Ukulele Festival and other Sunday happenings

This morning, we woke up about 7:30am. Not bad. I think the jet lag + late nights are starting to wear off.

We asked Schäfer if he wanted to go to Jamba Juice for breakfast. He said, “No. Cook.” We explained that we’re in a hotel so we can’t cook.

We have had quite a few simple sandwich meals in our hotel room. These have been convenient, but sometimes a little messy with tots. As much as I’ve enjoyed our hotel, I am looking forward to having a kitchen table at the guest house.

Jamba Juice was a hit and a miss. The hit was the “Yumberry” smoothie. Sianna loves tart!

We were surprised to see this sign when we first walked past Jamba Juice. I literally turned to Hubs and said, “Look! They have yangmei’s!” (That’s the Chinese word for bayberries aka yumberry.) We’ve been eating bayberries by the pound back in JiuJiang. I had no clue they were packed with antioxidants! Lucky us. They are one tart little berry. We ate so many of them Hubs even made bayberry gelato. YUM.

We also ordered some oatmeal. The steal cut oats were prepared perfectly, but we ordered the “blueberry blackberry topping” only to be disappointed by the syrup/pie filling that was poured on top. Hello! Jamba! We thought you were talking about fresh berries.

After breakfast, we rode the bus to worship. At first, Schäfer went into the service with us, but then he decided that he was willing to go to a class where he could make other friends and play with toys. I was very proud of him because we knew no one at service this morning. He was very brave. Sianna stayed with us in the service.

I was so thankful to be back in a house of worship that I just didn’t want the music to end. Ever feel that way? I felt like this morning was a little too scheduled. I just wanted to linger there with the Spirit. (This was just my preference. I know everyone has different styles/desires when it comes to worship.)

After picking up Schäfer, we caught a free shuttle to the 40th annual Ukulele Festival. I wanted to buy a t-shirt, but they were $25 each. Errr… I was willing to pay $5. Hubs reminded me that we were in America.

Schäfer enjoyed the bouncy house.

Hubs enjoyed the free ukulele lesson and warned me that this is how new hobbies begin.

We got lunch and had the kids down for naps by 1pm. While they slept Hubs went on the World’s Longest Run Around thanks to Google Maps. He eventually found Walmart which didn’t have much in their food section, but they did have milk for $3 a gallon – instead of $9 a gallon in Waikiki. I’m not kidding. We should have asked the petting zoo if we could borrow their cow. Our kids can down some milk.

Schäfer woke up from his nap about 45 minutes before Sianna. We sat quietly on the bed and talked. At one point, this was our conversation:

He: For my birthday, I want three swords.
Me: Why do you want three swords? You only have two hands!
He: One for Mommy. One for Papa. And one for Schäfer. So we can all have sword fights.

Makes perfect sense.

Late afternoon, we headed to Waikiki Beach where Schäfer and Sianna basically played in the sand. Schäfer didn’t even hardly swim.

This photo is the essence of our afternoon. Schäfer’s dream came true when Hubs laid down and made himself available for burial. Meanwhile, Sianna picked up toys and dropped them in the stroller basket.

She also bent over to go face first in the sand – by choice… while she was sitting… just to see what it was like. Gritty, I’m sure.

Schäfer spent quite a bit of time running around the beach with his floatie wrapped around him. I didn’t want to interrupt to ask what he was doing. I think at one point he was a car or maybe he was driving a car.

We brought all our floaties with us from JiuJiang. This little round floatie was 8rmb ($1.18). We saw the same style floaties at the grocery store tonight for $6.99. Oh my. Culture shock.

Sianna enjoyed playing with the shovel and bucket.

Mostly, she was very proud of this stick that she found.

Schäfer did ask me why this beach had no sea shells. I agreed. There is an overall lack of seashells at Waikiki Beach. Perhaps we’ll give another one of Oahu’s beaches a try. This is the type of goal I like to set during vacation.

Print Friendly