"ALOHA" Hawaiian Adventure #7 "THE LUAU"

Thursday morning Jeff and I enjoyed a garden tour giving us much information about plants, flowers and trees.  We only wish the guide would have had a microphone to make it easier to hear.  Never the less, it was quite informative.    We joined our friends for a late breakfast since we would  not eat again until the special evening event, the LUAU! 

Before the LUAU, we took advantage of being all dressed for the event and took many fun pictures.  First we took pictures by a beautiful flower covered arbor.  

 Then we took pictures on the beautiful Waikiki beach.

JEFF AND DIANE 

MITCH AND VAL

ARNIE AND BETSY

 The beach always makes a beautiful background for pictures.  Below is a close up picture of my real live flower Leigh.   The white flowers are Stephinotis,  the same kind of flowers that my mom and dad had at their wedding over 68 years ago, the pink are miniature Carnations.  The fragrance of the Leigh was much stronger then I would have thought.   

Ready to go into the Luau Garden. 

Once in the Garden, the Luau hosts had many fun activities to show culture, crafts and talent. The one pictured here was making a wrist Leigh.   They had many box's of purple orchid flowers. Below you can see my friend Val getting one of those bracelet leigh's.  Then a close up so you can almost smell those beautiful flowers.  

Teaching one of the rope dances. The children loved this activity.

Braiding palm leaves for on the boys and mens heads. (Hawaiian custom) 

Traditional Hawaiian music and lessons on how to wrap/tie the sarong. 

This Hawaiian man told all about the coconut and also demonstrated, with the help from a volunteer, how to shuck and open a coconut.  
He then showed how to climb a tall palm tree to show how the coconuts were picked.  

Climbing the coconut tree with the only aid,
a piece of t-shirt knit cloth around his feet to help him.

Going back down!

This is the area where the "PIG" was buried and cooking for the LUAU.  Below,  The showing of the roast "PIG". It was hard to get a picture due to all the people standing around to watch. Before taking the "PIG" out, they blew on big shells as to call everyone to the LUAU.   

 We then had the opportunity to eat traditional food.  Some of the many foods were sea weed, tomato salad with raw salmon, Hawaiian Poi, fresh pineapple, sweet pototo, long rice, fried banana, roast pork, Chicken, beef , moi, and more.  It was very interesting and fun to taste new things. 

 As we ate and for a good hour after there was cultural entertainment with dancing, singing and fire dancing.

This man was the main entertainer and sang beautifully.  He sang many Elvis selections. It was a very fun evening with our friends and we left knowing much more about the Hawaiian Polynesian culture, traditions and dance.