Lantern Floating Ceremony

Each Memorial Day, there is a lantern floating event at Ala Moana Beach on O'ahu. Thousands of people come to inscribe a lantern with memories of loved ones who have passed and float the lantern into the ocean. This year, there were 47,000 people at the event and about 6000 lanterns were released.

The entire event is broadcast live, and it's now my tradition to watch every minute of it. One year, I made lanterns for several of my favorite fur friends and floated them in my backyard pond. I didn't have time to do that this year.

There is much formality at the beginning with a blessing and musicians and a Buddhist priestess performing all sorts of rituals. And then they release the lanterns...

I took these pictures from my TV screen. I'm sure there are better pictures and videos and such online. The official video isn't available yet, but it will be here soon - Lantern Floating.

I guess this is the official beginning of Summer 2015. If you haven't already booked up your entire summer, I'd love to see you here! Megan and Jeff will be here for a week in June, but the ohana is empty the rest of the summer. 

Aloha y'all!

Not to be Confused with the Mayweather-Pacquiao Fight

I've heard that the hugely hyped fight turned out to be more of a "dance."

This is Sophie and her friend Chloe dancing at the beach on Sunday.
They are NOT fighting!

It began like a normal romp in the sand.

Then words were exchanged.

And the dance began!

There was never a bark or growl, and we saw no reason to stop them. This dance continued for several minutes. And then they went back to their normal play. Dogs be crazy.

Aloha y'all!

Banana Nana Fofana

About twice a year, one of my dozen banana trees presents me with a lifetime supply of bananas. There were over 90 bananas on this one bunch. I removed all the ripe ones and left the rest here on the lanai to finish ripening. I’ll be delivering bananas all over the neighborhood later this week, and I’ll still have many to bake with and/or freeze.

I've learned that the rule for picking bananas is to cut down the whole bunch as soon as you see the first bit of yellow. If you wait until most of the bananas are starting to turn, it's too late. I let a couple of bunches "spoil" before I figured this out. 

Aloha y'all!

Sophie at the Beach

It used to make me nervous to turn my little girl loose at the dog beach. I worried that she'd get so engrossed with the dogs and people and beach and water that she might not come when I called her.

But my little girl is all grown up now. She had the BEST beach day on Saturday. She wandered far and wide, but when she heard me whistle or call, she'd stop dead in her tracks and turn and run FULL BLAST right to me.

She hears her mother's whistle and here she comes!!!!!

My iPhone was on full zoom when I took these. She was much farther away than these pictures might imply.

Meanwhile back on the mainland...

Her California cousin, Walter, was shopping with Megan at Stanford:

AND

Her California Cat Cousins were contemplating lunch:

Aloha y'all!

When the ZipMobile breaks, madness ensues!

Honolulu is just like any other crowded metropolitan city.
Commuters drive on a 5-lane highway into the city in the AM, and they drive back home on another 5 lanes in the PM. And then there's the zipper lane...

A mechanical monstrosity called a ZipMobile moves a segmented concrete barrier from one side of the zipper lane to the other twice a day to let the commute direction access the extra lane. And then the ZipMobile breaks. There are in fact, TWO ZipMobiles, and BOTH of them were broken for three days this week. You'd have thought the Zombie Apocalypse had arrived!

Traffic was stopped for hours! The governor broke into broadcast TV to beg people to stay home. They contemplated closing schools and government offices.

You really must see how a ZipMobile eats concrete barriers on one side of the lane and poops them out on the other:

Watch the ZipMobile in Action

Aloha y'all!

It's Snowing in Hawaii !

Lest any of you think that it's always sunny and warm here, these are pictures from Mauna Kea this week. Mauna Kea is 30 miles from me, and the summit is 14,000 feet above me.

This morning it was 20 degrees with a 35mph wind. 

You can see the entire slideshow here:   Mauna Kea Slideshow

Aloha!

Sophie in the Garden

Yes, I'm a bit biased, but isn't Sophie the cutest thing EVER?