luau

I attended another one of those Meetup things last week, this time it was to go see a luau on Disney property. 

Hawaii was a really special place for Taz and me. I'd been a couple of times as a kid and loved it. As an adult in Virginia, when we were first married, I'd get "homesick" for Hawaii every January, right in the midst of the cold, snowy, gray winter so I'd send away for travel brochures and plan our perfect getaway. It became a running joke between the two of us - if I was looking at Hawaii brochures (and later websites) it must be January! It only took us about 25 years to finally get there. LOL

Taz loved Hawaii just as much as I did and we were lucky enough to go twice. This is the only picture I have of the 2 of us together there and I can't even find it right now on my phone so I had to take a screenshot of my Instagram account. I love the picture though, we look so happy and we did have an awesome time. We really loved everything about Hawaii - Taz especially loved the food.

Anyway, because we loved Hawaii so much, I still have a near obsession with it although I know it's unlikely that I'll ever get to go there again so going to a luau seemed like a great way to scratch that itch. Especially since it was half price!

 I got all dressed up in a colorful tropical dress and even found a flower for my hair.

There were about 50 people in our group all together so we took up the whole upper section of the luau grounds. I sat next to a nice woman who was all by herself as well so we talked off and on throughout the evening.

 Worst food shot ever! They put platters of food in front of us and I took a picture but didn't think to check it before I put my phone away so all I got was a very blurry picture of chicken and ribs. The food tasted much better than it looks in this photo, that's for sure. For an all you can eat buffet for several hundred people, they did a pretty good job. The chicken had a chimichurri sauce that was delicious and the ribs had a tasty sweet bbq sauce. There was also pulled pork (probably not cooked in a pit in the ground the way it is in Hawaii but still good) along with rice and noodles. I didn't waste a picture (blurry or not) on the dessert as it was the smallest piece of cake ever that they expected 4 of us (at each table) to share.

And then the show started and it was a lot of fun. All luaus are somewhat cheesy and this one was no different but the music was good and the dancing was entertaining. I wish I had pictures but we were sitting so far back and I wanted to just watch and enjoy. Here are some pictures I took afterwards of the luau grounds.

I had a really good time, didn't mind being by myself, and it was a lovely evening. It wasn't a trip to Hawaii (wouldn't that be nice about now?) but it was the next best thing.

I'm so glad I had a good experience that night because I just got back from a failed Meetup experience today that has left me feeling defeated and sad and lonely so it's good to look back and remember a better experience.