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More reminiscing on vacations of years past. In 2005, we took a family vacation to Oahu island of Hawaii and stayed in the city Waikiki. We did a lot while we were on the island. This was one of my favorite vacations. Especially because we decided to do this instead of presents for Christmas.
One thing we did was go for a submarine ride to see all the coral and fish in the ocean. As well as go to several aquariums. After the submarine ride we took a tour of a pearl jewelry place and got to open some oysters. I got a black pearl and my sister of twin white pearls. Which we made into necklaces. Since a black pearl is more rare, my mom got to have that one while I got one of the white pearls my sister got.
We went exploring around the island of Oahu to see all the waterfalls and flowers that we could. This might a lot of driving but we can say that we honestly saw everything we could. The only thing we didn’t get to do was go scuba diving as it was completely booked.
We spent a lot of time on the beach. I loved it as I went snorkeling a bunch and had an underwater camera. Unfortunately we lost the images on the camera somehow. But I had gotten to swim with some sea turtles, which I found with the help of a friend I made from Canada.
Another thing we got to do was swim with dolphins. Which was so much fun. These were dolphins that lived in captivity at Sea Life Park, so they were trained to be ridden. Unlike dolphins in some locations, these ones had plenty of room to swim and deep areas. The place also had wholphins which is an offspring of a false killer whale and a bottle nosed dolphin.
One day we went to a hula at the Polynesian Cultural Center which has multiple Polynesian cultures showing their traditions and replica villages. In Aotearoa (New Zealand), natives demonstrate wood carving and the haka war dance. In Fiji, drum a lali and enter a six-story temple. In Hawaii, learn hula movements and lei-making. In Samoa, create fire with sticks, climb a coconut tree and prepare traditional food. In Tahiti, sample coconut bread or practice spear-throwing. In Tonga, play lafo (a kind of shuffleboard) and do the mauluulu sitting dance. In the evening there a buffet with kalua (pit-cooked) pork and an Alli Luau.
The last thing we did was go visit the battleship U.S.S. Arizona and Pearl Harbor. It was cool seeing the battleship and the memorial. But you definitely could feel the sadness in the air when you got to Pearl Harbor. Especially when you see the oil still spilling into the bay from all the battleships that sank during the attack.
I would love to go back to Hawaii some day to explore some of the other islands.
