Gettin' My Summer Groove On

Aloha everyone!!   I have been a busy bee over on this little island.  Lots has been happening behind the scenes here and I am so flattered and amazed at the connections I am making in the blogging world!!

First off have you heard there will be a Daily 5 Bookstudy for grades 1-3?!  I was so excited when I found out. I was getting jealous of the Kindergarten and the upper grades.  Well Mel D. from Seusstastic Classroom Inspirations has graciously headed this up.  I was also fortunate enough to be a part of this and I will be covering a chapter and presenting some ideas!! Thank you so much to Mel for giving me this opportunity!

I was also contacted by Heidi from  Global Teacher Connect  to be part of their collaborative blog of teacher's from around the world!! So I will be working on some more cultural posts for that blog as well!! If you haven't checked them out head on over there!!

Here at home I have been trying to entertain my little sweeties along with everything else and we have been having fun going around the island on little adventures.

Today we tour our neighboring town of Hale'iwa.

This is the famous Hale'iwa sign. We see hundreds of people stopping here to take their picture, but we have never done it, til now!!  Hale'iwa (hah-leh-ee-vah) is two words hale meaning house and iwa meaning frigate bird. So basically this is the home of the frigate bird.

The road that runs through this town is called Kamehameha Highway. We just call it Kam Highway.

This little town works hard to keep its historic charm.

 This is the Community Center. They have all kinds of events that happen her from school car washes to Zumba classes.

This is the nearest Health Food store when I need some organic goodies or holistic medicine.

Post Office

 Surf Shops Galore

 One of the very few chain restaurants

The hubs gets his hair cut here

 I think most residents of the North Shore own this shirt or bumpersticker

 

 Wyland lives and works here in Hale'iwa. The hubs works for him and the gallery owners:)

Cholo's is one of our favorite places to hang out. The food is okay, but the atmoshpere is fun and the margaritas are tasty:) I hope I don't get in trouble for the review, but I am very critical of mexican food!

 This is a fun place to eat too, my kids love it!

 Lots of art galleries

 No Jamba Juice here!

 This is a great little place to eat! The decor inside is so cute!

We often stop to have a pizza slice at Spaghettini, but I've never tried any of the other food

Typical Surfer Mobile!!

It's a lot of fun just to stroll through the town and stop into all the shops. Prices are high in the local food markets because they cater to tourists.  But we have to shop here because its the closest store to home.  I hate paying $5 for a loaf of bread!!  I usually buy just a few things and am always shocked when my bill is $50!!

That's why I was so happy when this place opened up last year

Omg, you would have thought it was the circus coming to town!! We were all so excited and the store was packed for the grand opening, lol!!

This is the old court house, which is now used for community meetings, hula lessons, ukulele classes and other cultural events.

This is one of our favorite places

Sadly it was closed on our early morning walk

This is where most of the locals go to get their Shave Ice, which is a fancy word for a snow cone.

Just down the street though is where the tourists go.

Matsumoto's Shave Ice is always busy!! The tourist buses always stop here. There is lots to see in this little store though.

I love Shave Ice with Ice Cream and Azuki beans, it is soo yummy:)

The Ice Machine, shaves the ice into a very fine ice powder

Then you pick up to 3 flavors of your choice.  We usually get a rainbow

At Matsumotos they have excellent marketing and you will eventually walk away with some cute souvenir

We are almost through the whole town

 Another Shave Ice shop. Can you see the water?

 This store has the cutest things for kids, but it is pricey

Keiki means children (Kay-kee)

 Haleiwa Joes is my favorite restaurant. It is more expensive, but they have great food. This is where the hubs and I usually go for date night.

Once you go past Haleiwa Joes you get to the Anahulu bridge.  In the hot afternoons kids jump from the bridge into the river.  If you cross the bridge it takes you to the last few shops which are all surf shops.  This is where some of the best surf spots in the world begin.

 A lot of people rent Stand Up boards or kayaks and paddle down the river

This is my favorite surf shop. I know the managers well and they always give me great deals:)

They also have this clearance rack that I love!! I have found some great buys here.

 Surfer chicks

Well we just strolled through the whole town and my chicks are exhausted!!

I think we may have to jump off the bridge into the river!!