Life is Beautiful: Vacation Part Deux: Oahu

**Note to reader, this is a looonnng post, therefore, I have highlighted various points of interest to allow for a summarized reading. Please also note, they are not at this time hyperlinks to other sites... in the future, they may be.**

So after a luxurious, relaxing week in Maui, we jumped over for a quick jaunt of the island of Oahu. Once we landed, got our rental car - goodbye convertible chrysler, hello bright red ford focus - and got out the GPS and headed toward our hotel. Our choice was to follow the instructions given by the rental car agency or GPS (we call her "Lola" and she has a soothing british accent). Lola gave directions counter to directions previously given. Do we trust Lola or the local?? We chose the local and chose wrong. It took for-ev-er to get down Waikiki to our hotel. Once we got to the hotel, we unloaded our luggage and checked into our hotel, we headed out to the International Marketplace. We stopped to have a picture in front of the statue of Duke. I was amazed at all the hype about the marketplace, yet it seemed to be the same stuff 100 times over. We did have a guy try to sell F a lovely Kimono for me...where would I wear it? What would people think if they stopped over to find me lounging around the house in a purple kimono? I do like kimonos, in general, but not for me. We ate dinner in a little treehouse cafe in the heart of the marketplace. Then we walked down "the strip" of waikiki. I felt like I was in Vegas, only I was being solicitated coupons in Japanese. We found a Puka Dog stand which F just had to have. While he waited for his order, I sat back and watched a couple who were completely smashed (mind you it was about 7:30 pm). Great fun! We also found a poster announcing all the fun to take place Saturday night for SpamJam! The poster was translated into several Asian languages. We found the translations funny....look closely.

Saturday began with the Pali Lookout. It was sooooo windy, but we knew it would be. Next stop was the Hawaii Laie Temple. The temple is currently under construction, but the visitor center was open. We spent most of our time walking around the grounds. We loved being at the temple and also filling time until the Polynesian Cultural Center opened.
At noon, we headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center (aka: PCC) Here's what we did in the PCC:
* Watched as many presentations we could.
* Ate lunch
* Watched the Canoe Pageant
* Saw the Imax about corals reefs
* Ate an authentic dinner at the Ali'i Lu'au
(including rolls made with taro)
* Saw the night show, "Horizons"
I wish we could have spent more time at the PCC . Because of Spam Jam, the road to the hotel was closed, so it took us about an hour to travel a mile!! We made it to our hotel and the end of another day.

Sunday, we trekked north today. On our way through the center of the island, we found and stopped at the Wahiawa Botanical Gardens. We walked on the paths and trails through unimaginable trees and plants. Mosquitoes also ate us while we wandered. It was gorgeous to see all the different plants and trees. Our next stop was the Dole Plantation. They have a huge gift shop with all things pineapple, a garden filled with pineapple variations throughout the world, and tour of the plantation. F and I enjoyed pineapple ice cream, which is more like a sorbet, very delicious and very pineapple in taste and color.
Our next stop was Haleiwa and North Shore. For lunch we stopped at a small pizza joint called Pizza Bob’s. The pizza was good, just pizza, and a little over priced. The best part of this stop was the bathroom. A group of people were heading out and one girl went into the bathroom. She didn’t see, but heard me come in. She began talking to me. Her: “That was good. I’d forgotten how good the pizza is here.” Me: Nothing Her: “Sierra?” Me: Nope. Her: “Oh, sorry.” (sound of toilet flushing, hands quickly washed, and laughing as she closed the door) Was I supposed to say something?
F paid the bill and we walked down the street to our destination: Matsumoto’s Shave Ice. Apparently it’s the place to get shave ice. We waited in the long line, had our picture taken under the store sign, and ordered our shave ice. Yummy! The shave ice we got had ice cream in the bottom with the shave ice on top. It was a refreshing and delicious treat. With the help of Lola, we found Pipeline and watched the enormous waves with a few surfers and sat on Sunset beach. We wanted to stay and actually watch the sunset on the beach, but it was taking forever for the sun to set. Therefore, we witnessed the sun making a descent into sunset on sunset beach. We stopped for dinner at Cheeseburger in Paradise and back to the hotel to pack and grab some shut eye.

Monday morning started bright and early at 4? I think. Today we started with Hanauma Bay. We got there before 7 am. Hanauma Bay charges for parking and requires snorkelers to watch a video about coral reef preservation, but they don’t start those until 7 am. The man at the entrance said, “Lifeguards won’t be out until 7, don’t touch the coral.” Not verbatim, but the idea. Sweet, we saved $15 by coming early! The water was cooold. We did see a number of fish; I was more impressed with the fish we saw in Maui, but was great to have this experience. We were finished snorkeling before 8, and walked out, while many people were heading in. After a quick stop to shower, we loaded up our bags into the car.
First, we trekked the trail and hundreds of steps to the top of Diamond Head Crater. Beautiful, but exhausting. The trail does not have shade, so we were really hot by the end. Next stop, Pearl Harbor, which doesn’t allow any bags, so I traveled with my camera, F carried the video camera and both of our wallets. We got inside just in time to catch the next ride to the Arizona Memorial. It was sobering to see the battleship under us and to see the names of those who lost their lives that day. What a tragedy. Close by is the Bowfin Submarine. When we got there, they were close to closing time and there was an admittance fee to walk around the submarine, so we walked around the grounds and played around until we had our fill. F and I hopped back in the car and drove towards the airport. We loaded onto the airplane and made our redeye flight to Seattle, Washington. After grabbing breakfast, we headed on our last plane home. That last flight couldn’t have been any longer. I was so anxious to get off the plane, get our luggage and home to see our children. My brother picked us up from the airport and back to our children. They apparently had so much fun, they didn't even miss us. We had a fantastic trip! I am so glad to be home with my family, but I miss Hawaii already. Someday down the road….until then, here are more pictures of Oahu.