Travel Diary

Saturday, we did visit the beach in the morning. The lagoons were divine and there was a nice breakpoint that kept the waters calm. I had bought and brought snorkeling gear so I could swim around and see some fish. One thing of note was just how strong the riptides were when you got near the breakpoint. It took a fair amount of kicking to avoid being pulled out into the open ocean, and that was with the fins on. I was careful to not get dragged out to sea.

Alas, time was limited and we soon checked out of the hotel, since it was just for one night. Then we drove around the island (clockwise) to get to the north side where we went to a luau. An odd thing was they didn't serve beer in the buffet area which was peculiar because I remember getting drinks at the luau about five years prior when in Kauai. Granted, they were highly watered down drinks, but in quantity, they did the trick.

This place also didn't have any caffeinated drinks, which again was a little strange. We attended the luau, and it was entertaining, although the women were dressed a lot more conservatively than from the last luau. Yeah, eventually, it dawned on me that we were at the Polynesian cultural center, which was owned and run by Mormons, and so, yeah, their beliefs were certainly evident there. In fact, during the intermission, there was a speech about their religion given by a few people; however, it wasn't very pushy and they were very nice, and it didn't last very long – so I guess didn't mind. Granted, I don't think I would've wanted to go to this particular luau if I knew all the rules ahead of time, but they were entertaining enough. And I just missed the drinks mainly.

But we stayed for the second act and again it's very fun and festive and the fire twirling is really cool so there were some neat things about. It just didn't seem like the women were dressed as they would've been dressed on a hot tropical island way back in the day.

Although it is odd that I would say hot because that night, it had been raining terribly and we were in ponchos to stay dry, and it was freezing cold (according to my tolerance). While it doesn't usually ever snow on that island, it does still get uncomfortably cold (when you are wet at least).

Afterwards we drove over to Honolulu where I had rented another hotel for the night. This one wasn't as fancy, and it was a little farther away from the water, but it was still serviceable.

We went into the market that was outdoors. I guess you would call that an “outdoor market” and found some fun things to buy. I got some macadamia nut chocolates, and Marie got some souvenirs. We then got some food and crashed for the night.