Hawaii Day 3

The second morning Andy and I went for a walk around Turtle Bay.  The hotel was under a total reconstruction but the bay was still accessible. 

This looks like a sunset but it is really a cloudy sunrise :)

Our first activity for the day was Waimea Valley...

You start with a beautiful hike through lovely botanical gardens (all paved trails)...

 And end at a waterfall that they let you swim in!

The older three kids and I all got in.

It was pretty cold until you got used to it.  It took my breath away.

Then, swimming over to the waterfall, I kept hurting my legs and feet on all the boulders :(

But it was totally worth it!

We loved it!

There was a woman there weaving these (don't know what to call them) and giving them away for free.

Andy made sure Abby and I both got one.

Once we were done in Waimea we had to stop in Haleiwa for a quick shave ice at Matsumoto's.

We had heard about the lines but we were able to walk right in and order.

Then we ran back to the condo for a quick lunch and change and made it over to the Polynesian Cultural Center only about an hour after it opened.

We felt rushed and could have used that extra hour to have seen everything but it was still a great experience!

It was pretty hot and the masks were stifling but we managed :)

We started off with the show at the island of Tonga...

then we moved on to Tahiti...

Fiji...

We had a few minutes before the Hawaii show so Abby stopped in at the Hula demonstration/class.

She was a pro :)

Then Hawaii where everyone (except Ben and I) worked on their hula skills...

And lastly, we made it to the island of New Zealand...

Matt and I played a particularly fun game of "don't take my picture" 

but after many failed attempts I was able to surprise him and get this one...

The haka is always a crowd pleaser :)

Because of COVID they had not yet started up the river show (again, I don't know what to call it) but we were able to go on a short ride down the river as a family.

We got done just in time for our buffet dinner...

After dinner we did some shopping around in all the little gift shops until it was time for the evening show.

It was really quite neat...especially the fire dancers!  Unreal!

(I wish they would have allowed pictures!)

Ben did get a little bit in the zone while we were watching but it was manageable.

Then we drove back to the condo.  Ben had kind of a hard time falling asleep because of his state but at least he didn't pull and all nighter like I was worried we would experience on our trip at some point.

*The PCC was very impressive!  Hight quality and authentic.  Abby's hula teacher has often told her girls they are good enough to work there but they have to have Polynesian blood to actually get hired so, not an option for Abby, although she says she would love it!

The day before we arrived in Hawaii they had finally opened up all the 

"islands"...if we had gone earlier in April like we had planned it would have been much more limited so I'm glad we went when we did.