Morning Activities: Up before everyone else, I spent the early morning hours taking photos of the resort. When I returned to the room, I discovered that my sister's family had already gone to breakfast, so Peep and I ate the items we had purchased the evening before. We then met back up at the pool area for a morning of swimming, where I quickly learned that the water slides, infinity pool and nearby hot tub, and the lazy river were becoming the kid's favorites. However, we spent some time swimming in the ocean lagoon as well.
Downtown Honolulu: After our morning at Aulani, the eight of us piled into the van Tim had rented for the drive to Honolulu. After finding a place to park and walking around the area, we headed into the Cheesecake Factory, where Peep and I treated everyone to a late lunch. It was then a quick walk to Waikiki Beach, where we stolled along the sandy shore amongst the crowds. We stopped to see the statue of Duke Paoa Kahanamoku located on the beach.
Duke Paoa Kahanamoku: Duke, a native Hawaiian, was well-known as an Olympic gold medal swimmer, an actor and sherrif of Honolulu. It was during his swimming exhibitions and movie career that he introduced the sport of surfing to mainland America, Europe and Australia. He became a hero in 1925 when he used his surfboard to save the lives of eight fishermen. We then heading back to the car, but along the street rather than the beach, stopping at several souvenir shops along the way.
Light Painting on the Beach: It was already dark by the time we arrived back at Aulani and, with no other ideas on what to do, I suggested giving the kids a chance to write their names with flashlights for the camera. So, we found a dark portion of the beach and spent some time doing just that. Becky joined in by spelling out "Aloha" and Peep "2015". Abby, Becky and Peep then stayed on to get their pictures taken with light some light painting flourishes added. Once back home in Laos, I assembled the photos into several composite shots.