Post #116630 by Formikahini on Mon, Sep 27, 2004 8:30 AM

Well I think Pomaika i (newly engaged) and Ukulares (newly soon-to-be-parents) win the prize for the biggest surprises at the Hukilau! Best wishes and congrats all around!

The rest of us got the mere surprise of being evacuated/kicked out of the Bahia Cabana and Bahia Mar (and in fact, every hotel along the strip) early Saturday AM. Most of us had the sh*tty task of driving around for hours looking for lodging, but most seemed to have found something....or left town. Hooray for us hardcores!! Woo HOOO! We showed that bitch Jeanne that NUTHIN' keeps us from the Mai Kai!

What a restaurant. Even though they were not even opened yet, they let many groups (like our Houston contingient) drop off their stuff in the back banquet room and hang around until hotels were found, etc. (Picture suitcases and hotel room bedspreads & pillows stacked up under the genuine New Guinea artifacts decorating the space!) Not to mention that they forewent going home to their families to wait out the hurricane so they could let US have our PARTY! Does hospitality GET any better that that?!

Sadly, the crowd was diminished to only one show, instead of the sold-out two, but it was a DOOZY! They even worked up a never-performed-before-at-the-Mai-Kai number: "Hukilau"! Complete with audience participation and dance instructions for all. Needless to say, we all knew the words beforehand :wink: . (The words were frequently changed to "Oh we're going....to a hurricane...a hurri hurri hurri hurri hurricane...")

Some highlights:

• the Mystery Boy Drink Dance (in honor of Teri Oldknow, owner of the Starlight Drive-in in Atlanta and the soon-to-be Tiki-something Drive-in in SoCal!),
• the ever-entertaining Kink Kukulele,
• Humuhumu's birthday dance,
• the "Lovely Hula Hands" dance performed by a dancer of many decades' experience in honor of her son Randy's birthday that night. Standing ovation. What beauty, poise and grace, the kind that only comes with the years.
  (Not that the Mai Kai dancers didn't knock my SOCKS off! AMAZing!!! Damn my British Isle genes - I want to be a Polynesian Beauty and dance at the Mai Kai!!!),
• The after-party, complete with "Elvis: Live from Hawaii" on bigscreen TV. I'm still hoarse from singing along at the top of my lungs,
• Finding my cellphone, which had been lost in the sand on the beach, and
• My flight's arriving home 15 minutes early.

Personal Lowlights:

• Jeanne. duh
• Finding that my water-and-sand-logged cellphone no longer functioned (thus not revealing the phone numbers lodged in its memory),
• Finding that all cellphone stores, along with EVERYTHING except the Mai Kai, were closed, and
• Waiting 3 hours at the Houston airport for my ride to find me (since I couldn't call when we somehow missed, since my cellphone didn't work. arrrgh.)
• ADDENDUM - Learning that my SIM card, with ALL my phone numbers on it, was destroyed in my cellphone when the battery burned up!! Noooo! I'm emailing people asking them for their phone numbers again, so be on the lookout, those who'd given me their numbers in the past!

Final tally: the good FAR outweighed the bad!!!

And all the evacuation and forced closing fuss - for what? A rainstorm. Not even CLOSE to how bad a typical storm is in Texas or Georgia. Now, that was Fort Lauderdale proper. I'm sorry to hear of roofs being blown off in other cities, etc. and yes, better-safe-than-sorry blah blah, but DANG! I was having FUN! And I was loving seeing everyone!

Sorry that I never got to say goodbye to many (or even meet some of you) before we were split, but we will do this again!

THANK YOU TIKI KILIKI AND SWANKY!!! And to all the others who performed and who volunteered their time to help out with the myriad details to make it all run smoothly (e.g., James T and his crack crew stage managing the Friday night show). My first Mai Kai weekend experience was CERtainly unforgettable!!!

TIKI: Now, more than ever

[ Edited by: Formikahini on 2004-09-27 09:32 ]

[ Edited by: Formikahini on 2004-09-28 08:22 ]