Tyler has a really busy week at work this week, and I don't, so I figure this is the perfect opportunity to post about our fun adventures this past month. Today's topic: Hawaii!
We absolutely loved Hawaii. We left Spokane about 3 o'clock Saturday afternoon and arrived in Honolulu 8 o'clock that night. We were lucky to find a promo deal to waive the Under 25 Fee for a rental car. That fee would have nearly doubled the cost of renting a car... Here is our lovely car in it's happy island home outside our condo.
It was about an hour drive from the airport to our condo on the North Shore at Turtle Bay, and we absolutely loved the place. The condo was cozy, homey, and beautiful! We had a family room and fully stocked kitchen, a laundry area, and beautiful bedroom and bathroom. The paintings in the front room were my favorite.
We fell asleep that night loving the cute little condo, but we had no idea how gorgeous Hawaii was until the next morning . We had a front enclosed patio with these flowers everywhere
and off of the back bedroom was a little lanai looking over the golf course. I would find Tyler reading in there whenever I was taking too long to get ready. If you look you can barely see the flowers growing just outside our door.
Here's a closer look...
Sunday afternoon we explored the famous Turtle Bay. The weather was beautiful and we loved the sandy beach with lava rock fading into the ocean.
Monday we decided to do some exploring and found the Temple, BYU-Hawaii, the Polynesian Cultural Center, and more GORGEOUS beaches :) We found out later this beach is called Pounder Beach because of all the waves. The water was beautiful, the sun was hot, and Tyler and I were two of maybe 10 people on the entire beach.
After laying on the beach and playing in the water for a couple of hours, we began our hunt for authentic Hawaiian Cuisine. On the highway between Turtle Bay and Laie, there were about 8 different Shrimp Shacks, and all were about a quarter of mile apart from each other. We looked at a couple of them, and then decided on...
There were three man-made ponds behind the shack, which we assumed the shrimp came from. The food was delightful. We enjoyed both the lemon pepper and the butter garlic, though I think Tyler preferred the butter part
We left very happy and very full. You can't see the whole meal in the picture, but the shrimp came with rice, salad and pineapple.
Tuesday was our cultural day. We had tickets to the Polynesian Cultural Center and spent the entire day there. We started with a canoe ride,
And proceeded to enjoy presentations on different islands of the Pacific. I didn't get pictures of everything we saw, but here's the highlights from our day at the PCC:
Fiji's warrior dancers,
New Zealand's chants and Poi Ball dances,
Tonga's drumming skills,
Visiting the Easter Islands,
We enjoyed the floating pageant where each island shared their native dances (though we came too late to really get good seats),
We took a break from the hot hot day and enjoyed some coconut ice cream with fresh pineapple,
Learned how to make fire and climb coconut trees from the Samoans,
Enjoyed a beautiful Luau with authentic pulled pork made from a pig buried and cooked in the ground, live Hula dancing, a gorgeous waterfall backdrop, and real flower leis. During the luau all the newlywed and anniversary couples were called to the front to dance to a Hawaiian love song. We met some great people and thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful food after a long hot day. This is a picture of us on stage. Our table-mate came down to take this picture for us.
I thought the Luau was incredible, but then we went to the "Ha, Breath of Life" performance. It was incredible. I couldn't get any really good pictures of the stage because it was getting dark, but it was beautiful. It was easily three stories high, with flames bursting from the top, and other parts of the stage. The dancers utilized ground level, platforms, and stairs that went all the way to the top. There were dances from all the islands, including Hakas, twirling flaming-swords, Samoan fire dances, Tahitian wedding dances, poi ball dancing, and so much more! We absolutely loved it. There was no flash photography allowed, so the only proof I have of going to the performance is the picture of us in the stands waiting for the show to start, and a picture of the pre-performance stage.
On Wednesday we found a snorkel shop across the street from Shark's Cove and decided to try it out. We loved snorkeling and saw fish like this, which kind of made me feel like I was watching Finding Nemo
Thursday we enjoyed beach hunting again and found a beach close to Shark's Cove. This one was slightly more populated, meaning there were maybe 50 people we could see. The sunset was beautiful and cast a glowing golden light on the island. We stayed until the surfers came in and then figured it was time to head back to our own island home.
Friday we ventured to Honolulu and saw the drastic change from our little Turtle Bay to the big city. We drove from one lane highways to an eight lane freeway. Waikiki beach was beautiful and very crowded. Tyler and I discovered the water was much more shallow at Waikiki and that we could practically walk a hundred yards out from the shore. The water was warm and there were hundreds of people in the water learning to surf, and hundreds more on the beach sun-bathing.
We walked around the city and never in my life have I seen so many designer stores. All the designers I've ever heard of had stores on Main street. Gucci, Dior, Dulce, Prada, and so many more! Tyler and I stopped at the International Marketplace to look at the different kiosks there. We were intrigued by The Pearl in the Oyster kiosk and ended up finding our very own pearl. We started out by picking an oyster and then tapped the shell three times together for good luck. The salesman cut the oyster open and found the pearl hidden inside. He proceeded to clean, polish, and set the pearl in a beautiful pendant that became a gorgeous necklace.
While waiting to eat at Duke's, we decided to sit and read on the beach while the sunset.
We loved Duke's and made our way back to the North Shore. Saturday we spent an hour or so at the Laie temple visitor's center and learned the temple has been closed since last January and probably won't be open until later this year.
We explored further up the island and loved the green mountains and ocean.
Sunday we thought for sure there would be a 1 o'clock Sacrament Meeting, but we were wrong. We came and and thought we made it in time for the opening prayer, so we snuck into the overflow seating. Turned out to be the closing hymn. We asked around and found out there was one last ward meeting at 2, so we waited and attended the Laie single's ward sacrament meeting. We came home and started preparations for our final evening meal on the North Shore. We used all the food we had left and made fresh corn on the cob, Steak marinaded in a tomato pasta sauce, and tater tots. It was really good!
We explored the Turtle Bay Resort,
And discovered Tyler doesn't skip very well ;)
We packed up Monday and went to enjoy our last afternoon on the beach.
We finally left our condo and slowly made our way back to the airport. We stopped at Waimea Valley and hiked up to the Waterfall. The Waimea Valley was sacred to the Hawaiian tribes, and only the tribal elders were able to enter. There are now beautiful gardens and flowers along a paved trail to the falls.
On our way back I learned that Pineapple does not grow on trees. Exhibit A:
Ok, so maybe you can't really tell from the picture, but I swear there are little pineapples growing in that funny grass. Hawaii gave us a rainy farewell as we left the beautiful island we called home for the first 9 wonderful days of our married life.
Tyler and I have worked hard to get everything settled into our apartment. For a week or so, our apartment felt more like an obstacle course than a home. There were boxes everywhere and so much stuff that we weren't sure where any of it belonged. We were pretty embarrassed when people from the ward would come over and it was a struggle to make it to the couch and then to actually find a place to sit on the couch. But no worries, five weeks later and we are in great shape.
I've learned: homemade tomato pasta sauce is tricky to make the first time, a batch of cookies or muffins seems a lot bigger and lasts a lot longer when there are only two people, Tyler loves chocolate things, Costco frozen fruit is perfect for smoothies, and new knifes really are sharp. I will spare the pictures of my poor thumb.
And here is Tyler's look of disbelief
We also invested in some camping gear to enjoy the great outdoors. It took a couple of weeks before we felt like we had the basics covered and we could venture to the mountains to find our very own camping spot. This past weekend we finally packed our gear into the car and headed to the infamous Payson Lakes Campground (I actually don't know how truly infamous it is, but it was recommended by a couple different sources). It was a gorgeous drive and we were getting excited to finally go on a camping trip. We came to the campground and it was full, as were both of the two large campgrounds up the road. It could have been a beautiful place to camp, so we got out of the car and took a picture of us there to try and compensate for our lack of camping.
With Tyler's driving hunger and a cooler full of roast-able hot dogs and marshmallows, we found our own fire pit on our way back to Provo and reaped the rewards of the food portion of our camping preparations.
There was plenty of room for a tent, it was just too bad there were "Day Use ONLY" signs everywhere...
