Laie Temple, Mormons, and the Polynesian Cultural Center!!

VIDEO OF LAIE TEMPLE, MORMONS, AND THE POLYNESIAN CULTURAL CENTER HERE:

 http://youtu.be/HDxBGnPRD6A
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WOW! This place is full of activities for ALL AND ANY AGES! I recommend this place to anyone and everyone!! But let's back up a bit and start the story of our experience here!

So Friday-Saturday I worked grave shift again from 7pm-7am. Then stopped at home for a change of clothes and a light breakfast, only to head out again. We took the 8 bus to the Ala Moana Center (which is a major transfer point), got off, and got on the 55 bus towards Kaneohe/North Shore. That was the worst part...the bus ride. Long, lots of stops, and very uncomfortable (at least for someone who is trying to sleep because they just worked grave shift). They do have shuttle options that would have been more comfortable, no stops, and a little pricier, but since Brad and I have city bus passes that's what we opted for. For someone without a bus pass, it's $2.50 one way (just ask for a transfer ticket if you plan on transferring buses).

The Polynesian Cultural Center doesn't open until noon, and we got there around 10am. So we decided to walk to the Laie Mormon Temple. We kinda walked through the park to the back because that's where all the workers pointed us to. And yes, we are mormon! So this was really cool for us. (It has always been my favorite temple since I was a kid, so I finally got to see it in person!) There's a visitors center there for someone learning about the church, and lots of good picture spots!
Then we passed back through the BYU Hawaii campus, which out does BYU Idaho by far! So beautiful! (Plus it's nice to be able to walk around in flip flops! At BYU Idaho, that's not allowed for students).

So after that, we came back to the back of the park and tried to get through the gate we came out of originally to get to the temple...and they stopped us thinking we were trying to break into the park or something. We hadn't bought tickets yet so they were skeptical. We explained we were pointed this way earlier and we were going back in to get tickets, so they let us in. So honestly, we could have just walked in the park, basically breaking in, but we are good citizens and bought tickets.

TICKETS/PRICING.
This has been our most expensive activity in Hawaii so far, but it's TOTALLY worth it. We bought the tickets that included a full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center (necessary in my opinion), the island buffet dinner, and the HA Breath of Life Show (also necessary haha). Luckily, Brad has a co worker that hooked us up with a really good discount, but if you were to get our same package, it's about $150 for 2 adults. This package I would definitely recommend, as well as getting adding on a Luau. We didn't do that part, but I hear it was amazing. The package we got also includes a FREE tram tour to the temple, which we didn't know about so we wasted like an hour of walking that morning when we could have gone later. Oh well! We didn't get a tour guide, and I still believe it's not worth it. You can find your own way around just fine. It's just more expense to have someone else show you around and make you feel more special lol.

They give you a schedule of the shows on all the Islands so you basically get to pick where you go. Our favorite Islands were Samoa and Tonga, so be sure to visit their shows!! We got to all of them except Hawaii (ironically). We also saw the canoe pageant, which was amazing! Get there about 10-20 minutes early for a good seat by the water.

We also saw the Hawaiian Journey IMAX movie, which was surprisingly good! Spoiler: you get "3D effects" because the seats move and you get misted with light water! And we walked around the cool little shops, rode the short but fun canoe ride, and took some awesome pics/video.

We ate at the Island buffet which had really good food, and they direct you to your seats and give you top notch service! The workers are sooo helpful! What I didn't know before, was that about 75% of the workers are Mormon, and go to BYU Hawaii! That was way cool!

And last but not least, we saw the "HA Breath of Life" Show! They don't let you take pictures or video for good reason. They want to keep it special and unique! And oh my gosh, it's amazing! Fire Dancers, Hula Dancers, an awesome storyline, action; it is the BEST show I have ever seen!

Anyways we snuck out a couple minutes prior to the end because we didn't know if the city bus would wait, but we were still plenty early. THEN the bus ride home was the same, if not worse than the way there. They had the AC on full blast, which is good for some people, but for some reason I was FREEZING! Tried to sleep uncomfortably again, but that didn't really work. Very bumpy and loud...so I would recommend taking the shuttle or just..getting enough sleep beforehand lol.

But still, I would do it all over again for that experience!! It was phenomenal!

See the video here: http://youtu.be/HDxBGnPRD6A

And make sure to SUBSCRIBE TO SEE NEW VIDEOS EVERY MONDAY!

(P.S there's a bonus video coming out this week as well!)

ALOHA!

Maunawili Falls Cliff Jumping!

VIDEO OF MAUNAWILI FALLS CLIFF JUMPING HERE:

http://youtu.be/P5r2oml9HqI
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Definitely the funnest thing we have done in Hawaii SO FAR!

So before I start on the hike and such, I wanted to bring up that I started working grave shift at my work last week. 12 hour shifts!! And on Friday-Saturday I had a 13 hour shift from 7pm-8am!

Yea, so if you think you'd be tired after that, think about not going home and sleeping...but going straight out again, renting mopeds, and riding through the jungle/mountains of Hawaii to get to a 3 mile hike to a beautiful waterfall and go cliff jumping! Because that's what I did! Really, I forgot about being sleepy until the evening, but I wanted to blow up the fact that I went a full 24 hours without sleep. Bam.

Anyways, let's start with the mopeds. Usually we take the bus everywhere in Hawaii (as you have seen/read on our previous adventures), but for Maunawili Falls (near Kaneohe), we would have to transfer buses and walk a ways to get there. So we decided to rent mopeds for the day!

It worked out really well because the rental place is right down the street from us (the joys of living in Waikiki). At first I wanted to rent a 2 person scooter, but you need a motorcycle license for that. Brad wants one of those eventually haha. But we got 2 single seater mopeds (ONLY COST WE HAD TODAY-$25 each moped for 24 hours) and that was fine! I don't have much experience with mopeds/dirt bikes/motorcycles, so I was pretty nervous. You wouldn't think that something like this would make you nervous, but it does! You're on the streets of Waikiki on...a motorized bike. Any slight wrong move could be fatal. So if you do plan to rent mopeds, make sure you are nice and comfortable before actually leaving the rental place. The manager saw me ease slowly into it and said "Oh yea! She will be just fine!" Because he sees a lot of people jerk really fast at first and have no idea what they are doing.

We started out on our journey and made our way towards Kaneohe (you can't take any of the H highways on mopeds...H1, H2, H3...). We stopped at Kaneohe Beach to take a cool picture of us with our mopeds, then made our way to Maunawili Falls. Taking a moped is so much better than a car because you are actually way more aware of your surroundings-which are jungle coated mountains and the clear blue ocean! It is incredible!

We get to the falls and lock our mopeds to each other, as well as our helmets, and started the hike! Make sure to wear tennis shoes/water shoes because it gets muddy and you have to cross the stream a couple times. Bug spray is a good idea too. We didn't bring any and were lucky enough to not get bitten, but I would bring some if I went again.

It's about a 3 mile hike, (easy-moderate), and the views are spectacular! In the video we said it reminds us of movies like Jurassic Park, Jungle Book, and the jungle scene in Lion King. It feels straight out of a dream!

We finally get to the falls, there were a lot of tourists there. (We kinda asked for it, getting there around noon and on a Saturday). But it was so much fun! There's 3 spots you can jump off of. One is the short jump right next to the falls, another is the high one on the left which Brad did (after looking down for 2 minutes).

And the third one we both did, which was the most dangerous of all BECAUSE to get there you have to climb up and around the falls, climb up a sketchy vine VERTICALLY, up slippery rocks and moss, then walk over and climb down a sketchy rope (which is in the video), THEN jump from a high jump. It was crazy! But worth it!

And some people there were nice enough to take videos of us :)

So this hike/cliff jump was awesome!! After that...was not so awesome...

We ride back into town on our mopeds, right? (mine had been acting kind of weird-saying he gas was empty when we knew it wasn't because Brad's was at the same level) But when we get into Waikiki, it dies! Wouldn't kick start or anything. We had to push our mopeds around for about an HOUR, tired, getting sunburnt, and they were so heavy! Locals would come up to us and ask us if we needed directions, then they would lead us the wrong way! There were no gas stations where they said they were! Eventually we finally found one, and after we filled up it did just fine. But by that time we got stuck in rush hour traffic, were too late to return the mopeds, so we had to drive back to our apt and lock them in front until morning. We were SO hungry since we skipped lunch, and I was EXHAUSTED from being up over 24 hours, I crashed on the bed in 2 minutes, and my sweet Brad went out to get food to bring home.

What a crazy day!!! Yolo right? Haha but we enjoyed it, and it's such a cool story to look back on later!! Plus we have video and pictures to remember!

Thanks for always keeping up with us!! Aloha!

Here's the video of our adventure to Maunawili Falls:
http://youtu.be/P5r2oml9HqI

East Oahu Beach Hopping in Pink Flamingo Shorts!

VIDEO OF BEACH HOPPING IN PINK FLAMINGO SHORTS HERE:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNXi-UJjpRc

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Pink Flamingo Shorts? You heard right! So Brad only had 1 pair of swim shorts here in Hawaii so we have been searching for some more at low prices, and that's what we finally found! Pink Shorts with Flamingos on them! It was too good to pass up! (P.S. Brad did some modeling in the video for us!)

SO, another weekend!! This weekend we got up early and took the bus to Makapu'u Beach Park. (You actually look for the bus going to Sea Life Park, and the beach is literally right across the street!)

The view is incredible! You've got the point of Oahu with the lighthouse, the awesome non-crowded beach with strong waves and cool rocky areas, and a view of the 2 islands off the coast-Manana (or rabbit) Island (the bigger one), and Kaohikaipu Island. A lot of people go kayaking to them, but we didn't. Trying to save on money, ya know?

We just stuck on the beach, which was awesome none the less! We went out into the water a little bit but not too far in order to keep from getting stuck out there. Only people who really know what they're doing should go out further. There were good surfers and boogie boarders that obviously were locals. It's always fun to watch them. Even they wipeout occasionally.

Speaking of SURFING, as y'all read in one of my first few blogs, I got a used board and have been learning by myself. I walk with my huge 9.0 ft board to Waikiki Beach at least twice a week and paddle out to where a bunch of surfers are (beginners included), and take on the waves! It can be really frustrating sometimes because it's crowded, there are other boats/canoes taking tourists out, and learning to surf is really hard in general! You paddle out, making your arms tired, then the first thing you want to do is turn around and just catch a wave. But you have to let yourself rest, and try sitting up on the board occasionally. I heard a lot of novice surfers get back pain/problems from laying down on the board for too long. Then, once you finally start paddling to catch a wave, you miss your chance, slip, don't have the right stance and fall, get pummeled by the wave, etc. Not to mention swallowing a whole ton of salty seawater, and then getting pummeled by more waves trying to swim back out! BUT, after all that being said, the feeling of standing up and catching a wave (no matter for how long-even a couple seconds), it makes it all worth it! You just want to get up and stay up forever! So even with all the weird faces I get, I still go out and try! Everyone started from somewhere right? I have been out here a month today, and I have maybe gotten fully up a good 10 times. The rest of the time...wipeouts. It's hard to face all those wipeouts when experienced surfers blaze past you (even on their head!-saw that today!). You just want to be as good as them! I try to not let it get to me. Focus Sarah, just focus. I will keep trying at my OWN pace. Everyone learns differently!

BACK TO TODAY'S BLOG:
After we explored the beach and took cool video footage, we went back to our bus stop at Sea Life Park, then took another bus to Kailua Beach! This beach is soo pretty, it's no wonder people from here brag about it all the time! We get to the beach and the first thing we see are WINDSURFERS. Tons of them! (Picture below). It was a pretty windy Saturday, so they all wanted to get out there and take advantage of it! But they go so fast and get super high jumps! If we had enough money we would get Brad lessons. He thought it was totally cool.

But instead we stuck around the beach again, and marveled at the very blue, gorgeous ocean with all the windsurfers. I found a rope swing and swung on it a little (picture below), that was fun!

Then, Brad busted out his snorkel gear and snorkeled that area. He didn't see very many fish, but he said the water was so clear and nice, it was a fun experience for him anyways. While he did that I sat on the beach and tanned, (or tried to).

After he was done we walked into town a little, explored a couple shops. Here is the only part where we spent MONEY. That was on lunch. We stopped at Bob's Pizzeria and ate. ($6 a slice), and the slices were a 1/4 of the pizza. So not super expensive, but if you want to save on money, bring your own pb&j or something. We mentioned in the video we also like to get water cups if we go out to eat. It makes it less expensive; we really don't need coke (aka soft drinks/soda). It's also healthy okay!

Then we went back to our bus stop and waited about an hour (while Brad decided to tan HAHA), then took the bus back to Waikiki.

SO we spent 8am-5pm out and about in Hawaii and were pretty tired. Dinner, showers, and bed were what followed. It was such a fun day and we can't wait to see what next weekend has in store!!

See the video here and subscribe to our channel to see new videos every Monday!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNXi-UJjpRc

Aloha!

Cliff Jumping at Kapena Falls, Chinatown, and Spam Jam!!

VIDEO OF KAPENA FALLS CLIFF JUMPING: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GmiAtBqvII

VIDEO OF CHINATOWN AND SPAM JAM: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP6mNzPUWHQ


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Wow!! Just...wow! Hawaii is so beautiful I wish my friends and family from back in the MAINLAND could see. (Mainland is basically the United States minus Hawaii because we are tiny islands not on the...mainland)

ANYWAYS, I am late on writing this...this little excursion we did was actually 2 weekends ago...SORRY! 

Of course this whole day was free! FREE I TELL YOU!! In Hawaii I might add.

KAPENA FALLS: 

So we took the city bus on a Saturday morning and this may sound weird...but you take it to the Nuuanuu Memorial Park and Mortuary. Yes, a cemetary. That's where you go. You walk in the cemetary and follow the winding paved road all the way down (it's like 5 minutes), and you'll see a parking lot at the end. Behind that parking lot is a stream/trail. And there you are! 

You follow the little trail along the stream for another 5-10 minutes and you get to Kapena Falls!! It's a fun little hike where you can be as safe or adventurous as you like! We liked to jump rock to rock along the stream and try hanging on the vines, but you have the option to stay on the trail the whole time too! 

You get the the "falls" (you will know when you get there-there's a tall jump spot. If you go any further you will go under the highway). But you have the option of going further (which we didn't), or staying there to have fun! 

We went to the top of the jump spot and after a bit of collaboration and testing the water, Brad jumped, then I did. The feeling is exhilarating! I would say it's like 2 stories high. It feels like forever though! 

CAUTION: So when we initially came to the jump spot, there was a memorial there for someone who had drowned last year. And flowers that people had put there. We were a little scared, but jumped anyways since we had seen videos of other people do it. (Maybe a stupid move to some people...but we kinda live on the edge haha). But then other people started to show up and put more gifts/flowers next to this memorial, and after talking to them we found out it was the boy who had drowned's family. The day we went would have been his 18th birthday. :( His mom said that they do not care if people continue to jump off this location, but warn you to be careful. It felt kind of weird o us, so we left shortly after that. Just an FYI if you do go. 

If you are scared to do the high jump there are some lower areas to kind of jump off of, just try to aim for the deeper areas would be my suggestion. 

It was a FUN hike/time though we had a blast! BE SURE TO BRING BUG SPRAY though-Brad got eaten alive by mosquitoes. I got some bites, but not nearly enough as he did.  

CHINATOWN:

After Kapena Falls we took the bus back into the city, but took a little detour. We stopped in Chinatown!! We got to walk around, take video/pictures, and see all the interesting meats/fish/fruits/vegetables that they had to offer. 

Now, when it comes to food, I WILL try new foods, but it's not the highlight of my trip ever, because...it's food. You eat it, and that's it. I mean, it's cool to try new foods, but I like DOING things, and going PLACES. But everyone is entitled to their own opinions. 

On that note, things weren't terribly expensive, but we didn't eat anything there. We opted for fast food later. (Not included when I said everything was free). But it was fun to walk around and see everything. Especially all the seafood. Fish, shrimp, snails, etc. They have them live there before they get chopped up and eaten. 

SPAM JAM:

 Then after Chinatown we went home to change/get refreshed and headed back out again! Why? Because every year Wakiki hosts SPAM JAM! Basically a huge block party thrown in honor of Hawaii's famous food-Spam. We like it alright :) 

We just walked around Spam Jam as well, not spending any money. There are plenty of souvenirs and food stuffs to buy, but we didn't get anything. They had 2 stages set up on either side of the block-so 2 different concerts going on at the same time. They had hula dancers and local bands playing the entire day which was cool. No charge for that. 

We also took a picture with the SPAM WAVE-someone had built an ocean wave out of spam cans and anyone can go take a picture with it. I'll post a picture below. 

ANYWAYS all of this was done in a single day! (Plus going to our church potluck in between!) So by the end of the day we were tired and happy! 

Another day accomplished in our adventure in Hawaii!!

Here's our video of us going to Kapena Falls!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GmiAtBqvII


And a second video of us going to Chinatown and Spam Jam! 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NP6mNzPUWHQ

Aloha!

Diamond Head Hike!

VIDEO OF DIAMOND HEAD HIKE: 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTB8JmxDGyA
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Hey y'all! (Had to bring out my Texan in me)

Thanks so much for keeping up with us! Again, Hawaii is still amazing! It's a vacation every week for us! Yes we have both started our jobs, but we also are meeting new people, trying new things, and we have weekends off to explore and have fun!

This past weekend (our 3rd weekend in Hawaii), we hiked the Diamond Head Crater in Honolulu! You can see this crater from Waikiki, and it's not far to get to.

So on Saturday morning we got up and took the bus there around 9am. Lots of people will say to go super early because it's cooler and less people (especially on Saturdays), we didn't really care all that much. After a long work week we wanted to get up when we felt like it! And we did!

The bus system here is AWESOME! If you're visiting, just get a map, and know where you want to go, and you'll figure it out. One way is $2.50. Not bad! Especially compared to taxi/shuttle prices (much more expensive), and beats walking! And if you live here like us, get a monthly or yearly pass. It's worth it, trust me.

Anyways we get there and walk a little ways uphill from the bus stop, pay $1 each to get in for pedestrians, and started the hike! The trail starts off like a concrete sidewalk, then after a bit it changes to rocky trail, going zig zag up the crater. Then towards the top you get to the STAIRS. That's probably the hardest part for tourists and kids. It's alot of stairs. They had to make it tourist friendly and safe, so there's alot of stairs and tunnels.

But once you get to the top, you forget all about it and enjoy the view! You can see Waikiki, inland, and the shore for miles. It's incredible! Bring a camera, but no strollers!

The only thing we didn't enjoy was getting around all the other people. We of course went on a Saturday which made it more crowded with tourists, and it's generally a high traffic area to begin with. It's close to the city and lots of tour busses and people go to it. But we mainly did it because it's right there next to us basically and we love hikes, so we started off with this easy, 2 mile hike.

We are loving this place so much! Here is a video of our hike up Diamond Head! (I also accidentely poked Brad's eye at the top-woops!) Enjoy and Aloha!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTB8JmxDGyA