Day 4, and a milestone anniversary!

 

 

Wednesday was an extra special day.

Casey and I marked 10 years of marriage!

It honestly doesn't feel like its been TEN years since we got married.

I blinked and all of a sudden I had 3 kids and have been married a decade.

Casey makes marriage life easy.

He never has raised his voice to me. Like ever.

He is always first to forgive.

He is patient, loving, and encouraging.

Don't get me wrong we have had our ups and downs but

with my stubborn personality I was fortunate to have

been blessed with a husband with such an easy going spirit.

Sometimes I don't know how I deserve such an amazing guy.

I feel lucky he chose me to love for the rest of his life.

To be his partner in crime.

To share the hard times with.

To be the first person I text when I need to vent,

or when our kids say or do the funniest things.

I love how he chooses to sit on the couch and watch tv with me at

night even though he is dead tired.

Because he wants to spend time with me instead of sleep.

I love how he loves to make us waffles and homemade syrup  for breakfast.

And it's nice having a husband who is always on board for getting blizzards

or making homemade cookies!

He is one in a million!

 

We had tickets to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center that day.

They don't open until 12:30 so we decided to do a temple session first.

We took a different route to get to the North Shore than on Monday.

 Boy, it was the most gorgeous drive I have ever been on!

It was an overcast day so it was more misty and cloudy than normal.

We were on a typical looking highway then had to drive through a

long, dark tunnel. When we drove out of the tunnel this was what

we were greeted with:

 

It was so green and lush everywhere.
It was like that the rest of our hour drive.

I know it sounds cheesy but the primary song My Heavenly Father Loves Me

kept popping in my head as we were driving along.

It was a beautiful scenic route and a perfect way to start a temple session.

 

 

This is Chinaman's hat.

People will actually swim out to it.

I think they might be a little crazy.

When we pulled up to the temple it started to sprinkle.

I didn't think much of it because in Hawaii the weather is so unpredictable.

I felt bad for Casey.

I didn't pack real church clothes for the sake of space in our suitcases.

 Plus we were going to the PCC right after so he was a

good sport and wore this to temple.

I figured Hawaii is the only temple we could get away with it.

I knew he was feeling a little uncomfortable walking into to the

temple like that. Luckily the man behind us was wearing an aloha shirt:)

 

Our session was great.

 I was anxious to see if the weather had let up.

It hadn't. In fact it was pretty much raining when we walked out.

I wanted a picture but we were getting soaked so we went into the

visitor center to see if it would let up.

We talked with the sister missionaries for a bit then looked outside and it

had stopped raining! It was more like a light mist.

They sister's walked out with us and took our pictures.

 

 



 

Then we drove down the street for some lunch at the Hukilau café!

The place is a dive but it was really good!

They are well known. They were on the show Diners, Drive In's and Dives

with Guy Fieri. LOVE that show!

 





I got the traditional Hawaiian meal.

Bbq chicken, beef, macaroni salad and rice.

We could have easily shared it.

 Casey got a burger that was really good.

Then we were off to the PCC!

The Polynesian Cultural Center is run by the church.

However most of the tourists that go are not members.

It is world known and is AMAZING!

BYU Hawaii offers scholarships to students.

Mainly those that live on other Pacific Islands like Fiji, Tahiti, and Samoa.

They offer free schooling and board in exchange for them to work at the PCC.

The PCC is like Sea World in a sense.

There are different Islands you visit and learn about their culture.

Most of them have shows you sit down and watch.

 

We started in Fiji. The show had already started so we decided to watch the

demonstration on how to make coconut oil.

We were the only ones that showed up so we got our own little lesson.

This guy had come to BYU  Hawaii 4 months ago from Fiji.

It sounded like the village he lived in was poor.

Like grass hut houses, and no windows.

Part of their weekly chores was to make coconut oil for the family.

And this is exactly how they do it at home.

 

First they had to pick the coconuts which is a task in it's self.

You have to get the coconut out of the husk by pounding it on a stake.

 



 

Then you crack the coconut open with a big rock and dump out the juice.

Then they sit on a wooden bench with a metal scrapper nailed on the edge.

They say this is the worst part, scrapping the meat out of the coconut shell.

then you get some hairs from the husk of the coconut and put some coconut

meat in the middle and squeeze and strain the milk out of the meat.

 

That is the milk he strained out.

Then you let it sit and ferment for a few days.

The oil separates from the milk and voila, you have coconut oil!

He says they put flower pedals in the oil to make it smell pretty.

They don't cook with their coconut oil, just us it as lotion and in their hair.

It was so interesting!!

 Then we went to Tonga where we laughed our heads off!!

These guys were a hoot.

They grabbed 3 men from the audience to participate in their drum show.

They try to make it funny and pick people that don't know English or who look

super shy. Oh my, we were rolling by the end of that one!

We had a guy from Canada who was eating the attention up.

Then an older man from Korea who was flippin funny and kept saying I fro KoreA!

Haha, then a black man from Nashville TN who had a deer in headlights look

the whole time. When it was his turn to copy the Tongan with drum beats,

the Tongan guy went crazy then started yelling in the microphone a chant of some sort.

Now it was his turn to copy so he did a few pounds on the drum then sang, who let the

dogs out and we all lost it!!!

I WISH I had a picture of it!!!!

 

 



 They do a canoe boat show in the middle of the day.

But first we had to indulge in their special treat they serve at the PCC,  Island Delights.

 They were selling their desserts off of canoes.



Its fresh tropical fruit cocktail with rainbow sherbet.

I am not a sherbet fan but this was good.

Back in the day they used to serve it in a fresh, hollowed out

pineapple.

 

 

Then the show began.

They had each of the 7 Islands come out on their own canoe

and do a dance while being rowed to the river.

 

The Tahitian dancers are my favorite.

I seriously don't know how they move their hips that fast.

I made a mental note to myself that if I was ever having a

bad hair day to remember these poor girls and that it could be a whole lot worse!

Ok, this guy was a riot! He served his mission in Samoa so since he knew

the language they let him be with the Samoa group. He was getting way into the dance

and you can see how is chest is all red from him pounding on it with his hands.

 



 

After the show we bee lined it to the Samoa show.

This guy was a crack up as well.

He had a Rico Suave soft voice and mannerism.

 



 Then he showed us how they climb up the coconut trees.

 Some of the food they were cooking for the Luau later on. 

 We took a ride in the canoes.

 

He loves posing for pictures:)

We bought tickets for their Luau and night show.

We hopped in line where we got laid then sat us at a table with 8 other people.

this is what the set up looked like.

They sure know how to handle crowds!



There was a buffet with typical luau food.

 For part of the show they had any couples that were celebrating anniversary's come up to the stage.

We stayed put.

 So glad we did because they made them dance in front of everybody.

We probably would have just sat back down while everybody else danced!



After the luau we walked around for 30 minutes before the big night show started.

You weren't allowed to take pictures inside but the show was really good.

We were beat by the end. It was 10pm and we still had to drive an hour home.

We got lucky and it never rained again.

It ended up being a perfect anniversary day with my honey!

 

Day 3, Pearl Harbor and Waikiki beachin'

 

 I forgot that on Sunday I had hoped to make it to Pearl Harbor.

It is only 15 minutes away from the airport so I

 thought it would be perfect to head straight there after landing.

I tried getting tickets online but they were all gone.

Pearl Harbor is free but you still have to have a ticket to get in.

I guess the ones online you have to reserve like 4 months in advance.

Who knew? Even 2 months prior apparently isn't enough time.

They only have a certain amount of walk in tickets per day and I guess those go fast.

So low and behold when we got there around 1pm, they were out of tickets for the day.

They said our best bet was to get there first thing in the morning

 to ensure we could get in.

 

We decided Tuesday morning we would head there as early as we could.

They open at 7, bleh. We left our hotel at 8 and hoped for good traffic.

Not possible in Honolulu.

The worst highway, traffic, and construction reside there.

We got there at 9 and Casey dropped me off while he parked.

The crowds were unreal and I got in a looooong line for tickets

with my fingers crossed there would be 2 left for us.

By the time I got to the front I could see the stack of tickets in the mans

hand and had a sigh of relief!

The only down side, they were for the noon tour.

 Now we had 3 hours to kill.

 

We went back to the car and decided to eat brunch at a restaurant

the valet guy at the hotel recommended.

It was just down the street from Pearl Harbor.

It was called Anna Millers.

It had a Denny's, Village Inn feel to it. But much better!

By the amount of food on our table you can see we were torn on choices

from the menu.

We each got our own omelet then shared the special of the day,

banana macadamia nut pancakes.

Somehow we were still hungry enough for some pie!

They had 30 homemade flavors to choose from.

I love pie so choosing was very difficult.

Since we were in Hawaii I chose the baked coconut custard pie.

Casey got the peanut butter, chocolate cream.

 

 

After brunch we still had about an hour and a half till our tour.

We checked out the harbor. Casey found a mini battleship he could hold:)

We also walked around the museum then sat in a nice

shaded area with a lovely breeze and people watched.

Seriously one of my favorite things to do!

We noticed a TON of pregnant ladies. Like far along pregnant ladies.

And lots and lots of families with little kids.

And it wasn't just at pearl harbor, I am talking everywhere we went we saw this.

Who takes their family of 3 and under to Hawaii????

Doesn't seem very relaxing to me but whatev.

Oh, and Tevas. Lots and lots of tevas.

 



 12 o'clock finally came around.

We watched a 40 minute film then got on the boats to take you to the memorial.

 



 

It really was crazy to think that you are standing on top of a huge battleship

that serves as a tomb for thousands of men that were stuck inside.

It was neat and special and makes you appreciate those that sacrifice their lives

for our country.

After Pearl Harbor I was excited to hang out on the beach at our hotel.

We rented the 2 chairs and umbrella for a few hours.

The beach was nice but not nearly as nice as the North Shore.

You kind of get spoiled there.

Don't get me wrong it was still fabulous!

 Another little tour of the backside of our hotel.

You can see a sign to the right that says Shorebird.

That is the restaurant I was talking about earlier.

If you go in and keep walking straight-ish

 you would run into the swimming pool.



 

A view of the other 6 hotels that line the Waikiki beach front.

 

walking on a little bridge or pier out into the water.

 

the view from the end of the walk way looking at our hotel.

When the sun started to set we went in and ate at the Shore Birds buffet
dinner. This was REALLY fun! For dinner you order your meat. It
comes out raw then you cook it on ginormous grills yourself!



 

We ordered steaks then quickly added pineapple to the grill and

buttered garlic bread.

 

The dinner comes with the salad buffet.

It is some good eating!

 

And of course we ended the night in the hot tub.

It quickly became our end of the night routine:)

 

 

Hawaii, day 2

 

As far as our schedule went, I had nothing.

I knew what I wanted to go do and see but nothing was lined out.

Casey is such an easy travel partner because he could have truly

 cared less about what we did.

Sunday night we talked about what we could/wanted to do.

We both wanted to do the Polynesian Cultural Center so we

went to the activities desk at our hotel to book our tickets.

After talking with the guy who was super nice we somehow

within 10 minutes had our whole week lined out!

He was a local and had great advice and tips on what to do.

It was a stress reliever to know what was ahead of us each day and

knew that we would get it all in without missing something!

 

Monday was lined out to be our North Shore exploration day.

We left our hotel about 9am.

It was a 30 minute drive until we came upon the Dole pineapple plantation!

We bought tickets and hopped on the pineapple express.

It was a beautiful day and the clouds were unreal.

 

It's funny because I guess I didn't really know how a pineapple grew.

I thought these baby pineapples were cute.

We walked around the humongous gift shop then got our pineapple whip!



Our next stop was Giovannis shrimp truck for lunch!

This took us a little bit to find.

Our phone maps stunk and were confusing.

Poor Casey, he was trying so hard to find the shrimp van

 and he doesn't even like shrimp.

Finally, in the horizon I saw the sign. We found it!

 

I ordered the shrimp scampi.

It was finger licking yuuuuummy.

 

 

Casey wandered down the field and found a philly cheese steak truck.

 

He said it was the best he's had.

And I was proud of him,

 he did actually taste my shrimp to get the whole experience:)

 Next, I took Casey on a tour of BYU campus.

I went to school there almost 12 years ago with my sister.

Pulling up brought back so many emotions!

Honestly, it hasn't changed a bit.

The Hale we lived in.

 

 

 Our room was up the stairs and to the right.

I couldn't see our room because they had the door locked

leading into the hallway because it was a male/female shared dorm hall.



 

The congregating room where we would watch tv.

 

 and where we would email our family and friends.

This was back in the day before I phones and I pads!

 

The cafeteria where we ate breakfast, lunch and dinner:)

 

This is the beach we would walk to everyday.

It is gated off now so I was sad I couldn't go down and see where I spent

most of my time that summer.

And once again the clouds were breath taking that day!

 

I could hardly pull Casey away from the tour to get going to the beach:)

First we went into Foodland to stock up on water bottles and treats

for the rest of the week.

Then we drove to Sunset beach.

This guy was chopping away at coconuts with a machete

and selling them for $5.

We never bought any coconut juice, I have never like the store bought

stuff but maybe I should have tried the authentic juice. 

I have video of it but it's not loading.

He was going crazy fast and I don't know how he didn't loose a finger.

"Another day at the office" was what he said to us.

 

 

And here we are at what I now call my happy place.

AWE, I couldn't get enough of that beach.

Perfect weather, perfect company, perfect scenery.

 It was sublime!

The waves in Hawaii aren't like the ones in California.

They don't roll in. They suck you out then spit you back to shore.

And they are strong! It takes all of your strength to keep standing when the

water is pulling back into the ocean.

The water temp was perfect and we spent about an hour just swimming and playing.

 



 

Enjoying everything in the name of Hawaii.

Even our choice of food flavors:)

 

After a couple of hours at Sunset we drove a little down the road to the

Pipeline beach. I didn't take any pictures, boo.

The pipeline wave isn't big this time of year so it just seemed like another beach.

I had heard about an amazing Mexican restaurant called Cholo's in Hale'iwa.

I was excited to try it out. Ya, it was really good.

Then we went across the street for some Matsumoto's shaved ice!!

 

We enjoined the hour drive back "home" then went hot tubing to end the night.

It was a full first day but of course got us excited for the next day!