Greg and Cindy Montgomery: Hawaii Vacation Tuesday and Wednesday

Shannon announced to us this morning he gender and chosen name of the baby her and Nic are expecting. The kids went and picked some flowers and made an arrangement on the plate and spelled the Hawaiian name for Aubrey

We then were off to the Honolulu area and a nature reserve called Manoa Falls. There were a lot more people on this hike this year than 7 years ago. The hike through the rain forest is really wonderful with a variety of plants and flowers growing along the trail.

We continued on after our bridge photo into some of the bamboo area and strange shaped trees.

As we were getting closer to the falls there were some views that let us know there was a lot more water going over the falls this time than last time.

Finally we made it to the falls and sat and watched all the people and the falls.

It was time to head back down the trail and enjoy the variety of flowers along the trail.

Our next adventure was off to Sharks Cove on the North Shore for more snorkeling. It was low tide so there were a lot more rocks and shallow areas and a large group of people there.

We saw a lot more fish and even a sea turtle in this area. It was such an enjoyable time.

It was then back to the condo for a program that evening. On the way back we stopped at a stand and bought for lychees and then another stand and bought macadamia nuts.

We arrived back to the condo and then got ready for the Polynesian cultural show that takes place every Tuesday Eventing at the resort called Fia Fia.We were late this time and missed some of the activities that take place prior to the actual show. I did not understand that the time on the ticket was the time of the dinner ceremonies. We had our pictures taken. You can compare it with how we looked seven years ago.

We did get a chance to get head bands made out of palm leaves though for everyone. One young man who is part of the show who made the head bands for us was named Kimball. As he said it a good Samoan name. When we told him where we were from he said he served his mission in the Ogden mission a few years back. Besides doing our headbands he and another guy did some pre-dinner singing.

We then had our luau. The food was good and it was a beautiful setting. After the luau the ceremonies before the show began of different cultural traditions.

There were a variety of activities taking place in the show from climbing the coconut trees to dances of various islands of the pacific.

The sun was setting over the lagoon (which in Hawaii is around 7 p.m.) which added to the feel of the evening.

The show continued into the night with the various dances and ended with the fire dances which were great.

As we left we took a picture with some of the cast. Payton was a little shy but still went through with it. It was a wonderful day.

The next day we went to the Aloha Stadium for the flea market. We got several shirts and other trinkets to bring back home.

We then were going to the east side of the island but as we went over Nu uiana Pali it was raining and cloud covered so we could not see anything. We decided to go to Kailua Beach Park. It was raining off and on but we decided to go out anyway since we were going to get wet. It was a beautiful beach with wonderful soft sand. Different from the other beaches we had been on.

Connor and I did some kite flying while the others played in the waves.

We played for a long time here and this was our favorite beach. We then drove north along the east coast to see all the sights. The mountains raised up through the low clouds

It was rural and the road in some places was right against the ocean. We took these pictures of the Kualoa Ranch were some of Jurassic Park was filmed. The clouds added to the affect of the area.

We then drove along the north shore back to Hale'iwa to get some shaved ice with a few other people. This church was across the street from the shaved ice location and the fine shaped trees were all over.