July 2008 - the video starts with Genny getting in trouble for trying to touch a turtle. "No touching! Aloha! Aloha!" It's a favorite memory of the trip. This is at Turtle Beach (Honulani) at Laniakea, Oahu, Hawaii. The song is Tortues (Turtles) from Saint-Saens' Le Carnaval des Animaux.

Short clips of the evening show at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Laie, Oahu, Hawaii. Lots of fire and drums.

I've fallen far behind in my efforts to document family activities. Here's a video from a visit to the Polynesian Cultural Center last July. I was going to incorporate some video of the evening show and boat parade, but it ended up way too long. The opening song is Hawaiian War Chant, performed by The Muppets.

Waimea Bay  - The dolphins were pretty far away and I was whipping the camera back and forth trying to catch where they were most active. I finally got this one is on its way back into the water.

On July 29 we went snorkeling at Shark's Cove on the North Shore of Oahu. It was so much cooler than expected. We had disposable underwater cameras and the photos are for the most part underwhelming, but some of them turned out decent. Wendy and I followed a turtle around for 5 minutes and spent most of the roll of film on it.

Here are some photos - 

On Day 2 in Oahu, we jumped over a gate with a No Trespassing sign and hiked up a little mountain in Laie (or Lā'ie if you want to get all fancy) for an excellent view. I was driving home from work today listening to this song by Patty Griffin and thought it fit pretty well with the hike and made it seem more dramatic than it was. The song is called Up to the Mountain (MLK Song) and you might recognize it from a rendition by what's-her-name in American Idol a couple of seasons ago.

On the last day of our Hawaii trip last month, the boys headed back up to the North Shore (town of Haleiwa) for a shark dive with Hawaii Shark Encounters. It was even cooler than expected. We pumped ourselves up for it by watching Discovery Channel shark attacks earlier in the week.