3 Days, 3 Hikes

Michael only had a few days left on the island and wanted to get some hikes in. So we did three hikes in three days. What is the best way to start off theses hikes? 1048 steps up a 1208 foot tall mountain sounds good. The first hike was strait up Koko Head trail. (featured in Hawaii five-0) 

Michael and the tall trail ahead.

 The view is worth it though!

Looking down at the crater and botanical gardens on the other side. In the future I'll take some pictures while down there.

A picture of the bridge on the way back down. 

For day two of hiking we took "The Bus" half way up a subdivision and started walking up from there. 

Our destination, the Wiliwilinui Ridge Trail.

The trail was covers in pine needles... 

 But Michael took care of that as he went.

Oh look, more steps up!

As we hiked a dark ominous cloud came over us, but we trudged on, to find!?...

A radio station antenna.

At last we made it to the end of the trail. And as it looks we also made it to the end of everything. God must have ran out of paint when he got this far or maybe the world really is flat.

Headed back down.

I feel like I just walked up all these steps!

Michael was just in front of me a second ago. Where did he go? 

Found him. 

On the final day of hiking we first checked out Kailua beach and found a painting class. 

After that it was time to go check out one of the few light houses on the island, Makapu'u Point Lighthouse. 

The sea around this coast is a whale sanctuary. And a picture never lies so we must have seen these whales. (Really bad Photoshop job you say? What, I don't know what you're talking about. What is this Photoshop you speak of? Is it a place to go by photos?)

The coast is a little step here. In the background you can see Sea Life Park. 

 Here are the tortoise and hair islands. Otherwise know as Manana and Kaohikaipu Islands.

We found the light house. Surprisingly it was below us and this was as close as we could get. 

This is either a loving cactus or a tricky one that wants you to hug it. 

And that concludes our three days of hikes and also Michael's visit. Bye Michael.

To see who is paying attention, who saw the winged unicorn in this post?

Like Surfing but Slower

While here Micheal and Luke signed up for some stand up paddle boarding. But before we went there we stopped off to see the "China Walls". 

Just a couple shots from the cost. 

Here is Michael and Luke starting out on their stand up paddle boards. 

After a few minutes it was time to stand up.

Topher was out there on his board too. Well maybe "on his board" is the wrong terminology. 

But Luke shows falling off was the thing to do.

Now you see him...

...Now you don't. Well, okay you can still see Michael's head. 

Topher in the white hat, Michael in the red shirt, Luke in the Blue Shirt, and their instructor is in the water with his board in the air. 

Luke Cruising 

They are dropping like flies now. 

Topher got tired of the stand up part of Stand up paddle boarding.

Now everyone say good bye to Luke as this is the last post he will be in that I know of. 

The Pali and Polynesian Cultural Center

When we have visitors we sometimes turn into tourist. This day was definitely one of those times. We started out in the late morning by driving up to the Pali look out. 

I couldn't decide if I liked the almost 180 degree picture or the one that would show the city, Kaneohe, better so I posted both. 

Here we are. A nice Australian took our picture. 

One of the biggest tourist things to do on this island is go to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) and that is exactly what we did. The PCCs description is: visit authentic villages and mingle with natives from six Pacific cultures as they demonstrate their arts. 

The PCC is a created village with six different sections for different islands. This is a picture of the river that flows down the middle of  the village. 

This is a man climbing a coconut tree in the Samoa section. They also showed what they did with the coconuts after getting them down from the tree. 

The next area was Aotearoa (New Zealand). Here we watched a reenactment of two tribes meeting and some of the songs and dance they did. 

 In the Fiji area we learned some history and geography about the islands. Then we all woke up by banging our bamboo sticks on the floor in rhythm. 

In the middle of the day they do a Canoe Pageant where a boat from every island area goes by with dancers. This first boat represents the king and queen.

In the Hawaii section we learned the proper way to pronounce ukulele and learned about Hawaiian hula dancing.  

In the Tahiti section they preformed a traditional wedding ceremony.

The final area was Tonga and we watched some fun drumming with volunteers. 

This is the tree used in Blue Hawaii. Elvis sat on it in the movie.

These statues represent Rapa Nui (Easter island). There is no presentation about this culture but that's probably because little is known about the island culture. Something looks a little different about the one in the middle. 

Coconut wall

This is a picture of the king and queen at our luau. 

One of the dinning halls has large murals all around the walls. 

This group of kids is amazing at playing xylophones. For more, check out Topher's blog. 

Lots of keiki (kids) swinging around balls on strings can be dangerous, especially in large groups.    

This is the stage for the evening show, HA: Breath of Life. Photography is not allowed during the show.

However I did find these two pictures online to give you an idea of what it looks like.