The Rest of our Summer

Between Daddy's time off and all of our trips, the rest of our nine-week summer vacation went by so quickly, which made Mommy happy. Here are the last of her photos from summer!

First things first - as soon as we came back from Hawaii Colin had one week to get potty trained before he started preschool summer camp. It was fairly easy - only took a few days and a couple of accidents. It helped that he loved wearing his new Captain Underpants undies, complete with a cape!

Sporting a fierce tan from our Hawaii trip.

A trip to the Livermore outlets in 90 degree heat called for a strawberry rose petal gelato cone!

I only did two summer camps this year. The first was a week-long dance camp and the theme was "Rock Stars and Pop Stars." At the end of the week we performed two dances for our families. Here is our dance for Make Some Noise - check out my toe touch at around the 0:30 mark!

The other was Camp SOAR in Belmont. It was an all-day camp and I got to hang out with Alyssa and Wylie all week. We did lots of fun activities including arts and crafts, games, and water play. Highlights of the week included the field trip to Happy Hollow and this mini hike through the park that the counselors took us on. I insisted on showing Mommy and Colin when they picked me up one day. We walked along a creek to some old brick structure covered with graffiti. Very random but it made for some cool photos, we guess.

Colin enjoyed three whole weeks of Camp Treehouse at Village Park. It was just like going to preschool and he loved it. Everyday after camp he had a picnic lunch with his friends and they played even longer. I joined them the last two weeks and we spent lots of long afternoons there.

That one afternoon a bunch of my classmates all randomly showed up along with their little siblings. It was like one giant play date!

There were some random weekend outings:

Pancake breakfast at the fire station.

More time at Village Park.

Great America - where else?

A trip to Half Moon Bay with the Yamadas and Bermans. It was one of the coldest days there even though it was in the middle of August!

As a last hurrah before school started, Mommy took me and Colin to Happy Hollow. Colin is tall enough to go on all the rides now so we were able to go on everything together. In fact, he may have even outgrown most of the rides there, since they're geared more toward toddlers.

Mommy had to capture him eating pizza while wearing a pizza shirt.

And finally, the Burlingame Family Campout at Washington Park. This was our second year attending and it was fun because a lot of my school friends were there as well. It coincided with movie night so we all watched The Secret Life of Pets on the giant inflatable outdoor screen before going back to our tents for the night. It was fun night and a nice way to wrap up the summer!

Daddy's Summer Vacation

Since Daddy got a new job, his last day at BlackRock happened to be the same as my last day of school. He had a whole month before he started his new job, which meant he got to spend it at home with us! We took full advantage of his time off and spent lots of quality family time together. In addition to our trips to Calistoga and Hawaii, we also went on some local outings.

Golden Gate Park:
Although its not that far, we rarely visit Golden Gate Park, mostly because parking is such a pain. We finally checked it out on a weekday and went to Stow Lake. We even rented a rowboat! Daddy did all the work while we got a kick out of seeing all the ducks and turtles nearby.

The whole thing made Mommy think of that scene in "The Notebook" where Ryan Gosling takes Rachel McAdams for a romantic boat ride with geese swimming all around them. It was kinda like that, but not quite.

Half Moon Bay:

Another day we went to Fitzgerald Marine Preserve in Half Moon Bay to explore the tidepools. We arrived mid-morning when it was supposed to be low tide. Only to discover that Mommy had read the wrong tide tables and low tide wasn't until afternoon! It was also much colder that we had anticipated. We ended up spending the next few hours driving up and down Hwy 1, stopping for lunch, and shopping at some gift shops for an overpriced sweatshirt so that I could stay warm. At least it's one of my favorite sweatshirts now.

When we returned at low tide, we had totally lost interest in actually exploring the tidepools and just played in the sand instead.

Great America:
We got season passes again this summer so of course we had to make a few visits there.

It was a fun few weeks are we are glad Daddy got to spend so much time with us!

Food in Oahu

Last post on food from our Hawaii vacation! There were SO MANY food options in Waikiki. Since we were only there a few days, we didn't plan ahead too much and ate whatever was convenient. Mommy tried to only go to places that we can't get back home, but we did end up having pizza and burgers a few times. Here are some of the more notable places we visited.

Marukame Udon:
An exciting new discovery! This was a cafeteria style restaurant serving nothing but udon and tempura. The udon was so slippery and fresh, and it was neat to pick out whatever tempura pieces we wanted, down to a tempura soft-boiled egg! There was a line out the door, but it moved fast. Mommy was a huge fan and it was one of her favorite things about Waikiki. She loves her udon. Seeing how Colin slurped up his noodles, he was a fan too.

We've never seen Colin so serious about eating his noodles.

Another plus: they open at 7am so Daddy even went to grab breakfast on our last day! 

Rainbow Drive In:

A popular spot for plate lunch. We stopped here for breakfast before our day trip around the island. Daddy had beef curry with rice and mac salad. Yes, this was breakfast.

Haleiwa Food Trucks:

After driving to the north shore, Mommy wanted to stop at the famous Giovanni's Shrimp Truck. Except the line was a mile long so she settled for the Korean shrimp truck next to it instead. The food took soooo long, she would have been better off waiting at Giovanni's! Anyway, the garlic shrimp was tasty, and me and Colin ended up eating more of it than she did.

For some reason Acai bowls are really popular in Hawaii.

Leonard's:

Leonard's was another popular food stop, famous for their malasadas. They were made fresh to order and came filled with various fruit or custard fillings. We got chocolate, mango, and coconut and enjoyed them back by the hotel pool. It was a perfect way to top off our last day in Hawaii!

Finally, the one thing that Mommy and Colin couldn't get enough of - spam musubi! Colin ate them everywhere - by the pool, in bed, on the plane ride home. Good thing they're not as easily available back at home!

And so ended another fun family vacation!

Oahu

Before heading home, we stopped in Oahu for a few days. Compared to Maui, Waikiki was busy and bustling! It was almost overwhelming with all the people and city life, but it was also fun to see so many tourists and go shopping.

As loyal SPG customers, we stayed at the Westin Moana Surfider. Compared to our sprawling two bedroom villa in Maui, we had to squeeze into a tiny hotel room with two double beds. Man was it rough. The pool was just a small regular pool, nothing fancy like the resort in Maui. However, it was steps from Waikiki Beach where we spent hours each day.

Waikiki Beach was a lot busier but we loved it. The sand was powdery soft, the water was so warm it was like taking a bath, and it was shallow enough that we could go way far out and still stand up in some places. 

Also the most random thing happened in the middle of Waikiki Beach. We bumped into my school friend Sienna and her family! With dozens of hotels lining the beach and hundreds of tourists, what are the chances that we would run into someone we knew? The timing couldn't have been more perfect, and we got to spend a few hours on the beach together - it was like a vacation play date!

We also took a shuttle bus to Ala Moana Center, this giant outdoor shopping mall. The bus ride itself was fun, since we sat on the upper deck of a double decker.

At the mall there was this kiosk where you can create your own flip flops. You pick the color of the base, the straps, and all the decorations. Total tourist trap, but this kinda thing was right up my alley so of course I had to make a pair.

They advertised flip flops starting at $18, so how did this end up costing $36??

The next day we rented a car and drove around the island, doing all the things that tourists do. Our first stop: the Dole Plantation. We took the tram tour through the pineapple fields, then enjoyed the famous Dole Whip and Dole Whip Float.

I fell for yet another tourist trap - the infamous pearl in the oyster. The clever salespeople inside the gift store handed us keys to try to open a treasure chest. Whoever held the lucky key that unlocked the chest would get some special prize. Everyone else got a coupon for a you-pick pearl. Way to rope us in! Lucky for me, the oyster I picked had two pearls inside!

We also drove to the North Shore of the island, stopping at Turtle Bay Resort to look for sea turtles laying out on the beach. We didn't see any this time and ended up exploring a little bit before moving on.

Finally, we made a stop in Haleiwa for a snack, then to Leonard's to pick up some famous malasadas before heading back to catch our last Hawaiian sunset.

We loved Oahu! Still more on Waikiki food to come!