Pali Lookout

On our way home from the Byodo-In Temple, we stopped at a place called Pali Lookout. 

It was beautiful! We had an awesome view of the lower windward side of the island, including part of the Koʻolau mountain range, Kaneohe Bay, and Kailua.

The mountains over to the left are the Koʻolau mountain range. The highway that you take to get to this lookout (Pali Hwy) actually goes through a tunnel through these mountains. 

This is the view down the old Pali Hwy.

I tried taking a picture of Gavin, and this is the best I could get from him.

We decided to walk down part of the old highway. This is Jeremy and Colette.

This is the view down to the new Pali Hwy.

Byodo-In Temple

We recently went to see the Byodo-In Temple in Kaneohe. It is a scale replica of a temple in Japan, complete with 18 foot tall Buddha statue. The temple was beautiful, and we all enjoyed it.

There was a bell there that you could ring before you go inside the temple. Of course the kids had to ring it right away. (Jeremy waited until we were leaving).

There was also a really big pond, with multiple little waterfalls and lots of huge koi fish. They were really pretty.

Here is the giant Buddha statue - it is covered in gold leaf.

This is one of the doors to the temple that was shut, I thought it was really pretty.

This is the view from the balcony in the front of the temple, of the entrance & the biggest part of the pond.

At first we thought this turtle was fake, because it didn't move at all. Then we finally saw some movement. :)

This statue was in front of the gift shop.

You could buy food for the birds & fish in the gift shop, so of course we had to! The fish went crazy every time we threw food out to them.

The birds even liked it - Jeremy fed them, and two of the female birds jumped up in his hand!

There were lots of these little decorative statues around, it was really pretty.

While we were there, I had to try to take a picture of the kids. They weren't too cooperative, though. This is the best one I got of them together.

And I really like this one of just Colette.

Jeremy in front of the temple.

And we traded picture taking skills with a nice couple there: I took their picture & he took our picture.

Jeremy rang the bell on the way out. It was the loudest we had heard while we were there. :)

I had to get one more shot before we left. I thought this temple was beautiful!

More Beach Pictures!

I know, I know.... It seems like beach pictures is all I post, right? Well, in my defense, I do live in Hawaii. And the beach is free. So there. :)

We decided to take Lola with us, because it had been a while since she'd been out of the house. Bad idea. She barked at all the other people and dogs there, and whined when the kids walked away. We need to work on her socialization more. :)

The kids both got boogie boards from Santa for Christmas, and they really wanted to try them out. Did they get in the water with them? Not once. But they did slide down this hill the whole time we were there, so the boogie boards did get some use.

There were really pretty mountains behind us.