Ernie Menehune (back row, center) with his Polynesian dancers

If you have never eaten at Kon Tiki, the Hawaiian-style restaurant with the large tiki gods in front at 4625. E. Broadway (west of Swan), here’s your chance. Included with dinner on Sunday October 30 is a fun-filled Polynesian show featuring the legendary singer Ernie Menehune and his Polynesian dance hula halau (revue).

Dinner, drink & show $25. Reservations required at 520-323-7193. Go to their website (click here) to see their extensive lunch & dinner menus & exotic, tropical drinks.

Kon Tiki is the oldest Polynesian style restaurant left in Tucson and has been here since 1963. Recently I heard about the Pago Pago tiki bar which used to be on Oracle Road.

I’ve known “Uncle Ernie” for years and he has plenty of “aloha spirit” and singing talent, and orginally comes from the beautiful island of Kauai. If you haven’t been there, I suggest you look into a flight via Hawaiian Airlines from Phoenix direct to Honolulu, then to Lihue, Kauai. (I used to practice law there and sometimes I wonder why I ever left).

And don’t forget to wear your aloha wear!

leprechaun in his pot of gold

Well, back home in Hawaii, we kids grew up looking for menehune, the tiny native folk who also do mysterious things, like build fish ponds and other stone structures in the middle of the night.

There are also a lot of lava caves around for them to live in. I remember as a child on long car trips, looking eagerly for a glimpse of one of those little menehune coming out of the numerous lava tubes/caves along the side of the road of the Big Island. We had lots of rainbows on Hawaii Island, but no gold deposits anywhere (being as it’s volcanic).

One of my high school friends told me that once as a young boy on a cub scout hike, his troop came across very small footprints in the mud of our hilly, rural area of the Big Island. He says they excitedly followed the footprints for a while, which were spaced only a few inches apart. They looked like tiny baby foot impressions in the mud, along a dirt road next to a sugar cane field. Then the Cub Scout Master became scared (probably as he realized these may have been spirits), and they left the area immediately. Who knows? He told me he thought they were menehune footprints.

By the way, one of my friends in town is Hawaiian singer Ernie Menehune (originally from Kauai), who still sings at luaus and sometimes at the Kon Tiki, 4625 E. Broadway.

Anyway, celebrate St. Patrick’s Day today by wearing green (I am) and hoping to find that Pot of Gold at the end of the rainbow. I know I’m still looking for it.

May the luck of the Irish be with you today.

Erin go braugh!