The view from the balcony of where we ate breakfast every morning at our resort...breathtaking!
After getting stuck in our first of many traffic jams, we finally arrived at Tiki's and Auntie Chia was ready for us with flower and Kukui nut lei's for us all. What an incredible welcome we got! Keawe's cousin, Brucie, was performing that night in his band, Vaihi, at the bar and all of the Naluai clan joined us for a long, fun, and entertaining evening. The girls met their second cousins and dined with them. They even got to dance with them! I was introduced to Keawe's cousins, Uncle Sol, and spouses. Not a dull moment all evening. We got back to our hotel that night at 3:00 am Utah time. Needless to say, we were exhausted!! But what a blast!
Saturday was spent at Pearl Harbor. We missed the tour, but were able to walk through the museum and view the submarines from outside. It was like visiting Ground Zero in New York. You really felt a reverence about the place. We then went shopping at the swap meet. Wow, so many good deals! What to buy, what to buy! Afterwards, we headed to the beach in Honolulu. The girls were so excited about that part! They had never been to the ocean before, so to have their first experience in Hawaii?! Well, pretty awesome! I wasn't feeling to great at this point, so I hung out on the beach towels and took pictures of the girls and Keawe enjoying themselves.
On Sunday we attended Keawe's ward in Hawaii Kai where he grew up. Not many people left that he knew, just a handful. Still a great experience! After church, we drove around Keawe's old stomping ground...drove by his house, his schools, his neighborhood, his hangouts. We wanted to take a picture of him in front of his home, but there was a big fence around it that completely hid the whole house...darn! It soon came time to drop the girls off at their Exploration camps for the week. That was a little harder to do than I thought it would be. I literally felt as though we were in a different country, so handing my girls over wrenched at my heart strings, I am not going to lie. Kanani struggled a little too, but she was a good sport and put her brave face on (with tears) and said goodbye to us. Anela was brave (on the outside) the whole time, but inside felt scared to death. However, we said our goodbyes, took a deep breath, and got back into our car...sigh.
We then drove over to Keawe's Auntie Nalani and Uncle Brent's home for another fun-filled family reunion dinner. Those who were unable to make it to Tiki's the Friday before showed up here along with most of the family we had met previously. There were over 50 people in this home!! Crazy fun, amazing food, lots of laughter. The Naluai's sure know how to have fun together. Auntie Chia, Uncle Bobby, and Uncle Sol were full of surprises as well...now I know where Keawe gets it:) Pictured below are the cousins and their children..This isn't even half of them! Talk about a big family! What would it be like if they all got together one day?!
Monday we took the beautiful drive to the North Shore and had a Yucky...I mean yummy breakfast at McDonalds. Keawe was anxious to show me the menu there and promptly ordered Portuguese sausage, eggs, and rice. I followed suit and tried to eat it. Keawe was in heaven. We then went and saw the gorgeous temple before driving to Waimea Valley. Keawe used to go here with his family and swim by the waterfall. (it was free back then he pointed out because it cost us $27 to see) What another beautiful place surrounded by tropical flowers. Upon leaving, there was even a pretty peacock on our car. On our way to the cutest historical town of Haleiwa we pulled over to some wading pools where we went looking for fish. In Haleiwa we had the world famous shaved ice over ice cream at Matsumotos....yummy! Headed to Dole Plantation next where we rode the Pineapple Express which was kind of funny because they had just harvested all of the pineapple so we got to see plantations of dirt...awesome! But the pineapple ice cream made up for it! Headed back to Haleiwa and went to dinner at Haleiwa Joe's. (recommended by Brian and April) Keawe's dinner was hilarious (only because it was so unKeawelike) because we got there too early for their dinners so we got the salad and appetizer menu only...crab and avocado salad which he ate every bite!! My salad was pure heaven! What a great day!
Tuesday we went back to the temple and did a session. When we got to the Celestial room, Keawe saw his old Bishop Chong from his ward growing up. He invited us to do sealings which we did. Beautiful temple inside and out! We then went next door and spent the rest of the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. We were fortunate to get the Ali'i Luau Package 2 for 1 price. We started out eating a lunch buffet of Yummy Hawaiian food..stuffed ourselves. Then we visited the various "islands" of Figi, Tonga, Samoa, Hawaii, Tahiti, and Aotearoa and learned about their cultures. This was such a fun place to go to! Loved the parade on water, the hands-on demos, the treats, the food, the entertainment...all heavenly! At night we attended the Ali'i Luau and had a ginormous Hawaiian dinner buffet while watching beautiful dancers. When we were thoroughly stuffed (again..yes we gained weight on this trip) we attended the night show called "Ha"...incredible! It was a show that included all of the cultures and their traditions and dances. Another wonderful day!
Wednesday we slept in a little (I begged to do so!) and decided to climb Diamond Head. Little did we know that Anela and her group had climbed it early in the morning that day..dang! What a climb that was!! Never ending stairs at times, but the view at the top was incredible! It was a very hot, muggy day so we went to beautiful Hanama Bay (which was also not free anymore to Keawe's dismay! Not only that, but we also had to watch a preservation video too!) and did some snorkeling. Thank goodness for Keawe's patience for my snorkeling abilities because I had a couple of minor anxiety attacks while attempting to. Wish I would have brought the camera, but we were too afraid that it would be stolen on the beach. Paradise both in and out of the water! When we were done, we drove to Sandy Beach where Keawe's family would go. We had fun just watching the surfers.
Thursday we went to the Bishop's Museum which turned out to be an all day affair, then we were invited to dinner at Keawe's cousin, Alika and Paoakalani's home for another incredible Hawaiian dinner. Cousin Lei and Kekau joined us as well. They were also visiting from Provo, Ut, and had dropped their son, Ho'ola, off at Explorations as well. Somehow the Sandy Beach photos ended up with these...oops.
Friday was the day we would get our girls back!! Oh so excited to see them! Not that we didn't thoroughly enjoy ourselves without them of course!! Since Anela's group was performing at the Iolani Palace later in the evening, we saved seeing it for Friday. Very pretty, but also had a melancholy feeling to it, knowing it was the residence of the last royalty in Hawaii and the circumstances in which they were defeated was not how I pictured it happening... Check out the cool trees that were everywhere! The roots were above the ground! We also went to see Keawe's old Stake Center where they would have their conferences. The hallways were outdoors along with the drinking fountains. A beautiful building..yeah for warm weather year round!
The stinky part of our girls performances is that they were performing at the same time in completely different locations! Talk about a hard decision to make regarding which one to go to! Keawe and I were so sad that we would miss one of them! He left me at the Palace because he knew there was no way I'd find my way to the Kamehameha campus. Boy, my heart lept when I saw Anela, but I couldn't exactly run to her and embarrass her to death..though I did think about it! I had to be patient and hug her to death AFTER the performance. Keawe and I both did not get any pictures during the program because we were too busy recording it, but they were both fantastic. Anela's group danced a hula, sang songs (in Hawaiian!), and did a skit. Kanani's group sang songs, and used their Upu's which they made, and showed off their newly found talents they learned. So very cute, and boy were they excited to see us! When we finally met up with each other, Kanani and Anela were so glad to see each other that they hugged! Then Kanani said that her next wish was to see her brothers again. (payday for mom and dad! They do love each other, they do!) Did the girls have a great experience? Yes. Would they do it again? No. Roommates were a little difficult, Anela's swore 24/7 and Kanani's cried herself to sleep EVERY night. So it really was a ONCE in a lifetime opportunity:) There were no regrets however. That's good, right?
The last day in Hawaii, Saturday, we took the girls to Haleiwa to grab a Mastumoto snow cone...of course! Then we had lunch, drove to the Swap Meet once more to buy a suitcase for all of the souvenirs we bought, added a few more items to our purchases, drove to the airport and awaited our LONG overnight flight home. What an incredible trip! Memories we will never forget! We love you Hawaii!
1 comment:
I wanna come next time! :) Super fun!
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