Wow!! Where to start. Our trip to Hawaii was so absolutely wonderful that it will, I'm sure, be difficult to do it justice in photos and words....but we'll give it a try.
After leaving Idaho bright and early Monday morning, Megan drove us to the Salt Lake City airport on her way back home to Herriman, Utah. Thanks, Meg! We also really appreciated Emily taking care of things at home so that we could enjoy such a long trip! Even though combining the two trips together made for a long time away from home, it was the right move. The trip from SLC to Honolulu took about 5 1/2 hours. Not so bad.
When we landed, it really did feel like we were in another world. Even the airport felt tropical. We had a great room overlooking the canal but it was only about a ten minute walk to the beach. We really liked the fact that we were in a little quieter part of Waikiki but could easily walk to anything we wanted to in the city. We had a car, of course, to be able to travel around the island, but any local stuff we could do on foot.
The view from our room at the Wyndham Royal Gardens in Waikiki
Here's a little selfie in our room after arriving. They gave us a lei at every place we checked into in Hawaii. It looked almost exactly like the one we had gotten Megan for graduation. Fun!!
Along the ocean walk in Waikiki
Because we gained time going west, it was still mid afternoon when we arrived. After getting settled, we headed out to get some dinner and see a few sights. We ate dinner at a Korean barbecue. It wasn't our favorite, but it was interesting. We tried Kimchi which was super spicy. We found out (after tasting some that had aged longer and some that was freshly made) that the longer it ferments, the less we liked it. We walked all around that night and saw tons of shopping, Duke's Lane (lots of souvenirs there), Diamond Head, and the beach. After buying some basic groceries, we headed back home to get some sleep. One funny thing about staying here is that all the hotels charge an arm and a leg to park a car for a night. The price at the Wyndham was $30. But, one of the valets told us that sometimes if you arrive before 4 or 5 pm, you can get street parking. It kind of became a challenge for us whenever we got home. We would usually drive around several nearby streets to see if we could find parking. We were successful about 1/2 the time. Pretty good, we thought.
Diamond Head
Along the beach
Because we knew that our body clocks would be off and that we would wake up super early on Tuesday, we decided to tour Pearl Harbor that day. Because we had not arranged ahead of time for tickets, we needed to be there at 7:00 am to get in line. The tickets were free, but we wanted to buy the audio tour, too. I'm glad we did.
We took a ferry out to the Arizona
Looking through the top of the memorial
Once in the memorial, we were able to listen to the audio tour and look around. As you can see in this photo, the clouds really started rolling in, and the wind picked up. The ferry driver informed us that we would have to return a little early due to wave conditions. The group after us and all the tours for the next several hours were not able to go out to the Arizona. We were thankful we made it!!
This is what remains of one of the gun turrets that you can see above the water near the memorial. To the left of the turret, you can see a small gasoline slick on the water. There is a slow leak still happening from the time that the USS Arizona was sunk on December 7, 1941. They have not tried to stop it because the ship is really a tomb for those who perished there. It is a reminder that this was once a working ship back in World War !!
This is the wall listing those who lost their lives that infamous day
The openings to each side of the wall represent the trees of life. They are each different, but signify that life continues after such a loss...although it looks different than before.
Beautiful and very solemn!
We took just a minute to snap a photo as we got onto the ferry. A very special place.
A closer shot of the USS Arizona Monument from the ferry
One of the Arizona's anchors
A plaque honoring those who died sits along the harbor. There were other artifacts and a very good museum at the Pearl Harbor site. They also have a great film that they show before the ferry takes off to go to the Arizona. There were multiple things to tour that cost money, but we chose to tour the submarine, the Bowfin. It was pretty cool.
Steve on the deck of The Bowfin
Steve at the controls inside the submarine
Looking through the gun sights on the Bowfin back at the Arizona
The overall feeling that we got as we toured all the many things there were to see at Pearl Harbor, was how thankful we are that these men and women who gave their lives that day and all the people who have served and continue to serve our country were and are willing to do that for us. It is one of the most patriotic places I have been.
We found a super fun and delicious place to have lunch after our morning at Pearl Harbor.
The bakery had counter for breakfast and lunch. We lucked out and got in just before the crowd hit. The lunch was delicious and.....
the desserts were absolutely wonderful. They are famous for their "cocoa puffs" which are cream puffs with a chocolate pudding like filling and a coconut frosting. Soooo good!!
After lunch, we visited the National Cemetery of the Pacific. It is a huge, beautiful cemetery known more commonly as "The Punchbowl" because it is down within an old volcano.
I found this cool photo of it from the air.
Just one of the huge monkey pod trees in the cemetery
The main monument - the mosaics within the walkway were amazing
Steve by the roots of one of the monkey pod trees
Looking down into the Punchbowl
A long row of the giant trees line the main drive
Looking at one volcano from another - the view from the Punchbowl to Diamond Head..
...and another with Steve and I
Such a cool place!!
Before heading back to our hotel, we decided to take a ride along Tantalus Drive. The road starts out in Honolulu and winds up a mountain. You start out on the dryer leeward side of the island. But when you get to the crest of the mountain, you are suddenly on the windward side. It is like someone turned on a switch and everything was suddenly green!! Big vines, lush undergrowth, humid air. It was crazy. We ran into this on every island we traveled to. It never ceased to amaze me how quickly it happened. Then we wound around some more and came back down into the dryer climate. We had seen a little hike to go on in the book we were using as a guide and decided to take it. Very cool!!
We were on the dryer side, but you can tell that as we started into the woods, things greened up again.
Some massive roots along the way
A natural doorway
Some huge trees
Manoa Falls - not a lot of water - but what little there was fell a long way
We ended our first full day in Hawaii with a delicious seafood dinner at Blue Water Fish and Seafood Company. A very full day!!
Before leaving for Hawaii, some sweet friends of ours, the Sikahemas, arranged for us to have our own personal tour at the Polynesian Culture Center. Keala grew up in Laie and has many friends and family that are still involved with the center. The PCC was definitely one of the main things I wanted to see on our trip so we chose to do it the very next day after Pearl Harbor. The center is in Laie on the north side of the island and we were staying on the south side. But we knew that since the tour started at noon, we should have time to go to the Laie Temple that morning. The temple and BYU Hawaii are also located there. We had prepared names to take with us to perform temple work for. We had the amazing experience of sealing several families together that day.
A nice senior missionary took this photo of us from the front door looking toward the ocean.
A slightly slanted photo of the temple front doors. The temple is so beautiful!!
The temple grounds
A large banyan tree on the grounds of the temple
After our lovely time at the temple, we had about an hour before our appointment at the PCC. We decided to look around BYU-Hawaii for a bit in the interim. I remembered that a girl that used to live in our ward in NJ was actually attending the university that semester. I decided to message her and she found us. It was fun to catch up with her and get a quick photo, too.
Me, Savanna Calchera, and Steve
A beautiful mosaic at the entrance of BYU-Hawaii
The scene depicted is of David O McKay at a flag raising
at the local elementary school many years ago.
BYU Hawaii campus on a beautiful day
Here we are at the Polynesian Culture Center after receiving our cool bead leis and our name tags. We laughed because we thought the name tags made us look like missionaries in all the photos.
Thanks to Keala Sikahema for arranging for our private tour....we felt very special!!
Steve trying a dance in the village of Tahiti. The center is organized into different villages and there are performances, demonstrations, etc. in each. We walked to the farthest village from the entrance and worked our way back.
A Tahitian Dancer
A coconut bread making demonstration in Tahiti
Jill with our guide that stayed with us the whole day. She made sure we were at the performances in each village on time....she even had our seats saved when we got there. This was in the village of Hawaii where we had just tried poi.
Posing with some of the dancers from Fiji.....Bula Vinaka!!!
Enjoying a treat while we wait for the canoe pageant. Each of the villages has a canoe that they come out on and perform on.
From the village of Hawaii
From the village of Tonga
These dancers represented Tahiti
They presented the royal court of Hawaii at the end of the canoe pageant
After the pageant we visited the villages of Tonga....
...New Zealand.....
..and Samoa.
This Samoan performer climbed this tree in literally 8 seconds. It was amazing!!
Just a pretty photo inside the center. We had such a beautiful day there!!
We were able to visit the Polynesian Football Hall of Fame near the entrance to the PCC.
Found our buddy, Vai Sikahema!!
At the end of the day, we were able to attend the Luau and night performance.
They even brought out the pig from the pig roast!!
And a close-up
I don't remember where all the different dancers were from, but it was a beautiful, colorful show. As you can see we enjoyed front row seats.
Our master of ceremonies
This little boy who performed the fire dance was only about 10. Crazy good....but I'm still glad they put up the protective net in front of him. :)
We ended the evening in the big theater where we saw the performance of
Ha, The Breath of Life.
There were amazing fire dances, music and a lovely story running through the program. After driving back home, we were pretty tired pups. It was a lovely day!!
The next day Steve and I set out to do some snorkeling. We had planned to go to the famous Hanauma Bay, but even though we got there early, the lot was full. So we headed back to Waikiki and snorkeled there for a bit. We also found these amazingly beautiful rocks along the ocean.
The house above them was built right into and around the rocks. It was quite a sight.
It certainly called for a selfie.
We were able to snorkel at Hanauma later that afternoon. The reef there is very shallow and it was a little difficult to swim without touching it. But the fish were lovely and we had a wonderful time.
This lovely rainbow greeted us that evening after our adventure.
Later that night we ventured out to Dukes, a famous Waikiki restaurant. We were anxious to try their famous Hula Pie. We were not disappointed. Absolutely delicious!!
Friday morning we got up super early to hike Diamond Head. It was a very sunny, warm day but the hike and the view from the top were gorgeous.
One part of the hike featured 100 man made steps from when the old volcano housed a fire tower.
This is me with my "not so excited face" anticipating the climb.
The view looking down into the ancient crater from the crest...
...and us at the top with Waikiki in the background
Since we had gotten such an early start that morning, we headed back into town, got some breakfast at Eggs and Things, a delicious little pancake house. The coconut syrup was heavenly!!
Then we headed out to go as far around the island as we could go. Here are some of the sites we saw.
The famous "From Here to Eternity" beach
A macadamia nut farm approaching Laie
Chinaman's Hat, an island off Oahu...
....and on Steve's head
We stopped by the PCC one more time on our trip around the island and got these photos.
Steve, standing by the statue of Hamana Kalili, the originator of the "shaka"sign
The rocks at Laie Point.
The hole in the rocks was formed when a strong wave crashed through them.
We traveled along the north shore of the island, had dinner at the shrimp trucks there and visited Ted's Bakery. We finished the day at the Banzai Pipeline and Sunset Beach.
Another beautiful day in Hawaii....
On Saturday we headed out to see the part of the island we had missed out on after it got dark.
We went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We decided not to take the little tour there, but got a delicious Dole Whip instead.
Here I am at Shark's Cove, a sheltered little place with lots of creatures to see in the water
Turtle Beach....and yes, we actually got to see a turtle!!
Had to get a selfie with the turtle
On Sunday we headed to church at the Honolulu Tabernacle....what a place!!
A wonderful, huge banyan tree on the church grounds
The beautiful pool in front of the tabernacle
This building was one of my favorite places on the island. The main chapel was huge with a side room that could open up to make its capacity even larger. The hallways and courtyard were open to the elements. It was raining that morning which added to the uniqueness of our experience there. Such a beautiful building and house of God.
After church, we got some lunch, skyped with our kids at home, and headed to the airport.
Our Oahu adventure was ending and another was about to start.