A Perfect Day

There aren't many days that I could classify as being near perfect, but this day came pretty close.  First of all, Tui had the day off school AND work, a day that wasn't Sunday so we could actually go do stuff.  Hasn't happened in literally months (he works Saturdays).  And seen as we're counting down in the "teens" now before we leave, we decided to hire a car and knock off as many things as possible from our Hawaii bucket list.

So the day starts off with Tui going to Turtle bay to pick up the car ($30 for day = totally doable!).  I'm thinking just some little civic or whatever. A modest little 4 door.  

And he comes back with this.......

....The ride from Babylon.  The first thing I thought was "impractical", but Tui was so happy about it, I bit my tounge and we got loaded up.  

So we start driving (with the top down of course - shame) and along the way we see a Monk Seal on the beach (I've been here 5 years and never seen that).

 

Then our first stop is at Valley of the Temples.  It's this old Bubhist Temple in the middle of a valley of hills (hence the name) in Kaneohe.  It was really cool.  We got to feed fish and birds (I even fed a bird right out of my hand), ring the gong, it was nice.

Then we had a picnic lunch up on a hill.

Next we went down to Sea Life Park.  We've taken Malachi there probably 3 or 4 times before, but I think he was finally old enough that he recognised the animals for himself.  He loved it.  And we loved watching him be so excited about it.  He even got to pat a little turtle.

Next stop was Haleiwa for Shave Ice and a walk around the town.  I've only ever been there at night to eat, and I always wanted to look through all their botiques, and I haven't ever eaten shave ice.  I always figured if i was going to spend the money, I'd get ice-cream, not ice.  But we did it, and it was really good.

Then off to watch the sunset.  Sunset beach was fenced off so we went to Waimea Bay instead.  Leeyen will be disapointed that I totally forgot how to take sunset pictures properly (I blame it on my baby brain), even though she already taught me.  But it was really pretty.

Last was dinner at Kahuku Grill.Owned by our old Bishop Hannemann, run by his sons (one of which lives underneath us and 2 doors down).  SO GOOD!!!  And super cheap too.  The fries were like wedges, which I've been craving for weeks.  I was so busy eating I didn't even take a picture of the food.

And then, after a near perfect day, home to bed.

It was a great day in Hawaii, one of our best.  Days like that make me sad to leave.  But at least we'll be taking some sweet memories with us when we go.