News from Waikiki

Aloha News

Hawaii Blogs:

http://honoluludailyphoto.blogspot.com/ 5.28.07

Off to Wyoming and back

By Papa Al, 5.20.07

It’s a long way, lush tropical air to sage brush and dry, green to brown, city to small town, from Waikiki to Wyoming, but it’s worth the trip. I’m just hours back from a two week trip to Cody, Wyoming which is the eastern gateway to Yellowstone National Park.

Cody is a cowboy town. They make no bones about it. In fact, during the summer tourist season, they are probably the only town in America to hold a rodeo every night. And quite often a gunfight in town. Staged, of course. Monday through Saturday, 6 p.m. Summers only.

I woke at 2 a.m. the first night to a ghostly blue scene of snow on the black mountains and a cutting low 40’s chill. It was one of those early spring snows. My first walk was with a jacket and a polar fleece sweater. It was just right and comfortable.

It did not seem incongruous to have fresh green leaves and buds against the snowy backdrop. I didn’t know any better. In the dead of winter, everything’s brown. But it was late spring, and the land had just turned green for about two weeks. All the snow on the lowlands was gone by afternoon.

I was a guest of a friend whose family lived a kind of hearty pioneer style with everybody gathering for breakfast around 9 a.m. They wake up at seven, exercise, do chores, then get breakfast.

The children are home schooled and Josh’s father builds log cabins with electrical wiring built in so the timing works out. Lunch is on your own, we’re warned, but dinner is promptly at 6 p.m., about four hours before dark. There is always dessert. Or maybe it was just because there were people in town.

After supper, it was weird to see Josh’s brother James riding his bike in the long twilight well past time it should be dark. In Cody, when you’re out on the South Fork, the night is black but it creeps in slowly.

One of the big draws in Cody is the Buffalo Bill Historical Center. I met a lady at the airport in Denver who told me all about it. She said it was world class. And it was. It has five buildings covering natural history, the Buffalo Bill era, plains Indians, western art and firearms.

Even the guys will love this museum. It holds more than 2,000 guns of all sorts. Gold ones. Famous ones. Small ones. Kinky ones. And big fat 45s.

Artifacts, video presentations and multi-level recreations are all used to make the visit authentic.

The town is actually small. A big wide main street. Not many restaurants, in fact, just a few compared to Waikiki. Some gift and art shops. A great saddle shop with the artisans upstairs. It’s across the street from the Irma, which is the center of town and the oldest hotel and saloon in Cody. Buffalo Bill built the Irma in 1902.

Of course, if you want to see the real old town or how it was, you’ll have to head west where you’ll find Old Trail Town, a compilation of circa 1800’s wooden building, one which still contains bullet holes, possibly made by Butch Cassidy or the Sundance Kid, who frequented the one tiny saloon.

Truth be told, most people don’t come to Cody just to see the town. They come for Yellowstone or the museum or the cowboys.

So, we took a trip into Yellowstone. Actually, our destination was Sun Valley, Idaho, some 300 plus miles from Cody, over the pass up into Yellowstone, out the west end, south towards Idaho Falls, take the exit at Rexburg-Salmon, west to Arco, then north on 75 through Bellevue and Hailey to Ketchum, which was once a mining town.

In Yellowstone, we saw buffalo, elk, two wolves. We were lucky, the pass had just opened after the winter’s snow and the park was relatively quiet. Kind of gurgling and fuming and hiding Grizzlies while we went on our way.

We got as close as three feet to a Buffalo, though it’s not recommended. One was just sauntering down the middle of the road and cars were passing in each direction. We just went slowly by as Josh explained how they sometimes will turn suddenly and gore a car.

After Yellowstone, we found our way by asking. We’d stop and look at a map in a gas station since I explained that I had made my way across the entire country in ‘94 without buying a map.

The scenery changed dramatically in the Wood River valley. It sort of became gentrified, if you can imagine the wild West thet’a’way.

As we passed Hailey, in countryside I remembered as open and scruffy, there were two-story varnished log cabins with porte cocheres and chalets on the hill and manicured condos on the low land. There was a traffic light on what used to be a country road.

We were looking for the Bald Mountain Lodge. A web site had said it was the cheapest hotel in town. Just $39! All that was left of the lodge was the sign. We pulled around and inspected an empty block right near the center of town. Right next to it was a bank. Nearly every big building on Main Street was a big bank with huge log cabin architecture.

Gratefully, the Pioneer Saloon and the Sawtooth Club were still there. It made me feel at home. In fact, one of the oldest bars in town, the Casino, was the only place crowded on this early May week night. And the Sun Valley Resort next to town hadn’t changed a bit. I spent a winter selling ski school tickets in 1994. It was great to be back.

Then off further into the valley, over Galena Pass, to a 5 horse town named Stanley, Idaho. I had met a girl there in ‘94 who didn’t want to meet me in Ketchum for a date because Ketchum’s 2,200 permanent residents had too much traffic for her bones.

I hoped to see her again, but there was a new girl working at the café in Stanley this time around.

Making time while the sun was up, we twisted our way alongside the Salmon River, which Lewis and Clark crossed on their way to the Pacific. We would cross their trail several times. The Salmon is a great rafting trip in June when snow melt is highest. It twists within narrow valley walls with meadows or cliffs around each bend.

From Ketchum, we were headed to Montana. One man in the Casino said to take the Trail Creek road over the mountains. Then on the road to Challis, catch another creek road. In Idaho, they call it a “backwood scenic route.” Read gravel road. No problem since the snow has already melted, he said.

I wanted to see the road to Salmon as I remembered, but Josh had backwood scenic route on his mind. In Salmon, he got the gas station attendant to point out a gravel mountain pass that would cut 20-30 minutes off our time, easy. If you take the gravel backroads, it’s always 20 minutes off your regular time, easy.

He told me about this as I mentioned that we were headed the wrong way.

We headed south from Salmon past the old Nez Pearce trail which Louis and Clark had taken west to a tiny two horse town named Leodore and turned left over gravel.

Up over Bannock Pass we headed down toward one of several long north south valleys that make this part of the country one of the prettiest in all America. The valleys might run a hundred miles long by 15 wide with pasture land and farms and sundry 5 acre housing developments with 3,000 square foot summer getaways for the rich and not so famous.

Virginia City is another 300 plus mile, solid nine hour drive from Ketchum. It’s just a few miles off one of the main two lane paths to Yellowstone from the Montana east west interstate. It was a started by a man who collected old log cabins and wild west buildings. He bought and shipped so many buildings in that it’s now two towns, Nevada and Virginia City.

The town looked mostly like a museum. Everything was closed, they don’t open the town till Memorial Day. But when we went into the only place that was open, the Pioneer Bar, it was packed. With locals.

The locals all work the tourists in summer and oil the rest of the time. Virginia City was once one of America’s richest gold strikes. They dredged the one stream to a depth of 26 feet and never found the mother lode. There’s still some wildcatters panning back in the hills. The rest of the time, Montana and Wyoming are booming with new oil fields.

We stayed at a place called Just an Experience. It’s just two log cabins and the downstairs bedroom next to Nevada City. It was great. We could have had the best steaks in Nevada City if we had checked in earlier but we didn’t, so we had steaks at In the Back, which is a restaurant in the back of Chick’s Bar nine miles down the road in Alder.

I believe that almost anyone can make a great steak out of that Montana beef.

The owner of our B&B gave us a short private tour of Nevada City. It was quite a sight, especially looking at the sparkling locomotive locked in the shed and the old log cabin China Town dried food display.

Then on the road again, to a regional track meet in Gillette, Wyoming, down past green, green pastures through the Crow reservation, Bozeman, Sheridan, Buffalo and 425 miles more.

From Gillette back to Cody, it’s over the Big Horns stopping at Ten Sleep and the best ice cream shop in the west, Dirty Sally’s. Sally was serving a bus load of high school kids on the way home from a soccer match. She was one gal against about 35 kids.

Back in Cody, I puttered around and found deer in town at a baseball game, otters in the irrigation ditch, antelope in pastures. We helped Josh’s father at the K3 Guest Ranch, which is a very colorful, imaginative B&B a few minutes from town with secluded views of the range and mountains in the distance. The K3 was recently featured in the magazine, Bed & Breakfast America.

It has a unique open air tepee for summertime lounging, bedrooms that kind of bring in the wild west to you with murals and log furniture. One bed is made from a chuck wagon and another features an indoor corral rail to hang your saddle.

Then I found a real, live buffalo ranch down the old South Fork Road. Actually, if you go there, the sign says “Lower South Fork.” Sometimes, too much local knowledge is dangerous.

At one time, the buffalo breeding business in the US went crazy and prices soared up past $2,600 per animal. But it was plummeted since. And few of the farmers had developed markets for their meat.

Mike Schneider is a retired LA police detective who surfed and sailed for many years. When he retired, he realized he was fed up with the crowds and traffic. So he bought 80 acres up Cody way, when there was just a “dozen houses along the road.” He still has his surfboard up the attic, in case.

The Big Skull Buffalo Ranch sells to bed and breakfasts throughout the country and to dude ranches in the west. Buffalo is great for you, has less fat and cholesterol than beef, tastes great, is tender. But it’s pricey. So only a few specialty markets can afford it.

I bought buffalo steaks for the family all around. Even in Cody, that’s a treat!

If you want, Schneider is one of the few ranches that will sell buffalo over the internet.

Then it was up to the cabin. The cabin is up at the 8,000 plus foot level. We passed several herds of elk and small groups of elk going up. It’s one to two hours of rough house driving over dirt, not gravel, roads.

If it rains or snows, get down fast. The dirt turns to mud. And not just any mud. More like slush. And many a good man has had to walk down the mountain and leave the car to the wolves and bears.

There are bears there. The cabin was originally broken into by bears. So, it’s protected now with iron shutters and doors.

This is country where an SUV makes sense. It’s amazing how many guitars are sold to people who can’t play a lick. And how many SUV’s will never see a mud hole on a deep back woods country road.

Josh caught a real country backwoods trout in a creek not more than 15 feet across.

Then it was over. It was sort of like going to the moon and back. From brown back to green. Dry to tropic wet. The sound of woodpeckers in the still to surf murmuring in the trades.

Good to be back. Good to have gone. Will go again.

Walking in Waikiki

Endings & Beginnings With Cloudia Charters 5.4.07

When I was a kid, DON HO struck me as kind of “hokey.” I was more interested in Rock & Roll. Don’s easy-going, happy island music and manner seemed too close to “easy listening” to my young ears I guess. You see, back then I didn’t understand the Aloha Spirit, certainly not the way I cherish and try to practice it today after 20 lucky years in Hawaii Nei.

It was an island pal attending school in Chicago, Joe Dunne, who alerted me to Don’s passing in a text message: “Is Don Ho DEAD?!” A chill went through me. Yes, something was different in the trade winds and the gentle surf. A great Hawaiian has left us, and a special time is passing away.

The Waikiki of Duke Paoa Kahanamoku and Hawaii 50 is becoming a precious memory that we share with our oldest and dearest friends. Remember? Aloha and Mahalo, Don Ho. A piece of our heritage is gone, but the joyous Aloha you shared with all of us will never dim. A Hui Ho!

Yes, a great Hawaiian has passed, but new beginnings follow every ending, and every wave trough is followed by a crest that we can ride.

Friday evening around Pau Hana time I got a call from a friend I had never met. A neighbor island couple was at Queen’s Hospital unexpectedly, and a serious health crisis had turned their thoughts toward marriage. Saturday was the anniversary of their first date, and they wanted to know if I could come to the hospital and perform a wedding ceremony for them! All the details were worked excitedly out. They could see the health department’s Kinau Hale (marriage license!) right across Punchbowl Street just outside their window. Performing a wedding ceremony has to be one of life’s true “highs.” So mahalo to my new friends for asking, and new husband: Get better soon!

Saturday marked another very special opening at the new Waikiki Beach Walk. Mana Hawaii is the place for authentic Hawaiian arts, music, books and even Lomi Lomi massage! A large happy throng of Hawaiians and their friends was present to bless the new store, and I’d have to say it was the largest and most exciting event yet down on the new Lewers Street.

Mr. Waikiki, Jeff Apaka, MC’ed, welcoming all of us. Did you know that Jeff’s dad Alfred Apaka was one of Hawaii’s great vocalists? His influence was world reaching in his day, and you can even see his statue at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. Hula Halau Lokahi, from the Lokahi Hawaiian Language Charter School performed under the direction of their Kumu, cultural specialist Hina Wong.

Maile Meyer, of Na Mea Hawaii shop, and one of the guiding lights of the new store, made time to graciously welcome old friends and new. I spotted another Mana Hawaii luminary: Maluhia Rang of Native Books (genuine local books from scholarly to children’s’ and everything in between!) Tony C of the Hawaii’s Stars TV show, and even slack key guitarist extraordinaire Keola Beamer was there! Do yourself a favor and buy one of Keola’s CDs when you check out the new store.

Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee Haunani Apoliona, herself a wonderful musician, was kind enough to talk story with me for a few moments. Her evident humility and sincerity touched me. The future of the Hawaiian People is something she takes as a sacred responsibility. “Pray for us.” Was her simple request. Join me in that, won’t you? I asked kumu hula Pat Namaka Bacon if she would be judging any competitions again soon. You see we all missed her at this year’s Merrie Monarch Festival judges table. “The young kumu think I’m too strict!” she smiled in answer; but I sensed a great deal of pride and satisfaction about the current flourishing of Hawaiian culture. The Hawaiian-fluent children dancing before us spoke volumes!

Before pulling myself away from the festivities I had the chance to chat with Paleka, the craftsman who helped to construct the new store interior. He introduced me to Maile Lee, of the Lomi Shop(s) (herself a kumu hula). They painted such an exciting picture of the events and authentic entertainment to be held in Waikiki this Spring and Summer that I can hardly wait!

Looking down from the second floor lanai, just outside of the Holokai Grill, I noticed the small lane entering Lewers and it’s street sign. I had seen that sign hundreds of times before without paying it much mind: “Don Ho Lane.” The old Islander Coffeehouse, where I had eaten my first breakfast in Hawaii over 20 years ago, is gone, but that sign remains, a fitting tribute to a man who did much to change the face of Waikiki. Beginnings & endings, eh? Endings, openings, weddings, the rebirth of a culture; the circle of life. . . Which reminds me! The Lion King will be here in September! Get your tickets and your hotel reservations and Be Here!

Till then. . . look for me on Kalakaua Avenue. . . walking in Waikiki. . . Aloha!

Quick note: Welcome to Big Islanders, Milt & Ruth Weiss who’ve taken up residence at the beautiful Waikiki Banyan! Bet they didn’t know that their new street, Ohua, is named after the small fish that run off of their new beach every year!

Cloudia Charters` Hawaii novel: “Aloha Where You Like Go?” is available at Amazon.com and Isle bookshops. Contact her to plan YOUR affordable Waikiki wedding at www.cloudia.charters@gmail.com

You can see great Hawaii pictures daily at http://honoluludailyphoto.blogspot.com/ 5.1.07

Saimin shops

Papa Al 4.26.07

Back in the 60's, more than two generations ago, before the United States sent a man to the moon, there were little saimin or noodle shops in every little town throughout Honolulu.

The communities are all part of the city now, but they were more like little towns in the old days, in my father's time. They had little central areas with retail shops and restaurants. Churches. Then stretches of homes in between.

By the 60's, there was very little open land. Nearly every spot was filled, mostly by one story and a few two or three story buildings.

I used to go to explore those saimin shops, not only because I liked saimin but because the little shops always had cute little waitresses.

The shops were all family run, and the daughters had to work in the family business.

Nearly all are gone now. Over the years, the newspapers would announce which shop was closing, perhaps after 30 or 40 years in business. The children didn't want to continue.

Those modest shops paid for college educations, schooling in far away places, like Boston or New Haven.

But I always liked those shops. There was one in Liliha, two daughters, there was Washington Saimin, Kaimuki Saimin, and Zippies, the huge local chain which started, really, because it had great saimin.

Today, there only a handful left. Boulevard Saimin on Dillingham serves some of the best noodles in the history of Hawaii but it's in a fairly decent two-story, hollow tile building now. The old time ambience is lacking.

Palace Saimin is one of the last in an old beat up building on N. King Street. But it's open when they feel like it. It's not uncommon for them to be closed when their sign says they should be open.

Places like Likelike Drive-in and Kenny's in upper Kalihi were modernized. They look more like Mainland diners than saimin shops.

Shiro's tried to turn saimin into big business. His Aiea shop was big business. He kept it open all night and made enough money to build himself a big house on the hill. He tried franchises. But it didn't work.

We went to Jane's Fountain in Liliha recently. This is one of the last of the last. The paint is fading outside, the neon sign doesn't work, the window opens up to a counter that looks like it hasn't been used in years.

There are two manual cash registers, the kind that ring when you push the key. The kind with fancy engraved metal.

Jane's was great. It looked like it was dying, but the waitress said, "No, people come from all over the island, all times of the day."

It was about three in the afternoon, and there were about 10 people in 32 seats. There were 5 booths for four. Some counter seats. Not bad.

The waitress said people come in breakfast, noon, dinner and night. Not bad.

Then again, a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich for $3 is not bad either. Local favorites like corned beef onion for $6.50 and spam and egg for $4.70. Pork with bitter melon. You can see why people come in from Kaneohe to eat at Jane's.

And saimin is only $3.15 for small. Where else can you get anything for less than four bucks?

But Jane's is going the way of all saimin shops. To the great saimin stand in the sky. Jane's is for sale.

The shop doesn't just come with a recipe. It has two rental units out back and another shop in the same building. Jane is asking $5 million for the kit and kaboodle.

A lot that was razed sold for $3 million about a hundred feet from Janes, just at the corner of Kuakini and Liliha Streets.

It's not hard to imagine that Jane will get her price or close to it.

Yeah, you'd better come down for your last taste soon, or it will just be another sweet page in Hawaii's history.

Talk about landscaping! This is the Hilton Hawaiian Village lagoon being remodeled. They've dug 7 well heads and will clean up the lagoon, pump fresh sea water into it, and always maintain a positive flush so that it will be more inviting. The amount of work it takes to do that is staggering. Papa Al 4.24.07

Walking In Waikiki: Mornings

With Cloudia Charters 4.17.07

Morning is a special time of day wherever you awaken, but gentle Waikiki mornings seem to have a distinct excitement and uniqueness about them every day. Perhaps it is those “first day of vacation” tingles pulsing through the trade winds. Or maybe it’s the poignancy of sunburned, baggage laden visitors yawning at the taxi stand, steeling themselves for the ordeal of returning to…. wherever else. It doesn’t matter where. Those of us in thrall to Waikiki wish them a sad Aloha, with a bit of a happy twinge (truth be told) that it’s not US (!) leaving the magic beach town; or not yet anyway!

Thoughtful Diamond Head shields us from the earlier dawn, letting us sleep in a bit, and Splash the harbor cat stirs in the pink basket of a little girl’s bicycle chained to the rack at the head of G – Dock. Little feline “Radar O’Reilly” will follow her hunger unerringly to a friendly early fisherman, McMuffin sharing tourist, or juicy trash can fish head. Then, satiated and casual, she will patrol the docks, keeping an eye on the Kolea and Java finches feeding on “her” bit of lawn. Then it’s time to snooze again, no doubt under the dark blue canvas of some neighbors covered boat, till it’s time to work for her dinner again, posing for vacation photos, and licking her paw in the afternoon sunlight. No one exactly “owns” Splash, but she has lots of friends, and lots of names, and is clearly too friendly and self possessed to be a feral wild child. She is simply part of the Ala Wai Harbor, part of our community.

Hard working Hilton, Ilikai, and Hawaii Prince workers fill almost every public parking space in the harbor on some days, like the morning tide rolling in, just as the hard working harbor residents leave for their jobs. And Stan the Man, who builds and maintains everything at the Hawaii Yacht Club walks his two miles from home, smoking like a narrow gauge Japanese locomotive, and saying funny-friendly things to everyone that matters as he passes.

Older (or younger!) couples whose very appearance screams: “Maine!” “Ohio!” “Stuttgart!” or “Beloit!” thoughtfully muse upon the tethered boats, and our alluring harbor bulletin boards where boats for sale, and crewing positions to Tahiti, are offered. Till the wife (usually it’s the wife) gets hungry for breakfast at the Harbor Pub and, clutching her discount coupon, drags her husband away from what “might have been” back to whirlwind vacation fun, Waikiki edition: the beach, the bar, the lunch, shopping at Ala Moana Shopping Center, the world’s largest open-air mall, and finally, the bus to the Lu`au. Very few akamai souls will take a customized, really local and personal tour with Papa Al, or get off the beaten path by themselves to experience the wonders of America’s oldest China Town, the royal Iolani Palace, or the historical and breathtaking Pali Lookout. You came this far; so check out the stark and beautiful Ka Iwi coastline, and the lush, tropical Windward Side of our island of O`ahu while you’re here!

Then there are the lucky and blessed folks who simply rest and rejuvenate in the healing sands of Waikiki, this ancient spa favored by the Chiefs, Chiefesses, Kings and Queens of this kingdom by the sea. Very few modern people, I think, fully relax long enough to truly benefit from our medicinal breezes, chanting waves, and rustling palms. But Waikiki waits patiently as always, full of tangible magic for the lucky one who lets everything loose just to listen to the warm, the song of birds, and the laughing voices of children from all over the world playing together. Yes, too few of us surrender to the Lomi Lomi of Waikiki’s healing Mana. Try. . . You’ll like!

Having fallen under that magical spell, a lucky, blessed few of us never leave, like Splash the harbor cat waking to another gentle Waikiki morning. What will there be to eat today? Who will I smile upon or talk with on my slow progress up the beach this afternoon?

I hope that I will awaken here in Waikiki as long as my boat, my mooring permit, my luck, and my body hold up. Each day here is unique in beauty. . . like all the others, just because it opens its petals here in magical Waikiki. So the white doves of Fort DeRussy, Splash the harbor cat, and me, we’ll hold a place for you under the palms, right in front of the Hula Mound.

Till then. . . I’ll be here. . . Walking in Waikiki. . Aloha!

Read Cloudia’s novel: “Aloha Where You Like Go?” available at Isle bookstores and at Amazon.com. You may contact her to plan YOUR beautiful, personalized, affordable Beach Wedding, or just to say “Aloha” at: cloudiacharters@msn.com outskirtspress.com/Aloha_Where_U_Like_Go

Up close and personal at the Kahala Mandarin in Honolulu. Papa Al 4.10.07

Walking in Waikiki: Hawaii Music Awards

Cloudia Charters outskirtspress.com/Aloha_Where_U_Like_Go April 1, 2007

Friday night I attended the 10th Annual Hawaii Music Awards courtesy of my good friend Mark Coleman, who’s CD “Tunes With Love” won this year’s trophy for Rock & Roll. It was one of those “only in Waikiki” nights as winners took the stage to perform.

Brittni Pavia wasn’t the youngster in the group anymore. First time winner Misaki, an ultra-poised, local middle school student with a really nice voice, just captured everyone’s attention. We even stopped eating when she sang!

Waitiki, a group of deceptively young guys, lovingly interpreted the classic Polynesian Exotica of Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman along with nostalgic Hapa-Haole songs of Alfred Apaka and Mahi Beamer. Chicken Skin, eh?

But lest you think that the new kids ran away with the evening, let me hasten to mention a few of our reliable local talents who please their many fans, and

make new ones, everyday around town. Pierre Grille, that wizard, accompanied several groups in various musical styles all night. You should catch him some Friday night at The Dragon upstairs on Nu`uanu Avenue in Chinatown where he sometimes “solo-duets” playing trumpet with one hand and piano with the other!

Fortunately local chanteuse Ginai keeps right up with him as they improvise, play obscure requests, and turn on a musical dime! Speaking of a masterful stage presence, Ernie Cruz Sr. who is patriarch of a large and talented clan including sons John Cruz, and Ernie Cruz Jr; got the whole place stomping with his Big Island Paniola music accompanied by his youngest daughter who also acquitted herself quite nicely on a solo number.

Legends Manny K. Fernandez and Peter Apo also won well-deserved accolades this year. Mahalo to ALL who paddle this wonderful canoe that we call “Hawaiian Culture.” Which brings us to a surprise (to me!) winner: Aloha Joe of Alohajoe.com. Since 1994 this haole man on the continent has been web casting great Hawaiian music all over the world! Joe won an award this year for producing a tasty compilation CD entitled “Aloha From Paradise” and was seated with several tables of his listeners who joined his party from all over the world including England, Europe, Canada, and the continental USA! As far as I’m concerned, Aloha Joe is one hanai brother; thanks for sharing Hawaii’s healing magic with the world!

Saturday morning, walking down Kalakaua Avenue, I talked with quite a few couples who were exploring our beach town before cruising on the Pride of Aloha. Sure hope they come back sometime to spend more than an afternoon in Waikiki!

Arriving in Kapiolani Park where the Prince Kuhio Hawaii Folk Life Festival was taking place, I had the serendipity to catch kumu hula, songwriter, master musician, and Hawaiian cultural specialist Manu Boyd dancing the hula Makee Ailana on the New Waikiki Bandstand. Many folks don’t know that the bandstand is surrounded by ponds and water features and is especially designed to recall that pleasant landmark (Makee’s Island) of King Kalakaua’s day.

Hula certainly makes us all part of living history. Looking out at the gathered Hawaiian Civic Clubs, the Hula Halau, Canoe Paddling clubs, and our local artists, artisans, and food vendors, I couldn’t help but think that the Merrie Monarch would be pleased that his beautiful park, and his beloved people still carry on their precious culture to this very day. So lucky we malahini who’ve joined them in Hawaii, eh?

Walking back to the Ala Wai Harbor I was admiring the new Beachwalk project on Lewers Street when whom should I meet but everyone’s old pal Brickwood Galuteria! Brick played great local music for years on local radio, performs musically with Imai & friends on occasion, and even headed up the Hawaii State Democratic Party for a while! Now he’s consulting with Outrigger and others to make sure that Waikiki always maintains its uniqueness, which is founded on the Aloha of our gracious Hawaiian Host Culture.

“So you’re out of the public eye.” “For now,” he replied with his eyes twinkling. Our next governor?

While down on Lewers, be sure to stop into Holokai Grill. While I adore a Ruth’s Chris steak, a Beard Papa crème puff, or gelato as much as anyone, I’m especially happy to see a local style eatery spread it’s wings in this new area. Local grinds, friendly service, and yes – REAL Hawaiian music are still on the menu…when you’re walking in Waikiki. . . . Aloha!

If you wish to contribute to Hawaii Blogs, email Waikiki News. All contributions will be considered. All contributions are voluntary and non-paid. Hawaii Blogs is a way to add opinion to the Waikiki News content. Waikiki News is a leading web media from the islands.