Hawaii Trip: Pearl Harbor and the Aquarium

On Sunday, Steve and I split up.  The "men" (a.k.a - Steve, Todd, Dave and Alex) wanted to go to Pearl Harbor and although I knew it would be interesting, I couldn't imagine that it would capture the attention of our children. So he went with the boys and Michelle and I took the kiddos to the Waikiki Aquarium.  The boys visited the museum, saw a moving video about December 7th, 1941, saw the Arizona Memorial, and took an extended tour of the battleship USS Missouri.  This was the battleship where Japan signed the surrender documents to end World War II.  The highlight for Steve was definitely the battleship tour... a vessel that had been in service for over 50 years!  It was amazing to see the spot where the documents were signed.

While they were soaking up some history, Michelle and I took the kiddos to the Waikiki Aquarium.  We had intended to take the bus there, but the routes were all messed up because of street closures for filming an episode of Hawaii-5-0.  So, since it was only about 1.5 miles away, we decided to walk.  The kids did amazingly well, although I pretty much was carrying one of the twins the entire way there.

The aquarium itself was small, affordable and informational... perfect for my kids.  There were several highlights including the sea turtles, jellyfish, giant clams and stingrays.  They also had a pair of Hawaiian monk seals and the kids enjoyed watching them being fed and learning all about this endangered animal.

We chose to walk back to our condo and hit up a restaurant on the way home.  It was one of the few times we ate out and the kids were more than happy to enjoy a burger!  I was impressed that their little legs did so well on our adventure and it was great having Michelle there with me to wrangle them!