Aloha!

Here is the rundown of our fantastic vacation in Oahu:

Day 1 Friday 23^rd

We slept at Dave’s parents house so poppie could take us to the airport at 5:30 in the morning. Our flight left at 7 a.m. to Phoenix with a layer over there for an hour. Then came the 6 and ½ hour flight to Honolulu. We arrived there at 2:30 local time. We stayed at the Equus Hotel, which had a nice view of the city and of the ocean. We did not check in to our hotel until almost four o’clock and we were really tired so we walked around Waikiki and found a really good wrap place for dinner. Seeing how we had been up for over 17 hours by this time, we crashed hard that night about 8:30 Hawaii time.This is the view from the side of our hotel. Across the canal (5 minute walk) was Ala Monana Mall which is the world's largest open-air shopping center with over 290 stores and restaurants. Dave's favorite was of course the apple store. We went to two of them but not for very long.

Day 2 Saturday 24^th

In the morning we attended went to Hard Rock Café to hear of what we could do in Hawaii. That is where we scheduled the Home of the Brave tour (Pearl Harbor). Afterwards we took a tour of a pearl factory. We learned how pearls are harvested and watched how jewelry is made. It was pretty cool. As we looked at the jewelry on the display floors we saw prices of thousands of dollars. Needless to say we did not stay long. That afternoon we went to the beach and had some yummy ice cream from Lapperts, recommendations from Kari.

This is the man made Lagoon behind the Hilton. We did not sleep at the Hilton but we sure enjoyed walking through their Hotels, watching their fireworks, and using their ocean. The lagoon was a 5 minute walk from our Hotel. All of the beaches were open to everyone, except Hanauma Bay.

Koi fish were everywhere and they were huge! They reminded me of the Avatar: The Last Air Bender.

Day 3 Sunday 25^th

Sunday morning we walk about 20 minutes to church. What beautiful landscape. As you walked in through the gate there was a long reflection pool guiding your eye to mural of Christ. Classrooms were along the side inside the building, while the hallways and courtyard was outside. There was a beautiful tree in front too!

Day 4 Monday 26^th

Monday and Tuesday were my favorite days. They were packed full! Monday we went to the Polynesian Culture Center. We hopped on the bus at 9:20 and arrive at the PCC about 11:30. There we meet Benson, friend of the Mac’s from our ward. Benson was able to help us get a great deal for the day. The doors opened at noon and we shortly lost track of the time. Every hour there were shows of the different cultures. We learned how to build fire with just sticks, climb coconut trees, cooking, songs, hula, drum, weaving, spear tossing, and lots more! It was an amazing day. We also went to the luau and had lots of Kalua pork. Following dinner we went to the Ha: The Breath of Life show. Fantastic! Dave’s favorite part was the fire dance.

Day 5 Tuesday 27^th

We started bright and early Tuesday morning catching our Home of the Brave tour at 6 am. Our guide was absolutely amazing. He told story upon story about WWII. As we drove down the highway he would point at a landmarks and tell fantastic stories on what took place there during WWII. He mentioned that everything there has a story. I usually hate history but this tour was remarkable!

They predict that the USS Arizona had approximately 100 thousand gallons of oil when it was attacked. They estimate that there is approximately 50 thousand gallons of oil currently with a leak of roughly 2 gallons a day.

The picture of the United State Army Pacific is really cool. There are 12 stars 7 on one side of the red arrow with 4 and 1 on the other. This symbolizes bloody (red) war December 7, 1941 in the ocean (blue) from the east to the west (arrow).