Amazing Luau on Maui!!!

/ Ed Armstrong
We began our evening taking a few photos to remember the gorgeous scenery!! JoAnn and Charlene loved having their photo taken with Molokini in the background.

Charlene and I loved the luau location!!

As we sat at our table, we had a great view of the ocean!!

It was very special for JoAnn and Charlene to enjoy the luau and continue their celebration of 65 years of friendship!!

John and Jan are the stars of the luau evening!!

This woman was the master of ceremonies for our luau evening!!

They brought the pig through the crowd to show us the meat that we would soon eat!!

This woman was our first dancer of the evening! It was fun to watch her dance to Hawaiian songs!

This was the band that provided the music for all the Hawaiian dances! They were terrific!!

The sun drifted behind a cloud and provided our table with a spectacular scene!!

As the sun was setting, these guys started the main dance festivities! They had terrific rhythm!!

These ladies were very elegant with their Hawaiian dance moves!!

The sun drifted lower and provided this last view as it fell below the ocean level. Hawaii is such a beautiful place!!

These dancers were some of my favorites!! They certainly knew how to shift their hips!!

As they danced, feathers were moving in all directions!!

The guys were very talented and the woman performed a special Hawaiian dance!!

These women were very fun to watch as they moved quickly and were swaying in many directions!! It would simply be impossible for me to move as they did!

These guys were intense and moved with force and power! They were amazing to watch!!

Our master of ceremonies was teaching us about the dance these women were performing! It was quite interesting to learn about the Hawaiian traditions!!

It was fun to watch the men and women rotate their dance moves!

These dancers were amazing to watch!!

To our surprise, suddenly our master of ceremonies changes things up. She named people that were celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and honeymoons. She also asked who in the audience had been married the longest? Our table started chanting “46,” “46” and caught the attention of the master of ceremonies. Yes, we have been married for 46 years. Out of 280 attendees at this luau, Charlene and I had been married the longest!! We certainly did not expect that everyone would be focused on us!! She asked me for one word that could lead to a long marriage. This photo shows her pointing to me. I replied “compassion” and many in the audience clapped, especially some women at a table in the back. She then asked Charlene for advice to have a long marriage, and Charlene replied that “marriage is a blessing for those that are willing to work for it.” Charlene’s statement also received many people clapping for her excellent advice.

After celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and marriage advice, this woman danced this special slow dance! It was amazing to watch her sway with the music.

These guys were an energetic group and really got things moving!

These ladies were some of my most favorite dancers!! It was simply beautiful to watch them move to the Hawaiian songs. They were truly special.

The combination of these men along with the ladies was very fun to watch!!

After a warning to the audience, these two guys started dancing with fire!! I certainly did not want to mess around with lighted torches moving around and being tossed to each other. I have a very healthy respect for fire!!

These guys were extremely talented! It was so impressive to watch them move with lighted torches!!

The next thing I knew was that suddenly, these guys where lying down and had lighted torches held by the inside of their knees!! I have no idea how they learned to to that without burning themselves!!

To close out the dancing, the master of ceremonies brought out some of the key dancers so we could thank them!! These are certainly very talented people!!

After the dancing was over, this woman was very gracious to me and allowed me to photograph her using a flash. She was very kind and said “awesome” when I showed her the photo on the back of my camera. I really enjoyed this evenings festivities!!