It was a really full day for us today. It's nearing midnight in Hawaii, so my eastern time zone friends are nearing morning. Time adjusting is hard. Time adjusting back is going to be a doozie.
Anyway, we started our day at the Kualoa Ranch.
A couple of activities are included in our Go-Oahu cards, but you can only do one per day. Unfortunately, the horseback riding isn't on them. But you can pet the horses as you wait for your activity to start. (Mom says we might ride horses if we can fit it in though, YES please!)
We had to wait for a bus for our scheduled activity, but they had a cute little waiting area with some Hawaiian items in it, and a wall of fame for everyone who has been at the ranch. (This is where Jurrasic Park/World was filmed, and a bunch of 'Lost', plus Michelle Obama was even on the wall of fame- because, you know, Oahu!)
Our activity though was called the 'Secret Beach', we boarded a bus, which took us to the funniest little boat I've ever seen, which took us across the way and to an island. (It wasn't very far, it reminded me a bit of Tom Sawyers Island at Disney, just across the way).
In any case, once we were on the island, anything we wanted to do was ours to take part in. First we hopped on the glass bottom boat, which took us out to a couple reefs where sea turtles like to hang out.
Again, we didn't go too far out (the whole ride was about half hour round trip), but that was fine for me and my sea sickness. (I thought Calib sticking his feet off the boat was fun, so I snapped a picture).
We did see about six or seven sea turtles in all. But those suckers are hard to photograph. Asa did better on his phone, so maybe I'll post those later. But, seeing them in person, in the wild, was pretty cool. They were huge, and not so much a fan of the boat, it seemed. But the captain would stop when they were around, and a couple of them swam right past us.
Back on the beach, there were plenty of places to swim and play in the sand.
But while Hayden did that, the rest of us took turns going out on the kayaks. I'd never done kayaking in the open ocean before, and I thought I would have more trouble, but once I got away from the shore, I did fine. Calib, Peyton, and mom all did well too- not too much of a struggle for any of us. (Of course Asa also kayaked, but he's a pro at that sort of thing, I knew he'd be fine!)
There were also plenty of land activities. There was beach volleyball.
And a rope swing.
There was also ping pong, corn hole, and checkers for those so inclined.
Even the island away from the beach was pretty cool, with all the weird trees and paths.
There were also paddle boards available for use. But Asa and Peyton were the only ones who wanted to try them out.
They both did pretty well. Asa stood up quite a bit (but for the record, I also saw him fall in no less than three times), and Peyton mostly stayed on his knees. He did stand up once, and I thought I snapped a picture, but I didn't notice it when I was going through them tonight.
After a couple hours, the boat took us back to the bus which took us back to the ranch. It was such a fun morning though! Having all of that included in the Go-Card was pretty great.
We headed back to the condo for the dip in the pool and lunch.
After lunch we turned back around to backtrack about 10 minutes and go to the Polynesian Cultural Center. I missed this one last time around, and I was sorry I did- so I had really hyped this place up in my mind, and it didn't disappoint.
Think of the Polynesian Cultural Center as a 'World Showcase' of Polynesian countries. There are presentations and demonstrations and all kinds of interactive activities at each of the 'countries'. I'll talk a bit more in depth about them when I do the country blogs (because I'd like to have that all together, and because Asa seems a little annoyed at my typing so late!)
But, our first stop was in Samoa- where we saw them opening coconuts, and then we got to take part in a couple Samoan games.
The coconut game was a bit like shuffleboard. Calib beat Hayden, Peyton beat Asa-
--and mom smoked me.
Back out on the main stretch, they have a parade once a day of boats each representing the different countries with different dancers from each of them performing on the boats. There's a band performing on a little island, and an announcer to let you know what's going on, and what place is being represented.
Asa and Hayden though, figured out that the fish food that you could get out of the little machines for 50 cents was also very enticing to the birds, and they ate right out of their hands.
Our next stop was Aotearoa, or as we all know it, New Zealand.
There we were taught some new games, took part in a dance/music number, and spun some bags around in the air.
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Up next was Fiji.
We were there for presentations, so we had a lesson with a Fiji native, and we also got to 'play' some musical instruments. (Though not with our nose- their preferred form of playing a flute).
Hayden, Asa, and Calib all got tattoos in Fiji too.
Over in Tahiti, we got to throw spears.
For those of you wondering, they were just sharpened sticks, nothing too dangerous.
Mom took some dancing lessons, too. And then it was the boys turns. (In case you're wondering why Peyton and I aren't here- we just don't deal well with that sort of thing, and politely decline in such circumstances. But I'm always happy to take pictures!)
At the other end of Tahiti, we had a more challenging spear throwing. Here you were supposed to spear the coconuts on top of bamboo. Some of us were close, but none of us got it.
Hawaii also has it's own section.
There we got to play some games, and had a lesson in taro. They boil it, and pound it down- add some water and call it poi. (In case you're wondering, it's not awesome).
Iosepa taught us about various sailing knots.
And then we hopped on a canoe tour, that gave us an overview of each country, complete with our tour guide who was from Samoa.
I didn't take a picture of our canoes- but they looked like those.
We did have to backtrack a bit to make it to Tonga.
But we did get to fold some palms into little decorative fish that slide on a wood stick.
Cort, Holly, Gwen and Garrett were supposed to arrive in time for the early dinner, but they too had plane delays. No worries, we changed to the later dinner, and they made it just in time. (I hear they changed clothes at the rental car place- that's how close it was!) But, they did have time to do some spear throwing and get Garrett some of the tattoos.
Then we were off to the luau, complete with leis.
I'll share more about dinner in my country blogs, but there was a buffet- with some totally normal food items, and some totally new and unique food items. There was also a pig, but I couldn't bring myself to go take a picture of it. Cort did, and I'll snag it for when I do the other blog so you can see. But, in the mean time, you can enjoy a picture of Gwen and me. (It's what we thought of the Poi and the Poke- but we did try it!)
Dinner entertainment was fun! We had dancing and fire, what more can you ask for?
They also invited all the June birthdays up on stage for some dancing, so off went Calib and Holly. (Cort has video of this event, you just have to see to believe). Peyton was like 'I'm so glad it isn't a day later', as going up there and dancing is not something he's about to do. I said not to worry, we wouldn't have made him go- and honestly, I wouldn't have made Calib either. He protested a little, we egged him on, and up he and Holly went.
After the luau it was a short trip to another show called 'Ha: Breath of Life'.
You couldn't take pictures during it- but it basically takes you through the life of a tribal chief and deals with the whole 'circle of life' through dances and such. All that was neat, but the coolest was the guys who walked (and sat!) on fire in grass skirts, and the guys who twirled fire standing on top of each other.
So, that was it for today. We did have to finish that pineapple wine, too. That can't go to waste. We're exhausted, and ready for a less-full day tomorrow.
Because Next Up is 'Get on the Cruise Ship' Day! We'll maybe do something in the morning, before boarding around lunch time.
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