Hawaii – you hear about it, you read about it, and you even watch movies about it, but it is hard to describe the specialness about it until you experience it.  Kevin and I had never been, in spite of how much both of our parents raved about how amazing it is, we had just never had the opportunity.   Until now ;).  After a couple years of planning, we finally made it happen.

On Sunday morning, at 6am, we were on a flight out of San Antonio and headed to Oahu.  We had a layover in San Francisco, and the airport was so cold, I had to get myself some hot chocolate to warm up – ha ha!  At least it was Ghirardelli’s hot chocolate, since we were in San Francisco after all.  After a couple hours, we were finally on our flight to Hawaii.

Flying into the island is amazing.  The water, the coastline – it was spectacular.  And I loved how we had to fly around the island to get to the airport.

Just as we were landing, Kevin and I started the zoom feed for Derek’s seminary graduation.  It was a special miracle that it all worked out for us to watch it,and it ended just as we picked up our rental car.

Our hotel was the Bamboo Waikiki, right in the heart of the city.  Although we would have prefered to stay at a place on the North Shore, our trip was a package booked through a third party, and so we didn’t have a choice of being in the city.  We also didn’t realize that we wouldn’t be able to park our car at the hotel – I guess you needed to make reservations for parking months in advance.  Because of that, we had to find somewhere in the area of our hotel every night.  The cheapest parking we found was $35 a night, and the most we paid was $50 a night.  I know, right?!  It was a big stresser, but oh well.  The hotel was clean and well cared for, and I did love that we were on the 11th floor with a great view.

After getting settled into our room, we decided to walk over to the beach to help us stay awake a bit longer, since the early morning and the time change was hitting us hard.  And we were hungry, so we decided to try out Dukes.  We knew it was Kevin’s parents favorite restaurant in Maui, so we had to check it out, especially the Hula Pie.  And wow, that Hula pie was fantastic.  So were the fries and the absolutely incredible fruit smoothie.  Wow!!  It was the perfect way to begin our vacation and was just the magic that we needed.

Monday morning, after waking up a bit too early, but forcing ourselves to sleep in as much as possible (jetlag is a killer), we decided to walk the mile and a half to Leonard’s Bakery for some malasadas – of which everyone had told me about.  Oh my goodness, they were so good!  Especially the one filled with guava.  Wow!  Definitely a good choice.

As we were walking there and back, we came upon random chickens – in the city.  I mean, my mom had mentioned to me about all the chickens everywhere in Hawaii, but I didn’t expect them in the city.  Pretty funny.  We even heard a rooster crowing over the traffic.  Good times.  My favorite thing was when we were almost to the bakery, and a mama hen with her chicks ran out from a bush, and then back in.  Once again, it was the middle of a big city.

After breakfast, we got ready and headed out across the island to Laie.  We drove through the middle of the island, in the midst of the towering and green covered mountains.  The highway was named Likelike, which Kevin knew that the kids would get a kick out of it, so he had me take a picture for them.

We got to Laie in time for lunch, and we headed to Seven Brothers Burgers, and it was so delicious!! My burger had pineapple, bacon and this amazing sauce on it, and the fries were this sort of fry/chip combination that were so good.

After lunch, we drove over to the Laie Temple and it was so very beautiful.  We went to the visitor’s center there, talked with the missionaries, and watched the coolest video about the Laie area – from the first members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to building a church building, the temple, BYU Hawaii, and then the Polynesian Cultural Center.  It was fascinating and one of our favorite things from the whole trip.

We wandered around the grounds, and they really are amazingly beautiful.  Especially all the flowers.

After visiting the temple, we headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) for our day of fun.  We started off with the boat tour, which was really cool as they took us through all the different islands.

We were in a tour group with another family with a tour guide named Paul.  He was from the Philippines and a student at BYU Hawaii (actually, almost every person working at the PCC were students, and they work there to help pay for their education, which is awesome). He was a fantastic guide, and got us around to all the different islands throughout the day, and we were able to see almost every show because it, whichmade our day run so much more smoothly.

The presentations in the different islands were all very cool, and sometimes they had us get up and get involved, like when they had us dance – Kevin even got in on the action, which was awesome.

We also got to see the boat that was used as the model for the boat in Moana, which is cool.  In fact, before they wrote the movie, the writers came to the PCC and did research so that they could be super authentic.

In most of the islands, they had tattoo stations with authentic tattoos from each culture, and so by the time we finished for the day, Kevin and I had quite the collection – nice.

We loved getting to experience the unique things about each culture and place, whether it was Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, Aotearoa, Tonga, or Hawaii.  We could have spent more days there, and still not have experienced it all.

Around five o’clock, we said goodbye to Paul and headed to the Luau for dinner.  We even got to watch them uncover the roast pig, which they were feeding us later.

The whole day, we spent with the most fun family – Lenore, Dan? and their kids.  We had to laugh, because their oldest is a girl named Lily who is 21, and then their next kid was a son who just graduated from high school, just like Derek, they had another daughter in there, and then a son Arthur’s age.  We had such a fantastic time together all day, that we decided to sit together for the Luau, which was awesome.  We had a blast, and Kevin may have taught the boys in their family that mixing the piña coladas with Mountain Dew was a good idea.  Speaking of the Pina Coladas, they were amazing!!  And unlimited, until of course, Kevin ordered his fifth, and they had run out.  Ha ha ha!  Our server saved the day though, and made him a mango smoothie.  The food was delicious, and they even had purple rolls, which I had to get a picture of for Arthur.

After the dinner, we said goodbye to our new friends, and then wandered around the shops for a little bit.  We saw the most beautiful quilts, and it made us think about Kevin’s mom, Valerie, and how much she would love them.

Eventually, it was time for the Ha: Breath of Life show.  We weren’t allowed to take pictures or video of it, but take my word for it, it was spectacular – especially the fire dancers, the girl fire dancer in particular.  It was the perfect end to a fabulous day.

The hardest part of Monday, however, was the extreme exhaustion we were feeling, as it was about 3-4am body time by the time we got back to our hotel, and then we had to find parking, which was almost impossible that time of night.  Oh well.  The amazingness of the day was worth the stress and tiredness.