Vacations Blog

Aloha, hula!

Hawaii puts its rich cultural history on display for visitors in many ways, but once a year, they really pull out all the stops with the Aloha Festival.

On my recent visit to Oahu to explore the island and experience the festival, I was hosted by the very friendly and laid-back representatives of the Hawaii Convention and Visitors Bureau, so I had a bit of an inside look into how Hawaii is faring these days.  It was hard to tell that tourism is down.  Everywhere I looked there were tourists, and most of those were happy and smiling.  With perfect weather, lush surroundings, and gracious staff at almost every place I visited, how could one not be happy?

(Don’t forget, you  can enter to win a trip to Hawaii until October 23rd.  Details here.)

For a busy mother of two, this trip held lots of promise of down time and relaxation.  But.  Once I got to Hawaii and there was an undiscovered delight lurking around every turn, I found I couldn’t stop my mind from spinning even when my body was exhausted.  I only had just over three days there.  “I’ll sleep on the plane,” I told myself.

My home base was the famous Waikiki beach area.  As I first drove down Kalakaua Ave. with its upscale shops and spotless sidewalks and impeccable landscaping, I couldn’t help but think it was just like Beverly Hills, but with humidity.  Off the side streets, however, Waikiki had a little bit more grit and personality.  I stayed at a hotel one building removed from the beach, but high enough that my room had a view of the beach and Diamond Head beyond.  Okay, it wasn’t oceanfront, but it was better than no hotel room with a partial view of Diamond Head.  I found everything to be pretty convenient from this location:  it was only a quick walk to a selection of restaurants with a good price range, shops, convenience stores, or the beach.  For certain jaunts I took the beach route which was out of my way but prettier than walking on the street, and that’s saying a lot because the streets are pretty enough.

Edge of Waikiki at Dawn

Let’s talk about the streets.  Everywhere else on the island you can drive like a normal person, but Waikiki is full of one way streets.  The main drag, Kalakaua, runs west to east, and if you go too far you have to turn north before Diamond Head and loop back around the west to east road, Ala Wai, and carefully choose a north to south street to get back down to where you started.  I got pretty good at this after a couple of times.  There’s so much to look at in Waikiki, it’s easy to get distracted, so just stick to your directions or keep your ear out for your GPS voice thingy, and pay attention!  If you really want to slow down and check things out, it’s better just to walk, because then you get to really look at stuff like this:

Duke Kahanamoku, draped with lei offerings, at Waikiki

The main reason for my visit was to check out Hawaii’s Aloha Festival.  In its 63rd year, this annual celebration of Hawaiian culture was a month of events including a block party, a royal court crowning ceremony, and a finale in the form of an elaborate parade.  But this wasn’t just any parade.  Oh sure, there were marching bands and funny cars, but the highlight of this parade was the representation of each of the Hawaiian islands by its ceremonial pa’u, or equestrian, unit.  Fourteen Hawaiian organizations entered floats decorated with flowers and other organic material, and four hula schools danced in the parade in as part of the central theme of the festival which highlights hula this year.

I was escorted around the parade preparation grounds to watch the floats being built the night before by volunteer crews who stayed up through the night to get their jobs done.  Under a typical glorious sunset, the teams worked unhurriedly, which I came to realize was the island way.

Applying seed pods to a float

Hawaiian Airlines float detail in progress

Then before some of them were finished, perhaps, I got up before dawn to walk down to the park where the pa’u units were getting dressed and set up for their march.  For them, getting dressed was no easy feat.  The princesses who rode to represent their islands wore dresses that hang down the side of the horses, and the skirt of the dress is made up of long lengths of billowing fabric that had to be expertly draped around them by a specialist.

Pa'u princess getting draped

They also wore beautiful fresh flower arrangements in their hair and around their necks in the form of thick long leis, which also hung on the coordinatingly dressed horses.  Each unit had a special crew of pooper scoopers as well, who had their own very elaborately decorated poop wagon.  (Incidentally, the pooper scooper teams got the most consistent applause from the parade viewers later.)

Poop wagon from Lana'i pa'u unit

Because it was dawn, I stepped around the pa’u teams lightly, trying not to make a sound and distract the dressers from their tasks.  But the air was charged with a lively excitement.  Children ran around us all, horses pawed impatiently, and when the sun broke over the skyline the flowers picked up its light and everything burst with color.  This is the moment I will remember the most when I look back on my whirlwind trip to Oahu.  Sunrise, ceremony, and flowers.

Sun-kissed pa'u princess

Color-coordinated horse

The parade itself was resplendent and wonderful.  I am a sucker for a marching band, even if it’s a junior high school and they’re uncoordinated and terrible.  Bless their little hearts for marching in the hot sun and sweating to death under their uniforms.  Bless everyone in the parade, on that note, because it turned out to be a very hot afternoon and the parade route along Kalakaua Avenue was a long stretch of hot concrete and tall buildings.  Despite the heat and sun, the floats and the pa’u units held up nicely by the time they got to the midpoint of the parade, where I sat near the reviewing stand so I could hear the announcer’s description of each spectacle as it went by.

The princesses and horses keep their cool in the heat

Coolest marching band uniforms, ever

Hawaii's military bases were well-represented in the parade

The excitement and the heat finally got to me, however, and I needed a rest by the pool before I headed out to my next adventure of the day.  I counted myself lucky to be staying in Waikiki, then, but later when I got to the North Shore, I changed my mind.  Stay tuned for North Shore tales, coming up.

More photos of the parade and prep in my Flickr set.