Hawaii: Part 1

Next Monday (August 26, 2013) I am starting classes for my PhD in applied mathematics. School=busy=no-time-to-write-blog. Which means in the next four days I am going to be crazily trying to catch up on recording the last year and a half of my life. Here goes nothing!!

I think where I left off was the Kennedy family trip to Hawaii last March (meaning March of 2012). Since everyone else in the family had the same week off for spring break except me, we decided to go March 10-17, which meant I had to skip a week of school to go to Hawaii. It was hard to catch up but TOTALLY worth it. 

We started off the trip strong and in full anticipation of family bonding time by playing games in the airport during our layover in Los Angeles. 

I think this was Uno. We fluctuated between that and playing scum.

We landed late Saturday night (March 10), then in the morning were able to attend church at a nearby ward. When we got back to the beach house Caro and Rachel played some hymns on their ukeleles and I remember that being a lot of fun. I sure miss those girls!

After church we got our first taste of the beach by walking along the seashore and checking out the Sunday afternoon surf.

A little cloudy, but still a ton of fun.

Then we got the classic Matsumoto Shave (NOT shaved, apparently) Ice and on our way home stopped by a local fruit stand to try out some exotic stuff. I know we got some weird fruit, but what I remember most was the sugar cane. Andrew was quite insistent that we all brush our teeth when we got home...haha. Love that boy.

Apparently swimming is breaking the Sabbath but buying Shave Ice isn't...oh well. We do what we can. 

Sugar cane!

I honestly don't remember the name of this place, but we also stopped at an amazing jetty where we could really see the waves pounding against the rocks. Of course being ourselves, the siblings all took the opportunity to have a little photo shoot. We aren't posed as well in this one but it was pretty fun.

And OF COURSE, a little scum back home. My fave. Seriously tho I love that game.

On Monday we got to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial, which was quite moving. At that time Andrew was considering going the military route for dental school, so I found it especially poignant while considering the sacrifices many wives, sisters, daughters, and mothers made during that time and today.

Memorial over the remnants of the USS Arizona.

After leaving Pearl Harbor, we did some more sightseeing around Honolulu and saw the palace of the queen of Hawaii. That night we went to dinner at Hard Rock Cafe (Andrew and I suggested going to Costco, but were overruled).

din-din.

All the girls!

The next day (Tuesday) we started the morning out visiting the BYU-Hawaii campus. 

 Right next door was the Laie Hawaii Temple. The temple was beautiful and being able to worship together there was honestly a wonderful experience as a family. That is the last time our family will be in the temple all together until probably the summer of 2015, so I consider it a really special experience.

Families are forever.

The rest of the day we spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center, which is seriously like the Disneyland of Polynesia. There were boat rides, little villages to explore, a parade on the river, cultural events like dancing, singing, cooking, sewing, art, etc. to both watch and participate in, you name it. It was incredible! Seriously so much fun.

Boat ride on the river that runs through the PCC.

The parade!

Climbing coconut trees.

We ended out the evening with a luau (including a roasted pig with an apple in its mouth) and an amazing show of song and dance that took you through the different traditions of each of the places highlighted in the PCC. 

Kalua pig that had been roasting in the ground for hours.

Aloha!

We were exhausted by the end of the day, but we absolutely loved it. Highly recommended to anyone visiting Oahu. Okay, this is already getting ricidulously long, and that is only half of the week, so I will put the rest of the pictures in the next one. 

Hawaii: Part 2

To continue...we got back from the PCC way tired, but really happy. The next morning, Wednesday, the family wanted to do different things so we split up. Rachel and I think Matthew and Mom went shopping at a flea market, Caroline, Andrew and Dad and I went on a hike, and Daniel and Leah went back to the PCC. 

What's a trip to Hawaii without a little shopping?

On our hike we saw a BUNCH of different terrain the higher up we went, and at the top of the mountain had an incredible vista view. Honestly I would take hiking over shopping any day. I think Andrew lucked out on that one :) 

Caroline had a thing smelling flowers the whole trip. Idk...

When everyone grouped up again, we went to the beach a few feet away from where we were staying and wandered out to a little island that was in wading distance. I also tried snorkeling for the first time which wasn't too hard surprisingly!

Those were the major events for the day...I think some more games and sightseeing was involved. But I'm going off of what I have pictures of.

On Thursday we started off super early with the traditional Diamond Head Hike, which was basically hiking to the rim of a very massive and inactive volcano. It was pretty touristy, but hey, that's because it was pretty sweet. There were some WWII bunkers at the top as well which were cool to see. 

Honolulu in the background.

And later that afternoon we went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. We got pineapple whip (delish) and I also convinced some of the siblings to do a maze through a pineapple grove with me. Did you know that it can take anywhere from 2-3 years for a pineapple to fully form? Crazy. 

Which brings me to Friday...our last day in Hawaii...in the morning we saw some of the sights that hadn't been checked off our list yet. My favorite was probably a buddhist temple which I now do not remember the name of. But they had a huge gong that you could ring for good luck, which we all did.

There was also a Japanese rock garden and overall the temple just had an incredibly sweet and peaceful feel which I truly enjoyed.

The last thing we did in Hawaii per Rachel's request was to visit Turtle Beach. We were all skeptical of there actually being sea turtles, but we walked a ways around to a little alcove and found a TON of them--like 19 or 20. It was kind of freaky, but mostly just awesome. 

We also snorkeled with some sea turtles back at the main part of Turtle Beach. 

And of course, Caroline got her shrimp. She had been talking about it all week and we stopped by the famous Giovanni shrimp truck on our way home before we had to get packing.

And....that is it!! We flew back to Utah the next day. The trip was a blast. I had a great time checking out the sights and getting to spend time with the Kennedys all together. This was our last big hurrah as a family before Caroline left on a mission to Hungary last summer, and it was a great way to be together having fun and seeing amazing things that you don't get anywhere else. Thanks to everyone (mainly Ken and Nancy) who made it happen!