Ala Moana - Day 3

Our third day in paradise came with another early wake up call, but as we all were sound asleep before 7 pm it didn't matter. Plus, my family likes to wake up early when we're there anyway so as not to waste a single minute of our time there.

This day we decided to walk in the opposite direction down to Ala Moana Park. On the way there we stopped on the bridge and saw giant box jellyfish. My Dad couldn't believe 1. how big they were and 2. that there were jellyfish at all! He said in all the years he's been going to Hawaii he's never seen one there before. Actually, I forgot to blog about TG and Riley's jellyfish encounter. On Friday (Day 2), before we went to the pool we actually walked down to the beach. It was dusk and Riley wanted to go in the water. She and TG were playing out about waist deep when all of a sudden, TG hollered, yanked something up out of the water, and tossed it away. Then he and Riley started making tracks for the sand. She ran right up to Gampy and said, "No one, said anything to me about any jell-wee-fish." My dad was so tickled by her choice of words. It was definitely a funny and favorite memory. Don't worry TG was just fine, there was a little spot where he was stung and although I offered to ahem, alleviate the pain, he politely declined.

Anyway, our walk around Ala Moana was a treat because we got to see the beautiful beaches and there was a outrigger canoe race gearing up. Riley was fascinated by all the paddlers and canoes.





I'm so sad I didn't take any pics of the next part, but there was this lovely little protected stretch of sand. As the sun came up Riley just ran right out into the calm, cool water and soaked herself. It looked like so much fun that Camden and I decided to join her. The waves sent spray over the rocks, but the water was so flat, clear and shallow. Gammy watched us splash around while Gampy and TG watched some surfers from the point.

On our way back to the hotel we stopped and watched the paddle teams head out to the start and then make their way towards Diamond Head. Instead of Denny's we opted for breakfast at Happy's Cafe at the hotel where Gammy and I gobbled up spam musubi. Oh for the love of musubi. I ate it often and happily while I was there.



After morning naps and more musubi we hit the beachfront at the hotel and enjoyed playing in the ocean, building sandcastles and watching paddleboarders galore! The rest of our day was spent with a very fussy and feverish Camden and another early bedtime for all of us.