Kamehameha Day Parade.

Statue of Kamehameha 1.

  King Kamehameha, the ruler who united all the Hawaiian Islands into one.  Prior to this, each island had its own ruler who Kamehameha defeated.  It is said he was born to be great because a comet passed overhead at the moment of his birth.

Today, they celebrate his uniting the islands into one kingdom every June with a day and a parade.  I am usually visiting Hawaii when the parade happens.  The parade is much like most parades with a band, cheerleaders, and floats but they also have several groups of horseback riders representing each island. 

In addition, each island is represented by a specific color such as the Big Island is always in red.  The horses are decorated in floral arrangements just as their riders have flowers in the hair or on the hats.

Kamehameha took control in 1810 and his decedents ruled until 1893 when Queen Liliuokalani was forced to abdicate so it became a United States territory.   Now to the parade.

Representative of King Kamehameha - A descendant of the royal line honoring the family and the king.

Kings Guards

 This parade always starts with the girls carrying a banner announcing the parade, followed by members of the King's Guards and the Royal Hawaiian Band.  Kings Guards is more for show in the time but years ago, before the monarchy was overthrown, they guarded the king.

Royal Hawaiian Band

No parade is complete without the Royal Hawaiian Band which has been around for over 100 years.  It was started by one of the kings and is well known all over the islands.

Queen of the Parade

Right behind the band, is the queen of the parade with her court.  The other groups have a princess with her court of males and females.  The women wear long dresses which drape gracefully over the horses while the men are in jeans, shirts and hats.  The hats have a band of flowers.  The MC said you can always tell a Hawaiian Cowboy by the flowers around the hat.

Pooper Scooper Pickup

Since the parade has live animals walking down city streets, every group had its own clean up detail.  Just about every clean-up detail decorated the wagon and container to make it pretty.

Court of Princess

 As you can see, the horses are decked in flowers, the women have flowers because this is a floral parade.

Princess's court

The princess rides in front while her court is behind her in a group.  first the three women, followed by the three men.

Pooper Scooper Patrol

Another beautifully decorated clean up wagon.  This year they went all out.

Princess

 The above is the princess of Maui.  The princess is in distinctive out fit with the court wearing colors that are slightly different yet complementary to the princess.

Maui Horse Clean-up

 This is the clean-up group for Maui.  According to the MC, many of these folks flew over for the parade because its such an important thing.

Court of Princes

The princess is always gracious as she rides back and forth greeting people.  The court waves but they do not ride back and forth.

Clean up

For me, I loved the clean-up groups because they got so creative in decorating their containers.

Chinese contingent with dragon

 The Chinese always have a few representatives in this parade and each of the three cars, had a dragon lazing on the back.

Court

I love the way the skirts gently flutter in the wind.

Princess

Clean-up patrol

This group, identified theirs as what it really is.

I didn't bother putting up pictures of the various winners of beauty pageants because there were like 12 of them ranging from Miss Preteen Hawaii to Miss Bikini, to Miss Asian something.  I don't think I've ever seen a parade with as many beauty pageant winners as I have here.

In addition, every group representing Native Hawaiians had someone in the parade.  Some of the groups included Daughters of Hawaii, Sons and Daughters of Hawaiian Warriors, and others.

Tomorrow I'll have  pictures of the Pan Pacific Parade.

The Kamehameha Day Parade Pre-Show

The parade began at 9:00 AM by the Iolani Palace.  I was way down in Waikiki, across from Kuhio Beach Park waiting for the parade to arrive.

Turns out, I managed to find a seat across the the Hyatt Stage, manned by the director of Hawaiian knowledge from the Hyatt.

Once everything was set up, she entertained us with information on the land, hula, history, and music.

This year's parade focused on the land.  Originally, the land in Waikiki was owned by the ruling families but some of it was sold off.  Other land was held in trust for future generations of Hawaiians. 

It was through this, I learned the money made from the new International Market Place is being used to fund Queen's hospital.  Queens is the hospital who treats those without insurance so this is a way to raise monies to keep the hospital running and treat those who need it.  In addition, the land down by the Royal Hawaiian with all its shops, raises money for the Kamehameha Schools so it can continue education native Hawaiians while providing a wonderful education.

Dancing with feathered gourds.

She sang lots of Hawaiian melodies, taking time to occasionally introduce people from Lanai and Tahiti. 

I didn't get her name so I can't use it but she also runs a hula school at the hotel.  She had several young ladies performing.  They did a lovely job.  They also sang "The Hawaiian Suppa Man".  Its about the god Maui who created the land with his hook. 

Furthermore, she managed to talk a lovely young lady into performing several hulas using some of the more traditional implements.

Sorry about the slightly fuzzy photos but its hard to get a clear photo when people are moving.

Rather than dancing on the stage, she moved out into the street so everyone could get a better view.  The stage was rather small and crowed already  so it was easier dancing with these or the bamboo ones,  and not hit anyone.

This gourd is played by the dancer.  There is a consistent rhythm played during the song.  In this case the song was about the schooner sailing ships.  Hawaiians write the words, then the music, then the hula.  Music is an important part of the culture. 

It was wonderful to learn more about Hawaiian culture.  Tomorrow, I'll have pictures from the actual parade and then later in the week, I'll have entries on the Pan-pacific festival and parade.

New Variaties of Fruit.

  The other day, as I wondered through a new grocery store , I came across a couple new varieties of fruits I've never seen before.  When most of us find pineapple at the store, its fairly large with a tangy sweet flavor.

The inside is usually a bright yellow and the taste is still a bit acidic.  Its often found on top of a Hawaiian pizza with ham or on the ham you bake for Sunday dinner.  Personally, I prefer the pineapple without the ham but that's me.



Well I came across a much smaller, rounder pineapple at the store.  It's much smaller with a teasing name of Honey cream.  Its actually the perfect size for one or two people.

As soon as I got back to the room, I tried a piece.  The sweetness burst in my mouth, like an explosion of mmmmmm goodness.  I had to have another piece.

The picture below shows the interior is a light yellow, almost a cream color.  Its also a bit smaller and rounder than the normal pineapples but its sweetness is addictive.

I wanted to eat the whole thing at one sitting because of its sweetness.  This is not a variety you find at most supermarkets.  

I suspect this type is grown to fill a niche within the pineapple growing section.  If I could take a couple home I would but if you've ever been to Hawaii, they have strict rules on what you can take from the state and what can be brought in.

Yes, the cut was a bit wonky but that was me.  I am not good at cutting pineapples. Just to let you know, I didn't even cut the skin off.  I just cut the pineapple in slices and ate the inside as if it were a lice of watermelon.

I want to get every bit of goodness out of it.
The above photo shows the type of dragon fruit I'm used to finding at the grocery store.  Its got a pink outer skin with a pristine white interior.  The ones I've tasted are never that sweet but the ones I found at the same grocery store.  I seems to be a different variety and soooooo sweet.

The outside is more orange than the other type, smaller and I suspect ripened on the vine rather than picked slightly green.

I admit, I almost didn't buy the fruit because it was so much smaller and more wrinkled than what I was used to but I decided to try it.

When I cut it open, the juice oozed out of a deep red pulp with black seeds sprinkled throughout the fruit.



This variety of Dragon fruit was so much sweeter and juicier than the other.  I hope to find another one or two like this so I can really enjoy them.

If you saw the picture of the dragon yesterday, the  caption came from a book I just finished reading in which a magical dragon was birthed from the dragon fruit.  In the story, magic abounded but the dragons died a long time ago or so the legend stated.  The heroine had to find them and in the process had a small whiskey drinking magical dragon appear from a dragon fruit.

Don't worry, the dragon always paid for any whiskey drunk or bottles taken so it was an honest dragon.

I'm off to enjoy the day.  I hope you enjoyed reading about foods that you might not ordinarily find.  Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.

Really?

So Sweet.

Manoa Heritage Center.

This past Monday, I had the privilege of visiting the Manoa Hertiage Center, a small 3.5 acre property devoted to preserving Hawaiian plants alive for future generations.  The center was created by the Cook family to share the knowledge with others in an educational setting.  The tour was only about an hour long but there was so much to see.

In the photo below, you see a prime example of walls built without the use of mortar to keep the rock walls together. The Hawaiians were able to build so many of this type of wall and they stayed up quite well without anything to hold them together.  In addition, that back wall is actually on a hill.  The guide stated the workers first terraced the hill before filling it in with rocks to make one smooth rock wall up the back.

 The house was originally built in 1910 in Manoa Valley when few other houses existed in the area.  The 35 acres the family owned included a place of religious significance.  Unfortunately, the stone building was located in the perfect spot but the Cook family refused to have destroy something cultural just for the house so the architect had to find another place.

The photo to the left contains a picture of the sacred place.  Even today, it is treated with respect and prayers are said out of respect for it.

 The photo to the right shows the top of the ridge where if you look closely you can see the remains of the person who harassed a woman way to much and in response the gods laid his body on top of the hill where he remains to even today.

Just to the left of the middle is the forehead, nose and chin.  The middle is the neck and to the right is his chest.  Hawaiian culture is full of stories like this.

 Here is a photo showing a couple different things. To the left is a game board where they played their own version of checkers with lots of jumping.  At the end of the game, the winner was the only left with a piece on the board. 

The other thing to see, is the small brown seed in the man's hand.  This seed comes from a plant which produced tons of the seeds used for making soap.  You have to remove the hard outer layer. The inner part is what you boil with water to create the soap.

 This container filled with water lilies is actually from an old whaling boat.  The container was once used to render whale blubber into oil before being sold.  This is in the backyard of the house and there is a matching one across the yard.

In addition, there is a small cannon, probably from a ship, at the top of each stairs leading down from the back yard.

The water lilies are beautiful and breathtaking.  I understand the owners of the house will donate everything inside to the foundation once it has been catalogued.

This photo is of the stonework from the Cook Tudor style house.  The unique thing about the house is that Japanese stone masons had to be hired to do this because they knew how to cut the stone so it fit together perfectly with just a bit of mortar.

Many of the Japanese who came over at this time actually worked in the sugar cane and pineapple fields but there were also many who were skilled in building the type of house these and others wanted.

The precision in which the stones fitted together absolutely blew my mind.  The rock is locally produced and beautiful.  The whole house is about 3 stories including the basement and looks as if it would be found in England, instead of here in Hawaii.

The way was so clear.  You see Diamond Head peeking through above the tree line.  Diamond Head is an extinct volcano just past Waikiki, and the zoo.

I couldn't believe the quantity of plants including the allspice tree whose leaves smell spicy, taro which is made into poi, sugar cane, and so many more wonderful plants.

They give a bit of history on the plants and some wonderful lore associated with the plants.  There was a set of two plants, each with half a flower, that were considered a pair.

It was wonderful and the first time I've been there.  They do not give regular tours, instead you can arrange for an educational tour with a group of people.  I loved it.

Let me know what you think.  Have a great day.

20,000 miles in 12 years

Captain Liz Clark opened the second day of the conference with her keynote speech sharing with us her adventures as she spent 12 years sailing around the Pacific solo.

It was interesting hearing how she grew up in San Diego with a father who loved sailing and would take her out.  At 9 years old, she formed the dream of sailing around on her own.

A couple years later, her family ended up spending 6 months sailing along the western coast of Mexico.  Along the way, she learned to surf.

The time came when her family returned to land so she and her siblings could resume schooling.  Eventually she completed a degree in Environmental Studies but she had trouble finding the right job.  Not long after, she ran into one of her professors who offered her the chance to take his boat out and sail it for him. 

He'd always had the dream to sail free but his wife was more into horses and it was never going to happen so he offered Liz the boat, spent three years getting it fixed up before she took it out.  In the meantime, she needed to learn to fix engines, maintain a sail and other skills she'd need by herself.  Eventually, it was time to shove off.

The first leg of the trip took her down to Mexico and she had friends with her as she learned the ins and outs of the boat.  She found some remote spots to surf and enjoy life.  She told the story of seeing this great place to surf, catching a ride in a local truck to the spot and then getting a ride back with the police at the end of the day.

When she was confident, she called her parents to let them know she was heading off to the South Pacific.  Her mother immediately hopped a plane to be her crew for the trip.  Her mother had no interest in sailing but she wasn't about to let her daughter travel 22 days on her own.  At one point they hit a nasty storm but made it safely to the destination.  After her mother left, she began traveling from one island to another on her own time table.

Eventually, she began putting her adventures on paper and recently published a book called "Swell: Sailing the Pacific in Search of Surf and Self"  She read passages from it to us, sharing parts of her trip in pictures and words.  Along the way, she even acquired a pet cat who loved to be on the boat.  She shared the time she landed on a small island and was met by a woman on a bicycle who took her on a tour around the small island.

She told us again and again that we must follow our own paths and not the paths everyone else wants us to take.  I came away with the feeling that failure is not the end but the beginning.  She was funny and honest. She included the information that once she ran out of funding, she slowed down and took time to enjoy her life.  She earned money through publishing articles and any other way she could.

Based on the passages she read to us, her adventure gave her time to really reflect and find herself in a way she would never have if she stayed in the states.  Have a great day and let me know what you think.

Tomorrow, I'll be sharing photos of a wonderful place in Manoa designed to keep information on Hawaiian plants alive.  Stay tuned for that.