"The Hula is the heartbeat of the Hawaiian People." ~David Kalakaua

During feelings of running out of time, I had to snap this picture to remind me of my wonderful-every-morning-view from my bedroom while in paradise. I adore it.

Morning coffee...not to shabby...I'll take tea, though.

More time-is-running-out picture. Golf course at ground level view.

One of the pools...

Fun trees...

Uncle Ron was leaving a day and a half before the rest of us...this is airport run #4 for me, if you count when I flew in. Such a fun, but low-key airport.


Tata Uncle Ron, until next time. Thanks for joining us! And, by the way--happy retirement. You deserve it!

After bidding farewell to Uncle Ron we went to Holualoa, a small gallery village in the hills above Kona. This outhouse made me smile.


We ate at Houakoa Gardens and Cafe. They had amazing (and expensive) Mango Mimosas. I'd drink them again...

As we were perusing the galleries I spotted, yet another, little lizard, on a red bench. If he hadn't moved so much it would have been a great picture...

There is an old post office that we stopped to check out. There is usually a functioning gallery in it, but it is being renovated.

All the post office boxes are outside...

Mom took a picture of PO Box 1 as that has been the family PO Box number for lots of years.

We went into the Ipu Hale Gallery where a gentleman dyes gourds from the inside. He explained the intricate process of it to us. Here it is really simplified: you carve the design in the skin and removed sections of it. Pour dye in it and let it evaporate. The remaining skin has blocked some of the dye in the gourd flesh to dye that section. That skin is then removed. I don't remember the finishing process, but the final product is impressive. Pretty amazing and time consuming. One day I'd like to own one of these gourds.

Later that evening we headed to the Luau that we'd bumped our reservations from Christmas Day night to this evening. We were all VERY glad we bumped our reservations even though Uncle Ron had to miss it. The weather was amazing for us. 

Smile! 

Luau/Hula Band. They were fun and we sat just in front of them.

Cruise ship leaving behind hula dancer. She was great.

The pig is under there! In the Imu...Hawaiian Earth Oven.

Coastline at the Royal Kona Resort.

She was the pre-show show and danced a few different times.

Sunset.

Josh and I were taking this picture. Once he took it we were both confused about who the woman was. Apparently, the zoom got really zoomed in and took a picture of her as she was walking behind us. We laughed so hard.

Here is the re-take!

Hula dance video #1...

A welcome to the event...

Uncovering of the Kālua-luau pig.

It sure was yummy (even though it doesn't look yummy in this picture...).

The host for the night.

A seat for Uncle Ron since he couldn't be there...

The Fashion Show of traditional Hawaiian dress.

And then more dancing...check out the videos, too.

Post show pictures with some of the dancers. They all put on an impressive show.

Josh and the girls...

We all enjoyed our time at the Luau. There were some people who told me pre-trip that Luau's are over-rated. I can tell I wouldn't need to go to one every time I would go to the island (assuming I'll be going many more time) but it was definitely worth it to have the experience.