The Walley/ Plouff Vacation Continues

It hardly feels like we've stopped while Derek's family has been here. We've had a few things that we've done for the second or third time but we've also gotten to do a few big new things too. We had a brief visit into China Town. It looks like quite an interesting place to visit, but apparently not at night. The homeless are plentiful around here and it seems even more so in China Town which isn't one of the best places. So, we'll visit again during the daylight but for this trip stopped in and had an authentic Chinese meal. Renee even ordered the shark's fin soup. The girls were pretty grossed out but Jett enjoyed it a lot! The girls had a night out shopping and we took the trolley to Hilo Hattie's to get a little hula rhythm into Renee & Freddye. Freddye's birthday was last Wednesday and we went over to the lagoon to try out Paddle boarding and then ended her special day with a trip to Puu Ualakaa State Park for one of the most amazing sunset views across the west coast of the island. We've visited the Bishop Museum again- we got season passes to it. This really is an amazing museum. We've visited it twice now and haven't covered more than maybe a quarter of all there is to see. They have such good hands on stuff throughout for the kids too that it's perfect for all of us to go to together! We also spent one day driving up the east coast of the island to the Polynesian cultural center. As a last minute stop we went to The Valley Of Temples to see the Byodo In Temple. The setting was amazing and the fog like clouds in the mountains behind it made the place stunning. Afterwards we went to the theme park which covers 7 island nations- Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji, etc. They do shows and demonstrations for each and then we had a luau afterwards and then a wonderful show at the end full of hula, dancing and a great story. It was another tiring and beautiful day!