The Last of Hawaii and a Winner!

Whoops, where did last week go?  I took a hiatus.  My to do list was 2 miles long.  I'm proud to say that I cleaned our entire 3 car garage, and our office is starting to look more like an office and less like a room with a desk buried beneath stuff.  ;)

Somewhere along the way I left out that we went to a fun sailing/snorkeling adventure.  Check our their website for gorgeous slideshows.  Now sure how I forgot it, but it might have something to do with my husband accidentally losing our waterproof camera in the ocean.  Oops.  It was a lot of fun, though!  We saw lots of fish, spinner dolphins and a huge turtle that swam right by us!  If you ever have a chance to go snorkeling, I highly recommend it!

On our last day (Valentine's day) we drove up the North Shore of Hawaii which is more like what people think of when they think of Hawaii.  No more busy Waikiki, just open ocean and gorgeous green everywhere.








I got slightly bored on the 30 minute drive.




We spent the morning playing at the beach for a while and buying shrimp from a truck popular with the locals.  Unfortunately, I found the shrimp to be a little tough and dry.


However, while we were browsing some tourist stands, we ran into a girl who had served an LDS mission in Texas the same time as Jeremy-- over 10 years ago!  Small world!




We also visited the LDS visitor center and temple.


I couldn't get over the hibiscus flowers everywhere!

The rest of our day was spent at the Polynesian Cultural Center.  If you do one thing in Ohau, I'd recommend this.  It is well worth the money and supports college students from the Polynesian islands by giving them job to work at the center.

There was SO much to see.  I felt like we saw maybe half.  It was really cool.


We took a canoe tour around the park.


Here is our canoe.  We sat at the front, woohoo!


Here is our tour guide-- from Fiji.

Then we watched a show on the water representing each of the Polynesian islands:


Hawaii


New Zealand--Aotearoa in the native language (the only Polynesian island with 4 seasons)


Samoa (the two guys on the back pushed each other into the water-- I don't think that was part of the show!)


Fiji


Tonga


Tahiti


Easter Island (Rapa Nui)


Saw a super cool palm tree.


We watched a Tongan comedian.  He did this cool trick to get the coconut water out of the coconut by smashing it in a bunch of long grass and then wringing out the grass.


Ate the largest snow cone ever.

Then it was time for the LUAU.


Roasted pig.


Royal Family


Large pina colada smoothie.


Tiny dancers.




More dancers.


Feed me!  Purple potatoes, fish, roasted pig, salad, chicken rice noodles, pineapple, potato salad, sweet potato and kale. Heaven!


Finale!

Goodbye Hawaii. :(

Okaaay, time to announce the winner!  I was SO excited because 1) I just figured out how to "print screen" on my mac and 2) It was finally time to pick one lucky winner!

**drumroll please**





Jess!! from A Taste of Confidence

Please email your mailing address to meg(dot)bailey(at)rocketmail(dot)com.  Congrats girl!

Don't worry, I have some more fun giveaways coming up soon! :)