Battleship

A L O H A!

Happy Saturday, Come in and Relax-

click on photos - then saluteUSS Missouri Being Towed Past Diamond Head

“Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board”
Zora Neale Hurston

Her Great 16 inch Guns
(They fire shells the size of volkswagens 20+ miles)


"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
Dwight David Eisenhower

Surrender Deck, Tokyo Bay

"Lord, bid war's trumpet cease;

Fold the whole earth in peace."
Oliver Wendell Holmes

"When eating bamboo sprouts,

remember the man who planted them."
Chinese Proverb

Where did Summer Go?

Suddenly the floats are gliding down Kalakaua Avenue for today's Aloha Week Floral Parade.

The season just past was EPIC for South Shore surfers, and forecasters are calling for perfect big waves (and soon!) for Oahu's legendary North Shore.

Looks to be 6 to 10 feet today!

Just now, Waikiki is a glistening jewel set in azure waters, perfect for revving your engines - or just relaxing in style. China's Shaolin Monks are here, showing off their amazing moves at the Blaisdell Arena, and Aerosmith will perform here this Fall too. So many choices! Why just the other day a friend asked me if I was going to the Cazimero Brothers' Christmas Show at the Hawaii Theater again this year. Of course! But there's so much to enjoy around here before December. Heck, we even have opera!

One thing you WON'T be able to do for a while is to visit the Battleship Missouri; The "Mighty Mo" will be freed from her moorings on October 14th for the first time since arriving in Hawaii 11 years ago. Beginning before sun-up on that day, all 887 feet, and 54,899 tons of the grey lady will be nudged by three or four tugboats the two miles from Pearl Harbor's Pier Foxtrot 5 to the famous shipyard's Dry-dock 4. Dignitaries are invited along for the 12 to 14 hour ride. But hundreds more of us average folks are expected to be watching from the sidelines. Some lucky people residing up on the hillsides will be able to see the drama unfolding from their homes. Engineers are custom building 310 wooden "keel blocks" (8,000 pounds EACH) on which the giant will rest. Once inside the dry-dock it should take 3 hours for the water to be drained out while divers ensure the correct placement of bulk on block. (The dignitaries will be stuck with each other's company until the ship is high and dry ;) One of Hawaii's top 10 visitor attractions, the Mighty Mo drew 48,111 guests and pilgrims in July. That's 12 percent of all visitors to this island, including numerous WWII veterans from EVERY side of the war.

And yes, those are the big 16 inch guns that Cher cavorted on for her

"If I could Turn Back Time video!"

Sadly, the Association that manages the ship is forbidden from firing them (or the ships engines) inside Pearl Harbor. Watching the grey ghost glide past Waikiki from the deck of my own boat on Fathers' Day of 1998 was a surreal experience! Once tours resume on January 29th you can also hold your function or soiree aboard the ship's fan tail. What a place for a birthday party! (I'm just saying. . . .) You will again be able to walk the "Surrender Deck" where the Japanese Empire and the United States signed the instrument that ended WWII. While you are there, just look over one ship's length to the Arizona Memorial, and you will be looking at the spot where war began, from the very spot where it ended. Only in Hawaii!

I'll take plenty of parade pictures to share with you.

Have a great day-

A L O H A Cloudia

All Happening at Honolulu ZOO

A L O H A!

Glad YOU could make it today. . . come, we go-

click on photos - but DO NOT feed the Animals Hello, Rusty!

"Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark!"

Samuel Johnson

What's Violet looking at?


"Our generosity towards others is key to our positive experience of the world. There's enough room
for everyone to be beautiful."
Marianne Williamson



Three Graces.



"He does it with a better grace,
but I do it more natural.”
William Shakespeare







Hippo Water Volleyball!


"Champions aren't made in the gyms.
Champions are made from something they have
deep inside them
-- a desire, a dream, a vision."
Muhammad Ali




You Handsome Devil!




“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.”
Denis Waitley

One of the more interesting specimens!

"Love is to people what water is to plants."

Marianne Williamson





I AM a ZOO

my friends;

And it's not always pretty

behind the scenes.

Inside there's a gracious cat

purring

as the trade winds riffle

my ruff.

There is an ostrich

vain

and silly.

And also a

warthog

(I hope you won't glimpse it!)

Please notice the soul

and beauty

of my amber eyes

but ignore my

temper

and carrion breath.

I am a Zoo entire

my Love.

Except YOU are the grave & regal

elephant of the heart

therein.

You may be scratched,

and wreathed in roars,

or licked to a fare-thee-well,

but OH my love

you will enjoy

a deep and sturdy

Love.

*Bark * Hoot * Snort * Squeal*

Translation:

"Aloha to Each of YOU" cloudia

God's Country

A L O H A!

Glad you made it. You like go holoholo?

(In Hawaiian, "holoholo" means

"leisurely journey")

Jus` jump in da car fo` some island cruising.

We stay going to Waimanalo.

Dey call it: "God's Country."

Stay Come - We GO!

Oh funny eh?

Waimanalo is pure country.

Hawaiians live there on Homestead lots, rich haoles (Caucasians/foreigners) have most of da beach front.

But Waimanalo Beach Park is a favorite camping area for all.

Locals call it "Sherwood Forrest" or Sherwoods."

Bellows Air Force Station is a military beachfront-recreational

(and training) area. Sometimes the Marines "take the beach" in amphibious vehicles.

"Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness."

Ray Bradbury

Almost there!

The road here is right by the sea. Shallow "flats" run out to the reef creating an idyllic protected bay.
This is the sunrise side of Oahu.




"The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page." St. Augustine

Look, rabbit island!





"I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake.
The great affair is to move."
Robert Louis Stevenson

"I think that travel comes from some deep urge to see the world, like the urge that brings up a worm in an Irish bog

to see the moon when it is full."

Lord Dunsany

We made it to Our Friend's back yard in Wamanalo.

Know what folks do in da back yard?

We grind (eat) and we bring out da instruments fo` play some music

Kanikapila style!

Check out Bruddah (below) he going talk Hawaiian fo` minute,

den goof around for a bit, but DEN he going sing some ono (delicious) falsetto fo` you!

From e-Hawaii:

"kanikapila (kani ka pila)(kah knee kah pee la)
Definition: literally defined, kani means sound and pila means any string musical instrument or to play music. Informally, it simply means to gather together and play music.

Used In A Sentence: We go kanikapila dis weekend.

In English: Why don’t we get together this weekend and play some music with each other?"

http://www.e-hawaii.com/pidgin/pidgin-english-words-starting-with-k

Glad you could make it ;-]

"Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe."

Anatole France

Aloha! Cloudia

Sunset Beach

A L O H A!

Glad to See Y O U Today

Lets Walk Along Waikiki Beach at Sunset, shall we?

click on photos for bigger AH!

Dramatic Clouds Attend Diamond Head

(see the romantic couple?)

"Sensual pleasures have the fleeting brilliance of a comet;

a happy marriage has the tranquillity of a lovely sunset."

Ann Landers

Parrot Guy Setting Up a Goofy Vacation Photo

"The true purpose of education is to teach a man to carry himself triumphant to the sunset."

Liberty Hyde Bailey

Everyone's looking at the sunset.
But I'm looking at THEM ;-]

"You can observe a lot just by watching."

Yogi Berra

Gotta get that perfect shot to take home to Tokyo!



"A vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure,

experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia."

Unknown

This would make a good post card, eh?

"If I can put one touch of rosy sunset into the life of any man

or woman,

I shall feel that I have worked with God."

Gilbert K. Chesterton

"Hope this comes out, Honey"

They won't believe it in Boise!

"For me optimism is two lovers walking into the sunset arm in arm.

Or maybe into the sunrise - whatever appeals to you."

Krzysztof Kieslowski

"Let's just enjoy the moment, Dear."

"Cloud come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm,

but to add color to my sunset sky."

Rabindranath Tagore



So glad you could join us today-

A L O H A! Cloudia

What's Going On

A L O H A!

Thanks For Coming Today ;-]

click on photos for immersion

“I like to think that the moon is there

even if I am not looking at it.”
Albert Einstein

“Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth.”
Buddha

Oli fo'nu oko kpa ma gbaluka ebe. (Igala)

"When a tree falls on a yam farm and kills the farm's owner, you don't waste time counting the numbers of yam hips ruined." (English)
Igala (Nigeria) Proverb





""Cogito ergo spud"[I think, therefore I yam]"
Herb Caen

"Progress might have been all right once,

but it's gone on too long."
Ogden Nash

"Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork?"
Stanislaw Lee

" The major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur."
- Alfred North Whitehead




So many self-appointed social commentators and religious types seem to start from the assumption/premise that our first instinct is to do bad.

In fact our entire economy is supposed to be powered by avarice,

though I see avarice mostly being hoarded by the

fortunate few,

like more and more of EVERYTHING seems to be.

I believe that society actually functions

(mostly without noticing it)

because of a timeless reservoir of human goodness

and fairness.

Unfortunately, this crucial (if unappreciated) ingredient

seems to be peaking like oil, and is just as much an

imperilled resource.

Our "mind your own business & care for your family while trusting the social contract" mentality has been shaken more deeply than our spending habits. Aren't the "good guys" who play by the rules supposed to be OK in the end?

Our leaders are followers of the worst elements,

and have become deluded

that what's comfortable and usual for them

serves us all - which it abundantly doesn't.

President Obama is calling for "rules of the road"

in the "winner takes all" demolition derby

that we call our economy.

This is being accomplished in many incremental ways

which is JUST what terrorizes those

benefiting so handsomely from the status quo.

So now they are riling up and scaring the citizenry.

Don't they know that they are playing with fire?

"But you and I, we've been through that

and that is not our fate.

So let us not talk falsely now

the hour is getting late."

A L O H A!

Honolulu Contrasts

A L O H A!

You are welcome, Friend!

click on photos for all the usual reasons Yes, Honolulu is still growing.

It's a great place, Honolulu. We're certainly lifting its face for it. Give us another year and we'll make it look like Pittsburgh."

J P Marquand

But steps away from where I took the top photo,

this bunch of bananas is growing. . .

"Nothing had prepared me for Honolulu ... It is a typical western city ... It is the meeting place of East and West, the very new rubs shoulders with the immeasurably old. And if you have not found the romance you expected, you have come upon something singularly intriguing. All these strange people live close to each other, with different languages and different thoughts; they believe in different god and they have different values; two passions alone they share, love and hunger. And somehow as you watch them, you have an impression of extraordinary vitality."

W. Somerset Maugham in 1921

. . . in this tiny garden surrounding a dumpster

at Ala Moana Shopping Center's parking lot.

"The further I traveled through the town the better I liked it. Every step revealed a new contrast - disclosed something I was unaccustomed to. . . I breathed the balmy fragrance of jessamine, oleander, and the Pride of India ... I moved in the midst of a summer calms as tranquil as dawn in the Garden of Eden . . ."

Mark Twain on Honolulu

Of course, there are always different ways

to perceive the same realty.


"It was an ancient rule of Hawaiians that no one should hurt another bodily, or through theft of goods, or through injury to feelings. These were the only sins."

Max Freedom Long

Is that ethos OUR reality?

A L O H A! Cloudia

Saturday Morn

It's

A L O H A

Saturday!

click on photos for an extra dose of exultation.

No Charge

"There are moments of calm even at my busy beach.

Weekday mid-mornings remind me of the Waikiki of the 1950's."

Ted Trimmer Photo & Quote

From Kualoa, on Oahu's Windward Side,

you can see Mokapu (above).

"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast."

Oscar Wilde

It is a peninsula now utilized by Kaneohe Bay

Marine Corps Airstation.

(Next stop Afganistan. Kaneohe marines are in the thick of it.)

Locals call Mokapu "The Turtle."

Kapu means "set apart" "Sacred" "keep out."

A Mo`o (Moe-Oh) is a mythical Hawaiian creature akin to a dragon.

They are reported to be very wise and powerful.

Perhaps a "Mo`o Kapu" lived at this place of power.

"Breakfast time is better than any other moment of the day.

No dust has settled on one's mind then, and it presents

a clear mirror to the rays of things."

George Elliot,

Adam Bede

He has the same facial expression as the Sphinx!

"No man knows until he has suffered from the night

how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be."

Bram Stoker,

Dracula

Friends, in the spirit of supreme Saturday laziness,

I leave you with this:

"There is really nothing you must be

And there is nothing you must do

There is really nothing you must have

And there is nothing you must know.

There is really nothing you must become.

However,

It helps to understand that fire burns,and when it rains,

the earth gets wet . . .

What's good about today is the willingness to open our minds and hearts."
Robert Fulghum,

(Author of All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten.)

In Honor of the New Year:

(moderate your volume- loud!)


Fondly, A L O H A ! Cloudia