The Polynesian Cultural Center

Most of our trip in Hawaii, Andrew and I would wake up around 5:30 to watch the sunrise. 

Now that sounds all cool and impressive, especially when you know that Andrew and I are night owls!

But it was 9:30 in Utah. We weren't fully on Utah time though and not fully on Hawaii time, so somewhere in between. 

No matter what strange time zone we were in, we loved the sunrise!

This morning after the sunrise I went on my run and Andrew went for a swim with his dad in the ocean. I joined 

him after my run and not 2 minutes before, Andrew and his dad had seen a sea turtle just swimming around in the water.

How neat is that? They were out for a morning snorkel and they see a sea turtle! I think that was one of the highlights 

of their entire trip!

After our morning swim, the first place we went was Matsumoto's Shaved Ice. 

It is the only one ever and it was good stuff. If you ever go there I recommend the Matsumototo

flavor combination. It was SO good! 

^Showing off our colored tongues. Mine was really faded but you can see a small tint of green^

For the rest of the day we were at the Polynesian Cultural Center. It was a really neat place where we experienced some of 

the culture of the various islands of Polynesia (hence the name of the place, haha).

I am a person who LOVES to experience and learn about different cultures and people. I loved hearing them sing

and watch them dance. Some cultures talked about some of their history and traditions. Totally up my ally. 

I totally forgot what countries they were, but there are two separate countries in Polynesia, it takes a 45 minutes flight

to get from one to the other. BUT, it is a 23 hour time difference because of the international date line! 

Is that crazy or what?! I love learning random facts like that! 

^In "Fiji"^

^One of the sisters from my mission works at the PPC and it was great to see her for a hot second!^

At the PPC we tried coconut bread which was delicious and tried to throw a spear. Andrew was not half bad. 

Me on the other hand, it's a good thing we don't depend on my spear throwing capabilities for food. haha. 

Amy and I were shown how to dance. We watched the video of us attempting to dance and you can see the Poly blood

does not run through our veins.

One neat thing  learned about was the origin of the Shaka.

So here's a brief history lesson:

Hamana Kalili was working in a sugar mill and he lost the first 3 middle fingers on his right hand. He was 

later reassigned to the sugar cane railroad, and he would wave his right hand to have the train come.

People thought it was an island thing so they started to start doing it too. Also he conducted the Mormon choir in
Laie and they knew his hand signal too. I just had no idea of how the shaka became a thing, and my mind was blown. 

We ate at the luau where a 10 year old kid was fire dancing! It was impressive!

We went to the night show, "Ha- Breath of Life." I found it online and started it at a funny and impressive part
to watch. 

It was fun to watch the full thing in person and see this wild stuff they did! It was incredible! 

Overall I loved the PPC but personally I think it's a little overpriced and not run efficiently. 

A lot of our time we were wandering because we had no idea where we were going or what to do.

Then things close after dinner so you wait around for over an hour waiting for the evening show to start

(we had the early luau). They do give you additional days to come back and do the activities but our condo was over
an hour away. It wasn't worth our time to drive all they way back, especially when we had other things we wanted to do. 

We were able to talk to some of the sister missionaries though and learn about their day to day schedule. 

We love finding missionaries wherever we go! Missions are the best!

And here is one of the many sunrise pictures we took. Hawaii is one beautiful place.