Sometimes a mini vacation can come at a minutes notice. In this case, it did. I’ve mentioned before that we don’t travel that often anymore so we try to capitalize on what we call “24 hour getaways”.
Anabelle and my mom had a wedding to go to so they decided to get a room over at the Lahaina Shores on Front Street. My dad, Damien, and myself were invited slash asked if we could slash wanted to come to both getaway and do a little volunteering, or in this case, “volutourism”.
The Lahaina Shores has been around for quite some time. They’ve in fact been around for so long that they’re even in my earliest memories of Lahaina town. Being that I’ve seen the hotel from the outside all my life, I’ve always been curious about what the interior looks like. After 30 years, I got to find out. I heard awhile back that the Lahaina Shores was going under a major renovation so that added to my expectations.
After we got our keys, we made quick work walking to the room. I’m sad to say, the room was a bit of a letdown. Normally, when we get a room, we try to make it an effort to enjoy both the hotel room and the hotel’s amenities. However, because the room wasn’t really what we expected, Damien and I wanted to do something off property; have a small dude’s night out since Anabelle was busy.
Damien and I chose to eat at Kobe’s Steakhouse since he’s never been there and has never seen anything like it. I was really looking forward to his reaction. Once we got seated, I instantly noticed Damien’s eyes wandering around trying to watch the other cooks doing their little showcase. Shortly after ordering, our cook slash showman came out and started. There were only 2 kids seated with us so our cook really took care of them. Damien was in awe. Our cook was throwing, flipping, tossing, and twirling everything; food, cutlery, bowls; even the sauces were made into a prop. From time to time, I was watching Damien to see what his reactions were, and for the most part, he seemed overly intrigued. The night was also a success because not only did Damien get to finally experience a meal of this sort but he got to try fried shrimp tails for the first time. Neither of us had heard of it but he seemed to enjoy it. We both enjoyed our meals immensely. The cook was great. He was so entertaining and funny that we actually would have “waited” even longer if he did more of his culinary magic for us. From there headed over to Barnes & Noble. I enjoy taking Damien there because it lets me see the different types of things that he’s into and curious about. Since we had such an awesome dinner, we didn’t stay there too long because were hit with a sudden jolt of food comatosis so we wanted to lie down and relax.
Saturday started at the crack of dawn. This is where Damien and I would earn our hotel stay. We checked out and headed over to Waine’e Church for the Royal Hawaiian Guard Ho’ike. The Ho’ike is ceremony that celebrated the 175th birthday of King David Kalakaua. Along with a royal ceremony, event goers were also able to see the crafts of local artisans, try some “ono” (delicious) local food, and listen to some of Hawaii’s best musicians. Anabelle, Damien, and I, along with my parents had to help set up the Moku’ula booth and help wherever and however necessary. Judging by the amount of visitors the Moku’ula tent had and by how many people came to check out the festivities, it seemed like the event was a success.
As the sun went down and everyone was packed up, the Royal Hawaiian Guard Luau began. There were a lot of people that stayed throughout the Ho’ike but even more folks either came or came back for the luau. The luau was in fact so good that I wished I had known about it earlier so I could have promoted it at our hotel. The food was excellent and all you can eat. The musical program was great as was the hula performances. As good as the luau was, it was in actuality nice to see a local “society (?)” put on such a wonderful program for an equally wonderful cause.
Though Damien didn’t get the full experience because he missed out on the luau, I know for a fact that he had a good time. Being able to have such a good time with Anabelle while giving back to the community made this 24 hour getaway all the more better.
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