Hello! My family just recently returned from a 10 day Oahu vacation. We flew there for FREE with my In-Laws and two year old toddlers. If you missed part 1 or part 2 of the trip make sure to check them out! There is lots of fun, including ATV-ing around where Jurassic Park was filmed, and an epic hike up an old railway!
Let’s jump into where I left off, with day 7!
We really wanted to do a Luau while we were in Hawaii and while there were so many to chose from, we had heard that the one at the Polynesian Cultural Center was awesome from quite a few people, so we decided to book an all day pass to the center!
We started off the day with eating lunch at Ponders, which is right outside the Center. I personally thought it was a bit over priced and not the best food, so just be warned. However, I think it really depended on what you ordered! My In-Laws ordered salads, and they looked amazing and were topped with a lot of good stuff!
We made our way into the Polynesian Cultural Center and right away were swept into a guided tour. If you don’t know much about the PCC (which I didn’t), they are actually owned and operated by BYU. BYU has a campus on Oahu, and therefore a lot of their students work at the PCC and it provides a way for them to pay for school. For this reason, there is some marketing that takes place for BYU, but I wouldn’t say it’s extremely heavy handed, just something to be aware of. Anyway, we got in our tour group (because our ticket included a group guided tour), and we were go go go until it was time for the Luau! PCC is divided into six different villages, representing different countries and cultures. Each village has a show and some activities you can participate in. We enjoyed going to see all of the 6, but because they opened at 12:30, we had to move fast to go to all of them! Especially with toddlers, it was a bit difficult to move so fast, but it helped having someone who knew when the shows were. If we wouldn’t have had a guide, we definitely would have missed out on a lot, and would have probably been a little confused with what shows were available. However, if you want a slower pace, skip the guided tour.
The boys enjoyed some of it, and were a bit bored by other parts, but it was still very doable to have them along.
After our tour, we were able to sit down for our Luau!
There was entertainment all during dinner, and dinner was a large buffet of mostly local foods! The boys ate from the buffet, however they did offer to bring them chicken fingers and french fries.
Everyone at the Luau gets a smoothie in a pineapple, and it was by far the most tasty thing at the luau! They even get you refills!
After the Luau, you have an hour break before the Breathe of Life show. One option they have is for you to take a bus tour. My In-laws went on the tour and found out that it was really a tour of the BYU temple (they didn’t disclose this beforehand). Personally I am glad we stayed and went to the Ukulele store and looked around.
Lastly we went to the Breathe of Life show and it was absolutely amazing! The production was outstanding. With young kids certain parts could be a bit scary, but overall my boys actually really enjoyed it (and they scare easily). At the end of the show it was one of the main actor’s last night in the show and all the rest of the cast did a Haka dance for him! I ended up in tears. We felt so blessed to see a real Haka; they showed us one in one of the villages, but seeing it performed for someone with the true emotions behind it… there was just nothing like it!
Day 8 we decided to take a little slower after a long day the day before. We ended up going to brunch at Plumeria Beach House, which is a beautiful restaurant located in a boutique hotel. It’s way more low key than the area we were staying in, and the restaurant seating had you looking right into the ocean, so it was very peaceful! The food was also amazing! My boys were able to eat free off the buffet (because we chose to!). It might have been the best brunch buffet I’ve ever seen/eaten. Outside the restaurant, there was beach access and a lot of green grass to run around in. They also had a place where dolphins would swim up to, and we all really enjoyed getting to see the dolphins!
Next up on day 8 we went to Urgent care…
yep real life still happens, even in Hawaii. Thankfully it wasn’t an emergency of any sort, but the boys had picked up some sort of cold the last few days while we were there, and Rhodes ended up with an ear infection. We didn’t want to risk anything with flying home in a few days, so we took him to Urgent Care to get an antibiotic. He was also in a lot of pain this day, so we were so thankful to get something to help!
Thankfully our trip to Urgent Care was super quick and we were able to get on with the rest of our day.
We ended up heading to Makapu’u Point Lighthouse Trail. This trail is a family friendly/stroller friendly hike. Be warned it’s very up hill though and it was super duper windy when we went! The whole drive to the trailhead was absolutely stunning, so even if you don’t actually hike this make sure to spend some time driving the coast of the island!
We decided to push the boys in the stroller, and myself, and my MIL ended up turning around once it got too windy for us. However, Todd and his Dad made it to the top to see the lighthouse!
We had planned to go to Haleiwa Joe’s Seafood Grill afterwards, but by the time we made it there they had a long wait, so we ended up picking up something quick in the Hilton Village.
Day 9 was our North Shore day!
We started out our tour with stopping at the instagram famous spot: The Sunrise Shack, for some smoothies and acai bowls! I personally had a smoothie and it was so good!
The boys loved playing in the corn hole board area and chasing around the chickens. A great and easy spot to go with kiddos.
We then drove to Laniakea Beach to see the sea turtles and we lucked out and saw one! Supposedly the best times to see them is between 11 and 1.
We made our next stop at Banzai Pipeline which is a super well known surf beach. They have surf houses that sponsored surfers actually live in right on this beach! We got to see a few surfers and appreciate the beautiful blue water!
Next we headed towards Da Bald Guy, which is a famous food truck on the North Shore. We learned about it from a Disney show that showed great places to eat in Hawaii. They are known for their Hawaiian lunch plates with a flair. The food was so good! Definitely stop here. Also, I didn’t think the boys would be crazy about the options, so I was able to find a grilled cheese and french fries around the corner at Seven Brothers.
We then continued to explore all the fun surf shops in the town of Haleiwa. Pretty much, if you come upon something that looks interesting, definitely stop! That’s the beauty of the North Shore!
It wouldn’t be a true North Shore tour without some shave ice from the also very well known, Matsumoto Shave Ice! I was determined to try “real” shave ice and wouldn’t try it anywhere else first. I wanted the authentic experience, lol! I ended up trying it with condensed milk (loved) and mochi (did not love). The boys were also fans. I thought these pictures were so funny, the one with just them and me you can see how excited they are, and then the group pic, how unhappy they are to stop eating their treat to take a pic!
We ended the day with some shopping and dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.
P.S. be sure to start your North Shore day early as a lot of the shops close at around 4-5.
Day 10 was our departure day!
Before we left though we had one last stop to make at….
Leonard’s! The home of malasadas! I have to say, while the other malasadas we had were good, these were better!
Then we headed to the airport, turned in our Turo car, and flew on a red eye home to Washington D.C. where we landed at 7am and had to then drive 4 hours home! Whew! Thankfully, the boys did awesome on the flight home and slept a good part of it!
We seriously had the best time in Hawaii! I wasn’t expecting the true mix of cultures we experienced, which makes Hawaii so unique! There was so much we were able to do, and at the same time so much more we want to do! I don’t think that will be our last trip to Oahu! 🙂
Have you ever been to Oahu? What is the thing/place you recommend to everyone!?
-Kasey
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