Parents' Visit to Kauai: Day 2

Before I continue recapping my parents' visit, a brief bit of information:

Today I found out that Ben Stiller and Will Smith live within five miles of my house, Julia Roberts and Pierce Brosnan within fifteen. Pierce evidently frequents Bar Acuda, the restaurant where my parents and I ate the first night. I didn’t realize Kauai was such a celebrity hot spot, but I’ll definitely being paying more attention to the people around me from now on… I guess celeb sightings are semi-frequent on the beaches.

In other news, Radnight last night was enjoyable as usual… it’s becoming the highlight of my week. I’m starting to get to know all the kids’ names and forge relationships with some of the girls, who are completely awesome in an adorable, trying-to-be-grown-up type of way. Plus, the staff members are all ridiculously cool. For instance… when I went to Radnight last night, I left all of my belongings in my car, including my purse, keys, and spare set of keys. And I locked the doors. BUT! Ryan, because he’s cool, happens to own a pump wedge, so Shikinah, because she’s also cool, ran home and got it for me. Ryan performed car surgery to retrieve my keys, and all was well. (Side note: I locked my keys in my car once when I was 16, once when I was 17, then had a few good years before doing it over ten times in the past two years. It would probably be beneficial to figure out some sort of way to avoid this.)

And now, a recap of day number two (Wed Feb 2) of my parents’ visit to Kauai.

1. I picked my parents up at 11:00 and we went to Hanalei Bay. We spent the late morning and early afternoon lounging in the sun, snacking on fresh fruit and crackers, watching dozens of surfers, and floating in the waves. I eavesdropped on a surfing lesson being given to a young couple (honeymooners?) behind us, and when they finally hit the water, the male half of the couple caught the first wave that came his way, rode it all the way to shore, stood up out of the water, fist pumped, and shouted, “First try EVER!” It was epic. Here are a few pictures of the beach and my parents on the pier.

2. We went back to my parents’ resort, got cleaned up, then headed down to Wailua for the Smith Family Luau, which is arguably (but pretty much unarguably) the best luau on the island. We spent the first part of the evening riding a trolley through the Smith gardens, where I got some beautiful photos… check out the naturally-colored bark of the Rainbow Eucalyptus tree in the last photo!

3. When the trolley ride was over, the luau guests were free to walk the gardens before the presentation began. As I was photographing the roaming peacocks, one of them spread his tail in a gorgeous arch. I was snapping away like mad… but minutes after he had tucked his tail back down, I realized that my finger had accidentally switched the camera onto a bad setting and not one of the pictures had turned out. That’s something that would only happen to me. Luckily, my dad was able to catch a shot. (The first one was taken by him, the rest are mine.)

4. The presentation began outside with a ritual of two men blowing conch shells facing north, then west, then south, then east. Then they used spades to unearth the kalua pig, which had been roasting underground since morning. The rice pudding had also been buried in the underground oven. They carried the pig to a table, and we were able to see down inside the oven.

5. Next, we went inside a massive pavilion for the meal. Since we had to wait a bit for our food, there was a band playing Hawaiian music on a stage toward the front. A lady danced hula to a few songs, and then invited “volunteers” to come up on stage and learn a simple hula dance and they all performed it together.

6. Finally, we got our meal. I know I tend to speak in extremes, but seriously, I’m for real when I say that I’ve never eaten so much in my life. Ever. Ask my parents; they were there and saw my plate. And my second plate. And my desert plate. All piled high with kalua pig, beef, sweet and sour mahi mahi, Hawaiian sweet potato (which is purple and served cold), salad with guava-based dressing, mashed potatoes, brown rice, pasta salad, bruschetta, coconut milk jello (much better than it sounds), cake, and rice pudding. Plus coffee and Hawaiian punch (not the cheap, sugar-water, mass-produced junk… the real stuff.)

7. And finally, we walked down the path through the gardens to a beautiful amphitheater looking on an outdoor stage set with a waterfall, volcano, moats, and lush greenery. It was quite a brilliant production featuring dances from all the different cultures that have influenced Hawaiian heritage: fan dance, Chinese dragon dance, fire twirling, etc. I didn’t take many pictures—the show was too enrapturing—but I did snap a couple.

And that ended day two of my parents’ visit. :)