More talk of Hawaii

Ok, part two of our trip. We went to the Honolulu Zoo the next day and boy, what a great place! If you haven't been and you're a "zoo person" or your kids are, this is the place to be. It's beautiful to walk through, the animals are really close up, and they have a great kids zoo or "keiki zoo" where you can pet some of the animals. Of course I loved that part as much as Zach...ok...probably more so.

Zach's favorite thing of all time...water fountains!

This is the "keiki zoo". There are tunnels that Zach could go through and he could pop up in the middle of this circular aquarium...with daddy's help.

This peacock was standing right in the walkway and judging by the way he was showing off his feathers and shaking them at us, I could tell he really didn't want us on his sidewalk. He was pretty, though. While Jeff was on one side of the peacock and I was on the other, two guys kept him at bay while I pushed Zach past him...very quickly. Who says chivalry is dead? Maybe just from your husband but not from complete strangers.


There are more animal pics but I'll spare you. Pretend that you see lemurs (my favorite!), hippos, alligators and an elephant.

That night we went back to the Hilton Hawaiian to watch their big fireworks show they do on Fridays. Zach was pooping out so I bought some milk at the gift shop but no one would warm it up for me. So my hero husband jets off with the sippy to find a nice person to do it. He says I'll catch up, just start walking. I go down the pathway and all of a sudden men start putting up caution tape and roping off the area. I'm thinking WTH? So I make it through and they rope it off behind me, but now I realize that Jeff is still back there, he can't go the way I went, it's almost pitch black out...how's he ever going to find us????

It took a while...about 20 minutes, but finally he finds us...out of breath from running up and down the beach, the pathway, around the hotel. He just made it for the show. I could see why they cordoned off the area...the fireworks were literally above our heads! L-O-U-D, too!! My first thought was "uh-oh, how is Zach gonna like this? I bet he starts screaming." But, he proved me wrong and loved the fireworks! Of course I held him the whole time and I think if I'd tried to put him down he would've had a fit, but in mama's safe arms, he loved it!

Some other pics actually before the separation and subsequent fireworks

The next day we went to the Dole Plantation where they grow the Dole pineapples. Again, it's a very touristy thing to do, but we knew Zach would love the train ride/the "choo-choo"! Here I am flaunting the girls that I now have and wearing my pregnant Angelina Jolie dress...
The train ride was about 20 minutes and that was all Zach could take. What he really enjoyed was smushing his face against the glass and making smushy-faces at the Japanese tourists seated in the car behind us. Yes, they took pictures. I wish I did because I'm sure it was hysterical. This is probably where Zach picked up the germs that gave him the sniffles. Unavoidable. Oh well.
The trip to the Dole Plantation would not be complete without a Dole Whip. Yum!!! Heaven!
We decided to take the long way towards home and go up to the North Shore and around towards the east side, where our place was. It didn't look that far on the map.....

UGH! It took 2 hours! There was traffic, road construction and idiot tourists who drive like they've never seen the ocean! Ok, maybe they haven't but pull off to the side, people! Jeez!

We got back to our place but realized we still had time before dark and nite-nite time so we went up the road a few miles to Baby Makapu'u beach. It's a lot of lava rock which makes nice little coves that are wave proof. Again, perfect for little ones.

Ok, part three will come tomorrow. Sorry about all the parts but I'm done for the night!