King Kamehameha Day Parade

Celebrate the King who unified the Hawaiian islands. Parade starts at 9:30 am at the corner of King and Richards Streets, will go down Kapiolani Blvd, and end on Kalakaua in front of the zoo around noon. Floats bedecked in flowers, beauty queens, marching bands and Pa'u Riders. Bring your camera and sunscreen!

Free Public Lecture: Local, Sustainable, Delectable Food

Event ID: EV0010324P
Info: Jun 9 • Tue • 6:30pm • University of Hawaii at Manoa, Architecture Auditorium • Free •
With: Hi‘ilei Kawelo, Sean Priester, Laurie Carlson

Learn about good, clean and fair food: good to eat, produced without harm to the environment, and pays producers a fair price. Includes a functioning Hawaiian fishpond that provides limu for mulch and fertilizer, mangrove firewood, and fish in season; a chef who prepares good, clean and fair food; and an advocate for buying healthy, organic foods to sustain our local economy and environment.

more details at http://www.outreach.hawaii.edu/summer/programs/2009/EVENT-EV0010324P.asp

Malama I Ke Kai

I got the heads up from a friend of mine whose daughter goes to Punana Leo o Kawaiaha`o. The surf and swim clinics sound good. My son is getting into surfing. And it's always a good thing to expose them to Hawaiian culture.

Aiea Bowl/The Alley Restaurant

Remember Lemon Crunch Cake at the old Alexander Young Hotel downtown? I don't. That was before my time. But Grammy does. Fondly. And mind you, she's not one to eat sweets, nor anything with dairy. So when she was raving about this cake that can be found at Diamond Head Market & Grill and Aiea Bowl, my curiosity was piqued. I drove to the country (hey, 96701 is kinda far from 96816, you know!) and went to Aiea Bowl to get her cake.



It was not a cheap cake. An eight-inch, three-layer Lemon Drop Crunch Cake will run you about $28. But she enjoyed it, so it was totally worth it. We enjoyed it too.



It's covered with heavy whipped cream and crunchy toffee. The lemon flavor was pleasant and not overwhelming... Maybe a bit underwhelming for my taste, though. Grammy had a slice of the Diamond Head Market cake recently and said it was also good, but only had a sprinkling of the toffee crunch instead of being covered in it like Aiea Bowl's.

While I was waiting for the cake, I saw a delicious plate pass by:

(Sorry for the quality of the photo. I forgot my camera at home, so I had to use my cell phone.) It was the Tasty Chicken/Teri Beef combo plate with two scoops brown rice and tossed salad (instead of mac).

We ended up at the Alley later that week for dinner. It's somewhat stylish with the glass panels and artsy pendant lighting. But, you never forget you're at a bowling alley with the sounds of bowling balls hitting the lanes and pins flying. Nice, casual atmosphere.

When I came on Monday at lunch, it was packed. When we came for dinner on Friday before six, there were a few empty tables. By the time we left, the place was packed.

Here's what we had...

Missing the Mahi Royale from the now-gone Flamingo Restaurant on Kapiolani Blvd, Grammy tried the Mahi sandwich. It comes with its own dressing, so you might want to try it before smothering it with tartar sauce like Grammy did. Evidently, the two sauces did not go well together. The potato-mac salad was okay, but unremarkable. I didn't notice the pepper, but Grammy, who hates pepper, said there was a lot.


Hubby had the Oxtail Soup.

The Alley has coyly dubbed 2009 Year of the Oxtail Soup. And is it! The picture is lousy, but the soup was amazing! It was done Chinese-style with the red date, peanuts, ginger, five-spice and lots of meaty oxtails. In my opinion, this is the best oxtail soup I have ever had. (In case you're wondering, I have not had the pleasure of trying Kam Bowl's oxtail soup.)

My son wanted the ramen, but the waitress said they haven't had it for quite a while now because the noodles are stuck at the dock. Hmmm... So he settled for the fried noodles.

The noodles were fried in butter. I have nothing against butter, in fact I frequently indulge in it, but in fried noodles?! Oh well, my kid didn't want to share with me anyway, so I didn't have to think about it much. By the way, they put real Spam inside. Funny how my son got so mad at me for eating his Spam, but didn't make a peep about me eating the cabbage...

I had the Tasty Chicken/Teri-Beef Combo plate (pictured above). The Tasty Chicken reminded me of Korean Style or Mistuken's Garlic Chicken where they deep fry pieces of chicken and toss it in a sweet, garlicky, shoyu-based sauce. The Teri-Beef was tasty and tender. It was pre-cut.

The desserts looked so ono. I think this was a Pumpkin Crunch Cake.

Kaimuki Christmas Parade

We've gone to the Kaimuki Christmas Parade the last two years. The first year was the best. We got there early, took pictures with Santa (which we used for our Christmas card), watched the parade and enjoyed refreshments on the Chaminade Campus. Last year, I was six months pregnant, we got there late, and the post-parade festivities were cancelled because the heavy rains the week before prevented their setup. This year we almost missed it. I drive on Waialae Avenue practically every day and didn't see any signage announcing the parade. In fact, if we weren't on our way back from Costco on a very unusual midweek run, we would have missed it altogether.

This year we got a spot on the corner of 9th and Waialae in front of Wild Ginger and across the street from Town. It started with the decorated fire engine.


The mayor was in the parade:


Schools from the Kaimuki Area

Our friend and her daughter are in the last St. Patrick pic there.


A "lightly decorated" truck


Palolo pigs... what's that all about? Is that a school?


Some furry, four-legged marchers


Marines for Toys for Tots


An electric vehicle


I think the sign said this was the Grand Marshal of the Parade


I think these kids had sweeter rides than the Grand Marshal


The Baton people were festive, but the little girls looked like they were pooped by the time they got to us.


The Ghosts of Kaimuki. Just kidding. I had the camera on the night setting, but they were moving too fast for it, so they look like ghosts.

Beauty Queens


Girl Scouts


And other colorful characters


There was Santa Claus at the end, but my baby got fussy and wanted to be fed, so I had to relinquish my photographer duties.

We enjoyed the parade. Thank you to the Kaimuki schools and businesses that participated. A couple of suggestions for next year, though... 

1.  Advertise better. Put banners alond the fences of all the schools along the parade route.  Or  better yet, have all the participants of the parade promote it at their place of business. 

2.  Start the parade with a band or a loud sound system on the first vehicle so we can hear the beginning of the parade before it gets to us.  It's like saying "Let's get this party started!"

3.  Groups should wear a uniform or a group t-shirt... or at the very least, be color-coordinated. I know they are volunteers and can't be asked to buy a shirt and give their time, but it sure helps to know who is in what group in a parade.

4.  Remind us to bring a toy for the Toys for Tots truck.  Let us give back too!