Day three on Oahu was spent doing touristy activities as well. In the morning we drove to the Byodo-In Temple in the Valley of the temples. It was beautiful; set in a well-maintained still active cemetery. It was built in the 1960's (with no nails) to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrant workers in Hawaii who came to work in the sugar plantation fields. It is a replica of the 950-year-old Byodo-in Temple located in Uji, Japan on the southern outskirts of Kyoto.
The kids had fun ringing the five-foot, three-ton brass Peace Bell. They say that ringing this bell will bring you happiness, blessings, and a long life. It is customarily rung before entering the temple.
The next stop on this really hot day was at the Sea Life Park. I have to say, we were not impressed with the park. The habitats were small and seemingly not well maintained. There were fewer exhibits than when I was last there in 2002. The dolphin show was cool though...too bad you had to sit in the full midday sun for an hour to see it. I will post a video of it here when I get it uploaded. There was a wholphin named Kekaimalu who was featured. A wholphin or wolphin is a rare hybrid, born from a mating of bottlenose dolphin (mother), and a false killer whale. You can see her in the video. She is the big one.
We left the sea life park early because everyone was hot and cranky and wanted to play in/on/around the water, so we checked out the pipeline and dorked around the North Shore until it was time to go back to the condo.
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