Saturday morning we managed to drag ourselves out of bed to walk to the hotel where they had the Pleasant Hawaiian orientation. It was a Chinese restaurant on the fifth floor and the boys liked running around in it and riding the escalators and elevators. We decided to take the free shuttle ride to Maui Divers jewelry (Andrew slept) and Hilo Hattie's (Josiah ran out of energy and whined) where we got some clothes and macadamia stuff. Josiah fell asleep in the stroller when we went out for lunch and Andrew attracted some attention with his loud theatrics. Finally we got back for a nap and beach time. Josiah usually wanted Daddy to help him do sand construction and Andrew wanted to do urban renewal on any such structures. The hotel gave each child a complimentary bucket, shovel, and star-shaped sunglasses. We also used yogurt cups as sand molds.

Saturday night we considered where to go to church on Sunday. We found a church called Hope Chapel in the phone book, and it was just up the street from our place. There was another one about a mile away according to the list Gilbert had previously gotten from Yahoo maps, called Kapahulu Bible Church. We also found the service time in the phone book and Sunday morning we decided to take the walk there. Andrew rode in the stroller and Josiah walked, but after we got to the zoo he was complaining his feet hurt and Gilbert carried him on his shoulders. It seemed further than a mile, and Winnie was almost inclined to stop at another church we passed, but we kept going and soon we could hear the welcome music. Instead of air conditioning, the Kapahulu building had lots of sliding glass doors so the sound carried into the neighboring streets.

Kapahulu's congregation was on the older side, so there were only one or two other cubs with Josiah and Andrew in child care. The big people were treated to a puppet show (alas, Davey Dog was with Josiah) and a message from the book of Daniel. The interim pastor, who was a Caucasian former missionary to China and Hong Kong, suggested that Nebuchadnezzar did not reveal his dream to the Chaldean astrologers not to test them, but because he couldn't remember the details himself. That made a lot of sense to us, who often forget things like songs but will know it again as soon as prompted.

We had a modestly-priced lunch (the church was in a residential area rather than in the Waikiki area itself) at a place called Burgerland, which also had Chinese and Japanese dishes. Josiah had a tantrum when he spilled his strawberry slushie on the ground, and they brought him another, which he was unable to finish. We then decided to take the bus back and sat by what we hoped were knowledgeable locals. After a few buses went down the cross street without stopping at our stop, one of them decided to walk down the street to another bus stop and we did also. Finally we got one headed in our direction and took what must have been one of our shortest bus rides to get back to the hotel.

The previous day we had been given a coupon for a free photo from Hilo Hatties but decided not to have it taken there since we were tired. Instead we tried contacting the other photographer listed, who turned out to not have an office but just meet people at a magnet shop. He took a couple of garden shots near a hotel and a couple on the beach, and we decided to get a print of the beach one. Sunday night we went out for dinner at a buffet place and Josiah was complaining how tired he was. Winnie scolded him and Gilbert tried to push him in motion, but when we took Andrew out of the stroller and put Josiah in, he fell asleep and almost slept through dinner.

Monday was zoo day, and we were at the front gate a bit before opening. Gilbert and Josiah posed for a picture in the shade of a large banyan tree and fed the insects waiting there. Fortunately, we did not have many other bug bite incidents. The zoo itself was interesting and not very crowded. One of our early stops was at the bird cages where we encountered a trained hill mynah that could say several phrases such as "I'm a mynah bird", "aloha", and "a-looo-HA!". We figured its English vocabulary was somewhat larger than Andrew's. Josiah did some attempts as conversation such as "How did you get so smart?". Andrew seemed very interested in the house of reptiles and went back in for a second visit. The monkeys were not noticed as much as the lemurs, which were familiar to Josiah from the TV show "Zoboomafoo". When we passed the warthogs, Andrew for some reason decided to blow kisses at them, which he did nowhere else that day. There was a children's zoo area with pettable small animals and roaming small farm animals. Andrew liked dancing around a metal post the best and Josiah mostly watched other children check out the animals up close. Back in the main zoo, the lion and cheetah were in hiding, and the tigers were unimpressive in their slumber. The only wild cat we noticed was the serval, which was displayed near a tropical bird area. Before we left, we paid another visit to the hill mynah.

A few times our customary afternoon nap break was prevented by Andrew having a shriek fit. Sometimes Gilbert would take him for a walk to try to induce a nap, or let him climb up and down the staircases. He also learned hooting like an owl from Josiah and both guys would "hooo" in the hallway on the way to the elevator. They both liked to press the button, and Josiah would pout sometimes when Andrew got to do it. A couple of times Gilbert walked a few blocks to the grocery store called Food Pantry, which was a lesson in the cost of things. Granted that Waikiki is probably more expensive than the rest of Honolulu, it was still a bit of a disappointment to spend over $20 and still have only two bags of stuff. Because the hotel was "condo" style, we had kitchen appliances and could store perishables such as ice cream (enjoyed having to knock off the rest of the box the last day), milk and yogurt. Fortunately, there was a two-slice pop-up toaster hidden in the cabinet, or Gilbert's purchase of waffles would have been difficult to toast in the big oven. There was a Japanese place down the street that we bought food from on Saturday night which advertised a "gyoza happy hour" in the afternoon, 6 for $1, which we availed ourselved when we remembered. Another eatery nearby was called the "Beachfront Cafe" which was run by a few young guys with a limited menu but some nice signs.

The beach area itself was enough excitement for the boys. There was a breakwater on the southern end of Waikiki where our hotel was, so there was not much wave action, and the boys could wade in and fill their buckets with water. The first day we were on the beach only Josiah had swim trunks on, and Gilbert and Andrew were just barefoot at the edge of the water. But then Andrew squatted down in the water and got his diaper waterlogged, so we let him stay in for awhile. We didn't notice the outdoor showers the first day but made use of them later. One of the nice geographical aspects of the beach was that the sunsets were spectacular, and you could see the red sky right through the windows of the dinner cruise boats offshore. Some of the other memories were watching people play chess on the tables just off the beach (Gilbert didn't try), and the guy crafting birds and things from coconut palms.

Tuesday was the last full day in Oahu and one of the items on the agenda was to see the hula show (sponsored by Pleasant Holidays but still sometimes called the "Kodak" show) at 10 AM. Gilbert had wanted to visit Pearl Harbor and thought if he caught an early bus he might be able to make it there and back. The front desk suggested the #20 bus and gave him a schedule, and it looked like there would be one coming soon. After waiting some time and seeing numerous other buses go by, the chances of getting there and back in barely 3 hours seemed low so he went to plan B, which was the nearby crater of Diamond Head. On the map it looked like a reasonable walking trip but the eyes said it looked like a pretty good distance and elevation, so Gilbert walked to a street going the other direction and asked what bus to take. After waiting awhile for it, he took the short but uphill ride to the edge of the park area (fortunately the driver knew he was getting off there and reminded him).

There was an uphill walk to a tunnel, then a view into the crater, which appeared to be a dry (much of the rain clouds get stopped before they get over the lip of the crater) valley occupied largely by a military post. There was the typical information center in the middle of the valley with diagrams, history and pictures of native birds. Most important was the water fountain, since Gilbert had not planned to go somewhere requiring carrying water. The walk to the top of the crater took less that half an hour, with some switchbacks and steps that would have prevented bringing a stroller very far (we did see a family with a jogger stroller attempting to get close). As the path was a former military lookout, the upper part went through concrete tunnels (walking carefully without a flashlight) and metal spiral stairs. After arriving at the lookout, the path went through the "window" up to the top of the point above it for a good panoramic view of the city and surroundings. On the way down Gilbert was overtaken by a retired woman from Washington State who greeted all the upward-bound climbers, often to their surprise, and he did likewise, including an occasional "ohayo" to some Japanese groups.

Gilbert reached the bus stop again just a bit after a returning bus but wasn't too worried as it was only 8:20, and just stretched out on the bench to enjoy the tropical morning. There were three routes that went by that stop, and two of them went to Waikiki. But in a continuation of bus misfortune, the the only buses that came by for an hour were the third route that did not. Thus, instead of taking a half-hour downhill walk to the hotel, Gilbert got back after Winnie had taken the kids to the hula show, and had to run to get there by the starting time. The sun was rather hot for the kids but we were prepared for that until Josiah dropped his cup through the bleachers. Andrew enjoyed climbing the steps and attracting attention. There was one part where the audience was invited to join in a hula down on the grassy performance area and we went down. Kids were invited to stay afterwards but Josiah wanted to go back up with us.

We had often walked by St. Augustine's church on the way to the beach and noticed there was a little museum about Father Damien, the priest who went to live with the lepers of Molokai in the 1800's. It was always closed when we went by, so we took a bit of time Wednesday morning to visit it before we went to the airport. The Honolulu airport was not busy at all and the van took us there early enough that we went on an earlier flight to Maui. We were able to get a good view from the windows of the islands between and of Maui itself before skidding to a rough landing; perhaps the mountains caused stiff cross-winds but the air outside was not too breezy.