Hawaii Trip - Makapuu Lookout, Hukilau Market, and Pool Time

Oh we're going to the Hukilau, to the huki-huki-huki-huki-huki-hukilau! I never knew I wanted to be able to apply that song to a blog post before, but it makes me happy!

Silly girl, being silly so early in the morning

Last night Larry and I realized we only had 2 more days left in this vacation and we officially wanted to make the most out of the days as we could! So we wrote up all the things we still wanted to do while we were her, prioritized them in order of importance, found each thing on the map, and made a plan on how to accomplish it all. Today's agenda: Hike up Makapu'u Lookout (where you can spot whales during migration season...which just so happened to start last week!), hit up the Hukilau Market (which is next to the Polynesian Cultural Center) and walk the shops there, and then take Cara swimming in the pool and see if she likes that better than the ocean.

Makapu'u Lookout - what an amazing place this was! We didn't see any whales migrating, but we didn't stay too long to look either. We did have a bit of a scary moment where we were on this cliff lookout area, before the hike start point, and we were going to take a picture. I thought it would be a good idea to have Cara wear her sunhat since we'd be outside for this hike, but what I didn't account for was the wind. Larry had her propped up on the railing on top of the cliff and I was getting ready to take the selfie of us, when all of a sudden the wind caught the hat off Cara's head. Larry let go of Cara momentarily to grab the hat, and she ended up falling backwards. Luckily Larry's a ninja so he caught her and the hat in one motion, but these girls saw it and, of course, thought they watched Cara plummet off the side and screamed bloody murder. Cara started crying so hard and that's when we saw she got a tiny cut on her back from the cliff. I felt SO bad and you could tell Larry did too, but she was really okay. It was more just a scary thought of what could have happened really. After that things picked up, we took our pictures and then started our hike. I had read that his was really stroller friendly so even though Larry wanted to take Cara up in the carrier, I convinced him otherwise and we put her in the stroller. Everyone still commented on how adorable and cute she was and how they were jealous she got to get a ride to the top haha. What I didn't know is that even though  it is paved and stroller friendly, there were little unpaved pathways to take you up higher and I was REALLY bummed I didn't listen to Larry and have him bring her up in the carrier. We got some amazing views and all that, but I was feeling so good about not needing to stop and I wanted to go higher, but I didn't want to leave the stroller behind so we had to say "oh well, guess it's good enough we got up to this point". The views were breathtaking and I'm so glad we were able to squeeze this in, seeing whales would've made it better, but I got to see a real light house (something I've been wanting to do for a while now) and feeling like we got a decent work out made it even better (it was a steep hike, luckily there was a nice breeze going)

That water was SO pretty

All strapped in, ready for our adventure!

The start of our "hike"

I honestly had NO idea Hawaii had Cactus!

I FINALLY got to see a real lighthouse...this has been a
Bucket List item for me for a long while!

After that we drove on down to Hukilau Market, where we stopped to have lunch. Funnily enough our waiter asked us where we were from and when we told him Utah he mentioned he was actually moving to Utah to go to BYU- for IT stuff even- soon and so he was asking us what rent was like and what the area around BYU was like. It was cool to talk to him about that and Larry got to talk to him about working in the IT field as well. He also got Cara to smile for him, which is new for her! She loves to people watch (and boy has she gotten her fill on this vacation so far), but no one has really made her smile until now. He was very animated! After lunch we walked some of the shops. I wanted to get SO many things, but, again, reminded myself of how little room we had to pack so pictures were going to have to be the biggest souvenirs. I did end up getting myself this wrap thing and a necklace that matched it. I'm hoping to wear it when we have our "fancy" night out for dinner (something we hope to accomplish while we're here). There weren't too many shops, but it was still fun to walk them. Plus it gave us plenty of time to head back to the hotel for swimming!!

Swimming with Cara was SO much fun. We decided to slowly introduce her to the pool this time to see if that went better. The water was a decent temperature, but Cara was still unsure. She didn't cry or anything, but she had to suck her fingers (a sure "security" sign for her in new situations). After a bit we started holding her away from us and we noticed she started kicking! Can you believe it, 7.5 months old and she's kicking in the pool! I was so surprised I grabbed the Go Pro immediately to record it, but only got her doing it a couple more times by that point. Of course she had already been kicking for probably like 15 minutes straight (Larry had her go across the pool and back with him) by that point so I'm sure she was getting worn out, but it was SO cool to see. And by the time I came back she even started splashing. Larry says she started to paddle a little with her hands, but I completely missed seeing that. I'm constantly amazed at how smart our little girl is, even if this is something that's a natural response for babies, I'm still amazed and I'm still considering her to be a smarty pants! Haha

She liked the pool MUCH better than the ocean

I loved how well she slept
After being in the water

We came back to the room at this point to let Cara get a decent nap in her crib while we relaxed and man did that swim knock her out! She passed out and slept for probably 2 hours. We ended up having to wake her up because she probably would've slept through dinner if we had let her. I was immediately wondering how to get a pool at our house once we get back haha.

We decided to go to this restaurant that was within walking distance to the hotel, Roy's Beach House. It seemed like it was pretty relaxed and would have good food (based on reviews) so we figured it would be fun. We went down to eat and they told us there was about an hour and a half wait...what?! So they took our number and said they'd text us to let us know when a table was ready so we decided to go back to our room and wait. Around 7 they sent us a text to say it was ready and to head back (which was good timing because we were ready to call room service again and just cancel that dinner). The food was REALLY expensive as it turns out and it was only okay. But Cara loved tasting it and having sips of our water (something she loves trying to steal from us now) and they had a kitty wandering around that was friendly so that kind of made it worth it...kind of.

Heading out to dinner...I probably should've
Showered first...oops!

One funny thing I would love to remember about today is I noticed that when Larry had to go to the bathroom (number 2) Cara would end up with a poopy diaper around the same time. I started joking they were synchronized pooping. Larry kept saying it must be the food since she was eating some of ours, but I was like "well how come I'm not pooping as much as you guys are then?" and Larry responded with "Because you're a girl and girls don't poop!" I laughed SO hard at that!

Overall it was such a great day! The hike felt great, the market was cute, and swimming with Cara was awesome! I'm glad she seems like she'll be a water baby, as long as it's calm water (just like her mama!). I'm definitely worn out and ready for some nice sleep! One more full day before we have to get ready to leave now :( I'm definitely not ready for that!