Day 2!
My dad had to work that day but luckily it was his last day working. So my mom and I spent the day together! My mother actually let me sleep in that day! Until like 8:00! It was awesome. We both got ready and headed to The Polynesian Culture Center. My mom has been before but I was super excited because I have heard that it’s really cool!
The view from our hotel. Not great but NBD
Breakfast: Cinnamon roll and a chocolate donut
The view from breakfast
We headed out around 10:00. From our hotel it was going to be about an hour drive to get to the Polynesian Center
The sky went from this…
…To this within like 5 minutes. It was nuts
This made me think about what my nephews would do whenever they went under an overpass or in a tunnel. What did they do, you ask? SCREAM! At the top of their lungs. Haha.
This side of the island is so green! I love it
My and my mothers goal this trip was to find a license plate from another state. Check! Good ole California
We got to the Polynesian Center at 11:00 but of course it didn’t open until noon. So we decided to go down the street and look at the temple :)
I love how the street leading up to the temple is covered with palm trees
It is absolutely gorgeous
Thinking about my missionary
Sending my love from Hawaii all the way to Poland <3
Fun fact: We were on completely different time zones while I was here. When it was 8:00AM in Hawaii, it was 8:00PM in Poland. That just blew my mind. Basically we were never awake at the same time. Lol.
We went into the Visitors Center and looked around.
Found a Polish Book of Mormon :)
My momma and I
We finally were able to head back to the Polynesian Center around 12:15 and that place was already packed. We went in, bought our tickets and right as we started walking into the place, it started to rain but luckily it cleared up really quick. We grabbed a quick bite to eat at the snack bar, chicken nuggets and fish & chips off of the kids menu. Haha. Yeah, the funny thing is that neither of us could finish everything. Glad we didn’t do the Polynesian Buffet. So, if you haven’t been here before basically what you do is…they give you a program that has a list of times when certain cultures are going to put on a show, you walk around and get to watch whatever show of your choosing. Each one lasts about 30 minutes.
First stop: The Aotearoa
This is one of the Polynesian cultures that I didn’t know too much about so it was very interesting to see what dances they do. My High School had a lot of Tongans and Samoans. I was friends with a lot of them and during the talent show, most of them would do a lot of the dances. What I didn’t know was that my favorite dance, the haka, is actually a dance from the Aotearoa.
I got a tattoo! It means strength
Next stop: Samoa!
I was very excited for this one. Most of my friends are Samoan. They do this yell and luckily I got practice in high school with it. CHEE HOO! ;)
This guy was so funny
They showed us how to climb a palm tree and then posed for us
Preaching just like my boyfriend ;)
They made it feel like you were on a completely separate island
At about 2:00, they shut down all other shows to put on one giant show of all of the cultures. Each culture did like one dance but it was awesome to be able to see them all. The coolest past was that they performed on little boats!
Hawaii
Tonga
Tahiti
Aotearoa
Samoa
Fiji
Afterwards, my mom and I went to Tonga to watch their show.
This is the Fangu-Fangu or you can just call it the nose flute. Glad I didn’t have to play that flute in Jr. High.
The let the audience participate and play the drums
Last stop before heading home: Fiji
I didn’t get any pictures of this one because we had to participate the whole time by tapping a stick on the ground while they sang. But I did get a picture with a couple of them afterwards.
This guy kept calling me “Utah”
After spending most of the day at the Polynesian Center, my mom and I went to a grocery store and bought some post cards to send to my nephews and I also bought an awesome sticker of a shark for my car! I’m so excited to put it on :)
Once we got back to the hotel, my dad was waiting there for us. He was now officially all done with work! And his vacation could officially begin. We went to dinner at a restaurant that was just right outside our hotel, it was called Longboards.
As we were walking to dinner, we caught the sunset! It was absolutely gorgeous!!
My cute parents
The parents with their favorite child :)
Before we left on this trip I kept thinking about what I really wanted to get as souvenir. I remember one time when I was about 10, my dad went on a trip for work to New Orleans. He brought me back this bracelet that was engraved with my name and I thought that it was the coolest thing ever. That was the one thing that I wanted to get while on this trip. As my mom and I were leaving the Polynesian Center, I noticed a booth where you could get a temporary tattoo. I kept walking because that didn’t interest me, but I looked back and that’s when I noticed the booth next to it had a bunch of bracelets and then it clicked that this is exactly what I had been wanting. I ordered one and it only took them about 5 minutes to engrave.
It’s even better than I was imagining <3
Mikala=Mike
Akalei=Ashlee
Oh, and I’m actually thinking about starting a sleeve. What do you think? ;) Total JK.
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