Sightseeing around Oahu
by HML
Rather than try to catch a glimpse of everything on Oahu, Team Gimlet chose a few attractions and gave ourselves plenty of time to enjoy them. In Honolulu we spent an afternoon at the Bishop Museum exploring Hawaiian history and culture, and spent some time at the Aloha Tower Marketplace, seeing the sights and feeding the fish in the harbor. We also drove up to the Nuuanu Pali lookout where we admired the views and did our best to keep from being blown off the cliff by the strong wind.
By far, the highlight of our time on Oahu was the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC), which the senior members of Team Gimlet enjoyed so much that we took advantage of the three day pass with admission and visited twice.
The Polynesian Cultural Center is located in the tiny town of Laie on Oahu’s North Shore, about an hour’s drive away from Honolulu (but be prepared for more than an hour, depending on traffic conditions).
The PCC opens at noon, so we took our time driving there, stopping at North Shore beaches to watch the surfing, pointing at familiar sights from LOST (we even saw a few cryptic signs pointing to unidentified filming sites in progress), and walking around the grounds of the LDS temple and BYU-Hawaii. At one beach we saw a Boy Scout troop had set up their tents, a much different style of winter camping than what the Gimlet is used to.
It’s a little difficult to explain the enormity of a PCC visit: Large-scale productions like the Rainbows of Paradise canoes, the luaus, and the evening pageant coexist with smaller cultural demonstrations and shows in the eight island villages, as well as many opportunities to meet one-on-one with representatives from the different Polynesian nations. We chatted with the members of the Fiji village, and when we found we had a canoe tour all to ourselves, we spent the time getting to know our friendly guide.
We opted to splurge on an upgrade to the Ali’i Luau before the evening show, and were very glad we did. The reception, entertainment, and food were first-rate, making the day especially memorable, and were a great way to finish our Hawaiian vacation.
All too soon it was time to pack up and return to a dark, 30° Seattle January. Unfortunately we have no photos to commemorate the event, but on the last few days of our stay, our most senior team member donned a short sleeved shirt! He was also heard to say, “I could get used to a place like this.”
We had a wonderful ten days in Hawaii. One of our guidebooks recommended spending one week per island as a bare minimum, and we could have easily added a few days to each island’s itinerary. We saw many other family groups on vacation, and would love to have an extended family vacation here some day.
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Tags: hawaii
