Roaming Brood

When we were in Osaka, we went to Universal Studios Japan.  We had been excited about this day because we had never been to a theme park before.  It surpassed our expectations!! We were all affected by the time change so when we woke up very early, we decided to head out.  We took 2 trains and a subway to get to USJ.  Even at 7 in the morning, we weren't the first people in line!  We waited for ~1 hour and the park opened at 8am (even though the website said 8:30am and this was what we were originally planning around).  On that particular day, we didn't need a timed entry pass so we went freely all around the park. We went on a Thursday and it was pouring rain in the afternoon, so there were less crowds. Entrance to Universal We went to Harry Potter world first. Hogwarts Castle We ran straight to the Forbidden Journey ride. There's usually a ~3-5 hour wait... We walked straight in without an express pass! The Forbidden Journey ride is in...

After a 30 minute flight from Kona to Honolulu, an 8 hour lay-over in Honolulu, an 8-hour and 45-minute flight and a 19-hour time change, we arrived to Osaka, Japan. Goodbye Big Island! Cultural gardens in the middle of the Honolulu airport....nice way to spend a long layover Bedtime...finally!  The learning curve has been steep but so far we have figured out how to:  1- Order our food by number and picture at certain restaurants High tech touch screen machines Ramen for dinner...an Osaka-must 2- Make our way across town by bus, train and subway.  They weren't all this empty but they were all super clean Subway map for Osaka 3- Attempt basic Japanese sayings (thank you, where, good morning, good night, etc).  Nathan is particularly good at it! 4- Use the toilets.  The kids still giggle at the various wash settings :)  Check out all of the buttons on the side  Shower and bath 'closet' 5- Fit our luggage an...

We love to get up-close-and-personal with wildlife (safely for everyone involved, including the animals we see), so we decided to do a Manta Ray snorkel excursion from Kailua-Kona. It's a bird, it's a plane - no - it's a Manta Ray!!! First things first - if you don't know anything about Manta Rays, have a quick read of this:  Manta Ray On Wikipedia. They're "gentle giants" - eating plankton through massive gill/filter structures, having no teeth and caring little about humans.  They "fly" through the water with massive wings and they are wonderfully graceful as they do so. Turns out their skin feels rather like a wet drywall sanding block - both spongy and rough.  We found this out because despite our valiant efforts to keep our hands away, they kept circling below our lights (Manta Ray snorkling is a night-time affair) and coming very close to us with every pass.  Personally, I was swiped by the beasts easily 10 times - from arms to l...

Amidst the Big Island's surfing, snorkeling and boogie-boarding culture one can find over 600 coffee farms clustered along the Kona coast and the slopes of Mauna Loa.  Many of these farms offer tours for visitors (some complimentary,  others for a fee).   We opted to visit Greenwell Farm. Now I am not a coffee drinker so I did not partake in the dozen free samples of different coffee but other visitors seemed to enjoy them. Our guide took us around the farm and explained the different steps of coffee production.   The climate on the Kona coast of the Big Island is as perfect as it gets for coffee-growing- daily sunshine,  daily afternoon drizzle and warm temperatures year round.  Coffee cherries Beans drying in the sun (a staff member has to stir them every hour hour for ~7days) In addition to discussing coffee, we learned about bananas, avocados and green peppercorns.  Green green peppercorns  One of the 100+...

A few days ago, we went to the Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo and Gardens outside the town of Hilo.  I was really little last time we went to a zoo and I don't remember it.  So going to a zoo was something new for me! The first animal we saw was a parrot named Max.  We also saw monkeys, lemurs, iguanas, honey bears and bengal tigers.  There were lots of wild peacocks walking around, too.  We watched a monkey throw a basketball.  It was so cool!  The monkeys were my favourite (but we didn't get a good picture of them). After the zoo, we went to a farmers market and some men cut open a coconut for me to drink.  We brought the 'soft meat' home to make a smoothie in the morning.  It was so yummy!

A few days ago, we spent the day at Hapuna Beach on the Kohala Coast.  Some travel guides describe it as the most beautiful beach in the world.  It certainly was pretty with its palm trees, black lava rocky outcrops, turquoise waters and light golden sand.  Hapuna Beach is arguably one of the best boogie boarding beaches in the world... (It depends if you like getting sand everywhere and getting drowned constantly...) Hapuna Beach has giant waves that can be awesome... or terrifying! For us, it was amazing. The beach was busy, but big enough that we had our own space! We were pulled under the water quite a few times, but we all survived. If we stayed farther out, the big waves only lifted us up and down! When we stayed at a certain place where the waves broke, we had an awesome boogie boarding experience.  The calm waters in the morning...this changed dramatically in the afternoon!  Could he be any happier? Look at that turquoise wa...