Two Visitors Equals Two Weeks of Fun in Hawaii

Well, this entry's from Brant. It's been quite the last couple of weeks! We've had two great guests (Danille--my sister, and Suzanne--one of Marcie's mission companions) and as a result we've done a lot of fun things. So, bear with the multitude of pictures found below, but hopefully it'll give you a taste for what we've been up to.

One day while I was studying for the tax section of the CPA Exam (took it on the 24th!), Marcie and Danille went to Waimea Valley. It's an area right by the beach that has a huge botanical garden and, as you can see below, a beautiful waterfall. Danille and Marcie got out and waded a bit and they had a great time.

On Thursday, the day before Danille flew back to the mainland, we went to the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center) for the day. The PCC has six villages for six of the largest islands in the south pacific region (Hawaii, Tahiti, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, Aotearoa a.k.a. New Zealand). Each village puts on different presentations, dances, etc. to teach a little about the island's culture and history. The palm tree climber below was from Samoa.
At 2:30 each day, each island has a float in the river at the complex and performs some of its dances. Here below is Samoa and in the next picture is Spencer doing his best to impersonate the Samoan men!

Here's a little picture of the family in front of an area that talks about Easter Island.

When we were walking out at the end of the evening, we saw this statue and I simply couldn't resist the picture. All in all, the trip to the PCC was a great experience and we had lots of fun!

We had to go to the beach at least one more time before Danille left, so we quickly walked over to Hukilau beach the morning of her flight. We got some great pictures and had a great time. We were very glad she was able to come and spend so much time with us!

Our next visitor was Suzanne, one of Marcie's mission companions. Marcie was just chatting with Suzanne on the phone on Monday and told her Suzanne should come visit us because we have an extra room. An hour later, Suzanne calls back and said she had bought tickets to fly out the next morning and her bags were already packed! This last Wednesday, the four of us piled in our truck and we drove down to Pearl Harbor. It was a very somber experience but one that we just couldn't pass up.

Marcie, Spencer and me in front of the U.S.S. Bowfin, a submarine. The sub was commissioned exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor and was called "The Revenge of Pearl Harbor." Miraculously, it went on nine patrols, had tremendous success and did not lose a single submariner in combat!

The most memorable part of the trip was visiting the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. When the Japanese attacked, a high-level bomber dropped an armor-piercing bomb straight through the heart of the Arizona, a massive battleship. The bomb went through several decks before exploding in the Arizona's weapon storage. The combined power of the Japanese bomb along with the explosion of all the Arizona's bombs was so powerful that the Arizona sunk incredibly fast and to this day, over 1,100 sailors are still entombed in the Arizona. It was a very humbling experience that helped us be more grateful for those who are brave enough to defend out country in the armed forces.

Below are pictures of the memorial itself; a part of the Arizona still visible through the water; the plaque dedicated to its sailors; another picture of the memorial; and a picture of the flag visible through the open ceiling of the memorial.

On a lighter note, this was a bench just outside the museum at Pearl Habor. Just in case it's too small for you to see, the sign reads "This bench is for authorized personnel only." Apparently they take everything seriously in the military, even the benches :)

Another fun part of the trip to Pearl Harbor was visiting the Battleship Missouri. It was the last Battleship built (1944), took part in the end of the war in the Pacific as well as the Korean war and then was recommissioned to help with the first Gulf War in the early 90's. The battleship was HUGE! It's the type of thing that makes every grown man turn back into a 10 year old boy :)

To put the size in perspective, the barrels to these "guns" handle shells that are 16 inches in diameter and can fire them 23 miles!

The Missouri is where the Japanese signed their official surrender in Tokyo bay. Below is the signature of the Japanese leaders, along with all major Allied countries and General MacArthur.

Suzanne left early yesterday morning and after a brief nap, we went snorkeling with another faculty member and his family. We went to Shark's Cove, but thankfully the Cove was void of any unfriendly creatures. The water was perfect and Marcie said it was one of the coolest thing she had ever done, and I agree--it was a lot of fun. We saw lots of schools of fish and some beautiful coral. Thanks, Nemrow family!

Slack Key Guitar Festival

Danille (Brant's sister who's visiting us) needed to do some additional research for a presentation she's giving, so we went with her down to Honolulu to a slack key guitar festival. It was awesome! It was in this huge park right across the street from Waikiki. We sat in our beach chairs for several hours listening to some of the best guitar playing I had ever heard...in perfect weather...right across from Waikiki. Let me tell you, it was ROUGH :) After the festival was over, Brant wanted to go walk on the beach for a few minutes. He was finding these cool pieces of coral in the shallows...but got distracted and was then soaked by a huge wave. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, but we weren't wearing our swimsuits so it made for a wet ride home for Brant.

A few pictures of the festival in the park.

Danille enjoying the music.

Spencer and Brant taking a nap to the relaxing music.

There are these awesome trees all over the place. They are HUGE and in order to support the weight of these massive branches that just grow outwards like a huge umbrella, the tree grows these vines down towards the ground. Eventually, the vine is long enough to touch the ground and then grows INTO the ground and acts as another trunk to support the branch. It's amazing to see and, before the vines turn into trunks, REALLY fun to play on.

The Latest Adventures from Hawaii

Well, it's been a few weeks since our last blog entry--things have been busy. Brant is three weeks into teaching his class at BYU-Hawaii and he is loving it! I think the fact that he himself was a student only a few months ago (there are actually several in his class who are OLDER than he is!) really helps him connect with his students. It's been a great experience so far. Unfortunately...it also means that he has to work and has been gone more. His time spent teaching combined with studying for the CPA Exam means there have been fewer adventures...fewer, but still plenty.

Spencer's new favorite game: "Neigh!" Whenever we're sitting on the couch, Spencer will try to squeeze his way behind us on the couch, put his hands on our shoulders and yell "neigh!" After that, it's our job to run around the house and play horsey. He just laughs and laughs...we love it.

Spencer's other favorite activity in the house is to pretend to boogie board in the living room. We'll play the song "Wipeout" on the computer, then he stands on the board, pretends to surf and then randomly falls to the ground and pretends he "wiped out." I think he learned it from watching Brant boogie board at the beach. It's adorable.

Spencer still doesn't like the feeling of sand on his feet, but he does just great with shoes on. This was one of our frequent trips to Hukilau beach, just down the street.

We were at the grocery store last Saturday (creatively called "Foodland") and while we were checking out, the lady asked us "So, are you ready for Monday?" We didn't have any idea what she was talking about--had we not been invited to something? So, we asked her what she meant, to which she replied "well, there's a hurricane coming and it's supposed to hit us hard on Monday." I guess that's what you get when you don't have a TV and don't know anything about local news. So, as I got worried...Brant actually got really excited! He said he had always wanted to take pictures firsthand of the wind blowing over the palm trees like you see on the Weather Channel...(Un)fortunately, by the time Hurricane Felicia hit us, she had been downgraded to a tropical depression (just a little more than a normal thunderstorm) and there wasn't much to speak of. BUT, here are some fun pictures of our adventure with the tropical storm formerly known as Hurricane Felicia.

Brant made me put this one on here...the wind wasn't really blowing all that hard at all, we just thought it'd be funny.

It's odd; the national weather service had predicted 15 foot waves at our little beach here and yet...here was this little family boogie boarding while 30 mph winds buffeted the beach. I guess they were on vacation and didn't want to "waste" their time here.

One of Brant's students is a performer at the Polynesian Cultural Center here in Laie and got us free tickets! It was so fun. Our favorite part of the trip was this canoe ride around the complex to look at all these villages representing different islands from Polynesia. Our canoe pilots were hilarious and we included a picture of one of them below. Later that night, we were supposed to go to the new night show at the PCC called Breath of Life. It's a 90 minute production where all of the different islands showcase their historical dances--from the haka to fire dances! Brant was feeling sick, so he stayed home with Spencer and I went--can't pass up front row, free tickets, right? :) It was AMAZING. We're going to go again this week, we hope.

Finally, our latest adventure. After trying to convince our family to come visit us, we finally got word that one member of our family, Brant's sister, Danille, is coming for a week! She got here last night and we've got lots of fun activities planned, so we're excited. Today we drove to the swap meet again in Honolulu and picked up some more fun touristy things for ridiculously low prices. After that, we drove to Haleiwa, one of the world's top surfing towns, here on the North Shore of Oahu. It was a very fun little town and we had lunch at a great Thai restaurant. After we had our fill, we drove over to Laniakea Beach where we got to see some sea turtles! It was an amazing experience to see this HUGE sea turtle--225 pounds--come ashore.