It was still raining when we woke up today, so we decided we’d head to Aloha Stadium to do the Swap Meet & Marketplace. If you want cheap Hawaiian souvenirs, this is the place to go. There are local vendors there that sell all sorts of little trinkets, shirts, towels, bathing suits, and all other types of Hawaiian souvenirs. I’m even more indecisive being pregnant than I was previously, so we wondered up and down here about 3000 times or so, made it to the bathroom TWICE, before I finally decided on a sarong to buy. Seriously. Chris refilled his stock on Hawaiian t-shirts, and we picked up some more Hawaiian beach towels to add to our collection.
Just chatting with the people here is entertaining in and of itself. They’re hard workers who love to strike up a conversation, and are very sweet people. I’m really starting to show…unless I deliberately try to hide it, there’s no denying I’m pregnant. My feet were hurting a bit from walking around so much, and I was getting a little flushed, so while Chris was purchasing his shirts, I squatted down to take a mini break. The lady at the shirt place was so sweet…she ran up to me and gave me a bottle of water and refused to let me not take it. I tried telling her I was fine, my feet were just getting sore, but she was not hearing anything of it. She said, in broken English, “you carrying baby, yes?” I smiled and said yes, and she asked how far along I was and then said “you know boy / girl yet, no?” I told her no, we’d find out after we returned from our trip. She wished me good luck and we were on our way. I think she would’ve chatted with me for another hour if I wouldn’t have felt so silly for taking her water. She was really sweet. It’s the first experience I’ve had with someone else being able to tell that I’m pregnant…I was a little embarrassed, but it was actually pretty cool too.
From here, we headed to the Windward side on the H3 highway. We hadn’t been to this side of the island yet, and the drive through the rainforest is absolutely breathtaking and amazing. It is almost always raining over here, even if it’s just sprinkling some, but the view is well worth it. The clouds start to roll in pretty early, and it’s impossible to tell where the cliffs of the mountain tops end and the clouds begin. The clouds just billow over and it’s green everywhere around you.
We stopped at the Kuola Ranch Beach and ate lunch. There were beautiful red headed brazillian cardinals everywhere you looked. It was a gorgeous scene to eat our lunch at. We drove by and stopped at the Kuola Ranch and drove around to see the sights. This was where Lost, Jurassic Park, Hawaii 5-0, and some other shows / movies were filmed.
After lunch, we headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center, and toured around the different islands there. The place is huge and beautiful.
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| Look - Matching Big Bellies!!! |
After that, we attempted to do another 2.5 mile hike. The hike was one we’d found from the Department of Forestry hike trails we picked up. We drove through a tent city area of the beach, and then through a bunch of local, rundown neighborhoods, to the start of the trail. There was a huge sign that said High Crime / Theft area. We looked around, noticed the big Polynesian men eyeing our vehicle, and decided this trail wasn’t in the cards for us. It was the Hauula Trail System. Chris wrote on the top of the Trail Map “Inspected ->Deemed hazardous to our safety & the safety of car. Abort operation without leaving car!” Silly husband.
On our drive home, we took the North Shore route to avoid traffic, and stopped at M. Motsumoto’s for some more shaved ice. Yuuumm…can’t get enough of that place!
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