SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13th

HANAUMA BAY, ISLAND EXPLORING,

BILLOWS AIR FORCE CAMPSITES
HANAUMA BAY

This is where John went snorkeling years ago. He wanted to take me there to enjoy the beach, it was awesome. The bay floor is actually the crater of an ancient volcano that flooded when the exterior wall collapsed and the ocean rushed in. The live coral and tropical fish were beautiful.

We got a little sun bathing in too.
Our first encounter of Hawaii's most endangered speices.....NOT.....The chickens!
More information and pictures to come about these little creatures.

HALONA BLOWHOLE

Grandma and Grandpa wanted us to make sure we checked out the Blowhole, so here we are.

We watched some people down in the cove near the blowhole,the waves were towering over their heads, we decided to stay up on the lookout. Didn't get the greatest picture, but it was also a little smaller than some blowholes we have seen.

NORTH SHORE
Our drive around the north shore. BILLOWS AIR FORCE BEACH AND CAMPSITE

We checked out their cabins and beach

Billows have a beautiful camp ground.

On our way back we stopped to take some pictures of these beautiful trees. They are like a canopies shading the ground. They were John's favorite tree. The Island had these and many other gorgeous trees.

North Shore/a lonesome tree

Evening was approaching and I got this cool picture of the sun peeking through the trees when we stopped at a beach for John to stretch his back.North Shore

DOLE FACTORY

Johns parents wanted us to make sure we went inland to see the pineapple farms and check out the Dole Pineapple factory. Here is a picture of one of the farm fields.

The factory

As we were traveling back to the hotel the sun was shining through the clouds, it was an awesome site, I took a quick picture before it disappeared.

We didn't quite make it back to Waikiki beach to take a picture of the sunset, but as we were driving along I took a picture as John was still driving by a Pier close by the hotel. I'm getting pretty good at taking pictures when John doesn't want to stop.

OUR LAST NIGHT AT HALE KOA, IT WAS A WONDERFUL STAY.

HAWAII FRIDAY THE 12TH

THE LAIE HAWAII TEMPLE AND THE
POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER

On our way to the temple we were surrounded by wondrous beauty

LAIE TEMPLE

We were unable to go through a session as the temple had been closed for remodeling, but our timing was still good because we were able to go to the open house, hence we saw more of temple than we would have if we only did sealings or a sessions. The members were very gracious to us.

A close up of the templeA family taking pictures of the temple were kind enough to take a picture of John and I

POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER

Mike and Niki as well as Grandpa and Grandma gave us a lot of suggestions regarding the center, but John decided that he would spend a little more money and get the deluxe tickets so we could have the grand tour, special dinner, plus front row seats at the show. Thanks John!

Our guide was from the Ukraine. He is going to BYU Hawaii, we drove through the campus before going to the center. The campus and temple are just next door to the cultural center. 90% of the employee's of the Cultural Center are BYU students. Our waiter was from Burma. Really cute kids!

One of the waterfalls at the center This is the New Zealand village, some of our tour people helped out with the stick dance.
Inside the building we enjoyed the dancers.
In the Samoan village, John was called up out of audience to help cut the coconut.
Cheers!
The coconut milk tasted really good.

We also watched a young man climb a tree, it took him all of a few seconds. I loved spending time in the Samoan Village, my father served his mission in Samoa.

We had front row seats to the water parade, each boat represented a different culture.

HAWAII

TONGA

TAHITI

NEW ZEALAND

SAMOA (the happy people)

FIJI

THE HAWAIIAN ROYALTY

Members of the audience helping out in the Tonga Village

Quilts are used in wedding ceremonies. The bride and groom are wrapped up together in the quilt. Years earlier the Kappa cloth (bark from the Kappa tree) was used.

THE DINNER AND SHOW WERE VERY GOOD TOO, IT WAS A WONDERFUL DAY!

O'AHU NOVEMBER 10TH & 11TH

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10th

Our trip to Hawaii started out with a little problem. John's back went out on him the morning of our flight his muscles tightened up on him and he could hardly walk. Jay had to help him across the street at the airport and from there an employee wheeled him in a wheel chair to our gate. I got to carry all the luggage, what a sight that was. In the process of getting to the gate we had to go through security. Of course John set off the alarms. They patted him and the employee down, that took about 5 minutes. They found out it was the wheel chair that set the alarm off. Then the supervisor made me get patted down too, and I went through without any alarms going off! The security officer who had to pat me down was more embarrassed than I was, she kept apologizing to me, she kept saying "unbelievable!" I think she was a little upset with her supervisor, I don't blame her, patting me down was not necessary. John and I have decided that this will be a fun story to tell our grand kids. Not every ones grandparents get to be frisked. When we got to the gate the Delta employees were very kind, they changed our seats to make John more comfortable, NO we didn't get to be in first class, but we got the bulk head (more leg room). When we arrived in Honolulu John actually was able to walk off the plane, he was bent over 90 degrees and leaning to the right, also in pain, but he could walk. We found out during our trip that the more walking and less sitting helped him a lot, and he took a lot of Motrin. As the week went on he was walking and feeling better. We also found that snorkeling helped limber his back. We left Salt Lake at 11:30 am SLC time and arrived in Hawaii at 3:30pm Honolulu time. We rented a car for the five days we were on O'ahu and enjoyed visiting the Island.

Pearl Harbor from our plane
Our hotel was right on Wiki Beach

We stayed at the Hale Koa Hotel (Army hotel)
The lobby was all open to the outdoors


We were on the 14th floorJohn did a lot of reading laying on his back.Looking out our balcony window (Waikiki Beach) Looking down on the street below us Night life in Honolulu Night picture of Waikiki beachTHURSDAY, NOVMBER 11th - VETERANS DAY
WE WERE SO PRIVILEGED TO VISIT THE PUNCH BOWL (NATIONAL MEMORIAL OF THE PACIFIC) AND PEARL HARBOR ON THE 11th.

At the gate of the Punch bowlThe Punch Bowl We had to park several blocks away to get to the cemetary. It was a long walk to the gates, but worth the effort. We stayed for the Veterans celebration Color GuardMarine Corp BandPavilion covering some of the audienceOrganizations presenting the wreaths to the fallen veterans.There were so many beautiful wreathsWalking back to the car we took this picture, the trees are so uniqueStill walking back to the car we stopped to enjoy the view of the city

WE THEN WENT OVER TO VISIT PEARL HARBOR

Visitors Center at the sight

We rode out to the USS Arizona to visit the memorial. I ran out of film so I was unable to get pictures of the sunken ship. One of the names on the wall of the fallen soldiers was an AB Putnam.

We had fun going through the huge NEX (Navy Exchange) building. We did a little shopping there. We then went back to the room to rest before taking a walk on the beach and having dinner.

A PERFECT WAY TO SPEND VETERANS DAY!