Kayaking

Unrelated to kayaking: There are
chickens here! Just, you know,
wandering around parking lots
or wherever.

We were very excited to find an inexpensive place to rent kayaks for a couple of hours! The wind picked up at some point, but it was otherwise a gorgeous sunny afternoon to go kayaking in a bay near our house. Sadly, I don't have pictures, because we didn't want to risk our cameras or phones ending up in the ocean (a wise choice it turned out). We started out with Daddy, Lion, and Bug in one kayak and Monkey and I in the other. We paddled around a reef and discovered a tiny beach that the girls ran around on and played in the surf for a bit before we paddled on. At some point we decided to trade around and let Monkey and Bug man their own kayak. Unfortunately, as part of this process I managed to flip one of the kayaks over, dumping myself, Lion, and Bug into the ocean. Fortunately, the water felt great and only my pride got bruised. My attempts to get back into the kayak proved hilarious and (eventually) successful. Monkey and Bug did a great job as beginning kayakers and managed to steer themselves back to the launching beach without incident.

Look! Baby pineapples! They're bright pink--so fun!

Dole Plantation
We decided to be touristy this weekend and visit the Dole Plantation (Disclaimer: it's not the actual working plantation; disappointingly, that's on a different island. This is just the tourist front.) We strolled through their small botanical garden, took the Pineapple Express (a 20-minute train ride with info about pineapples, local agriculture, and the history of both), and ate Dole Whip (pineapple soft serve ice cream that was definitely everyone's favorite part of the outing). Fun fact: despite being considered a quintessential Hawaiian thing, pineapple is not a native species! In fact, the Hawaiian word for pineapple, hala kahiki, means "foreign fruit." Pineapples arrived on the Hawaiian islands from South America with Spanish explorers in the 1500s.

All aboard the Pineapple Express!

Mmmmm. . . ice cream!

America's Kids Run
Also this past weekend, Lion ran in the world's largest children's running event! (America's Kids Run happens on military bases around the world on Armed Forces Day.) Lion participated in the 1-mile run for 7 and 8 year olds, and she won! Watching her start from the back of the crowd and steadily pass runner after runner was just fantastic. She was in her element! While this was a really short race for Lion, it was her first one to run solo, and she did a great job of pacing herself throughout the race (Daddy coached from the sidelines at each lap). She is thrilled that it looks like racing will be a much more frequent event here. They even have a rec league track & field team for her age group.

Tastes like victory!

Magic Island
On Sunday we got to attend the baptism of several kids at church, enjoy a potluck, and visit a new beach all in one! Magic Island beach is a long, low entry beach where you can wade out up to your waist without encountering any waves--perfect for an outdoor baptism. And, of course, perfect for all the kids to play in afterward! It was a great opportunity to try some new foods and get to know folks at our new church. (Sorry, no photos this time, but I'm sure we'll be back.)