HAWAII!!!! Friday

On Friday morning, we got some fruit for breakfast at the Foodland up the street along with $100 worth of chocolate covered macadamia nuts. For thank you gifts. OK, and for us. So many flavors to try! I'm obsessed with the toffee ones.

 

Then we made it to the 9am endowment session at the temple. The Hawaii temple is so huge and beautiful, but I think the grounds might even be more beautiful. It's a heavenly place in a heavenly place. ;) Something about the huge, looming clouds always swirling above and the crystal blue pool, surrounded by a thick, green landscape. I wish we had more time to just walk around.

(NOW)

 (THEN)

I changed partners. ;)

For lunch, we went over to the Hukilau Café. It's in a neighborhood right next to the temple. I don't actually remember eating here in college, so maybe we never did. But it's weird we didn't, given how close it was and what an icon it is.

 

So this place is what one usually calls... a dive. ;)

But it's all good in the hood, cuz it's SUPER YUMMY!!

I was not expecting to like this place so much, but it was AMAZING. I got a traditional type of combo plate with fried fish and shrimp and teriyaki beef, sidled next to macaroni salad and rice. And that macaroni salad was definitely made with full fat mayonnaise! Haha! I can just picture the big tub of it in the back, slopped on by the cupful. It was yuuuuummy. Travis got the Hukilau burger and I almost died when I took a bite. It had a fried egg and teriyaki beef on it. Legit. I wanted to eat BOTH our plates! If I had known how good this was at the beginning of the week, I'd have made sure to come more than once for sure!

From there, we drove up the street, to spend the day at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It felt really weird to be going to a "theme park" of sorts and to not be pulling out a stroller when we parked. Kind of great though. It opens at noon and we got there at 12:20pm. Mistake! We should have been there right at 12pm! (Technically, they even open the islands at 11:45am) There is SO much to do and see here and there is just not enough time to do it all. It stressed my planning self out. To explain... this place is pretty big and it's divided up into 6 different "villages", representing 6 different islands/cultures. Each island has a presentation or show sort of thing at various times throughout the day. Each one lasted about 20-25 minutes. But they also just have a bunch of stuff to see or do there. Like hula dancing, native games, ukulele lessons, or just huts to tour and see how they lived. All we really got to do was see each of the villages' shows.  

We ran to make it the 12:30 show at the Fijian village.

This guy did some geography stuff then had us practice making music with our own big, bamboo stick. We'd pound it on the floor, following his rhythm. Then we "accompanied" him through a few songs. They had native dancers come out and do a few numbers too.

 

Next, was the Tongan village! This one was funny!

This guy asked for some volunteers. We were right in front and I started pointing at Travis and holding his hand up. He got picked, haha! Sweet!

After donning the skirts, he had them follow him through some hips shakin' moves. 

 

Then, one by one, he'd have each of the three guys come center stage with him to do a number on the drums or dance, etc. When it was Travis's turn, he followed the guy or a bit, then busted out into the Lion King's "Hakuna Matata"! The whole room cracked up laughing. I was dying! I couldn't believe he was being so spunky. Turns out, he was coached to do it. They told him beforehand to start singing a song instead of following the other guys lead. It was hysterical and totally made the show. I LOVE that he's a ham and willing to go up and be silly.

 

At the end, they were each "knighted" with a coconut leaf crown.

After Tonga, we went to the Iosepa's presentation. We were a little confused about which island this was. Turns out, it wasn't an island, but the name of this massive, wooden canoe. This guy is a Hawaiian and majors in Hawaiian studies at BYU-H. Part of that includes learning how to sail a canoe. This one was 9 tons! 12 tons loaded and with a crew on board. And last summer, he was part of a crew that took this thing out on the ocean and sailed for a month or something crazy like that. They lived on it and used old fashioned navigation to get around. He said the bathroom consisted of a harness on the outside that you strap yourself to, then just... go. Sheesh!

It was interesting to learn about, but in hindsight, I might have foregone this one to spend more time in one of the villages. 

We had just a bit of time before the next show, so we went back to Fiji to watch a coconut oil making demonstration. (If we had known that the Samoa show does this too, we probably wouldn't have done it!) But it was totally crazy to watch this guy spear a coconut and strip its shell off. Then he sat down and scraped it on a sharp tool to get enough shavings to "milk". Milking it meant scooping up the shavings and muscle-arm squeezing them until they dripped milk. If you let the milk sit out, it eventually separates and you get oil! Or to speed up the process you could boil it. He drizzled a little in each of our hands as a lotion. He said they use every part of the coconut tree. 

After that, it was time for the river show, or "Canoe Pageant" as they call it. The whole place shuts down and everyone lines the river to watch for 1/2 hour. Each island has a float and they take turns coming out and doing a dance while an authentic band plays. 

Tahiti definitely takes the show with their Shakira, hip shaking moves! I think I need to get me one of those skirts. ;)

Next, we went over to Hawaii's show. I liked this one because they taught us a hula dance!! Totally reminded me of hula class at BYU. It's so graceful. I would go crazy if hula was the only kind of dance in the world, but just for every once in a while, I think it's really fun.

 

Then we tried to get to the Tahitian show next because only at 3:30 did they showcase a traditional Tahitian wedding. It was already super crowded when we got there, so we just sat on the grass. OK, forgive me for this next part, but do you see the woman in the middle of this picture? I know it's hard to make her out, but.... she was the "mother of the bride" during the ceremony. The TAHITIAN ceremony. We were a little perplexed at her Asian complexity. Who knows, maybe some of them are part Asian.

During the wedding vows, they had everyone who was married stand up and participate. Travis was totally surprising me by playing along! So we ended up renewing our wedding vows in Tahitian, haha. Very romantical. :)

From there, we went to Samoa's show. It was already packed again, so we had to squeeze in on the side. The main guy for this show was funny. Kind of in a macho/Rico Suave way. He seemed a little familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

Then I came home and was browsing my old Hawaii pictures, and lo and behold!!!!! It's the same guy from when I went to the PCC years ago! Who knew you could make a career out of it.

 Samoa's show was pretty good. They had a fire knife dance and a guy climbed a coconut tree. Everything you'd expect a Samoan to do. ;) 



 

 Finally, we ended with the Aotearoa village... aka New Zealand. We were actually one of the first people to walk up so one of the native girls took us aside and asked if we wanted to help participate in their opening ceremony. Basically, we just walked behind her, into the enclosed village courtyard as the warrior New Zealanders approached us doing a scary dance. Trying to intimidate us I guess. Another guy with us, laid down a coin symbolizing that we came in peace and then when that was accepted, the native girl in the very back, by the building, started singing. Meaning we could enter. Her singing was beautiful and totally creepy at the same time. They shake their hands when they sing, which sort of makes them look mentally unstable. Just being honest. At any rate, we were the first to go in, with the crowds of people watching, following us.



Tell me these people don't freak you out.

No, I told you I wanted the BLEEDING statue for my home!

I decided a couple of things after visiting the villages:

The Tongans and Samoans are the funny ones.

The New Zealanders are creepy, but have the best accents. (Seriously, I could listen to them talk forever.)

The Tahitians get the sessy award. All the other islanders wish they could move like them. ;)

And the Hawaiians get the best chocolate covered macadamia nut award. Haha. Kidding. I think this would be considered a recent acquisition for them. ;)

 

It was luau time after that! I was starvin' marvin! We had to wait in a pretty long line to be seated. We got lei-ed first. Travis retorted that he didn't realize it was that kind of dinner. Bwa-ha.

We couldn't help ourselves and ordered some fancy pina-colada drinks.

I can not believe I didn't take a picture of our sumptuous food. I couldn't even finish my first plate. There was pulled pork, rice, pineapple, papaya, shoyu-glazed chicken, taro rolls and sweet potatoes. Salads, fish, teriyaki strip loin, and chili. For dessert they had some really yummy guava cake, bread pudding with sauce, pineapple bars and chocolate Haupia cake. They also had a whole pig that had been cooked underground, out on a table for the taking. I ate until I was sick. But my favorite was the pulled pork, teriyaki beef, papaya, and guava cake. I should have just filled up on those! I reallllly wish we had a two stomach option at times like these. 

Another BEFORE shot. :)

I'm shocked that I remember these girls' names, but I'm pretty sure that's Mackensie and Heidi. We did a lot with them.



At one point, they invite anyone up on stage who is celebrating an anniversary to dance. I think he must know by now that I love sweet gestures and dancing. ;) The thing though, is we're not very serious. All the other couple seemed to be quietly lost in the moment, but we just crack jokes and giggle throughout it.

Then they had a few people go up to learn a Tahitian dance. Don't worry guys, I was all over this one, haha. I'm afraid I don't quite have what it takes, but you if you want to watch me shake my big bum, feel free. ;)

After the luau, we hurried over to the auditorium to get in the "Hawaiian Journey" movie. It's basically like an IMAX theater that is hooked up to spray water at you or gently tilt your seat forwards or backwards, to go along with the film. It was pretty cool. It's like a birds eye view of the island and swoops down through canyons, over the ocean splashing on the rocks, and up a waterfall. It could almost give your motion sickness. It lasted about 20 min. My stomach was not doing too hot through all of it though and I was anxious to get to a restroom. That anxiousness turned to emergency however, when we stood up. (Don't you love these details? I don't just give you the good stuff on this blog. TMI finds it's way in too.) You can imagine my horror when they announced we would all be exiting through the doors on the right hand side of the room. Yup, we were on the very left. I watched in total panic mode as hundreds of people slowly meandered towards the doors, clogging my escape route. All sorts of scenarios shot through my head as I decided if pushing and shoving would become necessary. I'm sure you can hear it now, " 'scuse me! Ate a little too much at the luau! You know luau food, *uncomfortable laugh*. Just need to get to the bathroom! If you want to keep your shoes clean, let me through!!!!" Luckily, all I had to do was hop over one row to get of there in time. My poor husband. I'm a winner.

By then, the only thing we hadn't done was the canoe ride. But after exiting that bathroom, I told Travis someone would have to shoot me before I got on a canoe at that point. So we walked over to the massive auditorium to wait for the Night Show to start. It was called "HA, Breath of Life". It basically told the story of a baby being born and his passages of life that he goes through, incorporating all the different island's cultures into it. The set was really cool. It even had a huge, working waterfall in the middle of it. There was a lot of dancing, singing, a fire knife show, and the comical fire hopping skit.. I guess you could call it. We were under strict command to not take any pictures or video. But I took this one before it started of these Grandmas puzzling over their flip phones. It seems absolutely outrageous to not have a smart phone, but then I realized I was one of them just 3 years ago. How is that even possible?!

The show went from 7:30-9pm and we were quick to get out of there before the parking lot got crowded and the buses interfered. It was so nice to just drive 10-15 minutes to our hotel and call it a night. Just a little sad.. ok devastated.. that it was our last night. :(