Oahu Part 1

I haven't been much in the Blogging mood.  It must be all the sunshine keeping me busy.  I think I've finally diagnosed myself as having a Seasonal Affective Disorder.  I'm a different person with the sun out.  I'm actually energetic and happy.  But as soon as the cold weather and cloud cover hits, I'm sure I'll be back to blogging more often.

But never mind summer weather; our trip to Hawaii was so fantastic I'd regret not recording it:

After a long, sleepless day of travel we arrived at our hotel in Waikiki at midnight.  Hawaii at night looked just like any other place.  I heard someone say Waikiki is the Las Vegas of Hawaii.  Probably true.  We were too tired to look around and just crashed in bed grumpy and exhausted.

When I woke up the next morning, this was the scene out of our window.  It make me laugh.  This is a special place.  The weather was so amazing, the sun so bright, I just know I could live there forever.

view from hotel window

our view

Still on Ohio time, we were up with the sun and a bit overwhelmed with choices.  So, we decided to just start off with Pearl Harbor.  It's interesting and there's plenty to do.  It took up most of the day.  Other than the USS Arizona memorial, there are other ships, a submarine, and some museums to go through.  We were giddy with the wonderful weather and just thrilled to be in Hawaii near the water.

We spent the late afternoon shopping, picked up some fresh fruit and then decided to go on a hike.  The Moana Falls hike is easily in my top 3 favorite things we did.  It's an easy hike along very muddy paths through a rainforest to a waterfall.  It was relaxing and peaceful; it provided some of the best scenery.  Here is a view looking up into the trees:

See how happy we are?  We were wet from the constant drizzle and kept marveling at everything around us.

Bamboo

 The reward at the top.

Moana Falls

One of the best pieces of advice I could pass along is Rent A Car!  We were able to go all over the island. The next day was spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center and I was so happy we could enjoy the scenic 1 hour ride up there.  The PCC is run by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in conjunction with BYU-Hawaii (can I get a woot-woot) and it was a really fun day.  Hot!  I took a lot of boring pictures I won't bother sharing.  I guess I would describe it as a small educational theme-park.  You get to see how different Polynesian cultures live and dress; you spend the day going to different demonstrations and performances which were all really entertaining.  I liked the Tahitian dancers dress best.

Polynesian Cultural Center

You end the day with a traditional Hawaiian luau and a show.  The PCC was not my favorite activity I must say, and it was pretty pricey.  That said, I still think it was worth the visit.

This fellow, Kap Te'o-Tafiti, gave a fun demonstration on Samoa.  He was very entertaining and a former Art student from BYU-Hawaii.  We picked up one of his prints.  Here he is signing the back and doing a little sketch:

The next day we hit up a flea market and then made our way back up to the North Shore because we loved the drive so much.  We spent the afternoon at the Laie Temple which has been referred to as the Taj Majal of the Pacific.  It is such a beautiful place.

Afterwards, we relaxed on the beach.  We stopped at Shark's Cove which would be more aptly named SHARP Cove.  The rocks were tricky to walk on.  I left Brook to his search for sea life and found myself a comfy spot to lay down and read the daylight away.

The evening wouldn't have been complete without another Hawaiian Shaved Ice.  I don't think any day was complete without consuming one.  Seriously, do they make Shaved Ice IV's.  I'd like one please.