Luau

While on the Big Island we attended a luau. It was called Journeys of the South Pacific. It told stories about how some of the different tribes of Hawaii came to the islands. We were greeted with shell leis and our picture was taken on the way in. Before we were seated we hit the open bar and loaded up on Mai Tais.

We decided to sit off to the right side of the stage across from an older couple (Earl and Sherry, from Chicago). They were really nice people to share a table with. After everybody was finally brought in the men came out and blew conch shells and ran around lighting the torches. That signaled the begining of dinner. They asked everybody to come over and watch them dig up the pig from the imu. Chris tried to get pictures, but it was a madhouse around the pit. Then the rest of the food was brought out and we were called by tables to go get in line.

I tried as many different foods as I could fit on my plate. The pork was amazing. I also really liked the purple Maui sweet potatoes and they had these amazing coconut rolls. Pretty much everything I stuffed on my plate I liked, even the poi. Chris wasn't too much of a fan though. I wish I could have remembered the names of more of what we ate.

After dinner they started the show. There was a live band that played all of the music, a narrator/master of ceremoies (who I called Wayne Newton), and then 8 dancers, 4 men and 4 women. It was a really good show consisting of about six or seven different dances with stories, some cheesy lounge act type singing from "Wayne", and ended with a fire dancer.

It was very touristy and everything, but I'm really glad that we went. The food was great, the show was entertaining, the company was nice, and there were free drinks! It was fun night.