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.