Polynesian Cultural Center

As per Richard's advice, we allotted an entire day to the Polynesian Cultural Center, which as it turns out, wasn't even enough. The place is huge...you could easily spend several days there. Richard and Melody had already visited the center on their previous visit to Oahu, so they spent the day doing the Circle Island Tour instead.

The center has separate "islands" or stations representing 6 Polynesian cultures...Samoa, Aotearoa (New Zealand), Fiji, Hawaii, Tahiti, and Tonga. You go around to each island and watch their cultural presentation and then you can participate in some of the activities they have set up.

This was part of the presentation at the Tahiti island, where the woman was demonstrating how to open a coconut and prepare coconut bread. The bread was baked in an underground oven and the audience was given samples to try.

After the presentation, we stayed at the Tahiti island and learned how to weave a fish using leaves from a coconut tree. Later in the day Tyler got a warrior tattoo on his lower leg at the Fiji island and a woven headband from the Tonga island.

In the afternoon there was a canoe pageant in which each culture displayed a song and dance while floating down a canal on their own canoe. This is the canoe representing Hawaii.

Here is Samoa.

By 6:00, it was time for dinner and we had tickets to attend the Ali'i Luau there at the center. So, yes, we had Luau dinners two nights in a row.

The food at the Luau was very similar to that of the night before, but this one had poke (raw fish), Pipi Kaula (beef jerky), a sweet potato salad made from taro, and taro rolls that were purple in color.

After the dinner, we went to see the night show called HA Breath of Life. I thought it was the best part of all. Everything about it was great...the music, the dancing, the bits of humor, the fire performers, and the cast...I loved it!

I know if Tyler had been awake, he probably would have thought the same thing.

Diamond Head & Waikiki Beach

As tired as we were from the Luau the night before, we managed to peel ourselves out of bed and were outside the hotel ready and waiting at 6:20 a.m for the shuttle to take us to Diamond Head for a glorious morning hike.

I loved it...I couldn't think of a better way to spend a morning. It was still pretty warm outside, even at 7:00 in the morning, but the heat was not as intense. I was wearing a pair of sketcher sneakers with a pair of no show socks...well, the socks must have been a little too low cut because I ended up with open blisters on the backs of both of my feet.

Diamond Head is a volcano that has been extinct for 150,000 years. The hiking trail is just short of a mile one way and the climb is 560 feet from the crater floor. The ground itself is pretty rough and uneven and includes a couple of steep stairways and tunnels.

The pathways were really narrow at most points, so I'm glad we went earlier in the day before the crowds got any bigger.

The view from the top was beautiful....kind of makes you want to stay up there forever.

Family photo at the top...everyone made it! Melody has some back issues, so she stayed back at the hotel for this particular excursion.

By the time we made it back down to the bottom, I think everyone was feeling the same way. The hike itself was not that hard, but it's so steep that your heart rate rises quite a bit during the climb. Phew, I was ready to take a seat too!

We were back at the hotel around 9:30 and still had the rest of the day ahead of us so we headed out to Waikiki beach.

We rented a giant water bike that we took turns peddling around the ocean. Then we walked farther down the beach and rented a boogie board that we used more of a flotation device than anything else.

Again, since it was crazy blazing hot outside and we had no cover, we had to cut the day short and head back to the hotel. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough, this was the only day that we got sunburned. Everyone except for Tyler, that is. We brought some old sunblock from home so I don't know if it was just a bad brand, the SPF was too low, it was expired, or if it was a combination of all three, but we went straight to the store and bought some proper sunblock.

Sea Life Park & Germain's Luau

Our 4th day in Oahu was spent between the Sea Life Park and Germain's Luau. The Sea Life Park, according to the information pamphlet, is only 15 miles away from where we were staying, but it took us around an hour to get there on the bus. Ugh, don't get me started on how much time we wasted either waiting at bus stops or riding for hours going to or from our hotel.

The park was nice, kind of like Sea World, but smaller.

Tyler and I at the entrance to the park.

This 300,000 gallon aquarium was filled with all sorts of sea life....small sharks, stingrays, sea turtles, and tons of tropical fish.

The sea turtle lagoon was one of my favorite exhibits. We arrived right at feeding time, so we bought Tyler a cup of vegetables and he had a great time feeding them.

Gasp! Is Tyler actually looking at the camera and smiling!?

It was blazing hot outside, so I couldn't have been more happy to take refuge in the covered seating area and watch the dolphin show.

Next, we watched the Hawaiian Ocean Theater show that included performances by dolphins, penguins and sea lions.

It's a good thing the Sea Life Park is smaller because we had to boogy out of there kind of fast in order to catch the bus back into Waikiki so we wouldn't miss our shuttle bus out to the Luau. The Luau was located about 35 minutes West of Waikiki, right on the shore. We had to drive past a bunch of abandoned sugar cane fields to get out there.

Turns out the picture of Tyler looking at the camera earlier was just a fluke, because now he's back to looking into outer space.

Here is the Imu Ceremony, where they remove the pig from the underground roasting pit.

Dinner was an all you can eat Hawaiian American Buffet, which included Roasted Pig, Teriyaki Beef, Fried Chicken, Island Fish, Chicken Long Rice, Green Salad, Poi, Lomilomi Salmon, Rice, Pineapple Coleslaw, Bean Salad, Rolls, Haupia (Coconut Pudding), Vanilla Coconut Cake and Chocolate Cake. Each adult was also allowed 3 alcoholic beverages and complimentary soda, tea, and coffee.

The entertainment consisted of dances from different areas of Polynesia including Hawaii, Tahiti, New Zealand, and Samoa.

And don't forget about the "fire guy".

The show ended kind of fast in my opinion, making the event seem a little rushed. It was still enjoyable though, and the food was great. I was adventurous and tried everything except the fried chicken...everyone knows what that tastes like.

Pearl Harbor Historical Sites

We devoted an entire day to the memorials and museums in the Pearl Harbor area, visiting the USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Bowfin, and the Battleship Missouri Memorial.

A gratuitous picture of men in uniform.

After watching a small 20 minute video, we took a shuttle boat ride out to the USS Arizona Memorial.

I knew we were visiting the place were the battleship was sunk, but I didn't realize that parts of the ship would actually be visible right underneath the surface of the water.

The list of men who died on the USS Arizona on December 7th.

Our attempt at getting a nice family photo was foiled by a combination of the wind, heavy crowds, an uncooperative child, and the awkwardness of figuring out what to do with our headsets from the audio tour.

Atop the USS Bowfin Submarine.

Next, we went aboard the battleship Missouri which was in operation during Desert Storm and is most importantly the sight of the Japanese surrender of WWII.

Here is Tyler near the bow of the battleship. We also went below deck to tour the chief's quarters, the crew's mess and the galley.

The First Day

On our first full day in Oahu, we spent some time walking around downtown Waikiki. It's packed with lots of hotels and fancy department stores. The trolleys with their signature "ding, ding" were whizzing by constantly.

Rick had to stop in one of the shops and buy a pair of sunglasses since his were broken and it's almost impossible to get by in Hawaii without any. Tyler isn't the biggest fan of sunglasses so we ended up buying him a hat to help shield his eyes a little bit.

We also stopped at the International Market Place, which is basically an open air market that sells nothing but tourist souvenirs. There were a ton of booths, but after a while, you kind of realize that everyone is selling the exact same thing as the person right next to them.

Our last stop of the day was the Honolulu Zoo. I thought it was beautiful...really lush and green. It reminded me of the Portland Zoo. My favorite exhibit was the birds, of course, but they're kind of hard to photograph behind the cage walls. They did had wild peacocks, though, that were roaming about freely, which I particularly enjoyed.

I won't bore you with all the animal picutres I took, but here are a few of my favorites.

Vacation Rewind

We're finally back home from our 10 day vacation in Oahu. I loved it there, it was beautiful! It was hot though, I'm not going to lie. The temperature on average was in the low to mid 90's, but with the humidity and being closer to the sun, it was on the verge of being unbearable. I've never sweat so much in my life!

Here we are shortly after arriving at the Honolulu airport. We were waiting to meet up with Richard and Melody whose plane from Sacramento was arriving at almost the exact same time. How convenient is that?

We stayed at the Honolulu Prince Hotel in Waikiki. It was just a short distance from the Ala Moana Shopping Center which is a major transfer point for the public transit system. That was a huge plus for us since that was our prime mode of transportation.

The hotel was right on the edge of a harbor and every room had a view of the ocean...this was ours.

It rained the first night we were there and we woke up to a beautiful rainbow. This was just the right end of it....it was huge.

I'll be posting more pictures as soon as I can, but first I've got to get a handle on the massive pile of laundry that's hanging out downstairs.