Our Hawaii Staycation

May 13 - 20 we got to have our great friends the Hardies come and visit us! We had a fantastic time seeing a lot of the island, hitting the beach, checking out the local food (and by local of course I mean international), and exploring the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC). It was an awesome staycation. Nate and I got to do a lot of things on the island that we'd been wanting to do but hadn't gotten to yet, plus we got to spend a whole week with great friends!

First things first, we hit the beach out in Kailua:



The next day we stopped by the Laie temple grounds:


And the PCC. Nate and I hadn't been yet. It is so incredible!

At the PCC we watched the canoe pageant. Each represented country did a traditional dance as they went by on these canoes.

Here we are waiting for the show to start. (I wove that fish that Nate is holding at the Samoan village)

We saw this guy climb a really tall coconut tree.

Nate was in his element speaking Samoan, meeting everyone and sporting his Manu Samoa jersey.

Next we went to the Aotearoa (New Zealand) village where we learned how to spin poi balls (warrior training). Joe was very good at it.

We played tititorea, a stick tossing game also used in warrior training to develop hand-eye coordination. I'm pretty sure we played a version of this in my elementary school music class.

We got some tattoos (removable of course) and practiced our Maori war faces. Check out Joe in the background.


There was so much more to see, but that was all we had time for before heading to dinner and the night show "Ha: the Breath of Life." The show was really cool. It follows a archetypal Polynesian boy as he grows up, with performances from all the different islands.

And of course, we got to meet the cutest baby ever!

All of this was just in the first two days! There's more to come and I promise you won't want to miss it!