A Visit to the Waikiki Aquarium

On our last day in Hawaii I decided to take some photos of our room so I could remember it better.  I loved having the big windows because they let in so much light but mostly because they were such good entertainment for Little Mr.

Our view to the left included a golf course and hills.

Our view to the right.

I think It looks like we totally over-packed, but we used almost everything we brought with us.  Our luggage consisted of three suitcases, a shoulder bag, a diaper bag and a beach bag that got shoved into the green suitcase after we spent one last afternoon at the beach.  I do have a good excuse for having three suitcases because that huge green one that we baggage checked had bulky things in it like baby blankets, Little Mr.'s PeaPod, gluten-free food, baby food and all of our liquid items that were too big to take in our carry on luggage.

After we checked out of our hotel and loaded all of our luggage into the rental car, we visited the Waikiki Aquarium and it turned out that Little Mr. loves aquariums!

The coral in the tanks was so beautiful.

Many of the tanks began at baby height, perfect for Little Mr.!  He loved to stand against the glass and watch at the fish while pointing or making fun sounds.

We saw a Nemo fish (clown fish.)

We saw a Dory fish! (Blue Tang.)  There are two giant clams right in the center of this photo, they are ginormous!

An Octopus

Jelly Fish

Moon Jellyfish, we see these a lot in the San Juan Islands.

A neat tank to sit and watch for a while.  There are giant fish of some sort in there, as well as some small sharks.

Then Little Mr. went swimming with the sharks.... ;)

Just kidding of course, there is a huge bubble that you can sit in and it makes it feel like you are right in the tank with the fish. 

A colorful shrimp.

A beautiful Lion Fish and two strange looking fish (one is yellow, but the other is rust colored and harder to find in the bottom right had corner.)

An Eel

I love it when sun rays shine through the water.

Hō‘ailona the monk seal.

Before leaving the aquarium we checked out the giant clam nursery.  They are beautiful and one variety has been recorded to grow to over three feet wide and over 500 lbs.  You can read interesting facts about them here.

After the aquarium we decided to walk down the beach and find a spot to spend a couple of hours swimming.  The Little Mr. had skipped his morning nap and as a result of that, fell asleep in the stroller on our way to the beach so I decided to take it easy and find some shade somewhere.  I picked up a gluten-free lunch at a nearby ABC Stores location... they aren't hard to find at Waikiki!  You can see that I went the un-healthy-but-fun route.  The 3 Musketeers is coconut flavored and it was super good.  I wish I would have bought more to bring home with me.  Then from L to R we have honey roasted macadamia nuts, Dole pineapple flavored ham jerky and shrimp chips.  It was the best lunch to have on my last day in Hawaii... definitely a lunch of champions.... and very touristy, and tasty! :)

My lunch-eating view.

The view to my left. :)

The view straight ahead.  The water looked so beautiful.

The view to my right.

I also noticed this little guy running around... see the lizard?

Next up is my very last Hawaii photos post, a tour of the U.S.S. Bowfin at the Pearl Harbor memorial site.