Dinner with 1300 Cousins

So our day started off a bit slow this morning, Matthew and I have some cough/head thing going on and neither of us felt like moving. We hung out at the house for awhile and gave in to Andrew's repeated requests to eat lunch at McDonald's. This didn't turn out to be a bad option for me, in Hawaii, they have Haupia Pie (rather than Apple Pie). I had to try it. The filling was warm creamy coconut and it was quite tasty.

After lunch we went to Punchbowl Cemetary which is an old crater filled by 33,000+ graves, including 700+ from the attack on Pearl Harbor, hundreds from Korea and Vietnam, as well as several mass graves of unknown soldiers. The cemetary is immaculate and then you get to enjoy the panoramic views of the mountains, Hawaii Kai, Waikiki, downtown Honolulu, the airport, the new SuperFerry that takes cars to Maui, and beyond.

We came back to the condo to visit the box office for the Paradise Cove Luau to see if we could attend tonight. They were supposed to open at 3 pm, but then we were told 4 pm (@!$! Hawaiian Time!), they told us to call anyway. So the doors open at 5 pm and off we go to the luau. In all the time we were in Hawaii, we never went and boy was I unprepared. You get there and you see tour bus after tour bus, 9 in all tonight. They feed you one drink, take your picture, then you get to walk around and take in the activities like paddling an outrigger canoe, getting temporary polynesian tatoos, making leis, hula lessons, games for the kids, etc. Which is all fine until you realize you are slowly but surely becoming a sardine.

Right before dinner, they do a quick luau show on the beach (audience participation) followed by a lesson in throwing a fishing net (ok, that was cool, see photo). The sun sets, and they begin herding you table by table through the buffet line. I had no idea until the end that there were 1300 "cousins" there (remember everyone in Hawaii is related). They were pretty efficient with the buffet line. The food is nothing to write home about but you get to try roasted pig, lomi lomi salmon, almond jello, etc. About half way through dinner, the singing and dancing and fire knife show begins. The show was great and I think the kids really enjoyed it. Some of the photos didn't turn out too well, but good enough. The luau is on the beach under the moon and the big dipper.

All said, a good day and the best part is that the drive home from the luau was about 2 minutes. It is right across the street from our condo. We were thinking about walking, glad we didn't as the boys washed face, hands, and feet about an hour ago and crashed in bed. Tomorrow we are off to Waikiki and the Atlantis submarine which should be great. Updated photos on the Picasa site.