Aloha ~ Hawaii Day 6 ~ The PCC

Our friend Roy scored us a good deal on the Polynesian Cultural Center (he used to dance there, and his brother works there).  The PCC is located next door to BYU-H and the Temple and is a cultural showplace/amusement park of sorts for the students of Polynesia to earn their way through college and to preserve the heritage.

We were going to meet Roy for lunch first but our car had a blow out on the freeway. Total bummer! We had to wait for AAA to come, then we went back to Hertz to get a new car.  By that time, it was so late, we had to hurry to the PCC to try and get in enough time.

AAA to the rescue!

We waited, and waited, over an hour.  

      We made it to the PCC, finally!!  

First stop, the canoe ride.

Next was the Samoa village where we wove fish out of sugar cane leaves.

 The girl helping us asked where we were from.  

California.

What part?

We never say "Newbury Park", because nobody knows where that is, 

but we took a chance and said, 

"Newbury Park" 

 turns out she recognized us, but wanted to make sure.

Sister "M" served in our ward nearly 2 years ago.  She is now moving back to New Zealand to get married after this last semester at BYU.  Small world!!  I wonder what the other tourists were thinking when we talked about her having dinner at our house.

Getting native tattoos in Figi.  (Church-sponsored place, and yet they do tattoos!)

 We love this guy.  Cap has been doing this Samoan family show for years and years.  He's hilarious!

 And they have a guy climbing the palm tree to get a coconut (and to show off a little).

We kind of stunk at the poi balls.

We went to a luau where they roasted a pig in an imu (in ground oven).

And enjoyed traditional Hawaiian food.  Yum!

We had a few minutes before the night show and all the attractions were closed, so we took the tram tour through Laie ... brilliant from a missionary perspective.

 The tram goes by BYU (with a missionary guide narrating) and stops at the Temple visitor's center for about 20 minutes where they invite everyone in for a FREE movie.  Genius! 

The temple at night is even more beautiful than during the day!

The night show was fabulous with so much talent.  The kids especially loved the fire knife dancers.

I had to take this picture of Christian with two beautiful girls.  He was so shy, he wouldn't do it, so I had to go with him, then the girls conveniently (expertly?) posed without me and we captured a great shot. 

We love Hawaii!!

Aloha Hawaii 2012 Day 5

I'll take this one day at a time to make uploading the photos much easier.  

I mentioned that Hawaii is pretty crowded right about now.  I've been here a few times this time of year and have never seen such crowds.  Crazy.

On Monday we decided to take the kids snorkeling at Hanauma Bay where it would be so great for them.  We would avoid the crowds by leaving early . . . we arrived at the bay by 9:00 a.m. and the parking lot was full (no other parking for miles).  No way!  

So we continued on to the BlowHole.

 The BlowHole is a hole in the rock that water shoots up through like a geyser. 

Here it is just starting to blow

the water can really explode through if the tide is powerful enough.

The lookout is gorgeous and it's another beautiful day in paradise. 

We decided to get out of dodge and go back to the North Shore for a less crowded experience.

We met our friend Roy (who lives there), got to visit with him for a while, then went to lunch at the Kahuku Grill, which is in where else but Kahuku.   Our friends the Hannemanns own this grill.  They are from Newbury Park and moved back to Hawaii a few years ago.  They have 7 gorgeous sons so they opened this restaurant to give the boys a place to work so they can get through college and missions. 

 Just as we were walking up, we ran into Brother Hanneman and one of his sons (Seek).  What great timing.  He was surprised to see us, it's been a really long time. 

When we went up to order our food, the girl told us that she was told by the Prez to give us sundaes on the house.  Yum.  Huge burgers and chocolate chip coconut banana bread sundaes.  We were so full for a long time.

Then we found a quiet beach that the locals know about and is great for snorkeling.

It was a lovely walk through sugar cane fields and jungle-like trees, which opened up to this beautiful bay.

Christian and Ashlyn loved collecting coconuts.

It was a real gem.  We saw four huge (huge like as big as Brooke) turtles and enjoyed the afternoon soaking up the beauty.

 Then we headed over to Turtle Bay for more snorkeling fun.

For dinner, we stopped at Ted's bakery for plate lunch and chocolate macadamia nut cream pie, which came highly recommended.  It was great, especially with a rainbow overhead.

Hawaii 2012 ~ Days 3 & 4

We spent the day at "our beach"  - that being at the resort for a relaxing, fun-filled, easy day. 

Ashlyn put on all her snorkel gear, then had to be carried all the down to the beach.

We rented a SUP (stand up paddle board) and loved it.

It's like John should be serenading me or something!

We saw our Turtle friend many times while were were on the SUP and snorkeling.  He was so cute!  That's John snorkeling on the left, and Turtle on the right.

Go Ashlyn!

Go Christian!

Sunday we went to the Laie 7th ward for church, then next door to

The Temple! 

We tried to take a picture just like the one we did 5 years ago.

The temple grounds are so beautiful, especially since they head straight out to the ocean.

Shave Ice at the famous Matsumoto's Grocery.

Another gorgeous sunset at our hotel.

Brooke - vintage surfer.