Flat Mary Day 2

 Day 2 - Saturday, March 15, 2014:

Ala Moana Center: Book Club meeting, Center Stage Hula Show, Genki Sushi;

Aloha Tower, Maritime Museum, Honolulu Harbor

I am standing in front of the book store with

three Aunties: Lynde, Gail, and Shauna

 Birds were chirping on the lanai when I woke up. After breakfast, we went to Ala Moana Center. We met with Auntie Gail’s book club group. Everyone smiled and said “Aloha” to me. They discussed the book THE COURTIERS. The author’s name is Lucy Worsley. She wasn’t at the meeting, though.

The book is about real people who lived in a royal palace in England. First these people worked for King George. Later they worked for his son, King George the Second. It was fun to hear about the fancy parties they had at the palace. Not everything made sense to me, but I want to read more about English royalty. The Hawaiian king, David Kalakaua loved to visit England. He was the first monarch to circumnavigate the world. He wrote and played music. He was friends with Robert Louis Stevenson and Thomas Edison. He loved technology so much that today he would be known as a ‘techno-geek.’

We ate lunch at Genki Sushi. Auntie ordered Unagi. She said it is freshwater eel. She wanted to take a picture for an Internet article she was writing. I didn’t taste the Unagi. I did like the mochi ice cream, especially the strawberry one.

 

 Unagi with wasabi & soy sauce

               

Mochi ice cream

After lunch, we listened to music and watched a hula show. 

The dancing the hula women wore fancy dresses called a muumuu. It sounds like a cow: Moo. Moo.

Men dance the hula, too. I swung my hips and waved my arms around. It was fun doing the hula.

 We took a bus down to see Aloha Tower and Honolulu Harbor. Aloha Tower is ten stories high. It was once the tallest building on the Island of Oahu. For many years, Honolulu Harbor welcomed cruise ships from around the world. The people on the ships were happy to see Aloha Tower after the long journey. The days that ships arrived in the harbor were called “Boat Days”. The local people went down to the harbor on boat days. Women greeted the visitors with flower leis. The tourists tossed coins into the water. Keiki, Hawaiian children, enjoyed diving into the ocean to search for the coins.

 

 

  

         Behind me are Maritime Museum and Aloha Tower                             Honolulu Harbor

 

King Kalakaua once had a boathouse close to where Maritime Museum is now. He spent much of his time playing water sports and poker with his friends there. He had the first Honolulu telephone line installed between the boathouse and Iolani Palace. He had telephone service even before the White House had service installed. King Kalakaua’s boathouse telephone is now on display at the Maritime Museum.

 

       

        

Security checked our bags before we rode the elevator to the top of Aloha Tower.

We looked down at Honolulu Harbor. Can you see the Waianae Mountains in the background?