Hawaii 4

Traffic was crazy on H-1. It didn't matter what time of day you were on the freeway, it was always crowded!

More traffic on H-1. You had to take this highway to get out of Waikiki so you had to put up with this each day. Some people who work in Waikiki drive this to and from work and they live on the other side of the island. They would tell us it can take up to 1 1/2 hours to get home. It is only 16 miles to get to the other side. Ugh.

Limos were used alot as taxis. We saw alot of them around Waikiki.

The fancy, expensive stores. No prices on the items. The only people I saw buying anything were the Orientals. Lots of tourists were from Japan, China or Korea.

Hawaii 3

Dole Plantation. A big ripoff. We took a little train ride and walked through a botanical garden. Not much there but we were able to see how pineapples grow.

Here is a pineapple plant. They grow right on the top.

A sea turtle that had been out of the water for about 30 minutes. They come up on the sand to warm themselves for a few hours and then swim back into the ocean. You can see where a tracking device use to be on her back. Now there is one on her side. A volunteer organization tracks about 20 of the turtles that come to this cove. This is Olivia.

We took a submarine ride and this is going out to the sub on a boat. You are looking back to shore and Diamond Head.

Of course we had to go when the temple was being refurbished. It is suppose to take about 18 months to complete the renovations. They are taking off the white paint and what you see is the volcanic ash that the temple was built with.

This is the view looking the opposite of the temple. The church owns the whole street down to the private park where you see the ocean. It is very pretty.

We took a catamaran ride out to see more whales. That is one out in the ocean. In the background is Waikiki and all the hotels. This was on the day we left and it had turned cold and very windy out on the ocean.

Here is what the catamaran looked liked. Even with rough seas, it rode very smoothly over the waves. You wouldn't have even known you were on a boat if you hadn't walked onto it.

Hawaii 2

The other side of the island wasn't as crowded and so green and beautiful! More like I was thinking Hawaii looked like. (you can click on pics to make bigger)

This is "our" beach. A block from our hotel.

One of the sunsets we saw while in Hawaii. So pretty.

Nightlife was crazy on the streets near our hotel. Lots of very fancy, expensive shops (Prada, Lousi Vutton, Kate Spade, 7 For all Mankind, etc) but then there were sidewalk entertainers that would do all sorts of things from break dancing to gymnastics to foot massages to painting to whatever you can imagine. We walked down here almost every night we were there.

We found it interesting that BYU-H had the same entrance "theme" as BYU has!

The parade of the boats at the Polynesian Cultural Center. All the islands had their own boat and did a dance for us.

Dad finally got a tattoo. This was at the PCC in the New Zealand area. He actually kept it on his leg for a couple of days. Not because he wanted to, but because he didn't know he had to scrub it to come off. LOL! Notice he's wearing shorts...he wore pants the first day and then played tourist after that with his shorts!

At the PCC, we went to a luau. This was the pig that was roasted for dinner. Yum!

Hawaii

No doors to the entrance of our hotel! Wakiki Resort Hotel.

Looking out on our balcony back towards the "city" side. It is very crowded in Wakiki (Honolulu). After awhile the crowds got to be too much. Maybe we are too Wyomingish now.

This is looking towards the USS Arizona memorial (the ship is still under there with over 900 men entombed inside) and the USS Missouri ship that was in 3 wars before is was retired to this site.

This is at the top of Diamond Head. We climbed up the crater from that little parking lot down in the center of the picture. It was tough but we met people who climb up and down 3-5 times for their exercise. Ugh. It was a spectacular view at the top and so worth the climb!

This was looking at Wakiki from the top of Diamond Head.

On our drive around the island, we stopped to see a blow hole and this pretty area of coastline.

That's a whale and it's baby out there playing in the water. Quite a fun site to see it jumping up out of the water!

More coastline. This was the first beach we came to after leaving Wakiki. The water really is that blue and the sand that white.