Good morning, peeps!
Carla arrived home yesterday exhausted but elated after a very successful trip to Japan, and I want to thank everyone for all the love and support you gave her while she was there.  I especially want to send a very special mahalo to the Taguchis for taking such good care of Carla & Skyler (even driving Carla to the airport for her midnight flight home!). Thank you for your wonderful hospitality and for treating them like family! I also want to send a big mahalo to Matsuno-san and his great staff for the assistance they gave ‘IOLANI and for being such great hosts! And it wouldn’t be complete unless I sent a shout out to our pal, Hiroyuki, for the omiyage he brought for Carla which included a beautiful photo collage of MDNA’s last performance at Thumbs Up in May. And to our friends Kyoko, Tetsu, Hiromi, Masako, and the many others who came out to Big Sight and Yokohama to support the ladies … thank you!  And finally, I want to thank Yuna and her family for the great assistance they gave Carla and Skyler … mahalo to you all for being an important part of our ‘IOLANI and ManoaDNA family!
It was a REALLY hot day yesterday down at Kapiolani Park where we performed for the 42nd Annual Ukulele Festival. We hadn’t been to this great annual event in a few years so it was amazing to see how globally popular the ukulele has become in such a short time. Of course, Grammy Award-singer James Ingram was awesome as was the lineup of local and international ukulele virtuosos that performed during the day. Organizers Roy & Kathy Sakuma and their hard-working staff put on this great event every year … that’s a lot of hard, hard work! Thank you so much for inviting us to be a part of this wonderful event, Roy & Kathy!
And so it’s Monday … back to the salt mines everybody!! Have a great week!
Aloha, “D”