Normally everyone wakes up at 10-11 on our trips, unless there is some major reason that we need to get up. Not today! The entire family was up by 7am, including Jeff! It probably helped that it was 11am Texas time.
It was still a bit rainy, but we still enjoyed a great breakfast poolside at the hotel. The kids were amazed at how many Japanese people are in Hawaii, there was even miso soup and tofu at the breakfast buffet.
Off we went to Aloha stadium for souvenir shopping. It's a huge swap meet with all kinds of Hawaiian souvenirs and booths. It's less than a mile from where I went to high school at Radford.
We turned instead and went to the Arizona Memorial and toured around the submarine and museum monuments. There was a super long wait to the memorial itself, and our kids were bouncing off the walls so we let them explore the waterline a bit. They saw an eel, and tons of fish, and Kylie spotted something much larger. She thought it was a seal but I wouldn't be surprised if it was a shark. There are tons of sharks in that area due to the ships that come in and drop their waste in the channel on their way in.
We drove out to the North shore and saw HUGE waves hitting as south as Haleiwa. We saw Matsumotos but didn't stop, and kept going to Sunset Beach and Pipeline. All the surf spots were going off due to the storm. There were pro photographers with long range lenses capturing the surfers in the crazy huge surf. It's crazy how Waimea can be totally flat one day and insane the next. We saw a movie being filmed out there one day when I was a kid. The little dinky boat with the film crew would go around and around the larger boat taking take after take. It was completely flat that day. The coolest days to watch are the heavy surf days. There is no way an inexperienced surfer could have been out today, waves were in the 20 foot + range.
Our plan was to get to the Polynesian Culture Center a bit earlier, but it worked out in the end, we got hooked up by a lady at the desk that have us twilight tickets, and 10% off and 5th row tickets to the night show for the
general admission rate.
The kids absolutely loved the PCC and learned a bunch about Polynesian culture. They all are now thinking about BYU Hawaii as an option. They got tattoos, made basket woven fish, swung poi balls, and just had a blast. Malikai and Jeff even got to take a canoe out around the villages.
The luau food was not the greatest. When you've had Aunt Kim's teriyaki and rolls, and our families Kalua pig, it just can't compare. The kids volunteered to go on stage to learn the hukilau hula dance and we listened to good Hawaiian style live music as we waited for the show to start.
The show was a new one, and as usual, the fire dancing did not disappoint.
It was such a full day, but a great one! We felt grateful to be in such paradise, and enjoy the islands and each other.