Polynesian Cultural Center

How is this for your morning view?  Each morning in La'ie, we walked across the street to see the sunrise.

Friday, we took a beautiful drive up past Pipeline, Waimea and Haleiwa to the Dole Pineapple Plantation.  It's touristy, but we loved walking around the gardens and hanging out in the gift shop.  Did you know baby pineapples are pink?

Couldn't resist Matsumoto's a second time, then lunch at the food trucks.

Here's the incredible part of our trip:  Golda's friend works at the Polynesian Cultural Center and attend school at BYU Hawaii.  She got us into the PCC for $5 and the night show for $10.  She saved us hundreds of dollars.  The PCC is very expensive, with proceeds going to scholarships for islanders attending BYUH.  It's an incredible synergy they have going between tourists who are craving the exact kind of entertainment the PCC provides, and the students, who benefit by having jobs there as well as scholarships.  Except that it's so darn expensive!  Golda's friend Morgan was a Godsend!  Thanks you, thank you!  We enjoyed every second of our day.

Fist village, Aotearoa, or New Zealand.  We watched a variety of performances by Maori dancers.

The buildings were crafted in New Zealand and brought in.

Samoa:  The show is funny, and the guys are super athletic.  One of the best shows, for sure.

The gift shop had copies of the book my dad bought last year, about La'ie, that show pictures of his great-great grandfather, William King, at the church's sugar mill in the late 1800's.

These guys..

The river show is a good chance to see all the costumes again.

Tahiti.

Happy, happy boys

This is the Fiji village.

The guy on the left, Joseph, is Morgan's boyfriend.  It was fun to sort-of know one of the performers.

Tahiti.  Once a day, they do a reenactment of a wedding ceremony, complete with an ancient ceremonial temple, the priest and wedding guests.  It's beautiful.  At one point, the narrator asked all couples to stand up and renew their vows.  Scott and I stood up and, as directed, held hands and gazed into each others' eyes.  When the question was asked in Tahitian, we both said "No."  The question is, "Will you ever leave this person?"  I didn't expect the moment to be quite so tender, but we got caught up in the spirit of it, and it was lovely.  Our kids missed the whole thing.  Maybe their parents gazing into each others' teary eyes was too much humiliation to bear, or maybe it was just THAT boring.  At any rate, we had that moment to ourselves.

The Tonga show is highly entertaining.  They choose funny guys from the audience and feed them their lines backstage.  Everyone is laughing the whole time.

That night, we ate dinner at the new plaza at the PCC, where a bunch of food trucks recreate the spirit of the North Shore.  We had some New Zealand food and some burgers.  Then we saw the night show, which is quite the production, with fire and dancing and all the pageantry you can absorb.

I was so happy we were able to spend the day at the PCC.  It's something you have to do when you're in that area.  It gives you a sense of where Hawaii is in the world, and where it is in history, as well as providing a connection to so many cultures that I know very little about.  For example, I had never heard the name "Aoteroa."  I didn't know that in Samoa, the men do all the cooking and weaving.  I had never seen a Maori woman with the face tattoos before last year, when we saw some of them perform.  The traditional tattoos are actually exquisite, and I relished the experience of first being shocked by them, then quickly adapting and accepting their beauty.  It's enlightening and entertaining all at once to see all these cultures on display in such an authentic way, and as a bonus, you get to spend the day in a beautiful setting.