Hawaii: Day 4

 On Thursday, Nov 24--Thanksgiving Day, we planned to snorkel at Hanauma Bay.  We needed reservations 2 days in advance and were only able to get 10 tickets. We showed up at the bay at 6:45 am in hopes of reserving our last 2 tickets.  As we waited we noticed it starting to sprinkle.  While it was a little chilly at first, we feel that because of the weather, we were able to get our tickets so everyone could go!

 

Hanauma Bay is formed from an old volcano that has been weathered down on the ocean side to allow water in and form this beautiful bay.  We saw so many beautiful fish! Parrot fish, Tang, Trigger....

 

 

 

We spent all morning there soaking in the beauty.  It warmed up by the end and turned out to be such a nice day.  Afterwards, we went back to the house and cleaned up to go out for dinner.  There weren't many options for open restaurants that could seat 12, so we all enjoyed going to Dennys!

Hawaii: Day 3

On Wednesday, Nov 23 we headed up to North Shore to visit Laie.  These canopy-style monkey pod trees were gorgeous along the drive.

 

 

We visited BYU-Hawaii

 

We walked around the campus to see the sights.

 

 

Then we headed over to the Laie Temple and visitor's center.

Afterwards we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  We ate lunch at the food trucks at the marketplace there first.

We were assigned a tour guide, Tau from Tonga, for the afternoon.  There were 6 island villages to visit, each with it's own show and activity.  Tau set up a schedule for us and took us around explaining everything.

Island of Aoteara (New Zealand)

Canoe ride to other islands

 

Island of  Samoa

 

We wove these fish from coconut tree leaves.

 Watched this man climb a tree to get coconuts.

Voyager ship

Traditional temple on the Island of  Fiji

Island of Tonga

They asked for volunteers to help with the drumming.  Brian volunteered, but didn't realize what he was getting into!  He did a great job!

 

After the tour, we went to the Luau for our (early) Thanksgiving feast.

pina colada in a pineapple

 

At the end of the feast, they invited kids to come up to learn a sitting hula dance.  Lydia and Catherine both went.  They are in the back row.

 

After the luau, we had about 40 minutes until the evening dance show started.  We went to the ukulele experience and learned how to play You Are My Sunshine.

 

 

At the evening show Ha, they combined all of the traditional dances from the 6 islands into a story about life.  It was so beautiful and fun to watch.