Ohana Means Family
Having been raised in what you could consider a hotel type living as our home was pretty much a revolving door for guests around the world to come and stay. I was exposed to many various cultures and grew to appreciate and love it. We also traveled a lot my mother always having that adventure bug flowing through her veins. She scrimped and saved every penny so we could travel to Europe and many other fascinating and truly beautiful country's. Having a taste for all this at a young age sparked a love and deep appreciation for the cultural diversity of our world. Now being a mother myself this is something a gift an appreciation I want passed down to my son. With life and business, travel has not been very accessible. So how is one either on a budget or just with daily life that is not able to jet set and see the amazing world that surrounds us to do it?
Well here in Las Vegas on May 7th is the Ohana Festival @ The Springs Preserve. Commemorating Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month and highlighting the importance of 'ohana (family) in Pacific Island cultures, the Springs Preserve 'Ohana Festival event will feature great food, live music, performances by local hula schools, cultural workshops, island crafts activities, an outdoor luau with kids games, and more!
Family Culture Travel & Food
Other than art and designing theses are my core staples to life or a happy one at least. Family being number one and all else falling in line behind. Enjoying these diversity's in life with my family is a utopia in the greatest sense. Seeing, eating and learning things of something other than our normal everyday life to me is like a mini vacation. Going to an ethnic restaurant which is typically the only type I do go to, seeing as how it refreshes and recharges my soul for the onslaught of the everyday living. Having had the chance to go to Hawaii once on the big island getting to stay on the Kona side and Hilo side it was love at first site. Now prior to this we had an influx of our Hawaiian friends come stay with us and was previously exposed to all there wonderful culture and especially their food. Having been taught some traditional dances as well was just icing on the cake. I was hooked and smitten, head over heels in love with the diversity that could be find everywhere you poke your head.
Flowers, hospitality, truly amazing spirits and bonds with family was the essence portrayed by our friends from Hawaii. Now having the chance to give my son a glimpses at this right here in our backyard, well hell's bells yes.
The Festival
We had such a beautiful afternoon experiencing this festival with our family. Our almost 4 year old son had a blast. It was very kid friendly. They had a ton of hula hoop and free bubbles for all the kids and even a bubble machine at the front of the stage. It was so cute watching all the kids have so much fun, and seeing my own son attempt to hula. He was not very successful but he still had a blast trying.
We were actually blown away by the band. Who rocked out the classics such as The Eagles Hotel California. Both my husband and I being huge lovers of music were quite impressed. Guitar solo was nailed. The only regret was we did not catch the band early enough. Apparently they play locally and will be sure to catch them at an upcoming venue. We did miss their name as dark clouds loomed and our train ride was boarding. Seeing as how they play here around Vegas, if you know there name please type it in the comments for us. Thank you..
Now I have to say but take this in context seeing as we do not eat meat and Hawaiian food is largely heavily meat based. The food at least the pad Thai that was available from a Thai restaurant was just about the worst thing I have ever put in my mouth. I have had some unique foods even the swan lobe soup our Haitian friends made was for more tasty and edible that this rubber overly sweet so called pad Thai that tasted like fruit roll up. I know fruit roll ups are supper yummy this was not. It swiftly went into the trash.The fish tacos where slightly better but still overly sweet even with a ton of sriracha on it. Now the more traditional Hawaiian food they had their may have in fact been a lot better , but it was not friendly towards our Pescetarian diet.
We ended the day with a train ride around the Preserve that was the perfect end and made our little boy o so happy. They explained about the springs, and how it brought life and green to the valley, even going back to the history of the woman who owned the land and sold it all for something like $70,000 back at the turn of the century. Or something to the effect of a million dollars today.
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