Enjoying Our Island

We've already begun to think about the next place our circus will pitch its tent. We're not leaving the island this week, or next month, or even the month after that. But sometime before next fall our family will find ourselves somewhere else entirely. (Where? Good question. I'll let you know as soon I find out.) Knowing that, we've been trying to make the most of our time here on this island paradise. And on Saturday afternoon we did just that.

After the girls woke from their naps, we loaded everyone up in the car and headed for Waikiki. Now, although Waikiki seems to be "the" destination for every tourist to visit the island, we don't actually visit it much. There's almost always ridiculous traffic and crowds of people. We'd much rather visit the closer (and more laidback) North Shore, or take the girls swimming in Ko 'Olina's lagoons. But Waikiki has lots to offer, too, and we sampled some of it...

We headed right for the Waikiki Aquarium, which we love. Now, if you live somewhere where there's a large, impressive aquarium, you might not love our little aquarium. But we do! It has just enough for our girls. They don't have an attention span that's long enough to justify a big, fancy aquarium. The Waikiki Aquarium is right on the water at Kapiolani Park, so its setting is gorgeous. And it has some lovely exhibits -- we like the tidepools, and Kathleen loves the seals and the sharks. Plus, the girls are free and we have a military/kama'aina discount, so it's not particularly expensive. We like to go, visit the aquarium for an hour or so, and then stroll through Kapiolani Park and right into the heart of Waikiki.

Kathleen loved watching all the brightly colored tropical fish. It's really a shame she's not old enough to snorkel!

And I discovered my new favorite sea creature:

(Thanks, internet, for the photo! None of mine turned out...)

It's called a weedy seadragon, which is a great name, to begin with. They only live off the coast of Australia, the smart little guys, and when they're swimming their little flipper-things move so quickly that they're just a blur. They look like something that came out of special effects for a movie!

The last time we'd visited the aquarium was more than a year ago, the day before Jim deployed to Iraq. It was wonderful to watch Jim and Kathleen together and to know that we'll have lots more time like this in the years ahead. And it made me realize how much happens in the time the guys are gone. . . Just look at Jim and his baby girl last February:

And look at them now!

After we'd checked out all the fish, we headed back through Kapiolani Park, watching the water and all the people enjoying the sunny weather. We made our way through all the tourists, feeling rather smug that we don't have to pack our enjoyment into just a few days. We had a leisurely dinner at Duke's, where we spent some more time watching the water, and particularly the sunset. We ate opah, or moonfish, breaded with macadamia nuts. . . It was so delicious that I couldn't even feel guilty about eating the pretty little things we'd just been admiring. And we finished our meal with some hula pie. I'm definitely going to miss hula pie!

All that, and we managed to get the girls home and into bed less than a half an hour later than normal. Now, that's an enjoyable evening!