Cross Country - Oahu, Polynesian Cultural Center

Tiffany and Carter picked us up at Pearl Harbor and we drove around the island to Laie. We enjoyed an afternoon at the Polynesian Cultural Center. My memories of this place were nothing like the reality of today. It was beautiful - with grounds very nicely tended to.

Our first stop was Samoa where we enjoyed a firemaking demonstration with two sticks and the proper way to break open a coconut. All of this was done with tremendous humor by the gentleman above.

(Sorry you have to turn your head or your computer to watch this.  Anybody know how to rotate a video?)

This video shows the way to climb a coconut palm tree. . Keep watching girls all the way to the end.

Dale is always the shining example, but somehow captivates the young.

We enjoyed the buffet, did some shopping and then enjoyed the nightly show.  I loved the drums.  You can see the ribbons or whatever is at the end of their sticks.  It made it pretty colorful.

I was pretty amazed at the sitting on fire.  Who wants to do this?  What kind of mishaps could come from this?

Carter sat very quietly through the whole thing, but really came to life with the fire dancers.

They were very fast with their torches and spins.  It also got very warm.  I imagine they were quite hot with the lights and the flames.
This was a very educational experience.  I wish we had more time to visit some of the other countries.  It takes more than just an afternoon.