Oahu with Joe's Family

After a couple days with my Uncle Joe's family, we went to stay with my brother Joe's family.  He and his family took us on a hike, a steep paved trail that was FILLED with people all going up the mountainside to overlook the blue skies and ocean off the cliff face.  It was a good climb and Joe's kids kept up really well.  Some group of local teenage boys passed us on their way down.  They saw Steve and laughed at him for wearing such a big hat, long pants, and long sleeves.  They pointed and jeered with each other and called him "Bill Nye" and "Mayonnaise."  That was maybe a step up from being called "camarao"  (Portuguese for shrimp) on his mission in Brazil, just because it means that Steve's skin was white now and not sun-burnt red.  See? A step up! Steve's more covered up now and he's protecting against skin cancer, something I think is wise, but I guess it's not a very popular thing to do.

  

After our hike, we went to eat.  Joseph recommended this place as the best garlic chicken around.  It was yummy and did not disappoint.  I loved seeing all the menu options that we don't ever see in the restaurants where we live.  Take a look at Maizie's colorful plate: 

Then, it was off to another Hawaiian treat, Uncle Clay's shave ice.  This was something I wanted try since I was dissing how lame snow cones are and Missy told me Hawaiian shave ice is not some dumb snow cone.  She was right.  This shave ice is very fine and the flavoring doesn't just seep to the bottom, it soaks into the ice, so it's flavorful all the way through.  

When we headed to a beach, the road was closed to the original beach we wanted to go to, so we went to Waikiki.  It was crowded, but didn't stop the seal from taking a nap on the sand.

At Shirokira Market at Ala Moana, Joe and JJ took us to go eat Okonomiyaki.  It was absolutely delicious, but next time I will not go with the spicy because that was like lava!

Church had this awesome courtyard!  I guess because Hawaii has beautiful sunny weather all year, a courtyard makes sense.  It was beautiful.

We went to get a fun treat at Liliha Bakery.  

And more shave ice- this time at Waiola's.

I loved the hike Joe took us on to Manoa Falls, although, it was raining and slippery in that rainforest and we never made it to the falls.  But it really was the most scenic thing I experienced on the island.

Joe's neighbor has an interesting way of decorating, using tons of plastic toys in their yard.