Sunday, July 17, 2011

Paradise Cove Luau

When we initially researched Hawaii, K and I thought that a luau would be too expensive, so we were going to forego it. But we eventually changed our minds, and after some research we settled on the Paradise Cove luau at Ko'Olina, just down the coast from our hotel. We got tickets for Monday night, which was our last night in Hawaii. One of the reasons we chose this luau was that there were a lot of activities to do before the meal and show. This is a picture of me getting a "tattoo" on my left arm, while the girl and I talked about Seattle. =) I was sort of hoping to freak out my mom when she picked me up at the airport, but it wasn't like henna, it was oil based and was gone by the next morning. =(
There were also stations to learn to dance the hula, play traditional Hawaiian games (which we didn't attempt), have your picture taken with parrots that would lay down on their backs in your hand, and make your own wrist lei or crown out of orchids
They also had demonstrations of various traditional (?) Hawaiian skills, like climbing palm trees (he is throwing down orchids), rowing a traditional Polynesian outrigger canoe around the lagoon, and throwing/collecting hukilau fishing nets. These were cool to watch.
It was about this time that my camera announced that it was about ready to die, and it was too dark to take good pictures with my little point and shoot, so I didn't get a lot of pictures of the show itself. It was pretty decent, all things considered, with a good mix of dances from Samoa, Polynesia, and Hawaii. Dinner was pretty good as well....they had green salad (good), pasta salad (disliked, I don't like mayo), salmon and tomato salad (too strong for me, salmon was raw), poi (weirdest stuff ever), purple potato rolls (good), fish in cheese sauce (my fish didn't taste fresh...sad), fried chicken (good), and of course the main dish of steamed? pork. I normally really dislike pork, non-grilled meat, and barbecue, but this was AMAZING. I could have had an entire plate of just that and been perfectly happy. They also served some kind of white jello (really, we had no idea what it was, it just tasted white, and looked and felt like jello...), coconut cake, and chocolate cake. Just as they served dinner, the sun set, and it was a beautiful sunset. That's a sailboat out there in the center of the picture.
I really only have one picture of the show, which was really cool. The dancers were really good, and it was really awesome to watch them. I wish we could have sat a little closer, but we still had decent seats and it was worth it to go. All in all an excellent end to our Hawaiian adventure.

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