Sackett/Pasquale - Week 2 - Molly and Thanksgiving

Molly caught up with her family for the middle week of their visit.

Hanging on the beach at Lanikai.


This seahorse was floating in the water at Lanikai Beach. We could not tell for sure if it was alive or not...either way it was pretty cool and a rare site.


Sage and Jacqui at Aikahi Playground.


We rented sea kayaks for a day and paddled to Flat Island and the Mokolua Islands. It was a gorgeous day and everyone did a great job pulling their own weight in the paddling!

It is seabird nesting season. We saw lots of shearwaters on both of the islands that we visited.

We explored the perimeter of Flat Island and found lots of crevices to explore.








We ate lunch and spent some time sunbathing on the left Mokulua Island, before we attempted to circumnavigate it.


We made it about two-thirds of the way around before we were turned back by the tides!

Hanging out with Hawai'i and Massachusetts friends.



Gabbi and Jacqui had a hip-hop performance (along with our friend Zoe)

Jacqui with her reverse coffee grinder.

Gabbi with her cool shades.

On Thanksgiving morning, we hiked the Old Pali Highway. It is a nice hike with great views and we have found avocados on the hike in the past.

This time we hit the jackpot with a load of papayas, a bunch of bananas (totaling about 40), and some avocados.

The hike follows the original Pali Highway that ran from the windward side of the island over to Honolulu. Much of the hike is paved.

Climbing for papayas...

For Thanksgiving dinner, Khris, Bruce , Zoe, and Cristoff hosted us for a potluck with about 7 families. It was a great way to spend the holiday, so far from home...

Nonni!!

We had a great week with Danielle's mom (aka Nonni) and brother Gabe. We had nice weather and lots of fun!At the airport, seems like more than 2 and a half months since we said goodbye at the airport in Hartford!!

Walking the trails at the Polynesian Cultural Center.

Fishing at the Tongan village.

Walking the trails at the Waimea Falls Botanical Garden.

Waimea Falls is more of a trickle with a lack of rain up the valley that feeds it. We did some swimming here and then went across the street to Waimea Bay and got knocked around by the waves!

Polynesian Cultural Center

We made two trips to the Polynesian Cultural Center recently. For the first, we all took my parents on the Friday of their week here. Then Danielle, Gabbi, and Jacqui took Nonni and Uncle Gabe on Monday (while I was in Kaua'i for work). The PCC has a deal where you can come back within three days for free, so we figured we could work the system.... Well, the return trip only includes admission to the exhibits (which are great), but not the evening show. So, it wasn't much of a savings, but well worth it! We got seasons passes for a great deal and plan to use it every so often!It was a little cloudy the first day we went, so they moved the Canoe Pageant indoors. Performers representing each of the Polynesian Cultures from the Center (Hawai'i, Aotearoa, Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, and Tonga) were dressed in different colors for each culture and performed traditional dances.

Each of the performances was unique, but we could see some similarities from one to another.

We also have learned a lot about the different styles of Polynesian dancing. The real hip shaking style is attributed to the Tahitians. Danielle is no longer looking for hula classes....

We practiced our spear throwing with the Tongans!

Tahitian dance lessons! The women move their knees forward and backward quickly to shake their hips. The men move their legs out and in from the knees like scissors. My dad really caught on and apparently has been showing off his moves in Massachusetts!

More Tahitian Dance

Hula is much more about hand motions. There is very little hip shaking. Your movements are designed to tell a story.

Jacqui went on stage with the Samoan to demonstrate the difference between coconut milk and coconut juice. His presentation is definitely one of the highlights of the day. We learned a very effective coconut cracking method from him that we have used successfully.

Don't try this at home.... he flew of the coconut tree and started tossing them down. Getting a coconut from the tree to edible is a fair amount of work. What you see on the shelves in the stores is the inner nut that had to be removed from the fibrous outer covering. Then you've got to deal with the hard shell of the nut....then, getting the meat out is a task in itself!

We tried our had at making fire by rubbing sticks together. We got smoke! but no fire.....


We were a little late to the luau, but Jacqui had a chance to hula on stage. Gabbi was on her way down to join her, but unfortunately it was a pretty quick song.

After the luau, heading for the evening show!

The evening show was pretty spectacular. Great performances, professional dancing, humor, fire. We had a great time on each trip!

Grandma and Grandpa

We had a wonderful visit with my parents for a week! We certainly kept them busy!!Hiking Olomana


Olomana is a hike that we've done a couple of times. It's just a few miles from our house and has stunning views of Kaneohe Bay and some neat steep sections with ropes!

Hanging out at Bellows Beach. The sand here is like powder. Great boogie boarding. Dad had some great bodysurfing rides!

A day doing the downtown tourist thing. Here we are at the Aloha Tower, where the cruise ships dock.

Hiking Diamond Head. Lots and lots of steps.

After snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. (We found humuhumu....)


The swimming at Waimea Bay was really crazy. The shoreline is very steep and the waves break right on shore. We had a great time riding the surf in and out along the sand. We all ended up full of sand to the extreme! When we got back home, Grandma called the girls in to the bathroom to see how much sand was in the tub!!!
Back to Bellows for the last day of a great trip!! Thanks for everything Mom and Dad, We Love You!!!!