July had quite a few fun events and one scary night. Some good friends came into town and stayed two doors down from us. We enjoyed their company and tried to cram in a ton of sites. It was really hard to think that these would be our last visits to some of our favorite places. 
Scary night!!! Someone shooting fireworks off accidentally started a brush fire in the open space next to our condo complex. The emergency vehicles swooped in and a little after midnight they got the blaze under control. We were able to relax and get to sleep, but had packed everything important...just in case we had to make a quick escape. This was the closest we have ever been to a fire of this magnitude. Hunter was amazed, grabbed the camera to be the documenter of the event; Ashley was irritated that we woke her up and then quite scared...thankfully all ended well and the only thing we lost was some sleep that night. 
Scary night!!! Someone shooting fireworks off accidentally started a brush fire in the open space next to our condo complex. The emergency vehicles swooped in and a little after midnight they got the blaze under control. We were able to relax and get to sleep, but had packed everything important...just in case we had to make a quick escape. This was the closest we have ever been to a fire of this magnitude. Hunter was amazed, grabbed the camera to be the documenter of the event; Ashley was irritated that we woke her up and then quite scared...thankfully all ended well and the only thing we lost was some sleep that night. 
The fire had come within 75 ft of the condos!
We explored the southeast corner of Oahu..if you're a golf watcher, this scene is familiar...the Sony Open coverage is set up at this very beach. Waialae Country club is just off the sand behind us. The crater that is home to Hanauma Bay is on the right side of us and Koko head is on the left. 
The Mandarin Hotel is next to the country club..it was full of cool sites, like this baby honu (green sea turtle)
and this beutiful manta ray...the kids thought he was waving to us
the neatest part of the exploration at the hotel was seeing the dolphin lagoon. Dolphin Quest runs this interactive dolphin experience..we didn't pay to get in the water with these awesome creatures, but got a great show anyway...after seeing the trainers work with the dolphins, Ashley thought she might like to pursue being a marine biologist so she could play with the dolphins all day too!
Have vine, will swing...we ended our trip to the Waialae area with Tarzan Hunter swinging through the banyan trees
A special treat for us was touring the Sagres. It is a 1930's Portugese sailing ship. Every year the new cadets take this ship out into the deep blue sea for training. One of their stops was Honolulu. This ship was beautiful and amazing to see.
We couldn't leave Hawaii without stopping by Da Kine Bailbonds...the home of Dog the Bounty Hunter...unfortunately Dog and his crew were in Colorado when we came..maybe we'll catch a glimpse of him in our new town
Any clues on this ship's identity??? How cool that the NEW Pirates of the Caribbean ship was refitted right by our condo! This used to be the Black Pearl, but is now Blackbeard's ship. We couldn't get any closer and left the island before Johnny Depp and the cast showed up, but it was still neat to see and we will definitely check the movie out next summer
This is the entire ship...a little farther away.
We explored the southeast corner of Oahu..if you're a golf watcher, this scene is familiar...the Sony Open coverage is set up at this very beach. Waialae Country club is just off the sand behind us. The crater that is home to Hanauma Bay is on the right side of us and Koko head is on the left. 
The Mandarin Hotel is next to the country club..it was full of cool sites, like this baby honu (green sea turtle)
and this beutiful manta ray...the kids thought he was waving to us
the neatest part of the exploration at the hotel was seeing the dolphin lagoon. Dolphin Quest runs this interactive dolphin experience..we didn't pay to get in the water with these awesome creatures, but got a great show anyway...after seeing the trainers work with the dolphins, Ashley thought she might like to pursue being a marine biologist so she could play with the dolphins all day too!
Have vine, will swing...we ended our trip to the Waialae area with Tarzan Hunter swinging through the banyan trees
A special treat for us was touring the Sagres. It is a 1930's Portugese sailing ship. Every year the new cadets take this ship out into the deep blue sea for training. One of their stops was Honolulu. This ship was beautiful and amazing to see.
We couldn't leave Hawaii without stopping by Da Kine Bailbonds...the home of Dog the Bounty Hunter...unfortunately Dog and his crew were in Colorado when we came..maybe we'll catch a glimpse of him in our new town
Any clues on this ship's identity??? How cool that the NEW Pirates of the Caribbean ship was refitted right by our condo! This used to be the Black Pearl, but is now Blackbeard's ship. We couldn't get any closer and left the island before Johnny Depp and the cast showed up, but it was still neat to see and we will definitely check the movie out next summer
This is the entire ship...a little farther away.
