Day 2

Tuesday - 11/17/09 - Woke up at 3am of course...8am Indiana time...sigh. Tried to go back to sleep....free breakfast buffet as part of package didn't start until 6am. As you can see in the pic, the buffet table was huge! Fruit, salad, roast beef, turkey, cheese, sausage, bacon, eggs, waffles, oatmeal, etc, etc...the highlight though was the Kona coffee...WOW...I had no idea. The buffet and dining room was witness only and you actually had to show your badge to get in.

After breakfast we walked down to Waikiki beach and took some pics and enjoyed the breezy 70 degrees as I called around to get a shuttle (taxis were a complete ripoff) to take us back to the airport to pick up our rental car. Yes it's a Jeep...a green one even...yay! We then drove east and then north around the island...intending on going to Kualoa Ranch which is where they film Lost and a bunch of other movies such as Jurassic Park, 50 first dates, etc. The movie tour and the horseback ride were booked for tuesday so we're doing that on wednesday. Linda wanted to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center so we rounded Kailua and headed west.
We stopped at the Byodo-In Temple which is where a bunch of Lost footage was shot: Sun/Jin married, the polar bear bamboo attack, etc. We stopped at a little hole in the wall restaurant that a bunch of locals were eating at called Kahuku Grill. They claimed "world famous coconut shrimp" so we ordered that and some garlic lovers shrimp. Both were excellent.

We pulled over wherever possible and took almost 200 pictures on Day 2. I'll post them to Facebook and Picasa when I get a chance.
This picture is one of my favorites from the north shore. If anyone doesn't think Oahu is beautiful, they need only to drive to the east / north shore. Shortly after taking this picture we arrived at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was interesting from a historical perspective and this is where we attended our 1 and only Luau...glad to get that out of the way, now where's the sushi?!?! We did have an opportunity to witness to a Mormon couple from Utah at Luau (they sat across from us). We talked about how we go in the ministry all our lives compared to...as they mentioned, just young men at age 19 for two years. They commended us and said that they should do that too. Just plantin' seeds...

Overall the best part of the day was meeting brothers and sisters everywhere we went. A swarm of locusts has taken over Oahu!