Exploring the North Shore

We stayed on the North Shore on Oahu at Turtle Bay. Almost every day we walked to a secluded beach and made some awesome discoveries!

 Tim's coconut. We worked like crazy to crack it open. Apparently it is an artform getting those coconuts open.

 Our semi-private beach. :)

 

 "Holding to the rod" on one of our daily walks to the beach.

 My mom striking a pose.

 My dad walking on the coral near the resort.

 On our walk to the beach we were able to see the Banyan tree from the show Lost. The area is beautiful and a lot of the show was filmed in the area.

Hangin' out in the Banyan tree.



 Along the beach at our resort. Tim thought he would try out crab.

 

 This turtle was on the secluded beach a couple of the mornings. It was a major highlight!

 

Turtle Beach...those cute big turtles!

 Grandpa helping Tim get his courage up as a turtle nears.

 A deep sea turtle is swimming nearby. Grandpa missed the sign and pets one (which is against the rules). Once and a lifetime experience though, right?

 

A Family Favorite

One of the highlights of Hawaii for all of us was the Polynesian Cultural Center. Here was a canoe ride that we took later in the day. The guy that led Ryan and I's canoe said that 90% of the people who work at the PCC are students at BYU-Hawaii. Don't quote him on that, he was guessing.

 

 Mary at the luau. We got our own leis. I think this might have been my first "real" lei and real luau. Even with this being my third time to Hawaii. It was a highlight for me too.

 Dad and Mom

 Notice Luke's kikui nut bracelet he made.

 Mary was buying a drink from these guys and Ryan asked for a picture. Luke then ran up and grabbed himself a drink to pose for the picture and had everyone in sight laughing.

 This is the canoe parade with each of the islands represented.

 One of our favorite islands to visit was Samoa. The guy who leads the show is really funny. And this is the guy that climbed the coconut tree to grab a coconut for him.

 Here he is climbing from a distance.

 At the entrance to PCC.

 Waiting for food.

Luke caught up on sleep for a few minutes.

 

Another favorite island to visit was Tonga where they had the drum show. We also stayed for the evening performance and we were in awe of the firedancing. That was the crowd pleaser for the night. Unfortunately, no pictures are allowed in there.

It's all in the attitude

From the beginning Mary was pretty determined to let us know that this hike was going to be rough on her. Then Grandpa took over, her attitude shifted and she was up the steep hike in no time without complaints. She still tells us that she thinks the tunnel on the hike was soooo cool! This often happens with Mary and hiking. Once she decides that she is up to the task things are much happier!

Here we are hiking to the top of Diamond Head Crater near Honolulu. If anyone is interested in specific details on the crater, find them here: http://www.hawaiistateparks.org/parks/oahu/Index.cfm?park_id=15.

Here are a few pictures:

 The surroundings aren't much to jump up and down about in the beginning. This is a drier part of the island.

 Dry shot

 Beautiful shot. :)

 We made it!

 

Hanging out at Ko 'Olina and Tim's new Love

Let's see if it becomes apparent what Tim's new love is. Here we are at Ko 'Olina beach on the opposite side of the island from where we were staying. It is a beautiful beach with a nice little area for snorkeling (right at our resort, Turtle Bay, also had amazing snorkeling)

 Tim and Ryan trying out snorkeling.

 Tim still trying it out.

 Tim still going . . .

 Smiling after checking out the fish.

 Tim just kept going and going. He loved it. If he had gone out a little further by the reef he would have seen even more fish. But he was happy with the ones he was seeing. Mostly clear fish with black eyes. By the reef there were more colorful fish of all sorts.

 Burying Grandma. She and Grandpa were the first to show us how snorkeling was done.

A bit bright and sunny!