial as we pulled up in the boat. It is very beautiful and kind of striking against the water. The shape of it seems to make it float out of the sea. (My mom told me to say that, I don't know that much about art)

This is the piece of the Arizona that is still above water. Inside the circle is oil that has come up from the wreckage.
This picture is cool because you can see the darkenss of the sunken Arizona against the sunlit water. It is surreal to think that the boat is below you still entombing over 1,000 people.

To the memory of the gallant men here entombed and their shipmates who gave their lives in action on December 7, 1942 on the USS Arizona.

To My OTHER GreatGrandma's Condo We Go

We went to visit daddy's Tutu (that's like saying grandma or wise one in Hawaiian). She lives in a big white building overlooking Kaneohe Bay. I was fairly well behaved and she held me and fed me, then I started screaming, but hey, we can't always be good yeah?
This is the view from Tutu's 10th story room!

To GREATGrandmother's Condo We Go

We went to Great Grandma's Condo for a great dinner of mac and cheese and asparagus (mommy's favorite). Then we had great chocolate cherry cake with whipped cream and chocolate chips. Grammy Norma sure is a great chef!

Granma Katy held me because I was fussy. Here I am in the "thinker" position! I think about a lot of things these days.
This is a picture of Great Grampy Alanson (Ralph, or Pocket) with the POPE! True story!  Grampy's real name was Ralph but he went by Alanson (his middle name). His Marine friends called him Pocket because his last name was Villiers, which sounds like Billiards which makes you think of pocket billiards, therefore he became Pocket.

This is a pretty rainbow I saw outside of Grammy's apartment. She lived all the way up on the 27th floor!

Mommy took some pictures of Honolulu and Waikiki from Grammy's balcony. Daddy was walking me on the balcony because I was fussy and mommy was a nervous wreck, afraid I would get squirmy and go over the edge! Luckily daddy is a strong guy! Isn't it pretty all lit up?

Lava and Whales

One day we went to Bishop Museum. This is a picture of the original building that used to be all of the museum. Now there are other buildings and a planetarium! This original building included lots of cool stuff about Hawaii and the other islands of the pacific. We also learned more about King Kamehameha and his heirs and about the effort to preserve Hawaii's monarchy.

When your back is to the museum building you have this great view of Honolulu.

Then we went into this cool building and learned about lava. We walked through a dark tunnel painted and lit with blacklights. Look, I glow!  This tunnel was supposed to be like under the sea where volcanos start. We then listened to a speech about lava and the different kinds of flows.  There are two flows, known around the world as A'a and Pahoehoe. A'a is rough crumbly lava, whereas Pahoehoe is prettier flowing strandy lava. Check out this for more info.

There are also 2 types of volcanoes. Shield and composite. Shield volcanoes form from several eruptions over time of Pahoehoe flows creating an all over shield shape when viewed from the side. Composite volcanoes are more rocky and sharp and tend to have more explosive eruptions like this one below.  See the section on volcanic features for more info.

The whale exhibit was really cool. They had huge whale machines that you could make blow air and move their mouths. We learned about each whales cycles of breathing and eating. Some go down deep to eat and up to breath in a big circle. Some are more like a wave pattern where they breath up top and dip down just a little to eat.

This animal sculpture was supposedly what an early whale type animal would have been like. Pretty scary huh?!

I really don't know what this one is, but they had a plaque showing how it would have evolved into a whale. It basically formed some fin things and had like a walrus type stage then to a full whale, who knows what was around back then!

Check out these links for more info on Bishop Museum and whales!

Kailua Beach-My first REAL beach experience

Sunday morning we went to visit Kailua Beach-arguably the best beach on Oahu! It was beautiful and warm. We went nice and early so it would not be too hot or sunny yet. There were a lot of clouds in some parts and we walked the entire beach (like 3 miles or something)! Good thing I got carried!

Grandma Katy carried me in my little sling and wrapped Daddy's shirt around me so I wouldn't get any sun since I cannot wear sunscreen yet! Even though I was wrapped up I still got sand all over my face but I slept the entire time with grandma walking.

Mommy took this picture of Daddy. Clearly he was not amused.

Then we found something really gross! It looks like a barracuda head! The teeth are really sharp and the head was all eaten out inside and gross!

Isn't Kailua pretty! This is a view of most of the beach. There are a lot of big houses along this beach, you would probably need like 4 milllion dollars for one and honestly, they aren't even all THAT big! Man!