Hawaii: Part 6 -- Parasailing, Botanic Gardens, and More.

I'm trying my best to blog my way through  Hawaii before life gets away from me, but, man, I'm not sure life could get much crazier than right now.  I'll try and do a quick catch-up post of all the happenings soon, but in the meantime here is another bare bones recount of our 6th day in Hawaii!  

SATURDAY MAY 28

• We ate a simple breakfast at the house and then we headed to Honolulu for a day of adventure planned by Ellie

• The boys took Lucie first, while the rest of us girls tried parasailing! 

•   It was much less scary and much more peaceful than I thought it would be sailing 800-1000 feet in the air and I have to say, that despite my scaredy-cat tendencies, I rather enjoyed it.   

• After we girls finished up, we traded off Lucie with the boys and let them have their own parasailing adventure.  

• While the two different groups of us parasailed, the Lucie holding group walked around Foster Botanical Gardens  where we discovered lots of very unique and beautiful plants
  
  
  

These leaves...or perhaps they're flowers... resembled butterflies as fluttered off the trees...and the cannonballs were crazy!  We're glad none of those landed on our heads!  😅

A closer look at the fluttery thingies...

Lucie enjoyed a double dose of the Botanic Gardens...

Here's a closer look at some of the unique flora and fauna we saw there....

• Ellie had done some research and found a flea market at Aloha stadium that sounded cool, but it wasn't really worth it.  We bought a couple of small items, but mostly it was just a big overhyped collection of souvenir shops. 
  
  
• We went to Oahu Grill for dinner—it was good Hawaiian family style  food, but unfortunately even the meat had gluten in it, so my options were limited. 
  
  
• We had heard that Waiola Shaved Ice was the best around and while we were hopeful when we saw the crowds there, we found it was good, but not amazing.  

• On the way home, we stopped at surf shop in Haleiwa for some souvenirs. The t-shirt selection was the best around and they even had some unique postcards for me. 
  
  
• After all that Hawaiian adventuring, we headed back to the house for a chill night in.   We enjoyed our Lucie snuggles while we watched the sunset and played pickleball.  

• We played Cards Against Humanity {family edition}

• MEANWHILE AT HOME...our puppy was getting spoiled with scenic drives and mountain hikes! 

• This was one of our favorite chocolate covered macadamia nuts!  YUM!  😋

• DISCLAIMER:   I have just had one of the craziest weeks of my life (6/19/22) and writing this blogpost is my effort at decompressing.  I am mentally and physically exhausted and do not have the bandwidth to edit or read through my blogposts, therefore I kindly request that you suspend judgment at my lack of creativity and proper grammar.   💖