Kazoku Sushi:Kapolei

I love to go to Kazoku Sushi in Kapolei. It is nothing fancy, nestled in between a Taco place and Navy Federal Credit union across the parking lot from the Home Depot. I go here at least once a week with at least one of my girlfriends, and sometimes, just sometimes, I might take the husband (if he is good). We went on Sunday with Brad and going on Friday for lunch with Kathy. I like this place. The people are always so nice and the food is fresh, inexpensive, and delicious. And I dig the conveyor belt that delivers food.

When you walk in, you are greated by the entire staff with a friendly Japanese greeting and a view of the entire restaurant. The plate color represents the price of the plate on the conveyer belt. If you keep it simple, you can get tons of food for a great price. If you want to sample some of the more adventurous creations, like the Dynamite or the Catepillar, it can get a little more expensive. There is also a full menu with appetizers, combination bento boxes, donburi, udon/soba and kazoku specialty rolls. One of my friends stated the only thing she doesn't like about this place is that they charge you for the tea...and it is a tea bag.

My girlfriends will let you know that I am a baby sushi eater, sticking to things I know. These are some of my favorites: California Crunch Roll, Pork Gyoza, Chicken Katsu Roll, and California roll topped with shrimp and mayo sauce. Ofcourse, I have to have plenty of wasabi and shoyu.

Our final damage: Six purple plates, two blue and a miso soup. About $24.

Sunset to Celebrate.

In May, we relaxed on a north shore beach, drink in hand, good friends celebrating Kim's birthday. This is what life is about.Kim and I.Always with a camera.Peaceful.

Hanging with the Honu: May 24

Kuhina was the only one up today. The beach was crammed with visitors on the Memorial Day weekend,however, and Kuhina was a star attraction. Several dozens of juveniles swam in the surf, skirting the shore, feeding off the limu shelf and teasing the visitors that eagerly wanted them to make an appearance.

Sea Life Park: Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles

The turtle pool is one of the first things you see after you pass through the Hawaiian Reef into the park. The intern stated that the turtles didn't "need" alot of space to swim and such, but it was hard to watch those large turtles in that little pool after watching the turtles at Laniakea have the entire ocean.

Several times a day the turtles are fed. The interns feed them lettuce and pellets that provide the nutrients that the turtles would normally receive from the sea. Park visitors can purchase a cup of broccoli to also throw into the pool for the turtles to gobble up. These turtles are VERY well fed.

The turtles swim right to the edge of the little pool area and peak up at the visitors. They are used to the human interaction. The original group of turtles were taken from the ocean forty years ago, before the federal protection laws. Most of these turtles are guesstimated at being more than sixty years old. The turtles look different then the ones on Laniakea Beach. One of the main differences is the shell. After talking with an intern, we surmised that it is probably the cleaning process that gives the turtles at sea life park a different color.

At the end of the turtle pool is a little oasis where the turtles haul themselves up to bask and the females to nest and lay their eggs.

This female above is a twelve year old that laid her eggs on the ramp the evening before. It is unknown why she did not go onto the beach and create a nest to lay her eggs. She is still fairly distended and the interns stated they were unsure if she was done laying her eggs. She did lay about twenty or so but because all of the eggs fell into the water, none were salvageable. Normally, the sexual maturity of green sea turtles is between 20-25 years old. The effects of captivity can alter many things about the natural behaviors of animals. I have looked for information about the green sea turtle, but have only found various statistics on the hawksbill, loggerhead and Kemps Ridley, which does state that sexual maturity occurs earlier in females and could be caused by them reaching a specific size (which effects maturity) faster in captivity due to diet and human influence.

This baby green sea turtle is about nine months old. Most of the clutches are released into the ocean just a few days after hatching, but a few are kept for research and ofcourse the touching area. When they are between three and five years old, they are released into the ocean.

This is a link to the information about Sea Life Park.

http://www.sealifeparkhawaii.com/hawaii-parks/sea-life-park-green-turtle.asp This is a link to sea world's information page on the species of sea turtles. Very informative. http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/SeaTurtle/home.html

Sea Life Park: Dolphin Encounter

Every month, Information, Tickets and Travel (ITT) on the military bases puts out a packet that lists the deals offered through ITT on island attractions (and parks around the country, like Disney). This month, Military Appreciation Month, many of the attractions on the island were offering specials to military at an even further reduced rate.

I took a picture of the regular prices and wanted to show the discount you can get if you take advantage of ITT. Reg. ITT Rate for Adult: 21.00 May rate for Adult: 2 for 29.00 Reg. ITT rate for Junior: 14.00 May rate for Juniors: 2 for 19.00 Dolphin Encounter (admission is included) Reg. ITT rate: $79.00 May rate: 2 for $99.00 Brad and I decided to to the dolphin encounter and spend a day at Sea Life Park.

We arrived at 10:30 am to begin our day. It took about 45 minutes from our house in Ewa Beach. Sea Life Park is probably the furthest you can get from my house. It is located on the windward side of the island. It is also the facility that is featured in 50 First Dates. We checked in and was told to return at 11:00. We decided to walk around for a bit before our "encounter" began. There was several pools where dolphins were being trained or having experiences with other groups.

One of the more interesting animals at Sea Life Park was the wolphin. This animal is a hybrid between a Atlantic bottlenose dolphin and a false killer whale.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wholphin She is unique and beautiful. Her body is a dolphin, just larger, but her eyes, they are further set apart and "hooded" like a whale.

The front view of the dolphin pool. The line of people in the back right is where the Dolphin encounter took place. Our package was for just touching the dolphin and doing three poses for the camera: kissing her nose, her kissing us and "dancing" with her. There are other packages where you swim with the dolphins, but those were not on the ITT list.

View from the back side of the dolphin pool. The bleachers are filled for the dolphin show that occurs several times a day. My favorite part of the dolphin show was the oohs and aahs when the dolphins did their thing.

It was an interesting experience to touch such a glorious animal.

Brad always has had a way with the ladies. All three picture poses are available for purchase at the gift shop. You can get all three of one person's poses for $32 or individually for $16. Since we got such a great discount on the encounter, and I wanted the photos, let's be real, I bought these two. Even with our expensive plate lunch ($9 for Kalua pork plate lunch, so $18 total because we brought our own waters), we still stayed under the original $160 for the ITT regular dolphin encounter prices. All in all, it was an interesting experience being in the water with the dolphins and seeing how fantastic they are up close. They feel like really smooth tires and are so playful. I am, however, glad we didn't pay the regular prices...WOW!