Hawaii 2008, Day 6

Despite the late-ish evening, we got up early to hike up Diamond Head. Oh so beautiful. One of the things I absolutely needed to do. Marred only by Mitch, the man who poses as a Parks Department employee and tries to sell you rainforest tours. Caveat emptor.

Right at the base of Diamond Head mrguy noticed this place which was the studio where they filmed most of the interior scenes for Hawaii Five-0. The guard probably figured we were Lost fans. Whatever.


Ms Scandiwaiian and Mr Finn turned us on to Kakaako, where we ate the day-glo purple taro bread underneath supernatural green awnings.

Then off to the Kamaka factory, to see how Scandi's uke repair is going. While they were looking up her order, I asked to play a pineapple uke to pass the time. They handed me a special one with *mad* koa, that they'd just taken to NAMM and back. They'd sell it to me for regular price. What's a girl to do? Wow, it's beautiful. Weird thing is, it sounds like my Martin Tenor.

Then to the state capital for the tour. Those who haven't been should go. This is a place with great mana. It's built to resemble a volcano, with the center open to the sky. Iz laid in state here. A nautilus shell chandelier is the centerpiece of the senate chamber. A mosaic representing the seas, designed by Tadashi Sato (friend of Ossipoff) sits beneath the oculus.

Then to Antiques Alley, for the single most satisfying second hand experience ever in Hawaii. Anything you wanted was there. I came with the hope of getting a 1970 Honolulu city directory. Coulda had it. Photographs of Akebono and Takamiyama? No problem. Mrguy found me the something smaller and cheaper: a directory of Honolulu actors and models from 1970. Many of them had bit parts in Hawaii Five-0. And I bought new bottles for our Hawaiian soda bottle collection.

It took precisely three phone calls to figure out how to get to our dinner destination, but it was worth it. Teensy, satisfying Akasaka is located behind my favorite porn store (o.k., not interested in the porn but am very interested in the architecture of the building) and the food is loooovely. I had the best yamakake to date.



Finally we went to Aku Bone. I knew it was late, but we went anyway. The band, Project Kalo Patch, was good and super sweet. I could tell that they played longer because we showed up at the end of their set, and they called us out from the stage and let us know it. "There was more, and we had another set, but you missed it because you were late!!" They said. Sweet guys who made sweet music, all wearing hats.



Some day *I* want to play Aku Bone.