Merrie Monarch week

Aloha, peeps!

It’s showtime!  The 49th Annual Merrie Monarch Festival, Hawai’i’s premier hula competition, takes place this week over in Hilo, Hawai’i at the Edith Kanaka’ole Stadium.  This is “the grandad” of all hula competitions with people from all around the world gathering for this great event.  This will be my first experience there, and I’m getting chicken skin just thinking about it.  Our very own Sarah “Kamalei” will be representing her halau, I Ka Wekiu, for the title of Miss Aloha Hula, on Thursday evening.  In addition, Alex was given the honor of joining her kumu to sing for her.  This event will be televised Thursday evening on KFVE Channel 5, so I hope many of you can tune in and help us cheer on the kids!  Yeah, baybeeeeee!!!!!

After the Festival is over, the boys & I are scheduled to fly back to Honolulu to join Hawaiian Airlines’ inaugural flight to Fukuoka, Japan, where we’ll be taking part in the festivities.  While there, we’ll definitely make a stop at Ippudo for some of Fukuoka’s famous Hakata ramen, most noted for its rich, savory pork-based dashi, or soup.  And for us hungry local boys, we can order extra portions of noodles for a few yen more … yessss!!  Also gotta make time for our favorite lunch special at this awesome seafood restaurant (I can never remember the name, damn it!).  I’ve posted photos of it in my past blogs – there’s a huge saltwater tank in the middle of the restaurant (the size of a swimming pool) filled with every kind of fish you can imagine.  Your order is pulled right from the tank in front of your eyes so you KNOW it’s fresh!  Naturally, this place is very expensive and usually charges an arm and a leg for it’s food, but at lunch they serve a special set menu (Y1200) for the first 500 diners.  The first time I went there I was totally blown away by the meal … the preparation and quality was unbelievable!  Here’s the photo that I posted in my past blog … 

Aloha, “D”