Polynesian Cultural Center - Day 2

The next morning, after our breakfast on the beach, we caught our tour bus which took us up to the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie. Our tour guide was hilarious! He pointed out different sites of interest and where movies were filmed. It was a beautiful drive through mountain passes and alongside beaches. Just gorgeous!

We purchased our tickets weeks before our trip. We sprung for the Ambassador Pass which gave us a  shell lei greeting, guided tour of the center, dinner, and the best seats for the nightly show. I think it was money well-spent.

I was a little bugged to see that the focal point was off on my camera which made us out of focus. But I still like the picture.

(The night we arrived in Hawaii I saw these foam flowers in an ABC Store and I laughed at the thought of someone wearing a foam flower. But the next morning I fell in love with the flower when I saw the real thing falling from trees. And it turns out that the clip really did look like the real flower and so I decided to let go of being so self-conscious and become a true tourist. So there's the story behind my flower, which Kenna now owns. :)

The PCC has 8 mock villages representing 8 islands. Our tour guide went lightning fast through each one, so they all kind of blurred together. These are pictures of us in our "tattoos". Each pattern represents something. I believe Dave chose warrior. I don't know what mine meant...I was just going for pretty. :)

 We paused our tour to watch the boat show. Each island demonstrates their specific type of dance on canoes. Dave enjoyed the "Haka Dance" (above), a war dance from New Zealand, and I liked the pretty Tahiti ladies (below).

Tonga dancers

 

 Dave tried climbing one of these coconut trees. He made it about 6-7 feet up. I quickly realized that this trip was all about "doing" for him and I was all about "seeing". :)

 We received these black shell leis as a greeting for our Luau. Again the Ambassador pass was money well-spent because we also got first dibs on the food! Our seats were front row for the hula show while we ate.

This poor little piggy was our dinner.

 And after the Luau we wandered the marketplace looking at little souvenir shops, until it was time for the evening show. It was called, "Ha: the Breath of Life". It was AMAZING!! The entire show was non-stop dancing, singing, and even fire walking/fire baton throwing. It felt like the finale to a firework show. I found myself gasping "wow!" several times. Just an incredible amount of talent. It was a long day of walking and we were exhausted by the time we reached the bus. We both slept for the hour ride back to Waikiki.

ALOHA!! - Day 1 (Flashback Post)

Dave and I have left the kids overnight only twice in our 11 years of marriage. We wanted to go somewhere exciting for our 10 year anniversary in 2010, however we had a little baby at the time, so we put it off a year. The moons aligned just right for the week of November 23-30, 2011. My incredibly unselfish parents agreed to watch the kids and my saintly sister, Laurel would be in town to help out as well. Crowds are non-existent and the airfare and hotel are much cheaper during the winter in...HAWAII!! Finally, a grown up trip for just two! Heaven doesn't begin to describe our week together. We flew from Salt Lake to Seattle and then a 5-hour flight to Honolulu (airport code HNL or "Hole 'Notha Level" ...a favorite phrase in our house). It was late Wednesday evening when we arrived to our Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel room so we couldn't see our view, but I could hear the waves crashing. The next day we discovered the view from our balcony!

 Our hotel provided free breakfast and a little tote bag for us to fill up. We took our breakfast down to the beach each morning. Breakfast on the beach has become one of my favorite memories of the trip.

Our room was literally the last room on our floor, so we were on the edge of the building. It gave us a view of the city, Diamond Head, and the beach. This was our view of Diamond Head from our front door.

After breakfast we took the city bus (TheBus) to hike Diamond Head. This was definitely one of my favorite activities of the week! The hike was steep, but the views were amazing! 

The military once used it as a lookout.

 Once to the top, it gave the best view of Waikiki down below.

 I got a kick out of this garbage can. Mahalo means "thank you".

 After lunch we suited up and headed to the beach. Dave bought a boogie board and tried it out while I read a book with my feet in the sand. Ahhh....Seriously, it was amazing to leave cold winter weather and enjoy highs in the mid 80s all week. Dave and I played frisbee in the water and watched the sun set. That sunset drew quite a crowd every night, with good reason, because it was gorgeous!

With it being Thanksgiving Day, we made a late reservation for a restaurant that was serving their version of a Thanksgiving dinner. It was yummy!