Ohana ~ Family

Today was a really nice day with lots of family connections :)

First off we woke up and had breakfast, I then had a nice chat with each member of my family back home. I found out that my brother Jack will have one of my previous teachers for his third grade year, I also talked with my sister and dad, who are both doing really well along with my grandma and kitty! We then got on our way for a day of exploration along the North Shore of Oahu. Our first stop was the site of the Kukaniloko Birthstones. Kukaniloko means "To Anchor the Cry from Within" and is one of the most important sites in Hawai'i. Known as the Royal Birthing Stones, this location is where royal women were brought to give birth in the 12th Century.

Next up was the Dole Pineapple Plantation.

We really enjoyed it here, seeing as we were there for four and a half hours... Anyways, we started off by challenging ourselves with the Pineapple Maze, which was named the worlds largest maze in 2008, and after getting lost about a million times, we eventually completed the maze in an hour and 7 minutes.

Next we went and ate at the restaurant, and after, we decided to go on the Pineapple Express! The Pineapple Express is a train ride through the plantations, where you learn all about the start to finish process of the harvesting of pineapples, all about the history of the pineapple, as well as some random fun facts.

We then stopped off at the gift shop at the end and bought some souvenirs for the family :)

After our minds were full of pineapple knowledge, we began driving toward the North Shore, and FaceTimed my family along the way. We talked for a good hour while driving around the North shore and showing them the sites, before we lost service when we entered the Waimea Valley. The Waimea Valley is home to the Waimea Falls which are beautiful. We hiked about a mile and a half round trip through the valley to the falls.

There were some beautiful flowers along the way too.

After the Falls we drove the rest of the way up the North Shore and passed places such as Shark's Cove, Turtle Bay and the Banzai Pipeline. There is a website called Explore.org which has several live camera feeds from different places around the world, and the Banzai Pipeline is one of them. We decided to locate the camera so that my dad, who was back home in Florida, could see us on the live feed. Success! My dad found us on the other side of the lens, despite the vast ocean and 4,760 miles between him and us, which was awesome :) We also got to see some surfers,

swimming dogs, decent waves and another gorgeous sunset.

Hope you all are well and always remember, Ohana means family, and family means nobody gets left behind. ❤