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Published: March 6th 2009
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Opaeka'a Falls
A quick stop on the way to the Gardens We didn't have to rush as we prepared to leave. Our school bus had to do its morning rounds before it could take us out to the National Tropical Botanical Garden. But we were all gathered a half hour early, for some reason. Getting efficient at this packing stuff, I guess.
We sure didn't want to leave the quiet garden-like hotel.
But the yellow bus appeared and we loaded our gear, climbed in, and set off.
We were not under the time pressures we had been most of the time on Kaua'i. We handled that just fine but it was nice not to hurry. On one of these trips, our driver did an extraordinary job in a situation that looked like a sure accident through no fault of her own. But she did it so well, no one but her and me noticed! I remember thanking her later for saving our lives and she just went, "Eh."
The camera and Ann or the camera and I, whichever, had a great time at the garden. The weather was perfect. The flowers were beautiful. We couldn't have had a better time.
The morning flew by and we left
Garden's sign
Some of the flowers are painted on reluctantly.
Our lunch was picked up and we went out to Spouting Horn, a local park on the ocean. The old lava rock at the shore was riddled with holes. As the waves came in, water rapidly filled the holes which often were interconnected. The resulting pressure sprayed water up out of certain holes well in from the water line.
Our camera again was slow on the uptake and we missed almost all the spouts we aimed for. But it was fun.
The feral chickens gathered around our tables hoping for lunch for themselves.
Having live birds around our meals was really nothing new for us. Nearly all our dining rooms were open to the outside and doves and sparrows often flew in and out. They usually stopped on the floor or in the rafters, though, and did not challenge us for crumbs right on the table as an occasional rooster would.
Again, the time at Spouting Horn went by too quickly and before we were really ready to leave, the bus was whisking us to the Lihu'i airport for our flight to Honolulu (hoe-no-loo-loo, not hah-na-loo-loo - If we pronounce it wrong, we could
be saying something very different in Hawai'ian!).
Hawai'ian Airlines personnel always seem to act as if there is no clock and everything is okay, no matter what the schedule says. Even so, they got the planes loaded, up in the air, and safely landed by the time we expected to be there. They are pretty neat that way.
Susan led us to where our motorcoach awaited. No matter where we sat, we did not miss the rough ride of the school bus!
It did not take many blocks of the ride to really hit us that Honolulu is too urbanized. There were cars everywhere, there were high rises of various kinds everywhere. The harried nature of city life nearly took the edge off our curiosity as Susan and the driver talked about different things and landmarks along our drive to Waikiki. Punch Bowl and Susan's old high school and Hawai'ian names all flashed by with us craning our necks trying to absorb what was being said. Then suddenly we were at our new hotel.
No feral roosters, though. Just English sparrows in the lobby. . . .
Our room was nice enough. It was on
the tenth floor, about half way up the hotel wall across the alley from our window. If we went out onto our postage stamp-sized veranda, and stretched around the edge of our wall, we could just make out Diamond Head. We hoped to get a better picture than that.
After supper, Susan had us stand up and form lines on a small dance floor in front of her.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, let us learn the hula," she said. Everyone tried to get into the back row! She lined us up again, making encouraging sounds like, "It's really easy," "It's great exercise," "Come on, you guys!"
Our lines were a little wavy but she was finally satisfied and started singing the hukilau song. We joined in. As we were singing, she told us to step left, step left, and tap our right toe next to our left foot. Then she said to do it the other way in rhythm to the song. We swayed back and forth until we finished the song.
"Very good," she said. "Now those in the back come up to the front and everyone else move back a row."
We did that
without much confusion. She directed us to do the gentle two-step as she hummed our song.
While we did that, she told us to hum and then she explained the hand movements to the words of the song. We knew hula was really what was done with the hands. We knew hula was not really about swaying hips. And she never even mentioned anything about what to do with our hips. They just naturally swayed gently (on those without two 2X4s for legs like me).
After reviewing the movements for our hukilau song, we sang it and followed her graceful motions.
After a verse, she again rotated our rows. And she showed us distinctive movements for men that were much more suitable for us and some little additions for the women which were nice touches for them.
Then she applauded us for our efforts. And we all felt pretty good. In fact, we were all feeling warmed up and relaxed by the gentle but persistent exercise of the dancing. It felt good.
Curse of the camera: it was up in our room.
And out the huge window in front of us, we had watched
Flower and friend
Bromiliad and lizard - click on the picture Diamond Head lit by the setting sun.
Update: This was the second night we worked on the Hula. This was the time she added the distinctively gender-related moves. She was so good as our hula teacher we felt we were really getting the hang of it and even looked pretty good to each other.
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Marty
non-member comment
hula lesson
I loved our first hula lesson, it was great fun and Susan was a good instructor. She made it relatively easy to follow her movements and words at the same time. I wanted to practice it one more time.