Fish and Sun

Today was just spent at the beach. We stopped at a couple and were able to just take it kind of easy. We went snorkeling in Shark's Cove. The water was a little murky and we weren't able to see a lot of fish. The tide was coming in and the surf has been pretty strong today. Saw the biggest waves at the beach by the condo. There really isn't a lot to tell so I will just post some pictures.





After the beach, we headed down to Dole again for some more Dole Whip. We saw the ladies who sold us our pearls there and they remembered us. That means a lot considering how many hundreds of people they see everyday. On the way back we saw a rainbow that was really pretty although the pictures didn't come out very good since we were driving. Driving back into town, you can see the ocean and it is so pretty. After we got back we headed out again for some dinner. When we got back, there were a bunch of geckos out hanging out around the lights on the stairs eating up the pesky bugs. They were so cute that I had to get a picture. Oh, while I am on the subject of geckos. We loaded up the chairs that are provided here at the condo. Well, not thinking about the fact that they are kept outside, we didn't bother checking them. As we were driving down the street my mom, who was sitting in the back seat where the chairs were, told us we needed to pull over because there was a lizard in the car! The lizard was and gecko and we were never able to find him to try to get him out. I really hope he was able to find his way out of the car! I wanted to try to get a picture of him but I didn't since we couldn't find him again. I will close with the rest of these pictures. We head home tomorrow night. We will spend the day at Pearl Harbor. I don't want to leave but unfortunately, we don't have much of a choice. So my next post will likely be from home. I am headed to bed for the night though.

My Babies and Beautiful Scenery

(WARNING: THIS POST IS LOADED WITH PICTURES)

Okay, first I will start off with photos of the pearls. They aren't the greatest photos but they will have to do for now at least.

First my black pearl studs.

Now my plumeria pendant with the black pearl.


Plumeria earrings.


Okay, now that I got those out of the way, I can contiue yesterday's activities. We were headed for a luau for dinner last night. The location is kind of out of the way so we headed out to find our way so we didn't end up lost and get there late. It was open seating so we also wanted to make sure we were there as soon as they opened up to get our choice of seats. Right next to the location is a beach park. So we went over to the beach for a few pictures and to just watch the waves (I could do that for hours on end). From the beach you could see where the tables for the luau were.

We had about 2 hours to kill while waiting for the luau to start. So we stopped by Target to do some souvenir shopping. That really is a great place to buy souvenirs. If you can find something that you want there (or Wal-Mart/K-Mart) it will likely be a lot cheaper than they will possibly be at the other places. So we made our way to the luau later that evening. We got great seats and we were able to relax and enjoy the sound of the ocean. Many of the other guests at the luau were brought in my bus that they actually provide free of charge from Honolulu (we aren't staying in Honolulu and just drove ourselves rather than find parking downtown and take the bus). I will take from the Germaine's Luau website, information on the beginning of the luau. Upon arrival, all of our guests are traditionally welcomed with a Hawaiian Shell Lei. The sounding of the conch shell announces the beginning of the evening’s festivities! Picture taking opportunities await as the Royal Court of Polynesia makes its entrance. As the imu (underground oven) is uncovered, the savory aroma of the Kalua Pua’a (roasted pig) – your main course of the evening – reminds us that dinner is soon to be served.

And let me tell you, the pig smells DELICIOUS!!!! Here are some pics from the beginning of the evening.








The rest of the evening was filled with music, dance, some comedy and some DELICIOUS Kalua Pig.

(no worries, she is covered in the front, it is a family show after all)

This was our latest night yet, hence the lateness in posting.

So onto today. We really didn't have anything really planned. We headed to Hilo Hattie's for the rest of our souvenir shopping. This is such a fun store and is packed with all kinds of different things. You could spend a small fortune in there. (They have a Maui Diver's Jewelry store in there as well, and they kept asking us if we wanted to open an oyster. We all know what happened to me the last time I went there)

So by the time we were finished there, it was past time to eat some lunch. We thought we would find a park or beach around to sit and eat. Well, we were down in Honolulu and all the beaches were packed. So we just headed to the windward (east) side of the island to get away from the masses of people. Went up through their "mountains" and ended up in a state park for lunch. Then we were planning on heading back to The Polynesian Cultural Center but it took us longer to get up there and we would have been running in to see the Tonga demonstration. I didn't want to be running so we didn't go back and just headed back to the condo to spend the rest of the evening doing laundry and taking it easy. I am just going to post a bunch of pictures for the rest of the post and then head to bed. Tomorrow is a beach day, filled with sund, sand and hopefully some snorkeling. I hope to also catch the sunset (wanted to try for it tonight but it was cloudy and rainy so it wasn't the greatest night for that.). So, enjoy the rest of the pictures from today.

It's Twins!

I was so incredibly tired last night I couldn't even keep my eyes open. So, I had to put off posting about my day until this morning.

We packed up a lunch and headed out. First stop, Dole Pineapple Plantation. They have a fairly large gift shop there and we spent a little time looking around there. They have just about anything you could think of there. The funnies thing was the macadamia nuts and cookies that were Spam flavored. If you don't know, Spam is quite common over here. They even sell Spam and eggs and other things at McDonalds for breakfast. It find it quite amusing. They also have a jeweler there, Maui Divers Jewelry and they sell all kinds of pearl jewelry. They also have the "Pick Your Own Pearl" thing where you pick an oyster from a bunch that they have and open it if there isn't a pearl, they let you pick another one. Whatever pearl is in it, you get to keep and they have a whole bunch of different settings you can have them set in. Last time I was here, I got a beautiful pink pearl that I had made into a pendant. I have always liked pearls but I have always wanted a black pearl. They are so pretty but they tend to be fairly expensive. Well, I picked my oyster and when they opened it, there was a fairly good sized black pearl in there. When I got my last pearl, I had wanted to have it set in a plumeria flower pendant but the size of the pearl just didn't work out that way. This pearl on the other hand fit perfectly! Of course as part of their sale pitch, they offer you oanother oyster if you have that one set. So I decided to go for it, as the setting was really pretty . I picked my next oyster, and low and behold, not only was it another black pearl, but they were twins! Two more black pearls!!! I decided to just have them set on some posts to have a pair of black pearl studs. So I get another pearl. They open it up and what do I get? Another set of twins!!! And what color are they? BLACK! My parents were kind enough to have them set in a pair of earrings to match my plumeria pendant. I was so happy! To think I have wanted a black pearl for so long and in one trip, I end up with 5 of them! Well, that's not the end of the story. My mom and also gotten a pearl, hers was a beautiful pink one that she had set in a ring. So after my streak of luck with picking the pretty pearls, they had me choose their second oyster. I picked it, they opened it... it was pink... TWINS! Set those as a pair of studs. Next oyster, the ladies there didn't let me pick but let me do the ceremony that they do when they open and oyster (tap the dish three times and say "Aloha!"). They crack it open, and what do we have? Another set of pink twins! No one could believe it, the chance of there being twin pearls in an oyster, somewhere around 5%, and we opened 4 oysters that had twins, two of which were black sets. Just so that you know, white is the most common color of pearls is white, the least common is black. The ladies that work there all kept saying I needed to head to Vegas because I was on a lucky streak. I don't know about that. I am not exactly a gambling type. I will post pictures of them tonight. The epoxy had to set for 24 hours so I will be able to take them out a bit later today.

After all that excitement, we went out and ate our lunch and headed in for desert, Dole Whip. That stuff is soooo yummy. I only know of three places you can buy it, Dole Plantation here on Oahu, Disneyland and Disney World. If only I lived a little closer to at least one of them.



We walked around a little bit looking at some of the pineapple plants. Here is a photo with some FAQ's about pineapple. And some photos of some pinapples growing.









We did more yesterday but we are getting ready to head out for the day. My post tonight will include the rest of yesterday as well as today.

Just a Little Bit of Culture

Thanks to a little thing called jet lag my morning started at 5am! I couldn't tell you the last time I woke up that early on my own... no, I take that back, I can tell you, NEVER! Well, they do say there is a first time for everything. I was awake and couldn't go back to sleep. So I was able to relax and take my time. I had to wait for the sun to come up anyway. When it finally did, this was my view...



How incredible! We are staying on the wrong part of the island to see the sunrise from the beach we are at but we can see the sunset from here. I definitely plan on catching a couple of those this week. After we were all ready for the day we headed out for a little bit of exploration.

We made a couple stops. First we stopped by a beach and went out on the sand.. I went a litte bit out in the water until I ended up with wet clothing. We were laughing because I am taking after my grandma who said she was just going to get her feet wet and ended up in the water up to her waist. I didn't go that far though. Just the bottom of my dress got wet. But it was very pretty and I can't wait to get out in the water without worrying about betting my clothes soaked.



We continued on. Next we stopped at La'ie Point. As with everything else here in the islands, it was beautiful.


Before our next stop, we decided to stop and have a little snack. This was my view from my seat...

I have to laugh a little bit about this one because this is where we stopped.

Next stop... Polynesian Cultural Center. I have wanted to go here for a long time. The last time I was here in Hawaii, the only time I was here on Oahu during the day, was on a Sunday and the Polynesian Cultural Center is closed on Sundays. So I had to wait another 3 1/2 years before I could come back. It is a really neat place. There are villages representing 6 different Polynesian cultures. Each village has a demonstration where they talk about some different aspects of their respective cultures. They also have a canoe pageant in their lagoon there and each culture has a canoe "float" where they are doing some of their dances etc. I really enjoyed it. There is:

Samoa:




Aotearoa (New Zealand):

Fiji:







Hawaii:





Tahiti:






Tonga:






We didn't catch the show in the Tongan village because of time. But we hope to go back for a little bit in the next couple days and catch that last show. With your admission, you get a 2nd day free within the 3 days after. That is really helpful because it would be really hard to do every single thing there in one day. We did walk around the shops there for a little bit before heading out and I got my requesite nativity. I have started trying to find a nativity from the different places I go to add to my collection.

The rest of the day/evening was uneventful and I am now ready to go to bed so I can start again tomorrow.