Honolulu Festival - A Cultural High!

When people ask what I love about Hawaii my answer is usually (not in any particular order):

1. The beauty of the islands (you wouldn't believe the vibrant colors of the sky, ocean, trees, mountains, etc!)
2. The weather
3. The people
4. The culture
5. The food
6. The music....

This past weekend included all of the above! We attended the Honolulu Friendship Festival which is a cultural event celebrating the friendship between the people of Hawaii and those of the Pacific Rim region including China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Australia, Samoa, Tahiti, Alaska and a few more. Can you say a cultural high?!?

I was totally feeling the love! Here are some pictures.....

The girls wore their "Happi" coats and participated in the "Electric Slide"...

AMAZING Hirosaki Neputa Matsuri float...

One of my favorite performances by Kaze-Damari

The taiko drums were LOUD....Momo made use of the fans as ear plugs.

Festival equals cotton candy (on some wooden chopsticks, of course!)

The girls made a "hachimaki"...

They got dressed up in yukatas (summer kimonos)...

And they fished for water yo-yos...

On Sunday there was a huge parade down Kalakaua Avenue in Waikiki. It lasted a good 2.5 hours or so!

Waiting patiently for the parade to begin.

BIG Dragon!

Flat Stanley came along with us. He wanted to dance with the beautiful ladies from Korea!

Countless number of hula dancers....mostly from Japan!

Carrying a beautiful mikoshi.....

Momo SQUEALED when she saw this pineapple mikoshi. Why?
Because SpongeBob lives in a pineapple (of course!)


More performers.....

The Hirosaki Neputa float all lit up....

The grand finale....and it was GRAND!

I definitely got me some culture! ;)

Flat Stanley

At the Beach.....

Flat Stanley - have you heard of him? If you are an elementary school teacher or parent of school age kids you probably have. If you haven't you eventually will!

Flat Stanley is based on a children's book by Jeff Brown. The story is about a young boy who becomes flattened when a bulletin board falls on top of him. Stanley makes the best of his new physique and travels the world via an envelope through the postal system. He has amazing adventures!

We are fortunate to have Stanley visiting us right now. We've been taking him with us wherever we go and have been taking pictures along the way. With spring break starting only hours from now we are looking forward to really treating Stanley to some fun in the sun before he has to return to Illinois!

Have you ever played host to Flat Stanley? Would love to hear some of the things you did with him! Leave me a comment!

For more information and/or if you want to participate in the Flat Stanley project click here.

Playing some miniature golf....

Hanging out with some carnival animals (getting smothered by a monkey!)