Hawaii 2012. Day six.
Thursday was Polynesian Cultural Center Day.
We had a *tiny* hiccup getting there. I had booked the transportation with our package for their PCC. While most of the shuttles/buses were picking us up at our hotel, this bus was going to pick us up at the Waikiki Beach Marriott at 11 am. Well, I looked and it was seriously across the street. No. Big. Deal.
Well anyone who knows me, knows I'm a procrastinator. I'll admit it. It has gotten worse with each kid. Even when they aren't with me, it's like I mentally know I have four (and a half) kids and I drag myself around. At this point of our trip, this preggo was getting pretty exhausted. The PCC was one of Jason's things, so I wasn't moving very quick that morning. He kept bouncing off the walls asking me to get ready, it made me stall even more. Oops. So I was just barely ready when we headed towards the elevator at 10:50-ish. We walked across the street, around the front of the building where it said "Shops at Waikiki Marriott" and around to the other side looking for the lobby/entrance to the hotel. Just then we saw a Polynesian Cultural Center bus headed in the opposite direction of where we were walking (it was a one way street). So we turned around and followed it, as quickly as a pregnant chick and a dude pushing a stroller can that is. By the time we caught it, it had pulled up across from the Marriott, as we saw another Polynesian Cultural Center bus pulling away from the Marriott and out into traffic. J went and asked the driver of the bus we had chased and she said it wasn't our bus, go wait at our designated spot.
At this point it's past 11, and we were pretty sure the other bus was ours. Jason was not pleased with me. So while he stood and waited, angry and not talking to me, I wandered into the lobby (hey we finally found it!) to find some bottles of water. I quickly got and paid for waters in one of the 30+ ABC stores in Waikiki and returned to the street to find Jason standing outside of a bus, trying to call me. We hadn't missed it after all. Thank goodness. My husband would've been angry with me all day if my procrastination had caused us to miss it!
So we settled in for the nearly hour ride up to Laie, Hawaii, home of the Polynesian Cultural Center, Brigham Young University Hawaii, and the Laie Temple. Our tour guide was pretty awesome in giving us a history of the areas of Oahu that we were passing through. He pointed out a handful of places that were prominent in Hollywood productions such as 50 first dates, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, Lost, and Pearl Harbor. He pointed out local plants, agricultural interests, and tourist attractions that we passed. As we neared Laie, it became very obvious why so many people go to the other beaches and areas on Oahu outside of Waikiki. He explained that Waikiki beach is a man-made beach. It was very obvious the beaches we were passing were natural beaches. While Waikiki beach is crawling with bodies, these beaches had almost no people at them. Sand for miles, gorgeous views, and the blue water crashing on the sand. It was beautiful.
We got to the Polynesian Cultural center just in time for lunch. We decided to do the guided tour option and stick with the tour guide from our bus ride up, and lunch was included in that. We were escorted into a large pavilion for an all you can eat lunch. It was at that moment that it is was made 100% obvious that the PCC is run by church members. The one thing I have noticed in my nearly two years as a LDS church member is how efficient things are run. When you are at somewhere where Mormons are running the show, you are going to get escorted in, they fill one table at a time, make sure you have everything you need. You go get your food, and the line from the food then leads to the beverage area before back to your table. There were headsets and walkie talkies. If someone needed a high chair or assistance, someone was immediately there to help. It was very efficient. So efficient that they had a huge crowd in and out of that place, fed, full, and ready to roll in 20 minutes. In my experience, non-members would just be set loose, and it would be chaos and mayhem. People would take your seats while you're getting food. There would be traffic jams of people all over. It would take an hour, easy. So funny how I can so easily see the differences. Being in a church "compound" if you will, was a nice break from the craziness of vacation. I relaxed a little bit more that day.
When our 20 minutes was up and we were ready to roll out, we met up with our tour guide and started visiting the different "villages" within the center. First up was Tonga, which I happened to miss for a very important phone call with three very important men in my life. All I know about the Tonga performance was that it was loud.
Following Tonga we took some seats by the "river" going through the PCC and waited for the canoe pageant to start. At the pageant, a boat from each of the Polynesian nations would come through in their nations dress and they would dance to the music playing from their culture. It was a very fun performance to watch, and it was my favorite part about the PCC performances.
Next we visited the Fiji area, which is where our guide was from. He took us to the Chief's hut and talked to us about his home and his traditions. Following Fiji, we started to move on to other areas and performances, but the areas were so crowded we couldn't even see. At that point, we decided to sneak away and catch the tram to BYU and the temple, which I was really looking forward to!
We went to the tram stop and that was the moment I realized the tour to BYU and the temple was done by the sister missionaries. Our two sister missionaries that gave our tour were from Japan and China. They were both VERY sweet girls and a lot of fun to talk to. We rode the tram out of the center and first stopped at BYU. Jason's cousin will be there in the fall, so it was really exciting to see where she'll be going to school. The campus was really small, but so beautiful. In front one of the main buildings was a circle full of flagpoles. It was a rainy/overcast day, but the sister missionaries explained that when the weather is nice, the flagpoles have flags up from nations all over the world representing the unity of the students who come to BYU Hawaii from many different nations. They also explained to us (as our tour guide had earlier) the significance of the relationship between the Polynesian Cultural Center and BYU. There are many students from the various areas of Polynesia who would not be able to afford a formal education. They are given the opportunity to attend BYU Hawaii and do work study at the PCC to pay for their tuition/education. Our tour guide came from Fiji and earned his bachelor's degree in this way. 80% of the employees at the PCC are BYU students. What a smart way of doing things. Every single visitor who attends the center helps students pay for their education. That's pretty amazing.
Next up we got to go to the temple visitor's center. The sisters showed us a short video on the history of Laie and the church. After that we were given some time to look around the visitor's center as well as the temple grounds. The grounds were so amazing. I have only been to the Anchorage temple, which has the parking lot right up to the front of it. The Laie temple had water pools, steps, statues, flowers, and beautiful vegetation. It was another moment of awe for me. Before we knew it, we had to hop back on the tram and return to the PCC.
We took some time to visit the rest of the areas of the center that we had missed, hit up the gift shop for another turtle for J's mom, and get ready to leave. We had opted out of staying for the show and dinner quite simply because that would've been WAY too long of a night for D. As it was, we didn't make it back to the hotel until after 7. If we had stayed for dinner and the Ha- Breath of Life show, we would have returned to the hotel around 11. Declan surely would have cried starting at 9. So that portion of the Polynesian Cultural Center will have to wait until our next Hawaii trip!
By the time we settled back into our room for the night, my pregnant body was pretty angry. I had held up and kept up pretty well at that point, especially considering the heat that I wasn't used to. By Thursday night, I was sporting swollen ankles, legs, and feet. I was having contractions. And my body just hurt. I needed to rest.
We had a *tiny* hiccup getting there. I had booked the transportation with our package for their PCC. While most of the shuttles/buses were picking us up at our hotel, this bus was going to pick us up at the Waikiki Beach Marriott at 11 am. Well, I looked and it was seriously across the street. No. Big. Deal.
Well anyone who knows me, knows I'm a procrastinator. I'll admit it. It has gotten worse with each kid. Even when they aren't with me, it's like I mentally know I have four (and a half) kids and I drag myself around. At this point of our trip, this preggo was getting pretty exhausted. The PCC was one of Jason's things, so I wasn't moving very quick that morning. He kept bouncing off the walls asking me to get ready, it made me stall even more. Oops. So I was just barely ready when we headed towards the elevator at 10:50-ish. We walked across the street, around the front of the building where it said "Shops at Waikiki Marriott" and around to the other side looking for the lobby/entrance to the hotel. Just then we saw a Polynesian Cultural Center bus headed in the opposite direction of where we were walking (it was a one way street). So we turned around and followed it, as quickly as a pregnant chick and a dude pushing a stroller can that is. By the time we caught it, it had pulled up across from the Marriott, as we saw another Polynesian Cultural Center bus pulling away from the Marriott and out into traffic. J went and asked the driver of the bus we had chased and she said it wasn't our bus, go wait at our designated spot.
At this point it's past 11, and we were pretty sure the other bus was ours. Jason was not pleased with me. So while he stood and waited, angry and not talking to me, I wandered into the lobby (hey we finally found it!) to find some bottles of water. I quickly got and paid for waters in one of the 30+ ABC stores in Waikiki and returned to the street to find Jason standing outside of a bus, trying to call me. We hadn't missed it after all. Thank goodness. My husband would've been angry with me all day if my procrastination had caused us to miss it!
So we settled in for the nearly hour ride up to Laie, Hawaii, home of the Polynesian Cultural Center, Brigham Young University Hawaii, and the Laie Temple. Our tour guide was pretty awesome in giving us a history of the areas of Oahu that we were passing through. He pointed out a handful of places that were prominent in Hollywood productions such as 50 first dates, The Pirates of the Caribbean, Jurassic Park, Lost, and Pearl Harbor. He pointed out local plants, agricultural interests, and tourist attractions that we passed. As we neared Laie, it became very obvious why so many people go to the other beaches and areas on Oahu outside of Waikiki. He explained that Waikiki beach is a man-made beach. It was very obvious the beaches we were passing were natural beaches. While Waikiki beach is crawling with bodies, these beaches had almost no people at them. Sand for miles, gorgeous views, and the blue water crashing on the sand. It was beautiful.
We got to the Polynesian Cultural center just in time for lunch. We decided to do the guided tour option and stick with the tour guide from our bus ride up, and lunch was included in that. We were escorted into a large pavilion for an all you can eat lunch. It was at that moment that it is was made 100% obvious that the PCC is run by church members. The one thing I have noticed in my nearly two years as a LDS church member is how efficient things are run. When you are at somewhere where Mormons are running the show, you are going to get escorted in, they fill one table at a time, make sure you have everything you need. You go get your food, and the line from the food then leads to the beverage area before back to your table. There were headsets and walkie talkies. If someone needed a high chair or assistance, someone was immediately there to help. It was very efficient. So efficient that they had a huge crowd in and out of that place, fed, full, and ready to roll in 20 minutes. In my experience, non-members would just be set loose, and it would be chaos and mayhem. People would take your seats while you're getting food. There would be traffic jams of people all over. It would take an hour, easy. So funny how I can so easily see the differences. Being in a church "compound" if you will, was a nice break from the craziness of vacation. I relaxed a little bit more that day.
When our 20 minutes was up and we were ready to roll out, we met up with our tour guide and started visiting the different "villages" within the center. First up was Tonga, which I happened to miss for a very important phone call with three very important men in my life. All I know about the Tonga performance was that it was loud.
Following Tonga we took some seats by the "river" going through the PCC and waited for the canoe pageant to start. At the pageant, a boat from each of the Polynesian nations would come through in their nations dress and they would dance to the music playing from their culture. It was a very fun performance to watch, and it was my favorite part about the PCC performances.
Next we visited the Fiji area, which is where our guide was from. He took us to the Chief's hut and talked to us about his home and his traditions. Following Fiji, we started to move on to other areas and performances, but the areas were so crowded we couldn't even see. At that point, we decided to sneak away and catch the tram to BYU and the temple, which I was really looking forward to!
We went to the tram stop and that was the moment I realized the tour to BYU and the temple was done by the sister missionaries. Our two sister missionaries that gave our tour were from Japan and China. They were both VERY sweet girls and a lot of fun to talk to. We rode the tram out of the center and first stopped at BYU. Jason's cousin will be there in the fall, so it was really exciting to see where she'll be going to school. The campus was really small, but so beautiful. In front one of the main buildings was a circle full of flagpoles. It was a rainy/overcast day, but the sister missionaries explained that when the weather is nice, the flagpoles have flags up from nations all over the world representing the unity of the students who come to BYU Hawaii from many different nations. They also explained to us (as our tour guide had earlier) the significance of the relationship between the Polynesian Cultural Center and BYU. There are many students from the various areas of Polynesia who would not be able to afford a formal education. They are given the opportunity to attend BYU Hawaii and do work study at the PCC to pay for their tuition/education. Our tour guide came from Fiji and earned his bachelor's degree in this way. 80% of the employees at the PCC are BYU students. What a smart way of doing things. Every single visitor who attends the center helps students pay for their education. That's pretty amazing.
Next up we got to go to the temple visitor's center. The sisters showed us a short video on the history of Laie and the church. After that we were given some time to look around the visitor's center as well as the temple grounds. The grounds were so amazing. I have only been to the Anchorage temple, which has the parking lot right up to the front of it. The Laie temple had water pools, steps, statues, flowers, and beautiful vegetation. It was another moment of awe for me. Before we knew it, we had to hop back on the tram and return to the PCC.
We took some time to visit the rest of the areas of the center that we had missed, hit up the gift shop for another turtle for J's mom, and get ready to leave. We had opted out of staying for the show and dinner quite simply because that would've been WAY too long of a night for D. As it was, we didn't make it back to the hotel until after 7. If we had stayed for dinner and the Ha- Breath of Life show, we would have returned to the hotel around 11. Declan surely would have cried starting at 9. So that portion of the Polynesian Cultural Center will have to wait until our next Hawaii trip!
By the time we settled back into our room for the night, my pregnant body was pretty angry. I had held up and kept up pretty well at that point, especially considering the heat that I wasn't used to. By Thursday night, I was sporting swollen ankles, legs, and feet. I was having contractions. And my body just hurt. I needed to rest.
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