Baker's Ohana P...'s profileBaker's Ohana PagePhotosBlogListsMore  |  Tools Help |
|
June 10 King Kamehameha Day ParadeAfter swimming lessons for both kids at the beach with the Red Cross, we walked across the park and sat down to wait for the Kamehameha (kuh-may-ha-may-ha) Day Parade. Soooo, who is King Kamehameha? He is the Native Chief that conquered all the other Hawaiian Tribes and united them. And for that, everything in Hawaii is named after him, including our neighborhood!!!! His story is very interesting, it reads like a fairy tale in the beginning. If you are interested in more, just do a search on the web.
John and I thought that the original natives he conquered would not be well pleased to see all the homage he receives. LOL. Still, his family was really a dynasty, having ruled for over a century on the big island of Hawaii.
Well, we waited a long time for the parade to come; and we befriended an older lady who was there alone sitting next to us. She has lived here for 40 years and was nice enough to give us a narrative of everything we saw in the parade. It was very helpful. So, with her help, I can give details of the pictures of the parade that are in the photo album.
Every island has a color associated with it. Every island has a "flower". So, every island was represented by a "Princess" and her court riding horses with gigantic leis representing their flower and color. They call them Pa'uu Riders (spelling may be off). It was beautiful. The Princess of Ni'ihau was displaying several shell necklaces and a shell crown. Judy says they are very rare shells and worth a great deal of money. We saw a small fortune, it seems.
Of course, there were representatives of the Order of Kamehameha and a float with people dressed to fit the part of servants and King Kamehameha himself. His Highness was wearing a red and yellow cape (made of cloth, now) that originally was made of feathers from local birds. The birds were not killed, but the feathers were collected as they were shed. This made the cloak rare, valuable, and royal!
The marching bands were all from Missouri (3). There was one local marching band representing a traditional order, but I can't remember now. Then, there were dancers from the Polynesian Cultural Center. Very cool!!! Our new friend, Judy, informed us that the dancers earn grants for college tuition by dancing for the center.
Still, we loved the Hawaiian Airlines float, covered in flowers, that held ukelele players and a real waterfall.
Although I am still not loving Hawaii, I am no fool. We are taking every advantage and experiencing as much as we can. The only Japanese Tea House left on the island is around the corner from our house. That will be something to try! The kids are learning to swim in the OCEAN! We decorated the National Cemetary with leis for Memorial Day. These things were great experiences and we will be doing much more.
Don't forget to come and try it out!!!! At least, you can all go home afterward! :)
Love
Kathy June 06 John's "Deployment" to the Big IslandI have come to realize I am back in the real Army again. After 9 years of living near Washington DC and working in the Pentagon and for the White House things have changed in the Army. When we arrived in Hawaii, I was told that our unit was going to Deploy to PTA in May of this year. On 18 May I left the Island of Oahu on an airplane to the Big Island of Hawaii. I didn't know what to expect, and all I was told was that we were going to PTA which is in between the mountains of Moana Kea and Moana Loa at an elevation of about 6500 feet. Later that day after a 2 hour ride from the town of Kona on a back country rode we enter a small Army Base built in the early 40's. It is situated in the middle of nowhere with nothing to do and nothing to see except Lava and shrubs for miles. The nearest town is 30 miles away. My job there was tiled "Battalion Battle NCO." Basically I sat at a desk, and kept track of where all the companies movements and where they were located at all times. I worked from 6:00 AM until approximately 9:00 PM every day from 20 May - 2 June. a far cry from the 9:00 to 5:00 jobs of the last years. I enjoyed the scenery there and there are a couple of Pics in the photo albums section. |
|
|
