Early to bed, early to rise. Our day started with us leaving the hotel around 7am to find breakfast. Eggs’n’More fit the bill, and we were seated pretty quickly since it was so early. You know the movie 50 First Dates? It was filmed in Hawaii, and this little diner gave such vibes of that movie. Kind of a greasy spoon owned/operated by locals versus a big corporation. Food was decent — Pork Chops with Pineapple and Macadamia Nut Pancakes with Pineapple. Gotta go all in on the fruit when you are here.
Quick wander back to the hotel, and we made a split decision to stop in the concierge to see if they could give us some recommendations for a luau. Now you know us, we really don’t like super touristy things, and a luau just screams tourist. We knew this already. But we also couldn’t figure out if there was a culturally appropriate option that was worth doing. We ended up booking one called Chiefs and also ended up booking a small group tour for another day. Again, tour groups aren’t our thing, but pricewise, it seemed to make more sense than us trying to rent a car, deal with traffic, gas prices, parking, etc – plus the tour included some food and the entry to some of the places we would have paid to visit anyway.
The luau was booked for same day, so we spent the remaining of our morning and early afternoon wandering around Waikiki. Lego store to get the passport stamped obviously and at the mall, there was a hula show we sat and watched for a while. Turned out the group wasn’t Hawaiian but rather Japanese, so that was not what we expected. Quick chicken skewer snack in the food court as we wasted some time before the ukulele shop opened down the road. I’ve been looking forward to this stop, because they have a free tour of the woodworking shop. These ukuleles are all made locally with Koa wood which can only be found in Hawaii.
The tour was really, really interesting. I’ve been playing ukulele for a while, but have not really learned about how they are made or the history of them in general. About midway through the tour, we met Pops who quickly has turned into one of my favorite people we’ve ever met in all our travels.
Pops is 82 years old and is still working in the workshop that he founded 30 years ago. In the 90s, he was out of work and needed to figure out how to take care of his family. He had an opportunity presented that was making mini ukuleles for a mall stand of a relative who kept getting asked if they had mini ukuleles (they sold other mini instruments). Pops didn’t want to just make a toy, but rather a working mini ukulele. After making those for a while, his wife kept pestering him to start making regular sized ukuleles.
She had been watching the pop culture scene and could see that there was a resurgence of ukuleles coming because there was a trio blowing up on the scene. She just knew it was going to be big, and she was right. Pops said that after the third time of her telling him to do it, he finally made his first full size one. The brand he built is now a well-known all Hawaiian made brand that is really popular around the world with almost half of his clientele coming from Japan. Both of his sons and many of his grandsons still work in the factory, and they are working on modernizing a little bit with a new CNC machine to help cut out lines for them, but everything is still handcrafted. As we walked through the different stations, we saw the wood being cut down, the bending of the wood for the shape, the sanding of the edges, the sealing, and the stringing of the instruments. Everyone was so kind and knowledgeable.
We ended the tour (there were only three couples with us) with Pops coming back out to show us his mini ukulele and to play a little on the uke his grandson made. He then wanted us to all remember him, so he ran back to his workshop station and brought us a base of the mini uke’s. He also convinced his wife to come down and meet us, and I can’t even describe how absolutely adorable Pops and Pat are. The other couples had left, and they sat to chat with us for a half hour or so. They have family in Oregon, and so were telling us about when they visited. Pops then invited us to their house next time we visit Hawaii, and made Pat (he calls her Trish <3) give us her email address, and I had Pops sign my gift he shared, so we could remember this forever. So basically we were adopted by the sweetest Hawaiian family. Life is good.
Sadly, he only had a couple of ukes for sale at the actual workshop and none were a pineapple, so my hunt continues. Though I’m now 99% sure if I do end up with one, I’m coming home with one of Pop’s brand, KoAloha.
A quick wander through a little park and back to the hotel to grab our things in preparation for the luau.
Terrible, terrible traffic again, so a 45 minute bus ride turned into 90 minutes, but we made it.
A little bit about Chief’s Luau — Chief Sielu is an internationally known, world champion fire-knife dancer. He is Samoan-born and was a born comedian. He created this luau with the culture of the Polynesian islands at the forefront, providing the audience a piece of history of each island. Between the dancing, food and fire-knife presentation, all in all, it was worth going. Even if is for tourists.
