Aloha! Part II

Sorry about the delay between posts but life never leaves me enough time to blog. Just think of this as a pretty badly casted soap opera. And now we continue with our story...(insert dramatic organ music *ba ba bahhhh*)

On Saturday we headed up to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We drove up the Like Like highway and stopped at the Macadamia nut outlet about halfway to the Center. I picked up some trinkets, dried pineapple and snowball macadamia cookies. They had pictures there from when President Obama visited in 2008 which was pretty funny. We continued on to the park by Chinamen's Hat island and got out to take some pictures. There were these really neat looking birds we later found out were egrets. They were all white with some orange feathers on their tails and heads. As we drove on I mentioned I was a bit hungry. There were people barbecuing in all the parks on the way up and it smelled so delicious. Right before we got to the Center there was a stand with a sign saying "BBQ chicken, shrimp, lamb curry, rice and fried banana. We turned around and went back to get a plate. I thought the shrimp and chicken would be good. I am not a fan of lamb since we have been feeding it to the dogs for their food allergy. We looked at the shrimp and they still had eyes and legs and decided against those. We ended up with one huge plate of sticky rice, teriyaki chicken and fried banana. Oh My Gosh. It was the best food I ate my entire time there. The chicken was moist and perfectly teriyakied and barbecued. The fried banana tasted more like a potato, so we think they were maybe plantains. I would fly back tomorrow for another one of those chicken plates.

The Polynesian Cultural Center was amazing as it always is. We were in a small group with a guide who got us to most of the island demonstrations and had us do some other cool things. We started at Samoa (Talofa!) where there was little shade to sit in. Mom and Pam and I sat out in the sun and I promptly turned into a lobster. The other two with their olive toned skin merely got a little pink here or there. The sun went directly through the 55 spray on sunscreen thin spots and gave me this nice mottled red-pink coloring. The island demonstration was hilarious! We watched him husk and shave a coconut, weave palm leaves and make fire. Another guy went and showed us how to climb a coconut tree (I'll get right on that ;). After that we went to Aotearoa (New Zealand) and watched a Maori welcoming ceremony (kinda scary...) and saw their traditional song and dance. Then we went out and tried playing a Maori stick game, became experts at the poi balls and got a painted on tattoo. We moved on to a shadier spot and watched the canoe pageant. All the islands perform their traditional song and dance on these flat topped canoes. Pam especially liked the Tahitian drums. Our guide then took us over to Tahiti where we tried coconut bread, which was very tasty and recipes to make it. Tonga was our next island and we watched them beat drums and have audience members participate. Our guide to us to the Tongan spear throwing which was really fun! The sticks are long and carved to be sharp at the end that is weighted. You put your index finger on the other flat bottom of the stick and aiming the spear up, not out, you take a step forward and push the spear away with one finger. He let everybody try first and then those who wanted to could try for a prize. You had to get your spear into one of the two circles on the ground some distance away. Mom ended up winning a shell necklace! After that the guide took us to Hawaii where we taught the hula. We moved on to Fiji (Bula Vinaca!) and used hollow tree stems to tamp out different rhythms, which is one of Mom's favorite demonstrations. Then it was time for our canoe ride back to the dining area. We ate at their buffet restaurant which was really excellent since we were starving. You could have crab legs, prime rib, chicken, mahi mahi, and all sorts of salads and sides. They had my favorite taro rolls that are purple and slightly sweet. We ran to the shops for a bit after that and got souvenirs and DVDs and some more Hawaiian Christmas ornaments for our Hawaiian Christmas tree. They had these little wooden frogs with ridges down their backs that "ribbits" when you run a wood dowel down them. Then it was time for their evening show that is more elaborate than the canoe pageant or demonstrations. It is one of the best shows on the island because they try to keep to the traditional song and dance and it's not all barely clothed hip swaying "hula" girls. They have an equal number of guys and girls and really pretty dances. The Samoan from the first demonstration did some fire dancing at the end which makes for really cool pictures. It was raining when we got out to go home, but as in Hawaii, it only lasted a little while and by the time we got to Waikiki it had stopped.

Aloha!

Well it's been about a month since we went to Hawaii and I still haven't gotten to writing about it. I finally got some time so here is some of our trip. Enjoy!

When we arrived in Honolulu on May 7th I was ready for a vacation. The last time we went we used a travel agent and when we go anywhere again we will do the same thing. We had to change our tickets a couple of times due to the airlines moving around flight times and leaving us too little time to make our connection home. After retrieving our luggage that had been damaged so extensivly finally that my suitcase would no longer stand up because the bottom legs had broken off, we got our rental car and checked into the Waikiki Sunset. We had gotten a two bedroom suite this time because our good friend from work, Pam, came with Mom and I. What a view! The suite was at the end of the hall and when you walked in the sliding glass door and lanai looked straight out to Diamond Head. Then out of the two bedrooms you had extensive views of the ocean and Waikiki beach (through a few hotels). We ran down to the beach right away and the air was so warm that the water felt cool and nice. The waves were excellent too with quite a few large swells. We ate at Cheeseburger in Paradise that night which is right across the beach and 2 out of 4 walls are compleltely open. The birds come in and graze off the floor. After dinner we drove up to a Safeway in the Manoa valley and got water, breakfast food and snacks. I didn't find any road maps there so we drove down a little to a Long's Drug and I got a map there. This is because I am such an OCD navigator that I want a road map with actual road names on every street and not every fifth street like the one the rental car place gives you. I was going to buy one off Amazon before we went that was $4, but then it was going to cost $7 to be shipped to me. I looked at where it was coming from and it was voila! Hawaii! I thought it was a tad bit silly to pay to have a map shipped to me from Hawaii and then pay to take it back there. On the way back to the hotel I was metioning Lilo and Stitch to Pam and when Mom was channel surfing back in the room she found it on TV! I asked if maybe they have it on constant repeat in Hawaii. We watched the opening song which is our favorite and then went to bed at about 8:30, which is 11:30 our time. Before we went to bed I got some shots of the full moon and Diamond head. The picture was taken without a flash or long exposure the moon was just that bright. Funny story -- We almost missed our flight to Hawaii! The gate on our ticket said B5 and we get there and it says that gate is for a flight to Kahului, Maui. So I walk down to the next gate, B7, and it says the right flight to Honolulu. We were all like "Geeze, glad they told us the gates changed." So we sit there for two and half hours talking and then I say "...we should have been called for boarding.." so I walk over to the screen and they had switched to gates back! So we grab our stuff and run over to gate B5 and the lady has to unlock the door to get us onto the boarding ramp. Everyone was already on the plane and as we're getting seated a flight attendant comes up and asks us if we are the Menke party! Holy cow we almost missed the flight!!

The next day we took everything really slow. We walked down to the International Marketplace and priced new luggage, which I had been planning on buying but now really needed to buy. We ate a Dole whip and I listened to messages on my phone from our pet sitter that our rooster Parakeet had successfully escaped his enclosure and was free with his hens. Since he didn't come after her like our older rooster Dud it was all okay. Then we walked back to our hotel and got the car and went to an amazing Hawaiian Fabric store. Dangerous, that is very dangerous. Mom and I both spent about $100 on fabric, which is not light (think about how heavy our bags could have been if we hadn't been so reserved!). We also found the Walmart after some circling and picked up more sunscreen, an eggcrete pad for my bed cause it was already killing my back, some assorted macadamia nuts and ToffeMacs (yummmm). After we got back to the hotel we snacked a little and then went down to the beach again. We would stay in the ocean until we were shivering and that was the indication it was time to get out. After showering and resting a little we walked back down Kalakaua (the 3rd time that day!) to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I detoured us to the Duke Kahanamoku statue on the beach and called Uncle Fred so he could see us on the live webcam. This didn't work the last time, but this time there was a crowd control officer that offered to take our picture. That let Fred find the website and let the time delay catch up so he could see us. It was a blast! (See Uncle Fred is in the picture too!)