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After looking again at our schedule, and realizing how much time (and money) we were going to spend trying to ride shuttles and trolleys... while still needing to rent a car at least a couple more days, we decided it would be cheaper (and WAY more convenient) to just bite the bullet and rent a car now for the week. We got a better deal online than from the hotel travel desk, which means we had to get back to the airport to pick up the car. We were racing against the clock, since we had already arranged for (and PAID for) the shuttle van to come pick us up and take us out to the Polynesian Cultural Center for the day. It was scheduled to pick us up at the hotel at 10:10...
The hotel called a shuttle to take us over to the airport. We had been told by several people that the best place to buy souvenirs is at the Swap Meet, held every Wed, Sat., and Sun at the Aloha Stadium. For all of you planning trips to Hawaii in the future... here is my TIP: Plan to go to Pearl Harbor on a Wed, Sat, or Sun... since the stadium is right by to Pearl Harbor. We were pretty busy on Saturday, and I didn't want to go "shopping" on Sunday, so this was pretty much "it" if we were going to go. We picked up our rental car and raced over to the stadium (only about 2 miles from the airport). We figured it would take us 30 - 35 minutes to get back to the hotel, so we had only 20 minutes to do all of our shopping! Luckily I don't like to shop, so I didn't really feel bad about not having lots of shopping time, I just hated feeling rushed. All I can say is:
"See Tim and Jeri."
"See Tim and Jeri RUN!"
We found some great gifts for reasonable prices, then drove as fast as we dared to get back to the hotel.
We made it just in time. (a few minutes late actually, but the shuttle had just gotten there and started looking for us - so it was all good!) We weren't too worried, knowing that if we missed it, we now had a car and could just drive ourselves out, but I was glad we rode the shuttle. One reason is that the driver was able to tell us tons of cool information as we drove. We learned lots of interesting things about the island's history and plants (like the army parking their planes underneath the HUGE canopies of the Monkey Pod trees so they weren't visible from the air), and as we drove past different locations he would tell us what movies had been filmed there (Karate Kid 2, Fantasy Island, The Crouching Lion from Elvis's movie Blue Hawaii, and Jurassic Park... just to name a few), PLUS we didn't have to pay for the gas. (Gas on Oahu while we were there was in the $3.50/gal range - it adds up REALLY fast!)
We arrived at the PCC just before noon.
We had a GREAT time. We learned some dances, weaved fish from coconut leaves, ate dinner at the Luau (where I accidentally took a bite of raw fish...eewwww!) and saw many of the shows and demonstrations presented by the different villages.
Here we are seeing how to make Tahitian Coconut Bread. (and we got to taste it too)
Learning a hula dance in "Hawaii"
This is the Iosepa, the voyaging Canoe named after Joseph F. Smith (pronouced "yo-sepa")
visiting the "Easter Islands" (photo with what some tour guides lovingly call the Jackson 5)
The 6 islands represented at the P.C.C. are:
TONGA,
My favorite shows were the ones from Tonga, (the drum show) and the one from Samoa (the guy was SO hilarious!!!)
After the luau and watching the IMAX movie (the last 1/2 of it anyway), we went to the evening show - "Ha' breath of Life." It was really amazing! this last picture is the closing scene/pose from the show. We were right in the center on the 2nd row, so you can't quite see the whole stage in the picture... but they were AWESOME seats!
Another reason we were glad that we didn't drive out, is because it was pretty late when the show got out, and that, combined with all the walking and sun that day... we were tired on the way home. (I dozed off and on all the way back) We got back to hotel just after 11pm. I'm pretty sure I was asleep before Tim even finished brushing his teeth.
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