Hawaii ’05

We took the opportunity while in Laie to visit the LDS Temple.
Laie is on the North side of Oahu.  The North side is green a lush
while the south side of the island where we’re staying has more
buildings and is not as green.

Click here for pictures.

There is a strong Asian influence
here in architecture and culture.  The visitor’s center and the
Laie temple had many exhibits geared towards its many Asian visitors
who may not necessarily believe in a God at all.  With that in
mind, the visitor center had a great video about the world having a
creator.  The first part of the movie was projected onto a
waterfall that fell in a thin sheet in front of the movie screen on the
wall.

We learned that there are very few animals that live the rain forests
here compared to rain forests in South America.  It makes sense if you
think about since Hawaii is the most remote set of islands in the whole
world.  How would land animals get here on their own?  So, there is
little concern of meeting dangerous animals while you’re out and about
in the jungle.  It’s also interesting to think about how the first
natives arrived here to the islands because Hawaii is so far away from
other lands masses.  If the travels that first came to the islands
traveled a bit more to the north or south, they could have easily
missed the islands.  So it seems like it was more than chance that
landed those first travelers here to the islands.

We saw a sea turtle (in the sea of course).  It was swimming right
where the waves were breaking on the shore.  We took a picture of its
head as it came up for air.  Where we were standing, we could see the
outline of the turtle’s body.

We visited a bonsai master on the island that lives right up by the
mountains.  It looks as if the mountains jet straight up from the
ground.

We visited the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) which was founded by
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  The center had
displays and activities from various islands within the Pacific.  We
even went to a grand luau.