Photos of some lovely hawaiian aunties

I love the way Hawaiian women dress for celebrations, we could use this tradition here. This trip I tried to take a lot of photos of hats and hairpieces, and some of these are going to be in a Picasa file soon. Here are some women, and womanly beings, I found particularly beautiful


Above, Na `Iwa`Iwa, the 'house band' of much of the merrie monarch this year. Two of them have been members of the group, Na Palapalai. (In Hawaii, many men do sing in the upper register, but it's masculine; a few choose to fully take on feminine personas. They are amazing and captivating. We love the house band!

Below, an esteemed Merrie Monarch judge, Nalani Kanaka`ole; a Merrie Monarch parade bystander; a happy vendor at the skilled arts and crafts fair at the Civic Center












Three more judges, draped with honorary leis. I think these are Kimo Alama Keaulana, maybe Joan S. Lindsey, and Pat Namaka Bacon.
Below them, a gracious woman who must have an important role in fostering the MM as she seems to greet everyone and everyone seems to greet her. Like many women at the celebration, she had a lovely dress and hairpiece for each of the main evenings.















Auntie Elizabeth Lee, a famous lau hala hat maker; Jamie Lynn Gilmore (www.gilmorearts.com), a very special artist who focuses on Hawaiian plant species, and who lives in the southernmost district of Ka`u; and an unknown auntie getting ready for the parade (but I think from her dress that I have a picture of her below in the car labeled 'grandmother of the year'

Pictures

In addition to illustrating our blog with photos now, we are slowly uploading pictures of the trip. this is the main group:

http://picasaweb.google.com/craigt55/CraigAndAmyAtTheMerrieMonarchFestival2009#

I think we will also be adding a set of pictures and enlargements just of the parade and parade prep because it was so fun! stay tuned...

Scents of the Big Island - talking story, lasting impressions

As you could tell from our other posts, the Big Island can be fabulous. We came home with lots of memories and the fragrance of drying maile. I think we have a few more stories to share.

Here is a picture of a lauhala craftsman who works in Hilo that must be in her 80s and 90s who was sharing stories with our friend Laurie Rohrer. She makes the tiny lauhala treasures that aren't made anymore - tiny birds, calling card cases, like that. Wish we could remember her name! her store has been in the same place for decades and decades. She gave us her business cards, they were all hand written.




On Sunday when the events were over, there was more time to sit around and talk story. It was a calm and reflective time. We took some of my mom's ashes to hilo bay and set them free with fragments of the leis we had worn. We drove up the beautiful Hamakua coast to sit on the porch of a friend and reminisce about what we had seen. It's amazing how, if you talk to enough people, you start hearing variations and 'the skinny' about nearly everything. Down in Ka`u, we heard the great comments and the critical comments about different local folks; we heard about 3 different stories about what is actually happening to the coastline in Ka`u near Punalu`u, and heard a 4th version probably the right one our last day. We got much more information that we knew there was, about so much. It's truly a closelit interwoven community, Hawaiian music and hula, and even when you think you know some form of truth, a new truth emerges. And over on the dry side, we got different stories from our hosts there. And even when the stories are a little biting, it's still shared with aloha and in pretty good fun. Because we all like the art form of hula and mele so much.

One of the best things about sunday, monday and tuesday was running into local folks who would tell us their adventures. Up in Hamakua, we met the grandson of a shopkeeper friend of ours, he is back just newly out of the Air Force for 8 years or so. He grew up south of Hilo, so he speaks a pretty classic pigdin. So he told us with a lot of great details about how when he entered the airforce, his 'ol southern boy leaders felt sure that with an accent and phrases like his, he must be maybe hispanic and definitely should need 'remedial English courses.' Not on your life! then they decided well if it wasn't the language comprehenesion he needed to work on, must be the reading. He must need reading classes. He showed us a great parody of the speed reading he showed them. Then he made great parodies of 'those Harvard folks' and the southern accented people he ran into. And how he had to explain to them what Hawaii was. guess with his hilo accent, they didn't really get it, til once he said 'you know, hula' they understood he meant Ha why eee. We had a lot of fun listening to him. And his very proud grandmother was enjoying it too. Then she shared stuff with him: he just spent 4 years in Italy, never knowing he's like, 1/4 Italian. Surprise! As well as the Samoan, Hawaiian, french, portuguese, whatever, that he already knew about. Oh you know, she said; when my kids were in school, they got a lot of grief because they had a funny sounding last name, so I had to change it; but you are actually Italian/English too not just Samoan. In the Islands, I guess, your ancestry may be something you just don't know, til you go ask grandma...

He was talking too about taking his Northern Italian accent down to Sicily and how funny it was to not be understood there. I could just imagine his northern italian perhaps with a Hawaiian flavor too. It was great fun.

Later we got to talking with another young woman, who was working at the Vintage Hawaiian aloha shirts in the 'Queens shops' in Waikoloa, to help pay her way through school. She's a hula dancer of course, knows the Brian Eselu halau guys, has got connections to the Lim family halaus, gave us lots of good scoops on what it's like to study at UH Hilo, told us how to look up brian Eselu's halaus you tube of their winning entry hula, 'Tu 'Oe', and shared with us what it was like for her to prepare for the merrie monarch in prior years. And how long it takes to make those enormous horse leis, staying up all night.

She told usthe videos of O'Bryan Eselu's Halau, Ke Kai O Kahiki, would be up soon on youtube. (It is: see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_pNMveyMeg
)
Then she also told us to go search for her favorite other past merrie monarch you tubes:
search for 2006 Ka Pa Hula O Ka Lei Lehua, both the kane and the wahine, hulu Snowbird Bento (I think this was her year), and also, 2006 Halau Hula O Kamuela Auwana, and also 2006 Halau Hula O Ka Leo O Ka Hihikina O Ka La.



I think Honoka`a remains one of our favorite towns. Lately there are some new stores and one woman and her sister have two of them, and they have the highest quality balinese-made hawaiian style batiks I've ever seen. She was also sharing so much with us: her family born in Waipio, her recent time in Molokai, and then all about her recent trips in Bali and Thailand. It was nice to get her take on it all. And she obviously has as much fun in Bali as we do. I'm glad that the type of art I saw in her store, is originating from a hawaiian born person and family, not just some smart mainland ha`ole seeing an opportunity. They also have really nice Thai made hawaiian style dinnerware. Wish we needed some enough to afford it!

The second time we went back to Honoka`a, our friend Michael totally discouraged us. It's raining hard over there! he said. Well he was right, but when you are a Hilo side addict, what could be better than a nice soft warm caressing Hamakua rain!

We caught some really beautiful spots on the dry side and north kohala side though. With all the rains, there is a lot of greenery and even the desert looks inviting. The cows and goats and horses are having a great time.


We went over to the Pololu valley, and hiked down into it, and it was a blazing hot day due to Kona wind conditions (the opposite of the trades). That's a great black sand beached valley, with a small forest of large ironwood trees lining the beach dunes, and it was once a properous hawaiian taro farming community, died out because the water got diverted for sugar cane lands back in the early-mid 1900s. Down in the Pololu valley, on the beach, people lived in hippie style in the 60s and there are still ropeswings, and driftwood huts, and cooking and camping areas there that folks do use. Here are Craig and me in our little driftwood shack:





On the west hot side, the swimming was really nice too on some of the bright white sand, black lava, giant old keawe-lined trees. It's still possible without much difficulty to find beaches that still seem to be isolated and far, and still have traces of the original coast dwellers homes and places of worship. And they are all so pretty on the west side when you can see the five huge mountains at once: Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, Hualalai, the Kohala range, and way off to the northwest, at twilight, the south side of Haleakala across the ocean straights in Maui.

The takehome memories of this trip that really pleased us? The abundance of Hawaiian conversations heard everywhere among young people and their pride and enthusiasm of including hawaiian language and lectures in their college coursework. The top class music and dance and impromptu dance heard all week long, including the comeback of KAPA radio, its really pleasant again, kaparadio.com if you want to hear it streamed. In particular, the hula we saw of one of the main dancers of Manu Boyd, first name Nohea, dancing to Beautiful Kahana sung by Glenn Smith. The fragrances of all parts of the island: the forest scents of lawa'e ferns, and great lei flower fragrances like pua kenikeni and ginger, and the way that our maile lei that we bought for Craig's birthday hawaiian lau hala handmade hat intensified as it dried. Also the sweet clear flavor of lau hala itself. And the salty fragrance of the west coast. We'd go back right now, if we could, and do it all over again.

Hilo knows how to party! the merrie monarch and the parade

Grandmothers of the Year!
(this year's float from Hilo Grandmother's Club)

this might be our last post, because the merrie monarch is over. What a party! Yesterday was the fabulous and fascinating hilo merrie monarch parade. I heard there were 90 floats.

The best part to me of the parade is mingling among the entries as they get ready to assemble. Everyone has worked so hard and is in such good spirits. The entries range from the large bountiful floats that carry such things as the Royal Court which includes King Kalakaua, his queen, courtiers and soldiers and musicians, all in 1880s garb; or entire hula halaus, maybe 50 women with their trio; to small floats that are a tiny volcano or island the shape of molokai on basically a wagon. Some floats have volcanoes that are actually steaming. There are about 20 marching bands from different high schools and a uke band and there are teams of gaily decked horses with cowboys and pa`u princesses from each of the islands. for someone who has never seen them: the riders and the horses all wear tremendous flower garlands and the ladies wear long 1880s skirts that drape down the sides of the horse. the attention to detail and color with the clothes, the leis, the hatbands, the neck leis for the horses, really something.

I also love seeing the work of entire families that lies behind all the floats. I had a great time getting to know the Ka`u Coffee Growers cooperative who had a float decked with actual coffee trees with beans on the branches. There are lots of pretty teen girls who are queens and princesses. I like seeing their parents put the finishing touch on their costumes and headbands and leis. The Tako drummers had to wear elaborate costumes with purple and deep turquoise and I liked seeing the moms consult about how to wrap and drape the kids.



The parade takes more than 2 hours to go by once it's going. meanwhile Hilo continues with its Saturday farmers market and its other businesses and on this day, you can buy Merrie Monarch 'security' t shirts. This turns out to be a controversial thing! Craig got stopped by a paddling group that said the sales might be illicit. Who knew. but they smiled and said 'oh, it's not your fault, enjoy!'

Another event simultaneous with the parade is free concerts at nearby kalakaua Park. under and near a huge banyan tree, there are musicians dancers and crafts. Again, among the best. There were women making tapa, and hats. the dancers included the halau of men that last night won best men. The musicians included Moses Kahumoku one of the best and rarely heard slack key artists, and Palani Vaughan, and many others.

In the two days since we last posted, we had some more excellent events. On Friday, many of us from the bay area who are here, participated in a hula workshop with Manu Boyd, learning an auana, but more than that, learning some reasons for our own hula style that we never knew. Manu Boyd comes from a hula lineage that is the same as the halaus I have danced in. Hula lineages are important; for those who don't know hula, hula is not just taught by anyone who has learned hula and wants to t each it; the teaching is done once permission has been given, after a long intensive training, and there are several main branches off the hula tree. our own features an upright posture, and extended hands, and the continuity is such that we can tell quickly watching most hulas if they come from our tradition, or not.

One thing we learned from Manu is that the reason we are expected to lift our feet off the floor soundlessly, in part reflects that a hula dancer would not have been dancing on clear ground, but more likely, on lau hala mats, with texture and edges in the weaving; so not lifting your feet would cause a lot of whispy noise, and yet, in some motions, you would USE this sound of the mats purposefully. Other times, you would need to lift your foot that tiny amount, so as to not brush the mat.

At noon we broke from the learning, and Darlene Ahuna was performing. Then the afternoon session was Manu Boyd's halau. what a treat. His entire band, all of Ho`okena, was there, and because the classes were at `Imiloa planetarium, the dancers performed under astounding photos of the galaxies. it was really poetic to see the dancers dancing pele and hi`iaka chants in their fire colored pa`us under glowing pictures of fiery nebulas. you realized it's all about fire, and energy, and the universe is full of it. I could not get a sharp picture of them, but this gives the idea:

During this performance, we saw what some of us thought was the best `auana hula solo we have ever seen. He has a dancer named Nohea, and she danced to 'Beautiful Kahana'. I have never seen such incredible graceful nonstop flow, her motions never stopped, her hands were exquisitely graceful, the choreography was awesome and her face lovely; and the melody, done live by ho`okena, with Glenn Smith doing the vocals solo, was to die for.

Another hilarious thing about Manu Boyd's lecture was hearing him talk about trends in hula. Apparently since he is a TV commentator this year for the Merrie Monarch, he has been watching the groups rehearse. He started to talk about how, all of a sudden, one halau started to incorporate spins and now everyone is spinning. and talked about how in our tradition, this is not always a welcome change, because the audience is who you dance for, and they are in front.

On a more serious note, he talked also about how the idea of 'lovely hula hands' is not how hula was in the past. He talked about how in the past, everyone in the room would be fluent in Hawaiian; so pantomiming the meaning of the song was not needed; what was only needed was for you to communicate what your experience of the story was. He said, "the story told the story, not the hands or the dancer". Now that so many people involved in hula have relearned the hawaiian language and many speak it daily, this is a great thought; that the choreography does not need to be miming as you would to a child; but to be expressing the personal experience of the dance.

his comments really held over in my mind as that night, we watched the ancient hula, hula kahiko, competition; and last night, the `auana. It was true! nearly everyone was spinning! it got to be a joke almost, spin spin spin! too much of a good thing. we are not talking about slow movements through 360; we are talking about really rapid spins, pirouettes in quick motion.

At the parade, and at the performance, we took lots and lots of pictures. we hope we can post them or will provide a link here.

The nights of the performances seem like the pinnacle of the merrie monarch, and they are wonderful; just being part of the crowd, sitting on the hard benches, hearing the sounds you can't ever hear on TV, like the men's firm stomping and the switch of wind and fabric, is incredible. The only reason for not writing more about them, is that they are not the entirety of the merrie monarch; the other events are so much fun. but one thing that is absolutely true about the MM performances, is the beauty and harmony of the contestants, their costumes, their leis and their musical support. And there is so much happiness and satisfaction in the young faces.

One pleasure of this kahiko competition was that Keali`i Reichel brought his halau from maui, the first time in years; and his dancer won miss aloha hula, and she was a true hawaiian beauty, full bodies and graceful. But also, that he chanted for his halau with his old co kumu, uluwehi guerrero. the audience knew, and appreciated, the return of these two old friends and co kumus, back to the hall, together.

Another part of the Merrie Monarch that I enjoy is what Laurie taught me: that the ladies will often show up there in awesome combinations of leis and dresses and she has inspired me to do the same. So the pleasure is to find the dresses, and the leis. it's awfully fun to recreate a feeling of the 1880s in your mind and when you have a graceful full length dress and formal jewelry and flowers, it feels great. but best of all is people watching, especially to see the truly magnificent leis and dresses of the judges, and the people who have worked so hard to host this great dance competition and ho`ike.

Today in Hilo, it's warm and comfortable, and we are looking forward to a relaxing journey up the green Hamakua coast, towards Waipio, and to Mike's house in Kohala. Craig will take over the blog from here with his own experiences I hope.

The party may be over, but the memory of this incredible town and its ability to create such joyous experiences for all, with such fabulous music and so much grace and so much fun, is totally lasting. What fun!




One of the kumu hula, a former Miss Aloha hula, dancing on stage

quick turns of fate

One of the most interesting events here at the Merrie Monarch was yesterday afternoon. we went up to the astronomical observatory at the University of hawaii in hilo for one of the free events there, about Haku Mele - the art of crafting hawaiian song. this was preceded by some free music, Darlene Ahuna who not only has a lovely voice, she is very sophisticated in her use of range and many hawaiian and 'standard' voice techniques, and she had excellent bass and guitar player also so that was really a treat.

But, then, as we all lined up to go hear the presentation, which was four hawaiian musician/composers being interviewed about the intricacies of writing songs, there was a surprise announcement. You guys, who only speak English or japanese, you wait here to get your headphones; everyone fluent in hawaiian go on in! Well, the interviewees gave their thoughts on composing in hawaiian language, in hawaiian! then just as quickly, over our headphones, a famous man named Kaliko Beamer (who is the grandson of the Sound of Music von Trapps) translated for us. it was really fun, and interesting. once again we see how strongly the hawaiian language immersion programs can work. the front rows of the hall and the floor were filled with teen and preteen kids, and at least half of the other folks present did not need the headphones.

The four composers, Larry Kimura, Kainani Kahaunaele, Manaiakalani Kalua and Manu Boyd, shared many concepts new to us; how, if you have written a song, it's customary to have an older hawiian person be asked to look it over, to make sure it's appropriate, in language, in balance of thoughts, and they can give the most cryptic comments just to keep you, the composer, aware and knowing something is missing. we learned about how such a person might tell you that because you have an emotional downstroke, or a comment about night, or falling down, you need to then bring in an opposite; something about life, or light, or ascending. can be subtle but the balance, the 'connection' is a key part of songwriting that the younger generation might not know.

I titled this section quick turns of fate, but by this I guess I mean good ones. We have been so lucky that the houseband, who is two of the 3 members of Na palapalai and another member, has been 'where we are', often. Since this band is unusual in that at least 2 of the 3 performers were born male but sure enough look and sound female intentionally, they are striking both visually and in their sense of presence. We also had a really lucky break last night, we came home early from the free night at the merrie monarch to our hotel and slipped in to the restaurant where we heard familiar music. Well it was the house band, PLUS this other really fabulous and striking singer named Heli Silva, who, same thing! From Molokai, born male, sings female! She's a total torch singer, does jazz and romantic standards like she was born in the 20s and singing in the 40s. We love Heli's artistry. It was a great evening, there were lots of impromptu dancing by great dancers like kumu Iwalani Kalima and some kumus from japan. Why? because it actually was a private party! we did not realize we were interlopers but we were not bothered and it sure was fun. we saw some really awesome old songs being interpreted by the creme de la creme of musicians and songstresses and dancers. one special appearance was by a retired queen of music Melveen leed who sang 3 songs. this was the equivalent of having Frank Sinatra sing at your birthday party. Al bernes will probably know exactly what we are talking about. The party was funded by some wealthy japanese who are here so there were lots of stylish japanese dancers and esteemed guests were present and it was very festive.

Hilo has been wonderful, rainy then sunny then rainy, with soft winds and perfect air. The skill level at the crafts fair, fantastic; many esteemed artists with lifetimes of skill perfection in what they do, some in their 80s and 90s and so fun to talk to. Many people are decked out, the hats and hatbands, and leis, are great. we hope to have some pictures. the quality of the arts at the civic center is very high. there are several other venues which tend to have more of the inexpensive things that can give pleasure but might seem 'cheesy' to some. but at the crafts center, nearly everything, from flower and feather and faux leis to clothing to musical instruments to hula implements to paintings is really tops.

A great performance was a free one today of the halau of one of the Kanaka`ole family; beautifully strong and athletic and the use of hawaiian language and the smooth powerful transitions were great. The halau was Unukupukupu, the kumu was Taupori Tangaro, husband of Kekuhi Kanahele. One of the chanters and dancers was Manaiakalani Kalua, who had been one of the speakers at the Haku Mele talk. They did one really powerful dance which started with all the dancers and drummers bringing in boulders of lava and dancing among and between them. i hope to learn later more about the dance. And I think I got a good photo, to go up later. (but it was blurry... so sad... here it is) Can you believe these are the stones they carried in, and carried out, during the dance... here also is a blurry shot of them being moved... and a shot of Manaiakalani Kalua.

Soft rains

Craig and new friend Tony, talking ukes


craig and I are in Hilo now, the last two days have continued to be very full.

From Captain Cook to South point, the road winds around the side of the mountain. now and then you can get off the Belt road and on to old vestiges of the highway and then you can see the great cow country, with fields and rock walls and old houses and big overarching trees and this time of year lots of green. About a half hour south of Captain Cook the vog lifts and you go through many new and old lava flows in between the forests. then when you curve around to south point things flatten a little and the land slopes very subtly far away to the sea.

Our friends Fran and Tom are just settling in to a new house near Waiohinu which has this same long spreading view south to the sea and east to the sea and north to the sea and the mountain. sturdy crystal clear windows protect the porches from the strong, steady famous winds of Ka`u. It's a very welcoming house. the area is a subdivision that never quite fully sold so there is lots of open space around and people nearby have alpaca farms and bamboo plantations and grow lots of their own delicious vegetables, organic long beans and fresh greens of all kinds. Black cows and horses are often grazing in wind sheltered depressions or against some of the large overarching jacaranda and other trees. It looks some like upland maui does, the only difference is the strong winds. you could easily run your life on small wind turbines it feels.

The nearby small towns of Waiohinu and Na`alehu feel mostly timeless, except for the few tourist spots like the Punalu`u Bakery, 'southernmost bakery in the united states'. The old movie theater and some of the old japanese named country stores have been painted to make them standout but overall it must look the same as 50 years ago. Some of the houses are rusty ruins, justs roofs supported by 1/4 of the original walls. Others are classic plantation style houses raised off the ground and nice lanais.

The best part of ka`u, to me, are the wild beaches with hawaiian ruins here and there and old trails that have smooth polished stones in the a`a lava. we will add some pictures here. The waves spout up against the black cliffs and this time of year small beach shrubs bearing `ilima-like five pointed flowers are very pretty. some of the shorebirds have spectacular breeding plumage. We had a wild encounter with an old hawaiian gentleman uncle Moses who is defending his squatters rights down on Kawa beach but now has to do it voicelessly as he had a larynx operation. He is holding access to a beautiful rock lined freshwater pool that the ancestors built, which protects a freshwater spring that emerges from a lava tube. He must do it now with large signs for you to read and the help of devoted fellow shore dwellers, the one we met was haole but impassioned. Since it was preaching to the choir the efforts were a little wasted but oh well. we saw a new flag in evidence everywhere, on the beach there and here and there as we drove; green orange and yellow with three standards or paddles on it. It's a new hawaiian native rights flag. we will learn more about it soon I'm sure. (Actually we did learn later; someone said that it's the flag that ships would fly, in the mid 1800s, if in hawaiian waters or having hawaiians on board)







another really nice thing that happened on monday was that at Punalu`u, while we had stopped to eat lunch before hiking, a local fisherman named guy who was sitting in a green van with his sleeping kids heard us talking about kanikapila and Fran and me singing kimo hula and suddenly there he was with his uke out, playing for us. he played Ua Noho Au a kupa. He was apologizing for not having proper uke strings. sounded great to us! and his sleeping child slept on. This was lovely because the following day, down at Kaimu, we ran into another local guy with a uke, a man named Tony who lives in Kea`au but drives tourists for a living; he says he is only playing a year, he is about 73, but wow could he pick and play. lovely sound. we enjoyed exchanging sounds and songs with these nice men who love their ukes.

Tuesday, we drove up and over volcano and down to our favorite city, Hilo. Instantly we were and are immersed in the hula loving community. The first performance of the day was Kekuhi Kanahele's husband, who has a maori type name. his halau is awesome in the family's style. we saw a great la`au hula and evrything in fact was wonderful. then the second performance was a great surprise, instead of the featured halau which was to have been Iwalani Kalima's group, it was Gary Haleamau and his wife and their dancers from las Vegas, nevada. We caught glimpses of the aunties and uncles who run the merrie monarch, in their great clothes and lei decked hats. Uncle George Naope who has brain tumors is being lovingly tended by the others.

in the afternoon we drove down to Puna and had our uke playing time with Tony; then, we stopped in Pahoa town to pick up some food, each old store there has its wooden sidewalk covered from the rain. then to our friends ken and na pua's. We had a really nice time there having dinner and then playing some music with their friends and suddenly auntie napua was looking through an old book of molokai songs and singing songs that probably only a handful of people in the world remember. what a privilege it was.

The weather in hilo is as soft and tranquil as always. now and then it rains, always the windows are open and shutters are open to let the soft perfectly tempered air in. it's really nice. the coqui frogs and birds make a racket but it's a nice racket, at night. and we are enjoying uncle billy's. because our room had a kinda small double bed, when we asked for a rollabed instead they upgraded us to a lovely room on the 3rd floor with huge king bed and view of the sea on almost all sides. we are very fortunate. we love Uncle Billy's.

Today is the opening of the craft fair and we are then going to see Keali`i Ceballos playing music and then hear a group of hawaiian songwriters talk about composing. should be a very good day. And we have already visited the stores, already each found new and used clothes that are special to us. Hilo is fun.



Here is a picture of the Merrie Monarch itself in the Edith Kanaka`ole Tennis Stadium

Let's Kanikapila!...Craig

It's a warm, wonderful, wet morning in our favorite Hawaiian town, Hilo. Today the Merrie Monarch festival officially gets under way with a free Ho'ike tonight at the stadium. So we have to line up early, about three hours early, to get good seats. But first there are craft fairs, with the best artists in Hawaii coming over, and a few mini concert/shows. The craft fair is great, as they have the best of instrument makers, carvers, shirt and dress makers, you name it. We'll be there when it opens at 8:30 this morning. Then there is a show put on by local girl Darlene Ahuna, who is one of the best entertainers on the island.

We've spent the last few days going around the island, from Kealakekua to Ka`u to Hilo to Puna. Easter Sunday we spent with my old buddy Mike, snorkeling at Two Rock at Honaunau. A bit cloudy that day and voggy, but lots of fish and a beautiful swim.

From there we spent a night with our friends Fran and Tom, who just bought a house in Ka'u district, way on the southern tip of the island. Had a great couple of hikes across lava fields on the King's Highway, the ancient trail that used to go all around the island. There is still some of it left, with ruins of old buildings along the way. This is near the black sand beach of Punalu'u and is quite a beautiful area. In the parking lot, a Hawaiian man named Guy was strumming his ukulele, so he played us one of my favorite songs and I strummed a bit with him.

Tuesday we arrived in Hilo for the festival and after watching a couple of hula performances, we drove out to Kalapana to go to Uncle Robert's kava bar. Well, it is now closed on Tuesdays, so we went next door to the little drive in and split a bit of ono fish. There was a Hawaiian man there, Tony, who had been driving some tourists around for about 10 hours that day. Turns out that Tony retired from the military a couple of years ago (spent a lot of that time in Sacramento) and came home to Hilo. He took up the ukulele a year and a half ago at the age of 71. He played some tunes for us and let me tell you...Uncle can play!!! After only a year or so, he can strum and pick really well. Goes to classes at the local senior center where he has a really good teacher that gives out these handouts that shows how to play a melody with strumming and picking.

From there we went to our dear friends' Aunty NaPua and Uncle Ken Camacho's house where we had a great dinner of Hawaiian and Thai food and kanikapila'd into the night. All in all a great Hawaiian day in a great Hawaiian place.