P C C

PCC.

Political Campaign Committee? 

Purple Cows of Colombia? 

Pinkilicious Cupcakes for Cavemen? 

Pop Causes Cavities? 

Nope, all wrong.  PCC stands for Polynesian Cultural Center, and it’s in Laie, Hawaii.  On the way there, Lyana and I were trying to figure out which came first – BYU Hawaii, the Hawaii LDS temple or the PCC.  At our first stop, the temple visitors center, we learned the answer to our question.  Now we know.  How about you?  Can you answer the question tell me which came first?

The Hawaii temple is one of three LDS temples based off the architecture of ancient Solomon’s temple, the other two being the Cardston temple and the Mesa, Arizona temple.  These three temples were built about the same time during the 1920s.  I have visited the other two, so I was looking forward to finally seeing the Hawaii temple and walking its sacred grounds. 

Well, you can see a corner of the temple behind us.  It took several takes just to get this shot (the lady who graciously accepted our request to take the photo kept missing the shutter button or something so the first several pics never happened).

Nothing better than grilled local shrimp (or locally grilled shrimp).  Either way, this place down the road had fantastic grilled shrimp, and the $2.50 cheeseburger wasn’t too bad either.

Now that’s one good-looking shrimp!

Only down-side was you had to peel them, rip off their legs and tear off the tails before eating them.  I guess you can’t have everything handed to you on a silver platter.

And it was great.  (and much better than the Loco Moco I had the day before which I’m still recovering from).

Oh, yeah, the PCC.  I’m gettin' there.  Can’t forget to mention the Hawaiian shaved ice we picked up on the way (insert pic here).  There’s just something to be said about eating Hawaiian shaved ice in Hawaii.  Just tastes better that way.

Now, the PCC (not to be confused with the UCC).  Brianna Peterson (yes, the one and only from Misawa who is attending BYU Hawaii and works at the PCC) was our tour guide.  She was terrific and the kids absolutely loved her.  We usually don’t get tour guides, as we like to handle most things on our own, but having a tour guide at the PCC was a great decision – more fun, kept us on time, and in the end we probably saw more than we would have otherwise.

We made weaved coconut-leaf fish on a stick.

Samoa show was hilarious.  The guy made fire with just two pieces of wood; broke open a coconut and harvested the ‘meat’; even sent a guy up a palm tree. 

There’s the guy on the palm tree.  Our camera was too slow to catch him higher up in the tree.  Where he is, I could have jumped higher. 

The most popular daytime show features dancers from each of the represented islands performing on barges floating down the canal.

Samoa.

Fiji.

Hawaii.

Tahiti.

Sadly, I didn’t get pictures of the other islands, including Tonga, where the dancers rocked the boat so much the ‘driver’ fell into the water.

Here we are with our favorite PCC tour guide.  I think my ‘hang loose’ sign is backward.  I’m not sure what that means.

Ukelele Mark.  (Pronounced oo-kelele, not you-kelele, by the way.  I learned that in Hawaii)

Happy Hawaiians.

Just waitin’ for the boat ride.

Really excited for the boat ride.

And finally, on the boat ride.

Wearing Mama’s shades.  Boy, it was hot and sunny that day. 

Had to stop by Easter Island at one point, just for Alex.

And this guy.  Who is this guy?

For some reason, no pics of the BUFFET dinner.  Yes, it was that big.  We were busy eating, I guess.

Before the night show “Ha: Breath of Life”, we got a backstage tour.  You know, behind the scenes; under the stage; check out the props.  Yeah, that sort of thing.  I sneakily captured a few shots of some secret stuff.  Here’s the only one that’s in focus.  It’s the grass skirts the guys wear when they dance on the fire mats.  The skirts get ruined each time, so new ones have to be made before each show (that’s 6 times per week).

We sat in the Ambassador seats.  No, not because we were special guests, just because we bought the ‘Ambassador’ tour package.  Great seats.  Terrific show.  It’s difficult to explain it fully, so I won’t.  And we couldn’t take pics because it’s copyrighted and stuff.  But for $25, we could have bought a DVD of it afterward.  But here’s the very impressive stage.  Yes, it’s open-air so those clouds are real and so are all the plants and trees on the stage.

And halfway through we got ICE CREAM!!  What a great treat for us, though I was still so full from the BUFFET I could hardly eat it.

And then we went back to our cozy beachside cabin to rest.

Aloha!!

Rob