Hearts in Hawai'i

Our Trip To Maui (2016)--Day 8
5/21/2016

Rolling out of bed just before 5:30, I caught a unique (at least, in our Maui experience) moonset directly over Lanai. Nice! After eating and drinking our morning coffee, we drove up to Kahului, bound for the Maui Swap Meet in Kahului. This meet happens every Saturday and is fun to attend. It only took an hour or so to wander through all the aisles, buying a Malasada, two Samosas (yummy!) and we each purchased a T-shirt. We were done quickly enough to return to Lahaina by 10 a.m.

Sun chasing away the shadows on Lanai

Maui Swap Meet

Ann told me a couple days ago they are going to be doing work on the Upper Lot starting Monday and that we'd have to get new parking cards for access to the 505 Front Street garage. A different staff person at the front desk corrected her info this morning when we ran into him while returning from Kahului. The work begins Tuesday morning and will last only a couple days. We will get a new parking sticker which will give us access to the underground garage. No card will be needed as the garage is now staffed 24/7. It will be crowded, to be sure, but I'm sure we'll survive. It's only a minor inconvenience.

Back in the room, we watched another episode of Hawaii Five-O, then got ready to head over to the Old Lahaina LUau. Check in time for this much anticipated event was at 5:45 p.m.

We arrived at about 5:30, and I took a few test pics with the 35mm lens attached to my Nikon, but they turned out very blurry! This initially puzzles me, and after checking out my settings, everything seemed to be set up just fine. Did something happen to the lens?

Well, no. The last time I used the lens, I had switched the A/MA switch to Manual Focus. Duh! With the automatic focus re-enabled, I was good to go. We're soon led to our seats and we're right at the front hf the forward-most table! Nothing between us and the stage except for those opting for the traditional mat seating--we can't sit like that for long, thus the regular chair seating. We're perfectly happy with our vantage point for the upcoming show.

I walked around, checking out the grounds and getting some pics while Patty hung out at our table, sipping her Virgin Lava Flow. Of the eight seats at our table, only six were occupied. Apparently someone couldn't make it! The other four people at our table included a newlywed couple from Virginia Beach and two ladies from Sydney, Australia. They were all very friendly and pleasant to converse with as we awaited the beginning of the festivities.

Making our way to the Imu pit, we got there early enough to be right next to the pit so were able to get good pics of the pig being unearthed. Contrary to what I had previously believed, this is the actual pig they are serving tonight, 230 pounds worth of smoky goodness. Or, they're yanking my chain and what I had heard about tonight's unearthed pig becoming tomorrow's meat was actually true! No matter. The kalua pig here is as good as any place I've found it.

It seemed to take a long time but just before 7:00, our table was led to the buffet line. The Old Lahaina Luau takes a back seat to luau when it comes to the food. From chicken, pork, fish and steak and fried rice, banana bread, laulau, lomi lomi salmon, pineapple and other assorted goodies, nearly all of it is outstanding. I loaded up on pineapple, banana bread, fried rice, steak, pork and chicken. All of what I chose was excellent and mouth-watering

With coffee and a Virgin Honey Girl in hand, we then kicked back and awaited the beginning of the show. My 35mm lens was a good choice, but the 50mm lens would probably have been better. With the ISO set at 1,250 and an f-stop of 2.2, I was getting exposures of anywhere from 1/60 to 1/200 of a second, quick enough to capture some sharp pics. Although I wouldn't know for sure until we got home and I loaded these on the big computer monitor.

Overall, we had a wonderful time here and it was $110 per person very well spent. Back to the hotel by 9:00, we watched another episode of Hawaii Five-O. Patty then went to sleep and I watched two episodes of Jericho before hitting the sack myself.

Preview of the stage at the Old Lahaina Luau

Unearthing the pig

A tasty plate!

The show begins!


Next: 5/22/2016--Our Trip To Maui (2016)--Day 9

Previous: 5/20/2016--Our Trip To Maui (2016)--Day 7

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last updated november 19, 2021