Polynesian Cultural Center

The Polynesian Cultural Center is one of Oahu's biggest attractions, and it's no wonder why.  You can learn a lot about Polynesian history and culture by visiting here, but in a fun way!  There are so many things to do here.  I'd suggest watching as many of the shows for the different islands as you can, and filling in the rest of the time with all of the extra activities they have.  From leaf weaving to cooking, canoeing to dancing, you will never be bored.  After the park closes for the day, they have an optional dinner and night show.  The dinner is nothing special, so don't get too excited about that.  The night show is fun, but the plot doesn't really make sense.  So go if you'd like to see fire dancers and people doing the hula, but don't expect an amazing story to go along with it.  The PCC is definitely a do-not-miss activity!

The night show, Breath of Ha

This is where the cheap dinner is held

Bishop Museum

We had a great time at the Bishop Museum.  You can view their website here for prices and open times/dates: http://www.bishopmuseum.org/.  We enjoyed the science museum the most because they have fun interactive exhibits, live fish, and even hot lava that you can see.  There was a cool dinosaur exhibit that I really enjoyed as well.  The planetarium had the worst dome show I have ever seen in my life.  All they did was talk about how cool they thought their non-digital light thingy was.  So I'd suggest skipping that unless they come up with something actually not-lame in the future.  The Hawaiian part of the exhibits was interesting.  The building it was in was very cool and I loved the suspended sea creatures.  We learned a little bit more about Hawaiian history and overall had a nice experience.  The one thing about this museum is that it is quite expensive, but if you are planning on going to any museum in Hawaii, this is the one to go to.

Lava!

Gross...

Awesome glow-in-the-dark tunnel

This creeps me out...

Murder at the train station

Love my puffs

Honolulu Museum of Art/Spalding House

The Honolulu Museum of Art is located on Beretania Street in downtown Honolulu.  Blake and I were able to go there on Kama'aina Free day, so we didn't have to pay anything to go.  Normally it is $10 to visit the museums (with admission you get to visit the Museum of Art and the Spalding House.)  I really like art museums so I enjoyed myself.  The Hawaiian art section was closed which was disappointing, because it'd be great to see Hawaiian art while in Hawaii.  I probably wouldn't recommend going here while on vacation unless art museums are your favorite thing in the world, especially because it'll cost you $10 each.

There was a Georgia O'Keefe and Ansel Adams exhibit.  I snapped a photo of the first one I saw, then learned that we're not allowed to take pictures in that exhibit.  Lame.

Photo bomb

Indian bridal shawl

Our next stop was the Spalding House.  It has more contemporary art than the main museum.  I'm gonna be honest, this place creeped me out.  It had the strangest exhibits and the the freakiest music video I've ever seen (Radiohead's Weird Fishes,) especially the small building that was dark inside except for a few faint red lights and decorations that could have been painted by a child except for the dark creature lurking by the fireplace.  But, the weirdness also made it fun and memorable.  There is a network of trails behind the house that are fun to explore and really pretty.

View of Diamond Head

One of the props from the creepy music video.

This little guy tried to get himself run over by our car.