Dutch, Living Life One Adventure at a Time: Getting Lei’d and Doing the Hula

While in Hawaii, where do you take a woman who can’t dance? Why to a luau of course! They give free lessons on how to move your hips and more. The one thing they don’t let you do is the ring of fire dance. I wonder why? Here is my story. It’s all real, really!

When I returned from my tour in Iraq I took my then family to Hawaii on vacation. One of the event’s not to be missed was the luau. We signed up for the one recommended by the group we booked the vacation through. Time to get ready. How much time should it take, shirt, shorts, flip-flops and go! Nope, not when you travel with “the girly girls,” they take forever!

The girls, minus the boys and me, wore those Hawaiian print wrap thingies that look like a sundress thing, but can be used for other things. The technical name for it is….I don’t have a clue, ask a girl! Women should know what I am talking about. They also put a flower in their hair. The boys and I were much more casual in our Hawaiian print shirt and shorts with flip-flops. Ahhh, comfort. You would never catch me in one of those thingies I was talking about. All in all, we all looked frikken awesome!

It was time to head off for the luau adventure. The one chosen is a very popular one on Oahu. It is Germaine’s Luau. Some of y’all may have heard of it. The bus ride to Germaine’s was a trip. The guide got us all pumped up for the evening. I really perked up when she said we would get lei’d.

When we arrived, there were “alohas” all around and we got “lei’d”! It was the second time I had gotten “lei’d” since we arrive in Hawaii! That’s the most “lei’ing” than in the past……well that’s a story for another time! In my mind I was thinking I need to move to Hawaii, you get “lei’d” all the time! Wow, what a place!

Ok, I am done being sidetracked, back to the luau. They did a traditional bury the pig roast ceremony. That was pretty cool. We ate traditional luau food and now it was time to dance it all off. Mind you, the Longboard Beer was flowing very well through my veins at this point! Time to hula!

The show began with a bunch of hula dancers. Wow, wow, wow. They could really move the grass skirt. They guys did ok too. The cultural heritage behind each dance was explained and the moves were explained. That made the dances all that more beautiful. After all of that it was audience participation time!

My daughter and I volunteered. There were a few of us on stage. We were freshly lei’d again (dang I love this place). The basic moves were swaying your hips to the left and swaying your hips to the right. Too easy, right? Nope, I don’t sway!! It is more than just the hips; you use your whole body. Here we were a bunch of freshly lei’d, no rhythm women trying to hula. I imagine if I had a grass skirt and a coconut bra I would have done better! At least we could have gotten a good laugh. So the whole dance was like a wiggle to the left and a wiggle to the right and move your arms in a flowing motion. Holy Macarena that was hard! Better yet, the boy got it on video!!!!! I have hid the blackmail video though. It is only for private viewing.

All in all it was a blast and the evening culminated with the “Ring of Fire” dance which was absolutely amazing.

The moral of the story, if you want to get lei’d a lot and like it, go to Hawaii. If you want to learn to hula, buy a hula-hoop and practice before you go to a luau. Always participate though because if you don’t you will miss out on an experience of a lifetime!!!!!