Dr. Colby, I presume?

While we were out shopping for hats, Layden tried on this pith helmet.  I think it looked rather good on him.  So did a lot of people in the shop, including the sales clerk, who remarked that if Layden were the model, the shop could sell more pith helemets.  Alas, Layden did not buy it, but you never know what might show up under the Christmas Tree...

No pith helmets has not stopped us from beginning to explore the interesting culture and history of this place.  I started with  a hulu workshop.  Hulu means feather.  Featherwork is a long-standing cultural tradition, and many important items were made from feathers, from leis and capes to helmets and royal standards.  The royal standard is called kahili and was used to announce the coming of royalty or the presence of a royal.  Size was one indicator of status, but color was more important.  Yellow was reserved for the highest rank, as yellow feathers were the rarest and most difficult to obtain.This picture has small kahili at the right and left of the table. 

Each of us in the workshop got to hear a wonderful lecture and then make a hulu hair ornament.  This is mine. 

One day last week, while looking for a gas station at Pearl Harbor, we ended up on a dead-end street with two interesting markers.  This one commemorates the landing site of the Pan Am China Clipper, which made trans-Pacific flights.  I think my grandmother might have flown on one of these. 

This plaque commemorates the sinking of a Japanese midget submarine on December 7th, 1941.  History is everywhere here. 

This is part of the National Memorial Cemetary of the Pacific, also known as the Punchbowl cemetary.  It sits inside a crater above Honolulu.  It is a beautiful and solemn place. 

There are approximately 34,000 graves here, many of them from World War II.  One of the memorial plaques here included remarks from a Chaplain who said that this place was not a place to mourn the dead but rather to celebrate "a heavenly convocation."

From the cemetary there are stunning views of Honolulu.  This one looks out towards Diamond Head.  From here, it is easy to see that it was once a volcano.  

At our hotel, when the shadows grow long, evening is ushered in by this man. Dressed in a traditonal orange and red outfit, he lights the tiki toches in the hotel garden and along the promenade. Then he blows his conch shell towards the four cardinal directions.

This haunting sound is our call to sit on the lanai for

-SUNSET-

The most spectacular show on the island.

ALOHA