Thurber Hawaii Trip: Day 2, Polynesian Cultural Center

 Thursday July 14, 2022

I slept in an hour later! 5:00 instead of 4am haha. I think we all woke up a little later than the previous day. I took Ian to the beach with the Blaylocks. Ian swam for a bit. I was in my pjs, so I just sat on the beach. We hung around for a while, munched on stuff for breakfast (I kinda went crazy on the poke from Costco), braided hair, and painted nails until we hopped in the van around 10am.

Gabe and Elisa slept better than yesterday.

We drove to Kahuku fruit stand (more like a cluster of fruit stands) where we enjoyed guava, fresh coconuts, dragon fruit, and fried banana. Then we stopped at 7 Brothers for lunch. I wasn’t that hungry, so I split the cowboy burger with Tootsie.

The girls obsessed over their treasures from the swap meet. 

Enjoying some fruit and coconuts at the roadside fruit stand.

Tootsie and I shared this huge hamburger.

I made Ian and Aiden matching shirts, which they wore to the PCC.

Then we drove two more minutes to the Polynesian Cultural Center: our main activity of the day. Our first stop was Samoa, where we were thoroughly entertained. Most of the day was spent going around to the different islands and watching the shows and learning about the culture of each one. The other half was spent waiting for people with small bladders to go to the bathroom over and over again. We had a good time! The kids mostly did too, except Ian had a moment, and Aaliyah fell asleep on the grass during the Tahitian wedding ceremony.

We learned about coconuts and cooking in Samoa; we went back later to try the coconut and bananas.

We stopped briefly in Aotearoa.

We learned to play an "instrument" in Fiji.

They actually had room for all of us to take an ukulele lesson together.

We renewed our wedding vows in Tahiti (proof that Mark and Cindy are married).

Out last stop was in Hawaii where we practiced the hula.

After “touring” each island, we headed over to the buffet. I don’t remember there being such a variety of food last time I was there! So. Much. Food. Most of it was pretty good. Much, much better than Chuck-a-Rama anyway! My favorite was the white fish with the chili sauce and the fruit. The kids were obsessed with the Longan fruit. The desserts were good too.

We stuffed our bellies with all we could eat and waddled over to the show. We took our seats and enjoyed the most amazingly awesome luau show ever.