Hawaii - Day 4

Today was a very long day and possibly too long a day for small children.  We took an 8:15am bus tour of the island, which ended at the Polynesian Cultural Center - a park of sorts that celebrates the cultures of the Polynesian islands.  The bus tour was OK at best.  Like all bus tours, you spend tiny bits of time at various tourist spots packed with all the other tour buses that are making the exact same tour.  In the end, you spend less time seeing Hawaii and more time seeing a bus.

As an example, we got to “see” the Dole Plantation, where “seeing” involved getting half an hour to explore the gift shop.  I immediately took Jonathan through the long line for ice cream and got some whipped pineapple ice cream for everyone to try.  It was very good and very sweet, but that was basically all we got to do before we had to pile on to the bus to get to the next stop.

The bus tour took five hours, which turned out to be about one hour too long.  Bradley is a fairly content baby and only cries for a bit when things don’t go his way.  However, with about a half hour to go, he had a meltdown due to the fact that he was trapped on our laps and unable to go anywhere else.  He only calmed down when we arrived and were able to get off the bus.

At the PCC, we rented a couple of strollers, since there was no room on the bus for ours, though we ended up with two of their crappy stock of strollers, since strollers were rented out on a first come first serve basis, and by 1:00pm, all the regular strollers were gone.  We then had a quick lunch at the restaurant before starting our tour of the center.  There was a canoe ride that Grandma and Grandpa took the three older kids on, while Sandra and I wandered through park.  Each area of the park is devoted to one specific island, and has some activities that are unique to that island.

About half way through the park, we stopped for a show, where people from each island performed traditional dances on the canoe boats.  While watching, we saw Grandma and Grandpa and the boys on the other side of the river, so we headed over there to meet them.  The park was definitely more fun with the older kids, as they had passports where they had to do something in each area for a stamp, so we took them bowling in Hawaii, tried to start a fire in Samoa, and played musical sticks in New Zealand, just to name a few things.  The kids also got skin stamps, which they were pretty excited about.  Jonathan and Bradley were pretty exhausted and spent the day in the strollers - Jonathan got out for the bowling and the skin stamps, but nothing else.

After we were done in the park, the kids took their passports to the gift shop, where they were able to pick out a tiny little toy.  Then it was time for a luau, which wasn’t as cool as I thought it would be, since there were a ton of people and they served everyone in a buffet line.  I also wasn’t feeling very good, so I didn’t eat very much, and there was nothing that my picky children would eat.  I did get some pork and some fish, but didn’t feel up to  trying the raw fish.

Finally, after the meal, we went to a dance and music show, which was very good.  There was loud music, shouting and dancing and it ended off with fire dancing and all three of the older kids sat entranced the entire time.  Bradley was exhausted and fell asleep in Sandra’s arms and only woke up when three warriors ran up the aisle beside us, stopped and shouted.

With the show over, we headed back to the bus and took a very scary hour and half drive back to Waikiki.  The bus driver seemed to think that speed mattered more than anything and I was constantly putting my arm out to hold Evan as he slammed on the brakes.  All four of the boys fell asleep on the bus and hardly woke up when we arrived back in the city.  I carried a groggy Jonathan up to our room and then we got everyone into bed.