Today was the first day this whole week that we slept in past 7am. We didn’t wake up until 8:22am. Yikes!

We weren’t sure what we wanted to do, I was getting frustrated that we hadn’t moved yet and we had been going back and forth about whether or not to go to a Luau while we were here…so I called and booked it for that evening. At 5pm we had plans to go to the Smith Family Garden Luau. 

So we slowly got ready to leave for the day and stumbled over to the Ono Family Restuarant once again. This place is great, just a little Hawaiin greasy spoon but the food is good. Sarah had a the loco moco- which is basically a beef patty atop white rice covered in brown gravy. I had the Garden Patch- stir fried veggies w scrambled eggs over thier delicious fried rice. We both had sourdough toast with the most delicious papaya jam. 

Next we packed the jeep up and headed out towards the north shore. We didn’t get very far, there was a pull off that looked intriguing and we quickly turned in. Turns out it was the entrance to Donkey Beach. A couple folks had told us that we should go here so we decided to take the short hike down a paved path to the beach. The walk was a little long and it was HOT out, holy cow. 

Right after I took this photo I realized I left my cell phone in the car. Not good. So Sarah stayed on the beach while I freaked out and sprinted back uphill in the heat to the parking lot. It made me miserable but my cell phone was safely on the seat of the car. 

Now even more hot than before I made my way back down to the beach.

 Donkey beach sucked. 

I would say don’t go here. There are so many other great beaches on this beautiful island, a lot of which don’t take that long of a walk to get to. Also it was dirty. Tons of garbage and trash. Hawaii is pretty clean for the most part, especially the beaches…but this one was gross. The waves were giant also and we were not comfortable with going in the water. We both agreed that we were ready to leave. Waste of time:(

At that point we were hungry again and still weren’t sure what we felt like doing before the Luau. We pulled off of the main road and went into Healthy Hut Market & Cafe. What a great place, if we lived here this is where we would shop. It reminded me of a co-op grocery store from back home and of course we were sucked in by one of the cutest dogs we had ever seen.

Though there was a lot to offer in the store, we decided to grab a quick bit from Paco’s Tacos -the food truck outside of the store. We phoned home to check on our own pups while we ate our tacos.

Then it was time to get ready for the Luau. We had some hesitations as we really haven’t done any of the “touristy” things while we have been here. There are tons of zip line tours, horseback riding, catarman cruises etc..and we considered some but we just didn’t feel like those things were unique to this vacation. However a Luau in my mind was somewhat obligatory to a Hawaiian vacation. Meh.

Smith Family Garden Luau – here is my short review:

At 5:00 pm you show up here:

With hundreds of other people. It is a beautiful property, full of tropical gardens and animals. We picked this luau because it has been run by the same Hawaiian Family for something like 50 years and it is not associated with a hotel.

Once you are in you get plopped on a tram that takes you for a spin around the property. It was great aside from big ole uncle Smith who had a monotone voice full of boredom. The tram drops you off at the spot where they have the pig buried and cooking. Traditionally this is called the Imu. They have an Imu ceremony at 6:00pm. But there is a ton of time in between the tram ride and the pig coming out of the ground and the bar was not open!!!! Wtf, we paid for a ticket that says open bar, not cool. 

I hate seeing the pig that I am going to eat. When it comes to that ignorance is bliss for me. So we skipped the Imu ceremony and found a seat in the giant dining area, right near the bar. We were prepared to be the first two up there and double fist two Mah Tai’s.

It was sort of an akward experiance having to sit at a long table of no one we knew, but neither of us is very shy in these situations and we ended up chatting with a nice lady from Pasadena, CA. The smith family band played pleasant Hawaiin music while we waited.

Dinner was good. The pork was great. Sweet and Sour Mahi Mahi, adobo chicken, poi, fresh salads and lots of fresh fruit. It was served buffet style. After dinner the desserts rolled out and were also awesome. Coconut Tapioca, coconut cake, coconut milk jello and a whole bunch of other things.

Then at 8:00pm we moved over to the outdoor theatre for the show. The stage and setting was pretty cool but as soon as we sat down our asses fell asleep. It was the worst seating ever. Worse than an elementary school gymnasium. 

There was a live band which I greatly appreciated and found impressive. The show was basically a tour through Hawaiin dance and how a slew of different cultures helped to contribute to the culture. Our favorite part was when the Hula girls first came out on stage and the little British boy behind us screamed “Ah haha they have coconuts on thier boobies!!”, to his parents. Sarah and I died laughing.

I am glad we experienced this but I can’t say I would want to do it again. A little to hokey for our liking.

Tomorrow we hike the Napoli Coast.