Aloha Stadium Swap Meet

As I mentioned in my last post, we have friends from the Mainland in town and the Aloha Stadium swap meet was on their 'to do' list this week. I've always enjoyed the swap meet so we met up with them there on Wednesday morning.

Although it's called a 'swap meet,' most of the vendors sell new items. You can buy t-shirts, Aloha wear for children and adults, baskets, bags, luggage, artwork, children's toys, jewelry and all sorts of other things there. It's the best place for visitors to pick up souvenirs at a great price and a good place for those of us who live here to Christmas shop for friends and relatives on the Mainland. And no matter how often I go, I always find things to buy for myself.

In all honesty, this outing was more for me than for my kids, but they had a really good time too. My stroller-bound girl (no way I was going to try to keep track of her wanderings there) enjoyed the snacks I took for her as she people watched. She also had fun playing the toy ukulele and trying on the sandals that our friends bought. My boy had $10 in spending money that was burning a hole in his pocket and he bought a necklace, bracelet, sword and a fan. He was MOST upset when we had to leave before he had spent his last $3.

We also bought and enjoyed some snacks along the way. We had fresh watermelon and then purchased coconuts to drink and eat from this gentleman.

Do it yourself:

No reason for me to reinvent the wheel. Head to the official website of the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet for all the info. you need about how to get there, when they're open, etc.

Oh, but they won't tell you that it can be beastly hot and you'll be in the sun a lot. We try to go early and always take water, sun screen and hats with us.

A Morning in Waikiki

This week we have friends staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Waikiki and we decided to meet up with them there and enjoy the hotel pool. We went mainly to swim, but that turned out to be only part of the fun.

The grounds of the hotel are like a miniature zoo and my kids enjoyed seeing the koi fish, flamingos, macaw parrots, turtles and even penguins!

Right next to the hotel on the Diamond Head side we found this great little playground that the kids and their friends enjoyed playing on.

After all that fun we headed to the pool, but our morning in Waikiki would have been great even if we had never gotten wet.

Do it yourself:

• There's free parking by the Ala Wai Yacht Harbor, and a sidewalk leads from there to Hilton Hawaiian Village. If the free parking is full, the hourly parking is very reasonable.

• The playground is between Hilton Hawaiian Village and the Hale Koa

• We had to leave early to head to swimming lessons, but if you want lunch or a snack you can spend big bucks and eat at one of the snack bars at the Hilton Hawaiian Village or walk next door to the Hale Koa and eat at their snack bar which is much cheaper. Walking into the hotel from the beach it will be on your left. The hotel is for military but the snack bar is open to the public.

• If you don't know anyone staying at the hotel and are thinking of sneaking into the pool, they require wristbands be worn so you probably would get caught pretty quickly. Personally, I hate getting "yelled at" for inadvertently being somewhere I'm not supposed to be but if that doesn't bother you then hey, give it a try and let me know how it goes.

Makapu'u Lighthouse

This weekend we hiked/walked up to Makapu'u Lighthouse. The first part of this trail is the same one we took to get to the Makapu'u Tide Pools a few weeks ago, but instead of making the turnoff down to the tide pools, this time we went all the way to the top to see the lighthouse and enjoy the views.

We went late in the afternoon and had no trouble finding a parking spot in the parking lot. You can see the start of the trail on the far end of the lot in this picture.

The first part of the hike is usually a little warm, but once you get up to the ridge there is almost always a breeze and sometimes it's downright windy up there.
The trail/path is paved which makes it great for strollers and for the littlest hikers.

We saw a lot of strollers as well as a lot of dogs on the walk. Careful about taking dogs on really hot days though, we once hiked with friends who had to carry their big dog all the way down the trail after the pavement started to burn the pads of his paws.

As you near the top you get a good view of the lighthouse as well as some unusual (for Hawaii at least) plant life. Yep, cactus on Oahu!
I think the highlight of the hike for my kids are the snacks they get to eat at the top, but for me it's the great views. The first viewpoint is easy to get to and has a beautiful view of the windward side, but you can't see the lighthouse from there. The paved trail doesn't quite make it up to the second viewpoint, but it's not as treacherous as it looks in this picture.

From the second viewpoint you can look down at the lighthouse. It is still a functioning lighthouse and you cannot actually hike to it - something that often surprises first-time hikers on this trail. The lighthouse isn't as big and impressive as those found in other places (the Outer Banks in NC come to mind) but I think it's red roof makes it very picturesque.

The view of the windward side is great from up here. You can see the coast from Makapu'u Beach and Sea Life Park all the way along Waimanalo and out to the end of Kaneohe Marine Corp Base. There are also a number of islands off-shore to see including Manana Island, more commonly known as Rabbit Island.

The view would probably be better in the morning when the sun shines on the mountains, but we made up for that with a beautiful view on our way down of the sun setting behind Koko Head Crater.

Do it yourself:

• The parking lot and trail head are located between Sandy Beach and Makapu'u Beach.

• There are no bathrooms at the trail head or on the trail.

• There's no shade on this trail, so morning or afternoon are better than midday. And don't forget the sunscreen and lots of water no matter what time you go.

• If you're going in the winter, take binoculars if you have them. This is a good place for whale watching!

Family Sunday at Honolulu Academy of Arts

We made a last minute decision to add the Academy of Arts into our weekend plans and we were sure glad we did! We had friends helping to put on a Lego display there on Sunday. It was amazing what they built, all with legos - any description I could give wouldn't do it justice.

We went for the legos but ended up enjoying other aspects of the museum too. It was a free family Sunday and the theme was Medieval (wow, spelled that right on the first try!) Times. The museum had a "gallery hunt" in which children could look for five specific pieces of art related to medieval times and answer questions about them. To my surprise our boy really got into it, even before he found out he'd get a prize at the end. That got us into the galleries where we all got to enjoy the art along the way.

Throughout the grounds of the museum there were stations where children (and adults too if they wanted) could try on medieval clothes, touch items from that time period, do various craft projects and watch demonstrations. Our girl didn't like the battle between the knights, but it wasn't crowded so we could quickly and easily take her away from the action.
The event was really well done and a great outing for kids and their parents. The museum itself has a very nice collection of pieces and is a nice size - big enough to have a quality collection but small enough to see it all in part of a day.

Do it yourself:

There are two more Family Sundays this year.

November 15 - Views from the Top

December 20 - Keiki Christmas

There's free street parking if you can find a spot as well as metered parking and a pay to park lot nearby. The museum was busy but not overwhelming crowded by any means.