Sea Life Park

This year, instead of a big birthday party, we decided to do something special with Crumpet. We took him to Sea Life Park, here on Oahu. This is like a mini Seaworld, and we had a lot of fun!
Sea Life Park is small, but if you plan well, you can get a lot out of it. There are several animal shows, and a lot of activities which give you a chance to interact with the animals. We got there when the park opened and stayed busy all day.
The first thing we did was feed the sea lions.
Crumpet was going to do this, and I was going to help, but when he saw the huge bucket of whole, dead fish, my vegetarian boy disappeared! It was pretty gross, but the sea lions were so much fun. They swallow the fish whole - you just drop it and it slides down into the void...
My sea lion was Koa, and he was a pretty good begger!
The park puts on one of the most creative sea lion shows I've ever seen. Lots of fun!
There was a good little touch pool. We touched crabs and starfish and urchins. The best part was this though:
A baby green sea turtle. Isn't that the cutest thing you've ever seen?? Normally, you may not touch these animals at all because they are endangered, but this is a special program so it's ok.
There is also a big pool of adult sea turtles which you can feed, but we missed the feeding time...
Because we were in the pool with these:
In the bottom right of the picture is a stingray, and there were also lots of beautiful tropical fish. Crumpet's favorite animal on earth is the stingray, so that's why we chose this park for his birthday. You can get in the water and snorkel or swim with them, as well as pet them. There were 8 juveniles in the pool, and they are 'in training'. The trainers get them to swim by in loops and we got to pet them. They are so soft! We could also feed them (again, gross dead stuff, so Crumpet wanted no part of that!). We could feed lettuce to the tropical fish, too, and Crumpet loved that. You can't see the fish in the picture below, but that's what he's doing:
Crumpet doesn't snorkel, so this was the first time he got to be so close to the tropical fish of Hawaii. We were the only family at this feeding event, so they let us stay a lot longer than the allotted time, and were really good with Crumpet.
The park is in a beautiful setting. Here is the sting ray pool:
Not bad, eh? There is a fun kid's climbing area, for when little people need to decompress after too much interaction. Crumpet loved practicing karate on the punching bags:
We saw people in SNUBA gear in the big tank. It looked like fun!
The big attraction here is the dolphins. They put on a good show! During the show, a trainer rides on a dolphin's back... because you can swim with dolphins too!
They have several different dolphin programs. We chose the beginner program so that Crumpet could go with us (and because I'm a bit of a chicken about standing up on a speeding animal in the water!). We got to get in the water and kiss the dolphin, and dance with her. I was concerned that this would be one big photo op where we didn't really get much time with the dolphin. It turned out to be lots of fun though, and we got to pet her all over, as well as see some of her tricks up close. Crumpet was a bit nervous about this activity - the dolphin was big, and he couldn't touch the ground. He had a life vest, and we held him, but he was still a little worried. I, on the other hand, had a blast. This was a pretty cool experience for an animal nut like me!
Our dolphin was actually the world's only (supposedly) 'wholphin'. Her mother was a dolphin, and her father was a false killer whale. They were alone together in a tank, and one day, the dolphin was pregnant... The wholphin looked mostly like a dolphin, but her teeth and mouth were somewhat different.
If you are ok with spending lots of money, and you want a day of once-in-a-lifetime animal interactions, I definitely recommend Sea Life Park!

Polynesian Cultural Center

We finally went to the Polynesian Cultural Center while my mom was visiting. The center is dedicated to showing off the culture of the many islands in the Polynesian Triangle, including Hawaii. This is a huge place and it gets great reviews. Everyone says to go when it opens, because this is a full day experience.
I have to admit that we were somewhat disappointed. Part of the problem was that we arrived a few minutes before it opened, and several hours before the tour buses arrived. We entered and wandered around, feeling very lost for a while. Most of the employees were unprepared and unwilling to interact with us until the bigger, money making groups arrived. We could not find an open food stand, or even a bottle of water.
However, once the groups arrived, we started to have a better time. The landscaping here is truly beautiful.
The buildings are all copies from the islands, and some were very pretty.
At each island area, there are cultural exhibits, and several traditional games or activities to participate in. These activities are great for children. I was concerned that Crumpet would be too shy to play, but he joined in at most of the events.
This was a stick tossing game from New Zealand:
Hawaiian checkers. Crumpet beat Dad (with a little help from me):
Trying to make fire (the stick got hot, but fortunately no fire started..):
Fishing for little fish with bread lures... We almost caught a hungry duck:
Crumpet Sr. did some dancing to traditional music. I missed this because I was in the bathroom with Crumpet, but fortunately, my mom got proof!
Crumpet got several warrior tattoos. He is a huge fan of tattoos right now, and loved these. Big meltdown when they came off in the pool the next day...
Children are given a passport when they arrive at the cultural center and they get stamps for each area and activity that they visit. Crumpet got all of the stamps in the book, and was quite proud. (Warning: They give a prize to the kids at the end of the day for filling up the book. Crumpet couldn't wait for his prize, but it turned out to be the cheapest plastic lei I've ever seen. He didn't even take it. So disappointing - I think that the entrance fee could have paid for a nicer prize...)

We saw some moai statues from Easter Island. This was neat because we studied the island not too long ago.
This was a house from Easter Island. It was kept low to the ground to keep it safe from the winds.
We saw replicas of old sailing vessels:
And we watched a bit of the very pretty canoe pageant with canoes decorated to represent all of the islands:
The cultural center also has a luau at the end of the day, but we skipped that. It doesn't get great reviews, and we took my mom to a luau at our favorite beach the night before... There is also a show in the evening which does get great reviews , but we plan to do that another time. We were pretty tired after a day of exploring.

Interestingly, the Polynesian Cultural Center is run by the Mormons here. There are quite a few of them that have settled in La'ie, the town where the center is located. They established a college many years ago, and created the Polynesian Cultural Center as a place for students to work and earn money for school. We took a little trolley ride out to the college's visitor center to learn about the history of Mormons here. It was interesting, and they didn't try too hard to convert us...
The temple:
We really did have a good time, once we found our way around. If you only had a week or two in Hawaii and wanted to get a feel for the culture and history of the Polynesian Islands, this would be a good place to go.
For more field trip posts, visit Live the Adventure.

Whale Watching

Every winter, humpback whales migrate from Alaska to Hawaii. They spend several months, from December through March, here in the islands. They come to mate and give birth to their babies. They do not eat while they are here.
I could not wait for them to arrive! On December 15, which is the first day the whale watching cruises start to guarantee whale sightings, I dragged my boys up to one of the lighthouse lookouts here to wait and watch. They thought I was crazy, but we saw 4 whales from the shore that day! I think it's amazing that you can see them from the shore...
This weekend, we went on a whale watching cruise to get a bit closer to them. We saw lots of whales, and the naturalist told me that February is even better for sightings. I hear that they come even closer to the shore in Maui, so guess where we'll be next February??
We chose the Star of Honolulu's whale watching trip because they guarantee sightings. If you don't see a whale, you can go back for a free trip to try again. We went on the early morning cruise because it is significantly cheaper.... It turned out to be the right trip because there were many, many whales that morning!
Honolulu as we pulled out of the harbor:
Within minutes of leaving the harbor, we came across these two whales. They stayed by the boat for a long time, and we got quite close.
Waving at us!
We learned that humpback whales are baleen whales, and that all baleen whales have 2 blowholes. Each blowhole is attached to one lung. I had no idea! Toothed whales and dolphins have one blowhole that splits internally to access both lungs.
These people were parasailing and they got to go right over the whales. Oh, I want to do that!
More whales:
Raising a tail as they dive:
This ended up being a pretty sightseeing tour too. Here is the Diamond Head Lighthouse:
After the whale watch, we went walking on Diamond Head Beach for the first time. It turned out to be a truly lucky day for animal sightings because we came across a Hawaiian monk seal sleeping on the beach. These are endangered seals, and I never thought we'd see one while we were here. They mostly stay on the less populated islands.
I'm in love:


This was a wonderful day out! If you come to Hawaii during the winter months, be sure to keep an eye out for whales!
For more field trip posts, visit Live the Adventure!

The Bishop Museum

A few weeks ago, it rained and rained and rained. Fortunately, we'd been saving a visit to the Bishop Museum for just this kind of weather. It also helped that we chose one of their frequent 'free admission for military and locals' days. This is a great museum, but they charge for it - $18 for adults and $15 for children.
We thought we'd stay dry, but it turns out that the different types of exhibits are in different buildings around the property. Here is the planetarium viewed through the rain:
The Bishop Museum has something for everyone. The main hall has some natural history animal exhibits. The coolest thing we saw was this life size whale (sorry - I played with my camera settings the whole time, and still the pictures are very dark. Someday, I will take a class!):
The coolest thing about this whale was the fact that one side was open to show the skeleton of the whale. It was great to be able to show Crumpet how similar our skeleton is to a whale's despite the very different lives we live. Their flippers are built just like hands!
Crumpet loves rays so he enjoyed studying this one.
The main hall also houses several floors of exhibits about Hawaiian history, as well as information about other Pacific islands. This is a model of an ancient religious site (heiau) in Hawaii. We saw the ruins of one recently, and it was good to see what it would have looked like in use.
Grass house:
This is a quilt of the Hawaiian flag. When the island was taken over, the people were not allowed to fly their flag, so they created many of these quilts to demonstrate their love of their land and culture.
This is a rotten picture of dancing costumes from another Pacific island.
After we were finished in the main hall, we walked over to the science hall. This was definitely our favorite area. Here is the crazy tunnel into the volcano area:
They have a giant "working" volcano. You can walk inside and learn about volcanos (if you could sit still that long - someone in our group couldn't!):

Or you can walk up to the overlook and push buttons to make the lava at the top bubble. Crumpet loved this.
There was another volcano exhibit where you could compete with other people to create enough pressure in your section of the volcano to make it erupt first:
There was an area to dress up as forest creatures:
Crumpet is a serious snuggler, and he loved this mouse costume:
We learned about the animals that are native to Hawaii, and about problems related to bringing in foreign species. This giant snail eats the smaller snails and causes big problems. We know this because our garden is overrun with snails...
A third building houses the museum's traveling exhibits. Right now, the exhibit is about Creatures of the Deep Sea.
Above, you can see Crumpet with a giant squid. Below is a large wall mural showing depths at which various creatures live:
The museum also has a planetarium. We attended a show where we were taught to navigate by the stars. The Hawaiians used to travel around the Pacific in canoes, using nothing but the stars to guide them. It was very interesting. But our favorite thing in the planetarium was this giant sphere in the entrance. You could change the pictures that were projected on to it, and guess which was Crumpet's favorite? You could make it look like the Death Star from Star Wars... Eventually we had to drag him out so other people could use the machine!
This thing was beautiful, and Crumpet's dad is still scheming about how to get one for our living room... I'm not sure how I feel about that!

The Bishop Museum was a great place to spend an afternoon. We all loved it, and we are looking forward to going back in March, when the traveling exhibit will be about dinosaurs. However, I have to say that I am really looking forward to a day, sometime in the distant future, when I can stop and read the information about the exhibits. Right now, I am dragged from one area to the next and I feel like I miss a lot and don't actually learn much. Still, it is lovely to see the excitement in Crumpet, and so this is fun too!
For more field trip posts, visit Live the Adventure!