Wednesday Luau

Life has been moving at warp speed since coming back from vacation, but it's so nice to have pictures and memories as evidence that we did have a blissful break in a beautiful place.

Our fourth day of vacation dawned sunny and perfect, per usual. I started the day with a very calming 90-minute yoga class on the beach from a great teacher. I'm not really into meditation, but I do like the idea of "breathing like a tree" when you're sitting still and trying to calm down: breathe in and nourish yourself, breathe out and nourish the world.

 After that, Ross and I had breakfast at the hotel and then headed to the beach to paddleboard! The waves were still kind of choppy from the previous day's surf, but I loved it! Ross was having trouble finding his center of balance, though. At one point I paddled past him. He stood up, cheered, and fell off. I laughed so hard that then I fell on my butt on the board. Serves me right, but it was pretty funny!

We went inside briefly for lunch and then headed out to the pool to read and relax in the sun.

This was definitely one of our more sun-heavy day so by mid-afternoon, we headed for shade and went to Juice 101 for some smoothies. Then we drove to the nearby Queen's Shops to browse.

Once we got back to the hotel, we met up with my mom and dad to head to the luau!

We drove to the nearby Marriott for the event.

There were a few festivities, such a hula lessons, before we got down to the main event.

We started watching the guys dig the pig out of the roasting pit, but then we got distracted.

old fish ponds

 
The sunset stole the show.

*There must be always remaining in every life some place for that which in itself is breathless and beautiful.*  {Howard Thurman}

Then it was time to eat.

So delicious. Great weather, great company. Can I have dinner like this every night?! After diner, the hula and fire dancing show started. I was afraid it would be tacky, but it was actually really, really cool. There was a lot of talent on that stage.

Of course, pictures didn't come out well after dark.

What a fun, Hawaii-filled day.