The Carner Bunch Goes to Hawaii

Finding Mah-Mah
So we decided to go big for our 5th anniversary and go to Hawaii and since Luc is free, we took him too. We were a little nervous about the combination of a one year old and a five and a half hour plane ride, but we took our chances. We packed up every snack imaginable, some books and Anita’s portable DVD player and hit the road. Luc was fantastic on the plane. He charmed the flight attendants and scored a whole can of apple juice. He even managed to charm the extremely nervous priest sitting next to us. Luc took a nap, watched some “Mah-Mah” (Finding Nemo) and played with the seat back tray the whole way. We landed in beautiful Oahu and instantly relaxed in to our vacation.

Hawaii Time and Our Actual Anniversary
There is a three hour time difference between the Pacific Coast mainland and the Islands. That means that Luc was wide awake and raring to go at 3 am Friday morning. Happy Anniversary!!! Daddy managed to entertain him with DVDs and oatmeal until the more reasonable hour of 5:30 am. We ventured out, had an island breakfast, and visited the Pearl Harbor Memorial. We were glad for Luc’s early morning antics as it meant we only had an hour wait for our tour. We peeked through the museum (Shawn looked, Luc and I chased birds on the lanai), watched the tour boats make their way to and from the memorial, and listened to a park ranger talk about the memorial. Luc was very excited to take the boat ride, but fell asleep during the 20 minute historical film. He slept the whole time we were on the boat, the whole time we were on the memorial and the whole way back to the hotel. He woke up in time to pack up the beach toys and head out again.

I’m Gonna Wash That Sand Right Outta His Hair
We picked a nice, but off-the-beaten-path beach, ate lunch at a local deli on the way and had what was quite possibly the perfect afternoon. The beach was in a residential area with little sand alleys leading down to the beach every so often. After several false starts (high tides turning shallow beaches in to temporary coves), we burst out of our alley way in to a postcard. The sand was as fine and soft as flour, the water warm as bath water and bluer than blue. Luc was in heaven. Daddy bought him a bucket and shovel back in town, so they immediately set to work. They made numerous trips down to the water to get water in the bucket. The beach was a giant lagoon, so tiny waves lapped the shore, just big enough to make Luc feel like a hero standing in them. We went swimming a few times and just generally enjoyed the day. Luc rolled around in the sand like a puppy dog, grinning from ear to ear. When the sun started heading down behind the mountains, we packed up a very sandy Luc and cruised back toward Waikiki. Luc crashed out for a nap and Shawn and I enjoyed the beautiful coast drive.

Luc speaks Hawaiian
After a day or two of trying to read street signs in Hawaiian, it finally dawned on us that Luc might actually speak Hawaiian. His penchant for repeating syllables is very Hawaiian. Think about it… Luc likes to say “cupcup”, “carcar”, “gogo”, “nono”, and “meme”. Some words we saw in Hawaii were “mahi mahi”, “Likelike”, “opakapaka”, “Kahmehameha”. Coincidence??? We started calling him "Luki-Luki" and since his syllabic repetion sounded like a bird chirping, he was our Luki-Luki bird. The different variations on the name depended on the word he was chirping at the moment. We had a NoNo bird, a CupCup bird, and an UhUh bird at any given time.

The North Shore
Once again, Luc roused us early, so Mommy dragged out the guide book and found a surf joint on the North Shore to have breakfast. It was very down home, friendly enough that the waitress wrapped my plate in tin foil when I stepped away to change Luc. After eating breakfast with the locals, we went for a walk through Wiamea Audubon Park. We enjoyed looking at the flora and fauna while Luc was too young to protest such a boring activity. Shawn took some lovely pictures of the hibiscus and vanilla orchids. The walk ends at Waimea Falls and you can swim out to them if you can brave the 30 foot deep pool. Luc and I stayed in the shallows, but Shawn swam out beneath the falls themselves. After lunch at another local spot, we hit a beach recommended for snorkeling. Luc crashed out, so he and I settled under a tree while Shawn went to scope out the scene. One of those great island rain storms woke Luc up and once he caught sight of the water, there was no getting him back to sleep. I changed him in to his beach attire and the playing commenced. This beach had sand almost like tiny pebbles, so Luc had to taste some of that to compare it to the beach the day before. Apparently, it goes well with his granola bars. Shawn and I took turns snorkeling and playing with Luc before finally getting chased off the beach by a particularly persistent rain squall.

Aloha
We packed our last day in Hawaii chock full of adventure, so we got an early start. We headed up the trail at Diamond Head early to beat the heat. Luc fell asleep on the way up and didn’t wake up until we were heading back down. After Diamond Head, we went to the Big Kahuna of snorkeling, Hanauma Bay. Luc was happy because there was sand, and Shawn and I had lots of fish to look at while snorkeling. I took Luc in to the water to see the fish swimming right around my ankles, but he was way more interested in splashing around. We made it back to the hotel with just enough time to rinse off the sand (Luc crashed out once again and came home sandy), pack up and head out for home. He'll never know how close we was to finding his own Nemo.