Back to the Mainland

On our last day, we took a stop at Pearl Harbor.  Unfortunately, we could only do one thing, which was look through a battleship.  It was a great learning experience for the Brothers since they heaven't learned about Pearl Harbor yet and I thought it was interesting as well since I knew the significance of it.  The next day, we went back to the mainland!  The flight was shorter than usual at 5 hours and 10 minutes.  We flew back to Vegas and when we checked in to our resort, we found out that it was overbooked even though we booked a month ahead.  So they sent us to another resort where we lazed around.  The next day, we went to the original place we wanted to stay.  All the boys went to the pool while Mother did laundry and I played by myself.

The next day began our long drive back home.  Of course, we would be making pit stops along the way.  Our first stop was the Grand Canyon.  It was raining a little so the temperature was around 63-65 degrees Fahrenheit.  We were a little chilly, but luckily, I brought a sweater.  We walked to a view point and drove to another.  It was super cool to see the Grand Canyon in person, since I've only seen it in postcards.  When I see it in photos, it seems unreal, like it doesn't even exist.  But seeing it in person, it was hard to realize that it was real, since it was like looking into a photo.

We stayed until sundown before continuing to drive.  Eventually we settled down and checked into a motel, where we stayed the night and woke up early the next morning.  That day, we hit Texas.  It was a long drive before we made it to our hotel.  We came a little early so we couldn't check in yet.  So we decided to go to the Alamo.  We read about the great battle and looked at some artifacts  before buying some fudge and checking into our hotel.

There, we relaxed a little before checking out the Riverwalk.  We looked around a little for a place to eat with a low wait time before settling on Hard Rock.  We ordered a lot of food and Mother decided to get us soft drinks since tonight is our last hurrah before the summer vacation is over.  After we stuffed ourselves, we walked around again and then head back to our hotel room.

The next day, after around 10 hours of driving, we were finally back at Florida!  Everyone was glad to finally be back home and sleep in our own beds.  But first, we had to unload the car.   After that, we relaxed for the rest of the night until we went to bed, which was very late.  Well, very early since it was 2:30 in the morning.

The next day, I got up in the late afternoon and loafed around until dinner.  Afterwords, we went back to school shopping and got some food.  However, when we got out of the second store and began loading our groceries, I noticed the distinct smell of pee.  At first, I thought it was coming from inside the car, but then Mother pointed out a large puddle next to our car.

Someone peed next to our car.  Fabulous.

After that, we returned home and settled for the night.  Vacation is officially over and school is going to start soon.  Stay tuned until the next adventure!

Polynesian Cultural Center+Luau

I was the last to wake up today and even though I'm not really a morning person, I somehow got ready in time before heading out.  Even though it was a little too late for breakfast, it was the perfect time for lunch!

We stopped by a Korean grocery store and ate at the food-court there, which served some decent food for a food-court.  I was absolutely stuffed when I was only halfway through my soup! Mother finished it up for me and got some apple-juice.  Once everyone was done, we began to pile in the car and head to the Polynesian Cultural Center.

The drive took around an hour, but I entertained my self by sketching a little in my sketchbook.  There was some very nice scenery along the way since we were driving by the coastline.  Time passed by very quickly, and soon enough, we had arrived at our destination.  First, we bought the tickets and made our way to the Samoa section.  We had decided to do a challenge where we had to get these passports they get us stamped.  We had to get at least three stamps, however, they were out of passports so we had to use our maps.  In Samoa, we watched a presentation where a man showed us how the Samoans would open coconuts and drink the milk.  Another man also climbed a tree all the way to the top before sliding down.  It was quite impressive considering the size of the tree.

Once we got our stamps, it was time to move onto New Zealand.  There, we played with some balls tied to a string.  We swung the balls around, lightly hitting ourselves and attempting to do some tricks, which we failed at.  We didn't spend much time there after getting our stamps and then began to Fiji.

When at Fiji, we watched a quick show before moving on.  It was time to go to Hawaii! Eh, well, to learn about it at least.  While there, we learned how to play the ukelele and how to correctly pronounce it.  Say it with me, uke-eh-lay-lay.  We also stayed to watch a show, since the Baby became quite attached to the seats we were sitting on when we were learning.  The show taught us what a real hula is and the correct pronunciation of Honolulu.

By now, most of the day was over and it was time to go to dinner.  Dinner was Samoan themed and had a nice little show to go along with it.  There was dancing, audience participation, and tricks with fire! Brother #1 was even chosen for an activity and we got a nice woven basket out of it.  The food had decent variety and quality.  Once we finished eating, we began to head outside of the center, at the entrance.  The Baby had a diaper leak, so Mother, Father, and I took him to the car to change him.  After that, Ha: the Breath of Life show was going to start soon so we made our way to the theater.

The show was pretty long but very enjoyable.  It told a story of a boy named Mana, growing up into a man and how the fire of life is inside all of us.  Afterwords, we all left leisurely.  There was definitely a crowd while coming out, so we didn't want to rush in case we got split up.  After that was the drive back to the room, which passed by quickly thanks to some good laughs.

Once back at the room, everyone got ready to retire and planned for tomorrow before going to bed.