Day 2 - Oh, Oahu

Today we woke up at 5:40am and decided to hit the road. We started our trip at Leonard's, a local bakery that makes "malasadas" a pastry that's more like a cross between a donut and a sopapillas. We bought a half dozen -- 2 plain, 2 cinnamon/sugar and best of all 2 li hing malasadas which are dusted with a pink cherry blossom sugar. The photo to the left was taken at 6:15am. Just as we pulled in a bus of tourists pulled in behind us. I made mother run for the door so we could beat them. She won!

We took our breakfast and headed to Kailua Beach Park (our favorite beach) and on up to Lanikai Beach. We had two little pit stops in Kailua. The first was the post office. Sounds blah but this post office appeared to be inside someone's house. Mother sat on a couch in the lobby/den as she filled out her labels. At the owner's encouragement, we went to Island Snow for some shaved ice. She recommended it because it is the one Obama goes to when he is home. We went for a flavor called "pali pog" (passion fruit, orange and guava) and it was delicious. It was like eating flavored snow -- light and fluffy-- and when you got to the bottom there was surprise scoop of ice cream which blended with the melted shaved ice to make a puddle of yummy shake goodness.

We then drove up the coast to the North Shore stopping along the way to take in all the beautiful beaches we could.

At the North Shore we tried the legendary Matsumoto Shave Ice. We went with the traditional Matsumoto flavor (pineapple, coconut and lemon). It only took one bite for us to side with Obama and his preference for Island Snow. Matsumoto's shaved ice was more like a snow cone, not as fine as Island Snow's.

On the way back to Waikiki we stopped at the Dole Pineapple Plantation. I think the highlight of my day was when Mother saw they offered a train tour of the plantation and said, "Oh, I love little trains." It made me laugh for the rest of the day. On the train, the tour guide said, "Parents, please keep your child on the bench next to you or in your lap." I looked at Mother and said, "I'll just sit next to you if it's OK with you." We both had a laugh. After the train, we took a tour of the gardens. It was a nice pit stop.

We ended the day with a brief visit to Hanauma Bay. We are definitely going back in the morning for some quality snorkel time before we head to the Big Island.

Mother's Highlight: Last year she did a watercolor of an island photo she found on the internet and gave it to a friend who told her that it was a Hawaiian Island. Today we saw the same island from Lanikai Beach. The highlight was stumbling upon the real scene.

Julia's Highlight: Sneaking in some snorkel time. The fish were so beautiful.