Barnum and Bailey's circus

 

 

 

Jordan won tickets to the circus at work and so we invited some of our favorite friends Brian and Lanie to come with us.

 

I had never been to a circus and so I wasn't sure quite what to expect.  It was so fun.  I loved watching the gymnast's.  They were incredible!   

 

Of course there were elephants and tigers.

 

The tight rope walkers were amazing and the aerialists were some of my favorite acts.   

 

What a fun night!

Dole plantation

 

Our last day in Hawaii we stopped at the Dole plantation before heading to the airport.

 

 

 

 

It was the most perfect trip.  Everything went exactly as we wanted and we can't wait to go back!!

Beach day

 

Saturday was our beach day and since I couldn't swim because of my procedure we drove along the coast and found the beach where they filmed Lost.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 We stopped for lunch at the Grass Skirt Grill and then got shaved ice from the famous Matsumoso's.

 

 

 

 

 

I picked mango, lime and pineapple.  Jordan got orange and lime.

 

 

Later in the day I made Jordan stop so I could try the BBQ corn.  It was so worth the stop.  I tried the island style corn which was salt, pepper and garlic.  So good!!   

 

 Our rental car.

The rest of the day we laid on the beach, played in the waves and relaxed. 

Polynesian Cultural Center

 

 

On Friday we woke up at 4am! Still not adjusted to the time zone change so we walked the beach at the resort where our condo was. 

 

 

 

 Sunrise!

 

We planned to spend the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. 

It started out overcast but still sunny. We thought that it would brighten up as the day went on.  Instead it started to rain, then rain, then rain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I finally was soaked and bought a rain poncho to try and stay a little drier, even if it wasn't the most flattering look.

 

 

 

 

After spending the day in each country watching shows and learning about each countries culture. We went to the luau.  As we entered the gave us flower leis!

 

 

 Jordan went to watch them pull the pig from the fire pit.

 

 

 

 After dinner they had a show which we really liked complete with fire dancers!

 

 

 Our Hawaiian names.

 

 

 

After Pearl Harbor we drove to the North Shore which is where we were staying for the rest of our vacation.  We took our time driving along the coast and stopped several times to explore.

 

 Just outside the ranch where they filmed Jurassic Park.

 For lunch we stopped at the Shrimp Shack.  A food truck on the side of the road.  It was AMAZING!! My favorite place we ate by far.

 I had coconut shrimp with mango sauce and rice.  Jordan got the popcorn shrimp with rice.  Right after we took this picture it started raining so we ended up eating in the car which we found funny. 

 We stopped and toured BYU-Hawaii campus.

 We also stopped at the temple.

One of the most beautiful temples I have ever seen!

We then went to the condo that we had rented.  It was exactly what we wanted. You never really know when booking online.  Our condo was so much nicer when we arrived. 

 The first thing we did was go to the beach!!

 

Afterwards we went to find somewhere to eat dinner.  On the North shore we discovered pretty quickly that there aren't really restaurant's so we ate from food trucks most of the time.  We decided to try the Thai truck that night. 

 Jordan spoke Thai to the chef and they made him his favorite Thai dish Num Tok.

I got the Pad Thai with shrimp.  YUM!!!

On the way back to our condo we saw a sign for a farmers market so we decided to stop to pick up some fresh fruit.  It ended up being in the area where they filmed Catching Fire so we braved the rain and took pictures.