Luau time!

We attended a luau at the Polynesian Cultural Center complete with orchid leis, and pua'a (roasted pig).

They called us around the imu to watch as they pulled the pig from the ground where it had been smoking for 8 hours under fire-heated rocks with coconut husk on top and covered with coconut palm leaves.

Dinner was buffet style. Journey tried clams for the first time and loved them! Asher ate a few.

During dinner we watched different style dancers perform. At the end they grabbed a few people from the audience, me included. They taught us a few hula moves and had us dance in front of everyone.

After dinner we had a little time to walk around the islands before the big show began.

The show, "HA, Breath of Life", was amazing! It lasted almost two hours and the kids were begging for more! Fire dancers, poi balls, and dances from each of the islands, really made it a special night that we'll never forget. The dancing was mesmerizing. The story, impactful. I even shed a tear at the end. Before we left, we promised the kids that we'd return. They have an island for each of the Polynesian Islands they represent where you can learn about their life, dance, food and culture. This was such a fantastic experience for our family.

Asher made a heart out of his lei for me.

When we came back a couple days later, we found out that the hip shaking hula is from Tahiti. Hawaiian dancing is a slow moving, hypnotic type of movement. At the Fiji island, the kids bought an ice cold, FRESH coconut from a man who hacked it open with a machete type knife. The water inside came all the way to the top. After we drank that, he scooped out the fresh meat which was more like a slightly chewy, jello-like consistency. That's when I realized I'd never had a fresh coconut before. He said if you can hear it slosh when you shake it, it's not fresh. Aha!

A cute side story- In an attempt to limit paper towel use, we ask the kids to only use one paper towel because we don't want to waste paper and cause more trees to be cut down. He quickly began monitoring everyone's paper towel usage and getting upset if someone used two. He would explain, "if you use two, they cut down palm trees and I love coconuts!" Haha!

Here is where we learned the slow-moving Hawaiian hula. 

Afterwards Journey treated us to her own hula dance while the band continued to play behind her.

My Hawaiian Journey showing the way to the Center's Hawaiian Journey. 

Learning how to use the poi balls from New Zealand's Maori people. They have their 

own now and are still trying to learn how exactly to duplicate what they saw.