3 Japanese girls?

Saturday night the Satarakas invited us to our 2nd Bon Dance (Maya's first). This year, Macie wanted to wear her new kimono that Granny Val and Papa Jer bought while they were in Japan. We (Michele included) are remiss in promoting our Japanese heritage. Maya's caption for this photo is "Look we are wearing our bikinis!".

Marc also found it amusing that this is a picture of 3 little girls all with Japanese blood, none of whom look very Japanese. I think Maya probably comes the closest. For sure Macie looks the most haole, but she has the most quantum - 75% Japanese!

Happy Father's Day!

This one is late too! On Father's Day we went on a gastronomical tour of sorts. First stop - Shimazu shave ice. The girls had sour lemon and green river. The grown-ups went for some more sophisticated flavors - chocolate peanut butter cream and red velvet cream. We stopped in Chinatown for some Gin Dui and pork hash and finished off with poke bowls from Pa'ina! Then it was off to Ward theatres to see "Up!"

Giant insect safari

Sorry - I meant to post this earlier! Last weeked we headed to Pearlridge for the Giant Insect Safari and stopped in for Farrell's for dinner. Nothing like 15 foot bugs to go with your patty melt and green river!

Macie's first day at Hanahau'oli

After just returning from our Disneyworld trip yesterday, the girls headed off to summer school this morning. Because of the time difference, Macie was up at 4 a.m. asking "is it morning yet?". While it's just summer school, it was her official first day as a Hanahau'oli student. Macie was so excited to pack her backpack for the first time. She and Marley spent the morning in the car discussing the ins and outs of Hanahau'oli and how Marley was going to walk her little sister to class every morning. It was very cute . . . we'll see how long it lasts!

Experienced traveler

Here's Macie waiting for our plane to leave Orlando. She's all set with her headphones, iTouch, and turkey sandwich. Quite the experienced traveler for 4-years old!

Day 8 - Around the world in 5 hours

Friday was Day 8 and we spent most of it at Epcot. For those of you who haven't visited Epcot before, in addition to the usual Disney rides, they have an whole portion of the park dedicated to different countries. So we started out with a Princess Breakfast in Norway. The breakfast was hosted by Belle and featured, in addition to the usual breakfast fare, pickled herring! Now granted our breakfast was more like brunch, but I found it amusing when we returned to our stroller and found our neighbor packing an unusual beverage in the kid seat of a stroller:

Yes, in case you weren't sure that is a margarita with a salted rim. This was apparently one of the specialties in Mexico right next door.

So, the benefit of Epcot was that the girls got to experience a little bit of each country without the travel time. They had a blast completing the "Kim Possible" interactive game in which they followed clues provided on a special cell phone. Their "special assignment" took us through China. You can see the glowing orb under one of the lion's paws. They eventually found the sacred monkey statue and saved the world!

Next it was off to Italy. I unknowingly bought a Coke Icee to help combat the heat and so we were too full for Gelato. I did have the girls pose in front of the Venetian mask shop.

We spent a lot of time in Japan. Here we had the girls pose in front of a Japanese garden. The poses in the first two pictures were our request:

This one was their idea:

Lord help us!

We enjoyed the Mikimoto pearl shop where the girls picked their own oysters. They ended up with pretty nice pearls and decided on a flower pendant and a dolphin pendant. Here they are modeling their creations.

We made a quick stop in Morocco on a search for hidden mickeys. The Disney artist have hidden Mickey heads all around the park. They actually publish a book with location information for hidden Mickeys. Marley really got into this and was able to find a few that weren't in the book. You can see the girls pointing to one in this mural.

Next we stopped for lunch in Paris! We enjoyed quiches and pastries from the Patisserie. Marley had creme brulee - again! The girls tried on these pink barets (or raspberry berets for you children of the 80's) in the gift shop. Ooh la la!

Paris was our last stop on our world wind tour. We spent the rest of the afternoon repeating some of our favorite rides at Epcot. After a quickly pit stop at the hotel for dinner and a bath, the younger two Miyamoto generations returned for a late night evening at the Magic Kingdom.

Unbelievably, on the second to the last night of our trip, we still hadn't rode the teacups. Here is Michelle, Maya, and Macie in their cup. We toyed with the idea of squeezing into one cup, but after spending quite a bit of time in line laughing at other people whose cup overflowth, we decided splitting up was the safest bet.

Here is our view from a spinning teacup . . .

We ended the evening with another ride on "Peter Pan" and one last ride around "It's a Small World". This one never seems to get old! The kids were still pointing out characters of interest. . . I had to ask them to be quiet because they kept waking Marc up (he was taking a little rest in the dark).

At 1 a.m. when the park closed, the kids finally had enough. Unfortunately the adults had to stay awake for the Monorail ride back to the hotel.

This was our last full day in the parks. On Saturday we had to check out of the hotel by 11 a.m., and we spent our last 5 hours in the Magic Kingdom. We were so tired when we finally got on the plane. We had a great trip, but it is a good thing it ended when it did, I don't think we could have kept up the pace much longer. The kids were troopers and it was truly the trip of a lifetime! Thanks Papa Mel and Granny Sandy!

Day 7 - Animal Kingdom

After our late night at Hollywood Studios, we slept in and didn't get
to Amimal Kingdom until early afternoon. We headed straight for
Finding Nemo, the musical. It was hard to get pictures, but here's my
best attempt. This is the aquarium scene in the dentist's office. The
Nemo musical has large puppets similar to Lion King, including a
gigantic bicycle with Mr. Ray, the manta ray, to glide around the
stage.

Next we traveled to Africa for the Lion King Stage Show. Even in the pretend Africa it was hot! 95 degrees and muggy. Marley was trying to keep cool in the misters provided in line.

The Lion King show was a very cool "in the round" type production with a lot of audience participation.

Simba was there and Timon with his "flying monkeys"

And we thought of the Satarakas when the fire-knife dancing hyena came out! Sorry in this picture he looks like he is on fire, the iPhone doesn't really do him justice.

While Michele tried to get Maya and Macie to take a nap, we took Marley on "Expedition Everest". This is a new addition to the Animal Kingdom and looked similar to the "Matterhorm". But this rollercoaster went backwards and much of the ride was in the dark! Marley was brave and relieved that there was no "big drop" that made her stomach shake! On the left side of the picture you can see the cars climbing up to the top of Everest. We ended our Animal Kingdom day with a "Grand Gathering". This was my favorite experience of the trip. We got to stay in the park after it closed and had a private safari ride. We got to see real life wildebeast, hippos, ostrich eggs, and got close enough to touch a rhino (but we didn't). Then we went to the "Tuskerhouse" which is Animal Kingdom's upscale restaurant (air conditioned, thank goodness) and had an African feast, Timon and Rafiki from the Lion King made an appearance, and we were serenaded by musicians from the Congo. When it was time for the audience participation, of course the three girls were the first up!

We ended a great day with a late night swim in the hotel pool. We were able to soak for a few minutes in the Jacuzzi and realized we should have ended every night there!

Day 6 part two

After finishing at Islands of Adventure, it was back to the hotel for
a bath & dinner. Then it was back to another park, Hollywood Studios,
to ride and play some more. We saw the Muppets in 3D and Marley and
Marc went on Star Tours while Macie and Maya went to see the Little
Mermaid show with Aunty Michele and Papa Mel (I squeezed in a little
shopping). We ended the night with another round of Toy Story Mania, a
new 3D ride/shooting game. While you are waiting to go in, you can
listen to Mr. Potato Heads' comedy routine.

Thinking of Uncle Josh

While at Islands of Adventure, we ran across this kiosk and thought of
Uncle Josh. In case you can't read it, it says "Ale to the Chief".

The bird's eye view of Suess Landing

Here is the view of Suess Landing from the train.

Dealing with the heat

Day 6 brought us another day of 95 degree heat. The girls cooled off
in Suess Landing's water play area. It was so hot, the grown-ups were
pretty close to jumping in too!

Day 6 - Macie's psychidelic (sp?) dreams come true (sort of) come

Last spring break, Macie's teachers asked her what she did during
vacation and she replied, "i rode a rainbow unicorn, my mommy and
daddy rode a gold one, and my sister rode a silver one." This time
when her teachers ask, maybe Macie's answer will be a little more
grounded in the truth. Here's Macie riding her pink flying elephant on
the caroseussal.

No green eggs and ham for you!

The girls were really looking forward to eating green eggs and ham (so
was I), but it was closed today. Too bad, you probably could have
cooked the eggs right on the sidewalk today, it was 94 degrees!

Suess Landing

Suess landing is by far our favorite "land" at Islands of adventure.
The girls went crazy with all the Suess characters including the
sneetches, horton, the grinch, cat in the hat, and thing 1 & thing 2!
It really is like stepping into a Dr. Suess book!

Day 6 here we come!

The girls are decked out in their Minnie Mouse attire for our day at
Universal Studio's Islands of Adventure . . . How blasphemous!

Last one

Here is a very buff and strong man flying high above the stage with
nothing but fabric holding him up!

La Nouba take 2

Here are the Chinese acrobats - 4 young girls you juggle tops in
strings while dancing, flipping and standing on each other!

An amazing end to day 5

The finale for day 5 was Cirque du soleil's La Nouba. This show was so
amazing, I spent most of the show holding my breath or clapping
wildly. I tried my best to sneak some pictures without being spotted
by the ushers. These don't even begin to do the show justice. If you
are ever in Orlando, you have to see this show! In this picture there
are 2 men in these giant rings.

Full of laugh juice

Here's Marley and Macie contributing to the laugh juice (behind them)
at the Monster's Inc. laugh floor. Monstropolis should have enough
energy for the next several years with these two!

Buzz lightyear's astro orbiter

The girls successfully captured Zurg!

I've been waiting 4 days for this

Day 5 - we're starting our morning off in Toontown, about to board
Goofy's Barnstormer (a rollercoaster), but we finally found
facepainting at the entrance. Marley has been waiting since we arrived
to get her face painted. Now we get to spend the rest of the day
having her ask "is it still there?"

Day 4 - Prepared for the worst

Sunday was our first full day at the Magic Kingdom. We started off with Country Bear Jamboree and danced the Hokey Pokey again, this time with the characters from Critter Country. Then it was off to Splash Mountain. Macie had been on it last year and was prepared for the worst:




All the girls really enjoyed this one, especially when Granny Sandy and Papa Mel got soaked! Then it was off to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad. Macie went on this one last year too, and was not impressed. This time she was laughing, screaming, and had her hands in the air. She loved it so much we went again that night. Boy, what a difference a year makes! The second time we went it was spontaneous and we didn't have Maya's "special shoes" that help her reach the 40" height requirement. The cry Marley let out when Maya was denied entrance was heartbreaking, like Sophie's choice. But Maya was determined, she and Michele ran back to the stroller, grabbed her shoes and tried again (with a different Disney worker). She made it the second time and they managed to find us in the neverending maze that Disney calls a line. We hit Marley's favorite the haunted mansion before dining with Cinderella and all the Princesses. Macie wore her Cinderella dress and Marley wore a shirt with all the Princesses on it, because she's too old for princess dresses (sob, sob). While we were there, someone got engaged, it was very romantic. After a quick nap, we set sail on a sunset boat cruise with Captain Hook, Mr. Smee, and Peter Pan. While on the boat, Marc and I were serenaded by our host who sang us "Kiss the girl" and Marley answered Disney trivia and scored a pirate bandana. The boat anchored in front of the Magic Kingdom and where we watched the "Wishes" fireworks show. We returned to the park for extra magic hours and rode Aladdin's Magic Carpets, Pirates of the Caribbean, and our second round of Big Thunder. We stopped for ice cream and left at closing 1 am!

Day 3

Day 3 started with breakfast at Chef Mickey's with Mickey, Goofy, Minnie, Donald, and Pluto. Then we rode the monorail to EPCOT. We rode Mission Space and bought astronaut ice cream! Then we waited a ridiculously long time to ride the Test Track, the fastest roller coaster anywhere in Disneyworld, 65 miles per hour. Macie was a little sketchy on this one, but quickly recovered, "totally worth it". After lunch and the chicken dance we did "Turtle Talk with Crush" and Marley got to ask Crush if he has ever been to Hawaii before. We watched "Honey I shrunk the audience" and rode Spaceship Earth. Spaceship Earth was very cool at end the end they put a video together for you after you answer a few questions. Check them out:

We all rode Soarin' which Marley has always loved, but Macie really got a kick out of it this time looking down over her feet with no fear. Then we ran down to the waterfront to catch "Illuminations" a water level fireworks show with a giant holographic planet Earth!

By this time, all the eateries were closed. So we jumped on the monorail and hoofed it back to the hotel for room service. I brought a little plastic play mat so the girls had a pizza/onion soup picnic on the floor in Papa Mel and Granny Sandy's room. I think we set a bad precedent, because Marley's comment was "Room service ROCKS!".

Day 3 - The neverending dessert party

The delicious and beautiful desserts continue. Marc suggested I take some pictures for the benefit of our followers (Stacy). Here we have key lime pie, a fruit tart, a Chocolate buckle (with baked cream cheese inside, vanilla ice cream with a chocolate crown (at lunch in Cinderella's Castle) and Creme Brulee. The creme brulee was Marley's favorite, who described it as "creamy goodness"!