Hawaii #6: Polyniesian Cultural Center

Okay, the PCC was so cool. I have so many pictures and videos from there, but I just picked some of my favorites for this blog. (Hit me up if you really want to see the rest... we can also talk about other possible hobbies you can take up as well, in order to move you towards a more exciting life.)

I loved all the villages... the Samoan and Tongan and Fijian were a couple of my favorites. It was so much fun to walk around and see it all.

Oh the Luau!!! It was so much fun. GOOD FOOD! I loved the pig that was cooked in the sand! It was so tasty. We have all heard that polynesians sure do know food... but man... until you've experienced the real thing... you really just don't get it!

Haha... I made Amy be a tourist... even though she grew up around the corner and worked there! Don't let her fool you... she loved it!

The night show might have been one of my favorite things. I liked the fire-knife throwers and the Tahitian Hula the best, but the whole thing was so entertaining! It didn't hurt that Amy got us front row seats either!

Hawaii #5: Pearl Harbor

Me standing by the "anchor" of the U.S.S. Arizona.

Pearl Harbor was AMAZING! It was a lot smaller than I had imagined, but it was so interesting. The harbor itself looks like you could just swim across to the other side. (I'm sure you couldn't very easily, but it looked smaller than I imagined... that's all I'm saying.)


When we first got there we went through the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial Visitor's Center and all the museum stuff. You walk around while listening to the audio tour, watch a movie and ride a boat out the the actual monument which lies over the top of the sunken Arizona.

This is the actual monument for the U.S.S. Arizona.

It's really quite an amazing place. You can still see the oil leakages coming up from the ship, and the thing that really got to me was how close to shore the ship was. I knew that there were still sailors entombed within the Arizona, but I had no idea that they drowned that close to shore. It was so horrible.

I was so glad to be able to go see Pearl Harbor, (the visit would have been even better had I run into Ben Affleck or Josh Hartnett.. but whatever!) Oh... one more thing... I'm not even going to go into the Japanese on this one, because they enfuriated me so bad that I'd better not even go there. All I'm going to say is... when the marine tour guides tell everyone to "please remember this is a U.S. war memorial and tomb," and to "if you MUST talk please do so in a wisper," don't go jabbering off so loudly that it echos off the walls and disrupts the entire mood, in your unthinkably annoying language, and ruin the experience for everyone else when you are the reason there has to be a freaking memorial in the first place!!!

Okay... so I went off a little... so sue me!

Hawaii #4: Sunset Beach (My all-time favorite place on the islands!!)

I don't think I need to write anything here about this one... the pictures speak for themselves. I loved this beach the most! It was so peaceful and beautiful!

Hawaii #3: Diamond Head & Hannama Bay

~Diamond Head~

Josh, Me, and Carter on some of the stairs that lead up to the point. (you can see the switch-back trail down below us.)

One morning we got up and hiked to the top of Diamond Head to watch the sunrise. Diamond Head is a huge volcanic crater that you can walk into and hike up to the top of. At the top is an old Army or Military structure that you can look out from.

The hike itself wasn't too bad at all... the Japanese tourists, (Whom of which are freaking everyone on the Hawaiian Islands, you'll see them all over in the backgrounds of my pictures. Call me crazy... but I think after Pearl Harbor we should have banned their asses!) anyways... they were a pain in the butt!

Once you get to the top of all the switch-backs and stairs you snake your way through this tunnel and climb a bunch of spiral stairs to get to the very top of the crater.

The view from the top is gorgeous! It was such a clear day when we went you could see all the way to one of the other islands. (I'm not sure which one?)

It would have been such a quiet, peaceful morning... but remember the Japanese tourists? Yeah... who invented that language anyways?

I really liked the old light house down on the shore and the boat in the picture is some oceanliner that goes from island to island.

We took this picture after we climbed back down. It was your typical "touristy" spot where everyone was waiting in line to get a picture by it. A bunch of Japanese must have thought it would be funny to take home a picture of a crazy American from their vacation, because about 12 of them snapped this picture of me when Amy was taking it. Oh well... at least I made somebody else's vacation album. (Even if it was as the crazy American!)

~Hannama Bay~

Hanamma Bay is this place where you can go down and snorkle with all the fishies in the reef. They make you watch a movie about protecting it, and to watch out for eels, and not to pet the fish, etc... before you go down to the beach (which sucks), and frankly doesn't do them much good because 90% of people there are Japanese and they do exactly what the movie tells them not to anyways. (Can you tell I got a little annoyed with them during this trip? Just wait until the Pearl Harbor blog.)

Anyways... snorkling was so much fun!... That is until I about got eaten by an eel. Seriously. The water is not too deep along the reef... Maybe 7 feet in some of the deeper places, so you are supposed to stay on top of the water while you snorkly. (obviously right?) Well, I was snorkling with Amy and minding my own business when this huge... I mean huge!... like 4 feet long, eel slithers thorugh the water RIGHT UNDERNEITH ME!! I started to try and turn to swim the other way without any of my 6-foot frame dropping an inch down into the water (and consequently closer to the eel!), and right as I was doing so the legless creature of death swivled around and started to swim towards my face with its teeth bared. Now... I don't know if any of you have ever seen eel's teeth, but they are nasty! They look like they could free my bones of flesh in less than a minuet. Anyways... I made it back to safe waters in olympic record time and ended my snorkling experience on that lovely, eel-infested note.

Hawaii #2: Sharks Cove and Turtle Bay.

I loved this beach...!

If a tidal wave comes... My ass is toast!!!

Sharks Cove was one of the first places we visited. The ocean waves don't crash on the beach here... instead they crash against rocks that form a barrier to the beach. (They are the ones further back in the photo.) Anyways... you can walk out in the shallow water and find shells and all sorts of "crustacious" things.

Turtle Bay was cool too. These huge turtles (notice picture above!) just chill in the bay and come cruising up on the beach to lay. They are huge!!! I thought they were just more ginormous rocks on the beach... but I was wrong. You can see them swimming in the water close to shore also. Word of advice for anyone who is planning on visiting Hawaii: Don't try to touch them! They had these "turtle rangers" wandering around and making sure that the turtles were not being disturbed. (I call them the "island Best Frienders" I guess they are just freaking everywhere!)

Hawaii Trip #1: Honolulu airport to the North Shore!!!

So I arrived in Honolulu on October 2nd about died of the humidity right off the bat. I eventually got used to it though, and ended up loving it. (It does great things for skin apparently???) We jumped in the car and took off to the North Shore, which is where Amy lives.

The freeway snaked through some beautiful mountain scenery. The freeway that runs through this part of the island is actually elevated up on huge cement pillers that makes it look like it's up on stilts. It was so crazy how high up it actually was from the floor of the canyon!

As you round a corner on the freeway it looks like the road runs right into the front of the mountain, and it turns out that it does! There a huge tunnel that takes you to the other side of the island! (Check the video on the bottom of this blog...It might make you "weak-stomached" folks a little queasy though...so consider yourself warned!)

Right after you come out of the tunnel you can look to your right and see this... it's called the "Stairway to Heaven" and these steps go clear from the bottom of the canyon to the very top. We wanted to climb it, but it turns out that it's illegal to do so now. (Something about narrow steps and stupid tourists?)

Anyways... This is the first view of the north side of the island. The picture doesn't do it justice! It was so beautiful.

There's much more to come so keep checking back and I'll try to take you through my 2 week trip blog by blog!!!!

Stay Tuned...!

Okay... so I'm home from Hawaii and have a crap-load of pictures and videos to put on here... so I'm going to do a bunch of different posts of several of my favorite spots/places that I went to so Stay Tuned!!! Much more to come.