Redo of the Temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center

Last night at dinner I discovered a cool "slow motion" setting on my new camera.  I'm bummed that I didn't know about before.  It would have been fun watching Riley run away from big waves in slow motion.  Even though it wouldn't be possible to have a redo of that, Catherine and I decided to walk to our little beach this morning and play with the setting as we ran along the beach Rocky Balboa style in slow motion.  Mom came with us to shoot the video.  One day I'll figure out how to upload videos to the blog and you can see how funny they turned out, but for now every time I try I just get an error saying the files are too big.  Mom wasn't feeling great so she went back home while me and Catherine headed to the rope swing for one last ride before heading home tomorrow, (yes, I tried to swing too).  This would be the last time that we walked on the beach so we wanted to make the most of it.  As we were walking we saw some little sand crabs burrowing into holes on the beach.  I was so sad that mom had already gone home and missed seeing them, but we brought back some great pictures and slow motion videos to show her.

The last beach we would walk on

My last moments on the beach with mom.

You have to look hard to see the sand crab!



I did attempt the swing, but this is the only picture I have of it.  If there were others, they would all of be in the water.

Don't know what this was on our little beach.  I don't remember it being there a few days ago. 

Walking back to our house from the beach.  Every morning this beautiful mist covered the mountains all around us.

Riley all ready for the day wearing his new shirt that he colored

We split up for the rest of the day.  Riley hadn't had a chance to see the temple at all yet and even though mom wasn't feeling great, she wanted a redo day of the PCC (which is right next door), so that is where me, mom and Riley headed, while Dave and Catherine walked around the BYU Hawaii Campus.  We would all meet up at the PCC with Dad, Christine, and Anneli later.

At the temple grounds

Riley standing at the main entrance to the temple.

Me and Riley touching the temple wall.

Standing on the front porch to the main entrance looking over the beautiful grounds.

Mom taking time to smell the flowers.

This time we managed to make it into the visitors center.

The Hawaii version of the family videos display had grass huts instead of houses all decorated for Christmas.  Very cute!

A beautiful display about the temple showed pictures of the inside.

 After the temple, we headed to the Polynesian Cultural Center where this giant Santa greeted us at the entrance.  (He wasn't there two days ago).

I'm always amused at the wide variety of results you get when you ask a stranger to take your picture.  I guess this guy got the important parts, but did he have to zoom so much that it cut out the top of Santa's head, sack, and all of the intersting background?

Mom was so fasinated by the coconut trees the whole time we were in Hawaii.  She just couldn't get over how many coconuts grew on each one and she kept asking us to keep an eye out for a good one to take a picture of.  We took photos of many, but this one right inside the PCC was her favorite.

Mom standing next to a display containing mounds and mounds of coconuts.

In 'Samoa' we watched a demonstration on how to peel and crack open a coconut and learned about coconut juice v.s. coconut milk.

We even saw a man free climb a 40' tall coconut tree!

Riley tried to climb a coconut tree too, but it was harder than it looks.

Riley showing off the inside of a coconut.

Granny and Riley headed down the "snowy" tunnel for a boat ride.

On the boat.

Riley learning how to fish in Tonga...

... and play the drums in 'Tajiti.

 

Random village we passed on our way to more adventures (not sure what country this is, possibly Aotearoa, ie New Zealand).



Back in Samoa we learned how to twirl fire (minus the fire),

And tried to make our own fire by rubbing two sticks together (that was also harder than it looked).

We eventually caught up with the others and went for another boat ride on Riley's request.

We got separated again and on the way out to find the others at the gift shop me and Riley passed this old island church.  Riley actually got some sound out of that organ peddling with his feet.

Riley pretending to be "an old Grandpa" on the church porch.



By accident, we finally figured out how to get onto Easter Island.  I had seen the statues from every angle, but couldn't find the path to get on the island.  We were able to spend 5 minutes here just as they were closing.



Riley peaking out of the grass hut.

One last look at the Polynesian Cultural Center before heading out for the day, and home tomorrow.

Dole Pinapple Plantation, Revenge on the Ocean and The Hard Rock Cafe

One of the things that mom was most excited about doing on this trip was seeing how pineapples grow.  I don't think the rest of us cared that much, but were happy to head to the Dole Pineapple Plantation to humor her.  I'm glad we did because as ridiculous as it sounds, this ended up being one of my favorite things so far.  It was unexpectedly fun!

Outside the building were these crazy trees. They aren't painted, the bark just grows in all those crazy colors!

What? Pineapple grows on a stick? Who knew?

The gardens were so pretty!

They grow more than just pineapple at Dole too. This is a chocolate bush! They also grow every kind of fruit, macadamia nuts, bananas, and I can't remember what else.

This is Riley playing with the fish eye setting on my camera while we wait for the train that is going to take us on a tour of the plantation.

Fish Eye Riley

Fish Eye Granny

Yeah!  The train is here!

Those are some pretty interesting mangos growing on that tree :).

Pineapples as far as the eye can see.

Who knew there were so many different kinds of pineapple?





This sign was there to help anyone who might be lost on their way to the North Pole.

Super pretty gardens.



Vanilla is the NEW flavor?

The big attraction at the pineapple plantation is that they have the world's largest agricultural maze.  Unfortunately, it was closed the day we were there.

 

I had the most fun at the gift shop.  They make EVERYTHING with macadamia nuts and pineapple.  I brought home some pineapple chocolates, chili pineapple pieces, and mango and papaya popcorn.  Random!



Catherine insisted that I be the crazy picture taking pineapple lady.  I wonder why?



Don't know what this has to do with pineapples, but there the pandas were.

Me and Riley leaving the plantation.

We took a vote to see what we would spend the rest of the day doing and heading to the beach was almost a unanimous decision.  We would only have two days left in Hawaii and since we were going home Friday night, but checking out of our house in the morning we wouldn't be able to get dirty and wet at all that day.  Today and tomorrow was it for everything else we wanted to do, so this seemed like it might be our last opportunity to get messy in the ocean.  Riley really wanted to go back to the "Big Wave" beach, and I had something to prove there as well, so we headed back to Wiamea Beach for round two with mother nature.

Granny had the right idea here.

I'm telling you, the waves are HUGE!!!!

Success! We played in the water for a while with no casualties (no boogie boards either).  There aren't any pictures to prove it because we were all in the water, but you can tell from the fact I'm still wearing my sunglasses on my head, that today, the score was Lisa 1, Beach 0!

We almost lost this shovel in the water after we had moved on to playing in the sand.  Riley just went to get some water in a bucket, was holding the shovel, and the waves totally took him out.  Anneli, Dave and Catherine were all there to try and pick everything up, got the bucket and Riley, but watched the shovel get sucked out to sea.  About 5 minutes later, the shovel came back, Catherine not only saw it, but got it.  What the heck!  Where are my glasses!

Have I mentioned how much Riley LOVED the ocean?!!

Mom was having fun walking along the shore and looking for sea shells.  I was having fun playing with the features on my new camera.  This is the single color setting.

I decided that since the pineapple maze was closed at the plantation, I would build one so everyone could get the full experience.  Here I am with my masterpiece in the background (I forgot the camera was still set on "blue" only).

Catherine going through the pineapple maze.

I made Anneli into a mermaid, but Riley just wanted to be buried.

Mom entering the pineapple maze.

Riley's last moments playing in the ocean.  I'm super glad we came back to this beach.

After getting cleaned up from the beach a few of us went to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner to celebrate conquering the ocean and not losing anything valuable in it... (Catherine thinks we went for her birthday, but that's okay, she can think that if she wants).

Riley doing the "Color Your Own Shirt" that I got him at the pineapple plantation while me, Anneli, Dave, and Catherine clean up to head to the Hard Rock Cafe.



Hooray!  We found it!



The coolest thing at this restaurant was the arching guitar display that went up the main staircase and all across the ceiling...




... but it also had the expected rock memorabilia, loud music, and videos playing.



Catherine's "pumpkin pie-tini" in souvenir glass.

Catherine's birthday ice cream that the singing waiters brought her.

This is my artistic shot from the outside of the cafe looking up.  Notice you can see the guitars lining the ceiling on the inside of the Hard Rock Cafe.