Hawaii Part 1

This April, Brian had a conference in Honolulu, so I tagged along and we flew out a few days early so that we could explore Oahu.  My parents took over our busy schedule for the week with the kids.  We had never really planned on going to Hawaii, but given the opportunity for a subsidized vacation, we took it!  Hawaii really is just as magical as everyone says.  

Our journey started with a cancelled flight.  We got re-booked on an earlier flight with a non-stop flight from Atlanta to Honolulu.  It was 10 hours!  Whew!  Thank goodness for lots of good movies to catch up on.  Except for LaLa Land.  Seriously.  What was that all about.  Ugh.  They don't even end up together.  Double Ugh.  I'm not the musical type I guess.

Here we are somewhere over the Pacific.  That is a LOT of water.  Hawaii is totally farther away than I was imagining.  I kept looking at the little flight tracker on the tv thing and it just looked soo sooo far away.

We arrived with just enough daylight to grab a rental car and sneak in a quick hike to Manoa Falls.  It was roughly 2 am our time, but who cares!

It was so fun to see all of the different vegetation and bird life!  This bird just sat on this tree and sang for us. We could have touched him he was so close.

We swung by Leonards for their famous Malasadas.  They are a Portuguese donut.  We thought they were good, but not go-again good.  Gasp!  To each his own, I guess.

We crashed at our hotel on Waikiki beach and were probably asleep by 9 pm local time.  We checked out super early and headed to hike diamond head at 6 am when they open.  

Apparently 2 other buses full of Chinese tourists had the same idea.  It was a single file line of Chinese people towards the top of the mountain.  

Honolulu in the distance behind us.

We were surprised to see that at the top of the mountain were old military pill boxes.  There was a whole building built into the mountain that is nearly camouflaged.  It was cool to roam around.

After our hike we drove to Hanauma Bay to snorkel.  It was very overcast, but we still saw so many tropical fish.  It was super fun to float around the reef.  We got there early before the crowds and had a great time.  As the crowds were coming in, the water got murkier and we took off on our next adventure.

We kept driving up the east coast of Oahu and stopped to see the surfers in these huge waves.

We ate lunch at this pretty spot.

Then we hiked up a horrible trail to the Pillboxes.  It was so steep and muddy we had to literally grab from one tree to the other to get up.  It was a mess, but the view up top was great!

Coming down the huge mud hill proved to be even worse, especially since it started raining heavily.  Brian scraped up his arm pretty badly while catching himself on a tree on his way down.  We kept trying to warn these Chinese hikers that it was too muddy as they hiked up, but they just kept on going in their fancy perfectly clean shoes.  Oh well, we tried.  We, on the other hand had to wash off in the gutters with rain water to get all the mud off of us before getting back into our rental car.  Ahhh.  Memories.

For the next 2 nights we stayed at the Marriott Courtyard on the North Shore.  The North Shore is so chill and a very small, quiet town.  It was fun to explore.

Of coarse we drove through BYU - Hawaii and stopped at the temple.  It is very nice!

It was super rainy and the waves were 15 feet, so all the surfers were out.  It was fun to watch, but way too dangerous to swim, so we just roamed around the rest of the day checking things out.

There were chickens everywhere.  They are seriously like squirrels - all over the place.  

We ate the famous Matsumoto's shaved ice.  It was good, but my body can't handle that much sugar anymore!  I should have just shared Brian's.

The next morning we ate breakfast at a local cafe and then headed to a beach that a local said we were sure to see sea turtles.  She said that all of the locals surf there and that she has seen turtles every time.  

We drove over to the local beach off Crozier Drive and walked out.

Sure enough...more chickens.

And a beautiful beach without anyone on it...except some surfers that were heading in.  Even though it was choppy, we snorkeled the reef and we saw our first turtle!!  I was so excited.  They are so beautiful to watch.  

After showering at the hotel, we headed over the the LDS Church owned Polynesian Cultural Center.  Come to find out they added a whole little food and store village outside the center and it was so nicely done and honestly the best food we had while on the north shore.  Brian had a super fresh fish and I had a tuna melt on crazy huge bread from this food truck.

Luckily, our good neighbors across the street are from Honolulu and know people that work at the PCC that gave us half off tickets.  It is super expensive otherwise and we were very grateful.  

We really weren't sure what to expect.  We knew it featured 6 different Polynesian cultures and that the church owns and operates it, but other than that we had no idea if we'd like it or not.  Come to find out it was super awesome and a highlight of our trip!  I'm so glad we went.  

We toured each village and got to learn so much about each places individual cultures and customs.  Many of the employees are students at BYU-Hawaii that are from the various islands.  They work 19 hours per week in exchange for tuition.  As part of their agreement, once they have finished their education they go back to their country (Samoa, Tonga, Figi etc..) and use their skills to help their people.  It's a really neat system.

We happened to visit Tonga first and Brian got called up on stage.  hahaha  Poor guy.  

He got a cool hat in return.

These girls sure can shake it!  It was mesmerizing!

A big highlight is the canoe pageant where each village dances and chants on these boats.  There is nice live Hawaiian music playing too.

The people from Samoa were pretty entertaining.  

This tree climber was pretty awesome.  They put rope around their feet and mud to help and that's it!  He said all the kids in Samoa have to learn how to climb trees or they are made fun of.  

We had tickets to the Luau buffet dinner which was very nice.  You get these beautiful real leis.

And you can watch this luau dancing program while you eat.

They cook the pig the good old fashioned way - in a pit with hot rocks for 6 hours covered in palm leaves.  

This kid is 10 - Grant's age!  Starting them young with the fire twirling.

I suppose this is the first banana tree I've ever seen!

Before the evening program, we chowed down on some yummy dole whips.

The evening show was great...but I have to admit I had a hard time staying awake because I was so tired!  All that fire twirling will wake you up though!  

We honestly thought we would just go for a few hours to the PCC and then do other things, but we were so pleased to find how much we loved it and stayed the entire day.  It was beautiful, relaxing and so informative.  All of the Polynesian cultures are so much cooler than mine!  I don't have any chants or cool dances!  Maybe it's time I make some up :)