As they appear in this slideshow:
- What’s Hawaii without Elvis? Inside Bailey’s Antiques and Aloha Shirts. At Bailey’s, you can buy, among other things, a pale yellow aloha shirt with a ukulele on the back for a mere 3000 dollars.
- On Kalakaua, Duke Kahanamoku perpetually raises your faded leis like an offering to the high rise hotels of Waikiki.
- The educated person’s source for Hawaiiana and history, Tin Can Mailman. The vintage aloha and swimwear ads alone are worth the visit.
It is easy to dislike Hawaii if you’re in Waikiki. It’s a crowded not-quite-anywhere strip of hotels and shopping and pale unadventurous architecture, it smells of coconut tanning oil and second hand smoke and spilled mai tais. Homeless people stroll the avenue side by side with Japanese tourists sporting t shirts that make no sense. I didn’t like Waikiki the first time I was there, the traffic is crazy, the beach is crowded, and food is expensive.… continued…
On the Mamalahoa Highway between Waimea and Kailua. I adjusted the levels some on this photo, but there’s no sepia post production filter on it. The sky was indeed that weird flat white, and the hills and fence posts weathered brown and gray. … continued…
This morning at the breakfast buffet, I did something a little weird. After I’d emptied the rest of the sugar packet into my second cup of coffee, I filled the little brown package with salt, folded it in half, and tucked it into my wallet. That seemed a better thing to do than stealing borrowing the cheap plastic salt shaker, though I suppose I could have just asked the waitress, who surely has seen restaurant patrons do odder things in her time, for a dish of salt.… continued…
Auntie made one of her students pass over his song book to me. Now I have a binder with her playlist and the names of everyone who committed to show up at Anna Ranch to entertain us. I have a color xeroxed watercolor of a hale (house) by a bridge and I have a little return address label with Margie’s address.
I know exactly how this works. You line up a handful of likely people from your club or class.… continued…
