School, School, School...and a little sightseeing

I have gotten behind on my blog for a number of reasons.  Between having problems of and on for a week with my internet, Alec having a week off of school for his fall intersession, and gearing up for school to start for myself I have been pretty busy.

Two weekends ago we decided to go to Pearl Harbor and see the Arizona Memorial.  It was interesting to see where World War II began for the U.S.  There are still several other monuments for us to visit in Pearl Harbor but we figured we would spread it out since we have plenty of time here.

Looking through a periscope

From the ferry

Just a section of the wall containing the names of every man lost on the USS Arizona

Part of the ship sticking up out of the water

  After we left the memorial we went to the Pali Lookout which is a historical marker off the Pali Highway.  You can see our side of the island from that point.  It was much cooler up there and much windier since it was up in the mountains.  It was pretty breathtaking to look at though. 

Looking Down on Kailua

Kaneohe and Coconut Island (which was part of the opening credits for Gilligan's Island )

Entrance to Pali Lookout

Alec was off school for the entire week last week.  His school is considered year round, though I can't yet figure out how it is different than traditional schedules, so he got a week off for his fall intersession.  He got bored often and bickered with Hailey as they are not used to seeing so much of one another recently.  We did accomplish one important thing while he was off and that was that he learned to tie his shoes!  While that doesn't seem like much, he has struggled to not get frustrated while trying to learn to tie them and would simplly give up.  It was nice to see such glee and sense of accomplishment on his face when he finally did get it though.  Kyle and I are very proud of him.  He is back to school now and has a field trip tomorrow to a pumpkin patch. 

Speaking of being back to school, the fall semester started up for me today.  I am taking three courses.  There was a lot of confusion and a last minute cancellation for one of my courses but after everything I am taking Intro to Ethics, Developmental Psychology, and funny enough, Fit and Well for Life which is there form of an online P.E. class.  All three are only 8 weeks long but cover the same material as 16 week courses so that should keep my busy until mid December. 

This weekend we plan on hiking at Diamond Head Crater so we are all looking forward to that.  That should lead to plenty of pictures and good stories for the blog.