The Christensen Family: North Shore Day! Laie Temple, PCC, 7 Brothers, and Crab Catching

Joe lent us one of their cars so we could take the hour drive to the North Shore and attend the temple as a family and go see some of the attractions there.

The Drive & Scenery

It was a beautiful drive to the North Shore. It's not a great distance, but the speed limits are low, so it allowed us to enjoy the scenery. I just loved the mountains- super steep slopes, almost straight up from the ground, green everywhere!

Laie, Hawaii Temple

From my temple journal, Friday, Nov. 25, 2022

"What a blessing to have been able to attend the Lai'e Temple with my family today! We were blessed by God in a tender mercy way. The only reason we got a reservation time was because a "mistake" the temple presidency made in opening up the 10am time slot when a ward had reserved the time. I took the only 4 openings they had for months. That was a mini-sweet-miracle.
I enjoyed all aspects of my temple experience today. First we walked around the grounds and just appreciated and admired the beauty of creation and caring found in the manicured, beautiful landscape. God was found there. The banyan trees are gorgeous! The weather was gorgeous too!
Because of the other group, we had time to watch proxy baptisms and wait. I enjoyed that time because I could pay attention to the art and architecture and be taught by my surroundings. There were 6 Roman archways with murals painted above them. Each depicted the ancient apostles doing miracles or teaching. Only one mural was of Christ specifically and it was Him being baptized. It struck me as a beautiful concept that others were commissioned to help out Christ and do His work. Once called and covenanted, they dedicate their lives to His work. That is just what we do too in proxy work. We are commissioned by Christ to help others make covenants.

Another awesome thing was Steve was the baptizer for an elderly woman we met outside who had Chinese family names to baptize. Steve baptized her as she stood as a proxy for her family, and the names were cool, written in Chinese symbols. Steve read the English translations really well. Two of those names, as their work was being done, I could sense great feelings of joy.

I liked pondering what it would be like to have the Savior take us individually into the waters of baptism.

Later while everyone was doing proxy confirmations, because I was pressed for time, I went over and rented some white clothes to change into so I could enter the celestial room. There, I sat, pondered, and prayed. It was a dream come true to see the building and the space my parents were in 40+ years ago getting married and starting our family. That family broke. Yet, I have a divine assurance that God can make things ok. Christ can fix all kinds of broken things we're incapable of. I have no idea how, when, or what will happen, but I know because of Christ I have hope and happiness." I truly do.

The temple drive

Beautiful Banyan tree near the temple baptistry

Can you see my family at the base of the tree? It gives you a perspective of just how grand it is.

Selfie in front of the top temple fountain looking out toward the road.

Laie, Hawaii Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The Polynesian Cultural Center

We bought lunch at a crepe vendor right before we went into the PCC (Polynesian Cultural Center). It was not cheap, but the girls really wanted the Nutella strawberry crepe, and they didn't want to share, and we needed to eat, and none of our options were budget-friendly... so we splurged. Steve would rather starve than fork over that much cash for a crepe, so while he refused food, the girls got their dessert crepes and I got a pesto shrimp crepe. It cost about $50 for those 3 crepes. I admit that was a blow to my psyche about the state of affairs in this world, but to make matters worse, Lily was eating too slow and we were all waiting on her, so when we told her to bring her food with her so we could get going, she lost her grip on her plate and the crepe landed face down on the sidewalk! NOOOO! That was so tragic. After releasing a few unhelpful remarks about throwing away money, I stopped myself and just screamed inside. I could tell Lily was upset and disappointed but she kept it in. She lost her appetite.

We felt pressed for time because the villages are only open from noon-5, and we wanted to get the most out of our day. The following photos are some cool things we saw and did.

No idea what this is, but it looked really cool.

A zoomed out pic of the one above

Making poi at the Hawaiian village.

My selfie with Jason Momoa (he's the guy in the big guy in the background). I don't even know who he is, never seen his movies. The only reason I thought I should take a picture is because the guy making the poi was totally star-struck and excited that Jason Momoa was there. He kept saying, "Oh no! The poi isn't ready and he's coming this way!"

Just a pic to prove it was Jason Momoa. His entourage seemed to be following the same plan we were in making our way through the villages. Amara got a better paparazzi pic of him when we were in the village of Tonga.

Ancient Hula demonstration

Trying an ancient Hawaiian game

Another ancient Hawaiian game, rolling a disc through the sticks

More poi makers. We tasted the poi, but both times it wasn't finished, it was still really gummy.

In Tahiti we sample delicious coconut bread and learned their method of cooking it in the ground oven.

Check out that LEAF!

Apple bananas!

It was amazing to watch these guys scale the coconut trees with their bare feet.

We learned to weave a little fish

Cool flowers!

Another cool tree

A great family pic by the waterfall

This statue was at the entrance to the PCC. Shaka!

7 Brothers Burgers

The Paniolo Burger. Huge. Joe gave me a bite and it was legit! It was much like a western burger you'd find at other burger places with bbq sauce and onion rings, but on steroids!

We were tired and hungry after a full day at the temple and PCC, and Joe's family drove to the North Shore to meet us for dinner and to take us crab catching. Joe recommended 7 Brothers. I've heard of this place and seen it referenced on TV. It's famous for big burgers. Well, let's just say, our food did not disappoint.

These fries were smothered in special sauce and cheese.

Steve got a grilled cheese. He liked it. I think he just couldn't swallow paying double digits for a burger, so he ordered something with a single digit.

Teri - Samoa

My burger was SOOOOO GOOOOOOD! I want to re-create it at home since I can't get any burger this big on flavor where I live.

The cousins crew

Crab Catching at Hukilau Beach

Hukilau Beach is owned by our church and was a great place to hunt for sand crabs. You gotta go out at night when they're active. They're sand colored and clear, so a bit hard to spot, but with flashlights our group caught lots. We did have to watch our step so we didn't accidentally step on a Portuguese man-o-war which were also scattered all along that beach.