disneydiva9902
09-22-2009, 01:15 PM
Day 4-Surfing and Dolphins
When we were planning for this trip, DH and I decided to reward the kids for having a great year in school and for just being good kids. They were each able to pick something that they really wanted to do. DS chose surfing lessons and DD chose a dolphin encounter.
DH and DS were able to get the first surfing lesson of the day today. We opted to use the beach boys recommended by our hotel instead of going to one of the more popular surfing schools. They got a great instructor. He was a little older than most of the other guys so he seemed more patient and totally loved his job. It was only supposed to be an hour long but they got over two hours and only had one other person in the lesson with them. They did awesome! Both were standing up and were able to ride many waves. DD and I stood on the beach in awe. We could not believe how easy they made it look. DS thought this was the highlight of his trip.
After lunch, we were picked up and taken to the Sea Life Park for DD's and my dolphin encounter. She loves dolphins but was not sure if she wanted to swim with them just yet. We stood in waist deep water (on me) and were able to touch two different dolphins and a wolphin (false killer whale bred with a dolphin). We were also taught how to get a kiss from the dolphin and how to make them dance with us. DD loved it and wants to swim with the dolphins next time. Several kids in our group did not want anything to do with the dolphins so we were given a little extra attention. Without that, it would have been very rushed.
After the encounter, we walked around the park and looked at all the animal exhibits. Sea Life Park is like a very, very small Sea World. It was ok but without the dolphin encounter, I would not make a special trip to see it. The dolphin and sea lion shows were cute and fun to watch though.
Our shuttle driver was very informative and pointed out various things to us, including the beach in the famous seen in From Here to Eternity.
We had dinner at Chuck's Steak House tonight. It's in our hotel. It was very good. DH and I both got surf and turf combos. Mine had shrimp and his had Mahi Mahi, which was excellent. They had a good kid's menu too. Although they weren't listed, they would (and did) make pizza or mac cheese. Chuck's is a small chain with a handful of locations including one in NH, who knew?
We watched our final sunset in Honolulu tonight and packed up for our trip to Kona on the Big Island tomorrow.
When we were planning for this trip, DH and I decided to reward the kids for having a great year in school and for just being good kids. They were each able to pick something that they really wanted to do. DS chose surfing lessons and DD chose a dolphin encounter.
DH and DS were able to get the first surfing lesson of the day today. We opted to use the beach boys recommended by our hotel instead of going to one of the more popular surfing schools. They got a great instructor. He was a little older than most of the other guys so he seemed more patient and totally loved his job. It was only supposed to be an hour long but they got over two hours and only had one other person in the lesson with them. They did awesome! Both were standing up and were able to ride many waves. DD and I stood on the beach in awe. We could not believe how easy they made it look. DS thought this was the highlight of his trip.
After lunch, we were picked up and taken to the Sea Life Park for DD's and my dolphin encounter. She loves dolphins but was not sure if she wanted to swim with them just yet. We stood in waist deep water (on me) and were able to touch two different dolphins and a wolphin (false killer whale bred with a dolphin). We were also taught how to get a kiss from the dolphin and how to make them dance with us. DD loved it and wants to swim with the dolphins next time. Several kids in our group did not want anything to do with the dolphins so we were given a little extra attention. Without that, it would have been very rushed.
After the encounter, we walked around the park and looked at all the animal exhibits. Sea Life Park is like a very, very small Sea World. It was ok but without the dolphin encounter, I would not make a special trip to see it. The dolphin and sea lion shows were cute and fun to watch though.
Our shuttle driver was very informative and pointed out various things to us, including the beach in the famous seen in From Here to Eternity.
We had dinner at Chuck's Steak House tonight. It's in our hotel. It was very good. DH and I both got surf and turf combos. Mine had shrimp and his had Mahi Mahi, which was excellent. They had a good kid's menu too. Although they weren't listed, they would (and did) make pizza or mac cheese. Chuck's is a small chain with a handful of locations including one in NH, who knew?
We watched our final sunset in Honolulu tonight and packed up for our trip to Kona on the Big Island tomorrow.