Hawaii: Day 2

Yesterday didn't go quite as planned, but it was still really fun! I was hoping to watch some surfing, but I guess there weren't good waves, so the Vans Triple Crown competition starts back up today and I'll hopefully be able to see some of it later this morning. Yesterday morning, instead of watching surfing, I saw the Laie Temple and the BYU-Hawaii campus with my friend Phillip. But before we got to either of those places, we stopped at a park on the coast to look at the Chinaman's Hat and see my first Hawaii rainbow. The rainbow was cool because it was a complete rainbow--I could see both ends at the same time! I also got to put my feet in the Pacific Ocean for the first time! (That's a first I forgot about on yesterday's post--it was my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean.)

 I loved visiting the Laie Temple. I didn't go in, but I did go in the visitor's center learned lots of neat things about the temple from Sister Eubanks. Did you know that the Laie Temple was the fifth temple built in the church? It was built in 1919! Crazy! I love the strong feeling of the Spirit at the temple grounds. Also, you can see the ocean from the temple--talk about location!

BYU-Hawaii is right next to both the temple and the Polynesian Cultural Center (where I'm going today!). It's REALLY small. I liked that everybody there seemed relaxed even with finals coming up. Also, there were about a billion old-style bikes there. Maybe it's a trend?

Later Phillip and I went to the Dole Pineapple Plantation, which has the world's largest maze. We had to find 8 checkpoints (using a map, thankfully) and we did it under an hour, so we were pretty proud of ourselves for that. I also got to see some pineapples that were in the middle of growing, and it was so weird to see a mini pineapple! The one in the picture below is probably only as long as my hand! While we were there, I chose an oyster to be cracked open, and I got the pearl that was inside placed in a pendant. But perhaps the most exciting thing about the pineapple plantation was that I brought my Psych Season 5 DVD case took pictures with it and pineapples.

In the Dole store--look how yellow that pineapple is!

Anyway, I had some pretty exciting times yesterday. This morning I'm going to try to see some surfing again, and this afternoon and tonight I'm going to the Polynesian Cultural Center, so I am pretty darn excited about today too.

Hawaii: Day 1

After 13 hours of traveling yesterday (9 of which were spent in two different airplanes), I finally arrived in Hawaii! I have already had many exciting accomplishments just from that one day of traveling. As you may or may not know, one of my life goals is to set foot in all 50 states, and now I am 2 states closer! My layover was through LAX, so yesterday was my first time being in California. By being in California, I was also the furthest west I've ever been in my life. And obviously, this is my first time in Hawaii, and now I am way further west than I was in California. This may not exciting to everyone, but it is exciting to me.

I had a welcoming committee at the airport that was comprised of my friend Victoria. I am staying with her, and she's basically the reason for this whole trip.

Victoria's so nice! She gave me 2 legit leis when I got there!

This is just the sign on the baggage claim, but it's so cool!

Even though I've only been here a day, I've already decided that Hawaii is the most beautiful place on the planet. Here is proof. All these pictures were taken from the car on the drive back to Victoria's house, so they're not the greatest quality and most of them have street lights in them, but they're still beautiful!

Stay tuned for today's adventures which will hopefully include watching the Vans Triple Crown surfing competition on the North Shore and Psych-ing it up at the Dole Pineapple Plantation (I'm not quite sure what that means, but hey, just go with it).

P.S. There's a Roomba in my room, so I'm thinking of having a dance party.

DJ Roomba!