In an effort to appease my brother, who said the blog needs "more bums and less talk", I'm going to post more pictures. Sorry if I'm verbose, Chris- can't help it- but if you really want more pictures of "bums" then it's Annie's husband you need to talk to, not mine :)
I don't have the pictures for the USS Arizona ready yet, so instead of talking about Pearl Harbor, you'll get pictures from the Temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC).
We woke up early on Saturday and drove the hour along H2 (an aside, there are three main freeways on the island: H1, H2, and H3) to the North Shore. The North Shore is where it's at!!! Much less congested and more native in feel. I can't wait to get back, try some BBQ and get in the ocean.
Here are some views from the way up.
We went to a session at the temple in the morning. It's a gorgeous temple, called the "Taj Mahal of the Pacific". It was built in the 1860s.
We spent 9 hours at the PCC and could've spent more doing the activities. I think the PCC is worth the trip and expense. It's family friendly with things to interest adults and kids. Our package included a luau, so we sat at long tables with other guests and ate buffet style food. We got to eat a salmon salsa (not my favorite), Poi (really good- a purple root), Kalua pork, gelatinous chicken noddles, Hawaiian jerky (really good!), and pineapple sherbet desserts. We met a couple vacationing from Ecuador and another couple from Guatemala.
If you don't want to spend the whole day doing the island activities, the theatrical production of HA: Breath of Life is a good way to end the day. Ha is a Maori word, and Maori is the name of the natives on Aotearoa (what we call New Zealand). I was worried it would be overly dramatic and cheesy, but it was less about acting and more about dancing and theatrical stunts, which was great. The finale is the best part, with fire dancers spinning flaming batons- it's a lot cooler than it sounds, I promise!
The Samoans
The Aotearoans
The Tahitians
(Tahitian dancing is bad-A and I want to learn how!)
The Hawaiians
The Luau
Shaking our sticks Fijian style
You'll have to ask Sam how far he got *cough*
It's harder than it looks!
Until later and enjoy the videos.
Aloha!
The second video at the top sounds kinda like Hawaiian rap :-)
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