Hawaii continued

Al, Caroline, et al came to the condo around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 13.  We were all dressed up, and after a drink here we left to watch the Hawaiian Festival parade.  As happens often on our outings, by the time we were all together, dressed, fed, watered, washroomed and ready, we ended up being a bit late.  But we caught the last 3 floats, which were extravagant.  Then we wandered in the Waikiki area, down Kalakaua Ave., taking in all the street acts and people until we were hungry.  Of course the restaurants were crowded, but we got into a seafood place with no wait.  I had a terrific ahi tuna salad, a change from the fried diet I’ve enjoyed lately.  The main attraction of the evening was to have been a fireworks display put on by a professional Japanese group, but out of respect for the people of  Japan who are suffering through earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear plant explosions, it was understandably cancelled.  We strolled back to the condo, where the gang left me and drove home to Kailua.

On Monday, I had a good walk to Diamond Head, up the crater and back.  On Tuesday, I caught The Bus # 5 and took it to the end of the line.  From there it’s an easy walk to the trailhead for the hike to Manoa Falls.  It’s a short uphill trail along a cool stream to a high,100ft., falls with just a trickle of water dropping down it.  Not far from the falls, the Aihualama Trail leads through wonderful country to another path that goes to the Nu’uanu Valley Lookout.  When you’re used to paths strewn with pine needles and poplar leaves, it’s exotic to be walking on bamboo leaves listening to the hollow sound of bamboos blowing against each other in the wind.  There were also orchids and huge old banyan trees along the route.  The wind at the lookout was wild.  Two of the many things that have impressed me about O’ahu are the glorious winds and the Hawaiian words that are so repetitive and riddled with vowels that I can hardly pronounce them.  When I had to ask for a transfer at the Ala Moana Center to catch the # 5 bus to Manoa Falls, my tongue got so tied up in Moana and Manoa that I almost couldn’t make myself understood to the driver. And those are nothing compared to Kapi’olani and Ke’eaumoku Streets. And the winds blow so fiercely around Sally’s 19^th floor condo on Ala Wai Blvd.  that when I partially close the jalousies, their whistling reminds me of listening to a winter storm outside when I lived in Thunder Bay.  Have I said that before?  On Thursday, we all drove to the North Shore and walked out to Ka’ena Point, on a path/ very bumpy mud road between the shoreline and the foot of the lush Wai’anae Range.  We had lunch under a sacred rock, the jumping off spot for spirits.  We were informed of this by a young native of O’ahu who was one of  several young people we talked to who are working in the area, trying to restore its indigenous vegetation and wildlife by trapping and killing the invading mice and rats.  They are also building a fence barrier to keep the rodents out, like the one set up around Queensland, Australia to try to keep out the rabbits.  Their motto is, feathers good, fur bad.  We saw many soaring osprey and one young one.

Last night Albert and Caroline presented me with another of the impressive Hawaiian things, a sweet-smelling pikake (jasmine) lei.  I was lucky they didn’t strangle me with it because we had agreed to meet at the cathedral at 6:00p.m.  Although I swear it had nothing to do with the fact that I had a Protestant and they had a Catholic upbringing, I waited in front of St. Andrew’s Episcopalian Cathedral Church while they were nearby waiting for me at the ‘other’ cathedral.  Fortunately, I asked a woman if there was ‘another’ and she directed me to where they all were.  Meanwhile, Ella and Sadie had run themselves hot and ragged; not really, they were beautifully dressed.  We all carried on to the ‘Empty Bowl Hawaii’ dinner in Chinatown.  I went with my brother to an ‘Empty Bowl Thunder Bay’ dinner the last time I visited him and I thought it was an event unique to T. Bay.  I guess George the Porter is the only thing unique to Thunder Bay.  We ended the evening at the bar in the Hilton Hawaiian Village drinking mai tais and listening to a musician Caroline and Albert had listened to many years ago at a different hotel.  His group has changed too, but the music’s still good and as with the dinner, it was better because we were outside with a warm breeze blowing around us and the smell of pikake in the air.

Tonight I’m going to find a spot on Waikiki Beach where I can see the sun set and the full moon rise at 6:42p.m.  I heard on the radio that it’s going to be a big moon tonight.  It should be something to see if the clouds open up.  It’s been cloudy with off and on rain all day.