Hawaii

After 32 years Mikko has been able to cross this off his list... tropical vacation. Mikko received an extra dividend a few months ago so we were able to have a Hawaii vacation. The picture above is Waikiki beach in Honolulu. We chose Oahu since I had already been there and knew there were lots of thing to see and do on the Island. We stayed 5 days and that still was not enough. We decided if we go again it will be a minimum of a week.

Here is some countryside on our trip out to Laie to visit the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center). We did not rent a car for the whole trip so we paid for a lot of shuttles. This one was nice the PCC provided it and we had a little tour guide that gave us some great insights.

This is my cousin Carol who lives in Laie and works at BYU Hawaii. Carol greeted us with leis and they smelled wonderful. She met us at the PCC and got us a screaming deal on tickets. We were so thankful for her since everything in Hawaii is so expensive. We tried to stop by in Laie on Sunday but we did not get an answer. We were sad to not be able to visit some more but that gives us more incentive to go again.

Our fist stop at the PCC was the Samoan village, this guy showed us how the coconut tree is the tree of life. Anciently they used every part of the tree from shelter to cooking utensils food. This guy climbed the coconut tree all the way to the top to get a coconut and he was barefoot. He was pretty buff and really funny.

They have a canoe pageant in the afternoon and they have a boat that represents 6 of the different villages. This one is Tahiti.

Mikko tried his luck at the Tongan spear toss, he did pretty good for a white guy.

Here they are taking out the pig for all of us to see before we started eating at the Luau.

Here we are waiting for our turn to go eat at the Luau. We had yummy pork and chicken and purple tarot rolls and a couple of other interesting Hawaiian things.

Mikko splurged on a fancy drink and he said it was well worth the $7 it cost.

Our battery was charging on our camera so this is a crappy still we took with our video camera of the Arizona memorial. We also stopped by at the aviation museum so Mikko could check out all the vintage planes.

Sunday we headed up to North Shore. We stopped off at the Dole pineapple plantation and enjoyed some pineapple sorbet and man that was some good stuff. We then stopped at the beach at the Turtle Bay resort. It was really nice and Mikko got to snorkel in the bay. He is the one in the middle with the yellow snorkel. You might want to click on the picture so you can see it bigger.

Then it was over to Laie once again we stopped by the beautiful temple and watched a film in the visitor center. Unfortunately we did not go to a session this trip cause both of our recommends have expired and we were not able to get in for interviews before we left. It's called poor planning on our part.

This is the view from our hotel room on Waikiki. We stayed at the Embassy Suites, it was really nice and the beach was just a block away. Thank goodness we had Hilton points so we could stay there.

Our last day in Hawaii and we head to Hanauma Bay so Mikko could do some more snorkeling. I have been snorkeling three times before, but the last time I went was here a few years ago and I started hyper ventilating. The things in the water just freak me out. So I don't snorkel anymore. I just chilled out on the beach. In the shade of course.

Shot of Hanauma Bay from the top of the ridge. So beautiful even the picture does not do it justice. The blues were much more vibrant in person. We would love to go back again. The weather was nice 85 for high and 72 for a low. Sure beats the 30's we are experiencing in SLC at nights now. But I do admit that it would at least be nice to have cooler weather for Christmas just seems weird to be able to go to the beach on Christmas Day.