MTM: Here Be Dragons and Tikis

Aloha & Welcome to My Town:

Waikiki!

click on photos to enlarge Dragons in Custody. Book 'em Danno!

"I'd KILL for a Nobel Peace Prize."

Steven Wright

Puff the magic weed, and his braille buddy, Fern.

"I started out in the world with nothing but a kind of passion."

Katherine Anne Porter

Tom da Tiki

“The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully have been kindness, beauty, and truth”
Albert Einstein

(No Dummy!)

Let me tell you about a real special place between Waikiki and the airport, right off of busy, industrial Sand Island Access Road.

La Mariana Sailing Club, one of the last real Tiki Bars in Hawaii – or anywhere! - opened over 50 years ago and really looks it. Draped in lauhala leaves, fishing nets, twinkling lights, puffer-fish lanterns, giant clam shells and antique buoys like a kitschy fever dream, this is
the place to sip a mai tai. Check out a piece of Honolulu's past while you still can. Just ask a local for the location if you get lost. . .

Did you know that President Obama grew up without a father in a small high-rise Honolulu apartment a mile from where I'm posting?

He lived with his grandmother and his late grandfather, a proud WWII veteran. The Obamas took daughters Sasha & Malia to visit his grave at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl last Summer. (The crater's Hawaiian name is appropriate: Puowaina, "hill of sacrifice.").

Hawaii is a special place to grow up, a place with no racial majority where everyone is cherished as an individual. "We all have obligations to each other, we should all help one another." Obama said, speaking of the Aloha Spirit at a local gathering. "When you come from Hawaii, you start understanding that what's on the surface doesn't matter. The people of Hawaii understand. . . ".

We are very proud of Barack.

But patriotic local folks were actually a bit hurt by all the election-year talk of Obama's "exotic luxury vacation." There is no huge Obama family compound here, and as for exotic, the U.S. State of Hawaii has bled red white and blue since Pearl Harbor. Our state's people are over represented (by population) in our U.S. armed forces too. In fact, a large group of our National Guard citizen soldiers have served multiple combat tours of Iraq and Afghanistan. . . .

Come see the beauty that inspires us, available free anytime, just walking in Waikiki. . .

Aloha! Cloudia

Want to enjoy more Waikiki "street" life with me? Please check out my Hawaii "Taxi Cab" Novel: "Aloha Where You Like Go?" at Amazon:
-- <http://www.amazon.com/ALOHA-Where-You-Like-Satisfaction/dp/1598006495>