Week 6: Ala Moana Park

This past weekend we got the rare chance to hang with the fam at Ala Moana Park.  Let me just say, I have been meaning to spend the day at AM park for like--forever!  But somehow we always end up on the east west, or north side of the island.  I have to say, part of me was a bit leery.  It's a huge park, at least by my substandard California-ish standards (in California, a city park is often an acre or two with, if you are lucky, a slide and drinking fountain).  But it's also very close to one of the largest concentration of tourists on the island.  Turns out, at least on this weekend, Ala Moana Park was primarily inhabited by locals.  I guess most tourists were either shopping the mall or sitting in Waikiki. 

Seems like most people make their Ala Moana (which means "path to the sea" in Hawaiian) outing an all-day affair.  They stack out claims underneath the wide shade trees, set up BBQs, tables, chairs and bouncy houses for the kids.  Play lots of music music music!



One of the umpteen bouncy houses.

 The water is awesome at Ala Moana, especially if you have a five year old who is ocean-shy (like LK).  It's shallow and the waves are non-existent do to a tremendously long berm that scales the beach at about 500 feet or so from shore.  Do not quote me on this, it's a total shot-in-the-dark guess.  Anyway, it makes for basically a gigantic, lukewarm, completely luxurious swimming pool.  Of course, it was quite crowded.  People everywhere.  But that kind of thing can be ignored when you are in paradise.   I'd really like to return during the week when there are presumably a lot less people. 

We all had a great day, cooking up some steak and fish on the grill and laying around to read in the shade.  LK fed popcorn to the fish in the canal and watched a group of guys playing with their remote control boats.  LK even found a group of kids to play soccer with, and threw a ball around with his Grandpa, the Big Kahuna.  The day ended with a refreshing shower followed by a rainbow above nearby Waikiki.

All in all, another great day in Oahu!