An Evening at the PCC

Friday night we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. It is divided up into several areas that each represent one of the islands of Polynesia. We spent time at each of them watching the demonstrations, and went to the big show at the end. It was pretty rad, and along with several pictures that I took, I took a few videos too! This is my first attempt at posting videos, so we'll see how this goes!!

These are some Tahitian dancers.....I cant believe how they shake their moneymakers!

This dude was crazy, and so much fun to watch!

Pretty cool Hula Dance.

More Fire Dancers!

Nate and I decided that every woman should learn how to do this!!

Laie, Hawaii Temple

This morning I took a stroll by myself to the Temple grounds for some peace and quiet! The house we are staying in is only about 1 1/2 blocks from the Temple. I took along my camera and took some pics.

Front view.

Turning around from the picture above, this is the view of the street leading up to the temple. At the end of this street off in the distance is a small temple garden on the beach of the North Shore. If you look close, the first left hand turn off this street is the street we are staying on. You can see the Temple lights at night from our living room!

Standing up by the temple overlooking the front grounds.

Gardens behind the Temple. There are some cool vines hanging down everywhere!

I also took some pics of some various plants and flowers on the grounds. Kind of my ode to Uncle Carl!! Here they are!

Kolekole Pass

Today we set out for the Scholfield Barracks to pick up Ben from work. After we grabbed a quick bite at the PX, we headed out for a place called Kolekole Pass. It is property that is owned by the US Navy, and is only accessable if you have Military escort. It just so happens that my Brother-in-law Ben (Kami's Husband) is in the Army. It was a beautiful pass, and a really fun drive. The only other thing we did today was go to a small beach town on the North Shore and walk around at the shops. It was a lot of fun even though it kind of drizzled all day!....don't feel too bad for me....it was still 74 degrees outside!

View from the first vantage point on the Kolekole Pass.

If you look close you can see the road that hugs the mountain.

Ben and I on top of the pass.

Punch Bowl & Hanauma Bay

Today we set our glorious Red minivan sail to head first to a monument nicknamed Punch Bowl. It is a large monument set up on a hill side that pays tribute to All fallen service men and women. On the walls there were large murals of all the war strategies and events as they transpired. It was very humbling to see all the names and to take in the views.

Looking up the Memorial.

Close up of the main focal point of the Memorial.

Looking down from the top of the Memorial.

Next we drove all over Honolulu looking for some damn Hawaiian BBQ place that was closed once we got there. Holy crap I was so hungry and honery by the time we got to a place that was open I thought I would scream! Of course I couldn't pronounce anything on the dang menu, so I asked for the combo.....hmmm....this is what I ended up with! It consisted of salt, salty, and ungodly amounts of salt!!!!

Hmmm........not so delicious!

Next, we headed over to Hanauma Bay for some beach time. It is a bay that is believed to have been created by a Volcano, which eventually eroded into an opening to the sea. Today, it is full of sea life and an active reef in fairly shallow waters. There are hundreds of varieties of fish as well as endangered Sea turtles seen regularly in the Bay. Nate, Ben, Maile, and I all snorkeled. It was my first time snorkeling, and it was so much fun. I saw some incredible fish, and I'm really ready to go get scuba certified now so that I can go into deeper waters to explore!

Headed out for the first time!

Mom and Dad coming to get in on the mix.

Here's a view of the bay from the shoreline.

Looking over the whole bay. Notice the flip flops?!! Another successful day of no shoes!

The last thing we did today was stop at a place called the Blow Hole. It is a hole in the rock, that when the waves crash into the rocks, it forces water up through the rock and it blows out like a whales blow hole! It was really pretty, as were the surrounding beaches! I know, I know....Shocker!!

Water shooting out...thus the name!

I want this as my backyard!

All this running around wore padre right out! Gotta love that gaping mouth! Another successful day in the Hawaiian islands!!

Christmas on the Beach!

I am a firm believer that every Christmas should be spent on a tropical Island!! This morning I woke up to Quinn screaming at all the toys Santa had left he and Cannon! It was so much fun to re-live Christmas through the kids. I had almost forgotten how much fun it was to lay awake at night just wishing the hours would pass. I would roll over and look at the clock every 5 minutes wondering if it were time to get up yet. I would force myself to not look at the clock for what seemed to be hours, only to roll over again and realize that only 15 minutes had passed! That was sooo much fun! Well, we were able to make it through only the first few presents before I opened one from Maile that stole Quinn's attention for about 10 minutes. It was a Whoopee Cushion! He and I made sure that we tricked every person in the room before opening presents could resume. I got quite a kick out of this present as you can see by this picture!

When that was all over, present opening resumed, and I think we all made out like bandits! Later today I promised Quinn we would go swimming. Maile, Nate, Quinn, Cannon, Ben, and I all headed out to the beach and had some fun for a few hours.

Boogie Boarding on Christmas......yeah baby, yeah!!

This was the view looking down the beach from where we were sitting.....sooooo dreamy!!

So I saw Nate catch a good size wave as these girls were walking up the beach...I could see it all taking shape and I got all giddy!..Just as his firm physique came scooting up the sand on the boogie board, these girls had to all but jump out of his way before he took them out at the feet! The greatest thing is the non-chalant look on his face...and his cool tone as he said "Hey there....how ya doin??"!!! I was laughing sooo freaking hard. Gotta love an Oram family vacation!

Another sucessful day of no shoes!

Quinn shaking his little booty in taunt to the waves!

Maile and Cannon were there to either cheer us on or laugh at us, i'm still not sure which!

I'm laughing cause Ben has no idea i just pee'd.......wait a minute...maybe he did too....hmmm...thats freakin sick!

Another beach we stopped at. I love this place. Nate and I decided that we could definitely quit our jobs and move here. We decided we could live on coconuts and wild chickens!...we have now coined the phrase "its coconut and chicken baby"!!

Christmas Eve at the Polynesian Cultural Center

Tonight the fam went to the Polynesian Cultural Center to watch some quality entertainment before we came back for dinner and to wait for Santa Claus!! Okay, I have to admit, I was a little pecimistic when we sat down and started to listen to the first group......come on now..just look at this...

This is either proof that old ladies wearing moo-moo's like guitar hero too, or it could possibly be the bass player for the first act we saw tonight!! The best part is, when she wasn't jamin on the bass, she was up front hula dancing for us!! I thought I was going to die I was laughing so hard at this!!

Even Cannon was so bored he was drooling all over himself!

The final group however was wonderful to listen to, and they sang some great songs. They did sing a version of my favorite Christmas song "O Holy Night", and made up for the humor of the previous group. It was actually a lot of fun, and I'm excited for this upcoming Friday when we will go back to the PCC to see all the shows.