And Then ... The Rains Came

Right after the Long Canoes, Park hustled us to the Samoan Village, where we sat in rows with many others while a young Samoan fellow attempted some stand-up, with audience participatory elements. It began to sprinkle and then to rain and we were quickly herded into a large Samoan hut -- well, a structure with a roof. It continued to rain almost constantly of the rest of the day, and we wore our red ponchos and Calix and Maddox, even in their stroller with the rain hood over the top, got quite wet but were good sports about it.
Each of the villages has a presentation of one sort or another, but we didn't have time to see all of them before the luau. In Samoa we learned that the men do all the cooking, and we got a demo of cracking a coconut and squeezing the milk out of it, which was impressive. But I like the fire-making even more -- the kind of fire made with two sticks and a wad of dry grass

and then put out by foot.
So we dashed through the rain at Park's heels and we tried the Maori Poi Ball -- well, not the dance, we just tried the Maori Poi Balls and hit ourselves and one another and a lot of bad pictures were taken by one of those folks who hopes you'll buy the pictures at the end of the evening. (We did.) The Tahitians taught their dances and David and Orion participated while Abby and I sat out. (See some previous post somewhere about an inherent dread of dancing in public. May be on Jenna's blog.)
We whizzed past the Fiji villagers (*note: as a small child I had very curly hair and my mother often said -- when it was tousled, which was most of the time -- that I "looked like a Fiji Islander." Now I get it!) but to get out of the rain some more we sat awhile in their chief's hut. His bed is huge.
And then it was time to follow the herd to a vast canopied place filled with orderly tables. One young man whisked the stroller away to park it and we were lined up to receive leis and get photographed again and then be led to our table for the luau, complete with pig roasting in a pit.
You don't want to see that pig. They paraded it past as a fait acompli but you don't want to see it. On to more pleasant photos:




Dinner looked like this. At least, mine did. Yup, purple bread. It was excellent. The poi was *not* all that excellent.

After dinner (still in the rain and splashing through puddles that were really getting pretty deep now) there was, of course SHOPPING. I did not buy the $350 black pearl earrings. Abby and Orion bought us a copy of *The Best of Hawaii's Best Spooky Tales* and I realize that's a lof of "bests" but it really is a cool book. We do like our Night Marchers and our Pele sightings, we do!
Having gotten our shopping fix we went on to the main event of the day, the big evening show, which was, I think called Horizons. David got us really good seats in the theatre, which was covered for the audience and somewhat for the performers yet open around the sides and the back. All the island groups performed, and they were all good -- but I think we all liked the fire dances the best.

On Saturday the storm was gone. We packed up and drove around the island

buzzing first by Abby and Orion's old house:

and then spending most of the day along the North Shore, which is less populated and really seriously beautiful.






Yeah, I couldn't keep this one to myself. :o)

There was lunch at a fantastic and jam-packed Mexican restaurant (no apologies -- I wanted Mexican)

and some roadside shopping:


which yielded these:

Cool and weird Hawaiian trees (note the Lego-esque evergreens!)




On around and headed toward home we came upon the Halona Blowhole area where our new President had quite recently brought his grandmother's ashes.

We stopped, as had a lot of other folks, and as I climbed up along the railing to look out at the ocean some more, the couple next to me said, "There's a whale out there."
Whale? Where?
It took a lot of pointing and explaining, but I finally *did* spot the spout! Yay!!! And then another, and another! The whales are real! I didn't see one breach, but Abby did, just as we were pulling away. The whales are terrible teases, apparently, but they're real.
By the time we got home we were all wiped out (Maddox most of all) and we ordered in pizza and crashed.
And Sunday -- we came home.
We wanna go back. We think we should have the next reunion in Hawaii. :o)