Polynesian Cultural Center or Mormon Missionary Outpost?

Either way, they sure can put on a fire dance :) Today's all-day activity was to visit the North Shore's PCC. Fodor's suggested it had the most authentic luau on the island and another guest had raved about what a wonderful place it is, so... we bought the "ambassador package" (which has now taken on all sorts of other meanings) and headed to the PCC. And it is quite a great way to spend the day. The kids got to try to make fire (only a couple of people in our group were somewhat successful at actually getting their wood to smoke), Maddie got a (temporary) tattoo, and we all got to watch a Samoan climb a coconut tree, play all sorts of Polynesian games and learn about the culture in Samoa, New Zealand, Tonga, Tahiti, Fiji, and, of course, Hawaii.

The odd part was realizing more and more as the day went on how our tourist dollars were not simply "helping the students here (at the nearby Bringham Young University) pay for their college tuition" but actually financing the "apostles" and their brethren to go to each of these islands to recruit these students. We started the day feeling we were "cousins" as part of one big, happy ohana (family, for you non Lilo and Stitch viewers). By the end of the day, we wondered if this wasn't yet another one of their subtle (or not so) attempts to indoctrinate us.

But, hey, it was one authentic luau! :)

Seriously, the students seem content, are getting the opportunity to earn a first-rate education in one of the United States that still resembles in culture and appearance their own homes, so I guess that's a good thing. Still, it felt a bit "Heart of Darkness" to me all the same. Especially when we took an afternoon canoe ride in the rain ;) Off to take photos of my intrepid surfers... where I doubt that the alohaing surfer boy instructors will call us "cousins." Maddie is hoping for a "wahini," which seems to be the ultimate compliment for a female surfer in these waters.