Some things you just have to do when you go to Hawaii. Snorkeling is one and a luau is another. No matter how much I criticized luaus as touristy, I was right there at the Marriott on the evening of October 22, 2025, sipping my passion fruit juice and joining the hula dance lesson line. Dave wore his volcano shirt to fit in with the crowd.
We watched hefty Polynesian men open the imu, where a pig had been roasting underground, on hot rocks, all day.
We listened to Hawaiian music and watched hula dancers as the sun set over the beach.
After a dinner of roast pig, purple yams cooked in coconut milk, lomi lomi salmon, and other goodies, we watched a show of Polynesian dancing and singing. The finale was, of course, the audience favorite--the fire dance.
As Dave and I walked back to our car, the ambience was modern Hawaii at its most iconic--vast blue swimming pools, palm trees swaying, and lots and lots of hotel rooms.
In the morning, we drove to Hilo and wandered through the farmer's market, filled with exotic fruit, bright flowers, and banana bread, which is a Hawaiian staple.
The east side of the Big Island, near Hilo, is as wet as the west side, near Kona, is dry. We visited Rainbow Falls and the Boiling Pots, which were new to us.
We also spent a couple of hours at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden. We visit that garden every time we visit the Big Island, and we love it more with each visit.
The collection of flowers and trees in the garden is exceptional.
Hawaii became multi-ethnic as the sugar plantations attracted waves of immigrants--Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, and Filipinos primarily. The grocery stores in the little towns mostly had Japanese names.
I could hardly resist the rows of home-canned jams and jellies.
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