King Kalakaua was nicknamed the "Merrie Monarch" because he loved to have fun. He also voided the laws created by the Christian Missionaries of some 70 years prior which banned hula as being immoral. Even today, the premiere hula celebration is known as the "Merrie Monarch Festival" in his honor.
There is also a portrait of King Kamehameha I in which he looks very different from the loin cloth wearing person who conquered the Hawaiian Islands and created the Kingdom of Hawaii...
The portrait is of him as an old man long after he opened up Hawaii far more to western influences. Beside him are two Kalihi -- or feather standards which are usually presented in pairs next to Hawaiian Ali'i (royalty). Interestingly, although the feathers are the most striking part of the Kalihi, it is the pole which is more important because different feathers are used over time.
I have no idea what these are (they are not Hawaiian but from another Pacific Island nation), but they freaked Nalani out...
The boys thought this fork from Fiji was really cool...
It was used by cannibals.
Speaking of gross things, Bishop Museum was hosting a special exhibit called Grossology...
Deemed the "impolite science of the human body," it gave my children to learn lots of fascinating things.
For instance, did you know that in some cultures mothers will suck the snot out of their babies noses and spit it out? That's what this giant animatronic snot faucent told us...
Did you know that the average person burbs 15 times a day? That's what this guy told us as David tried to build up gasses in his stomach...
Did you know that the physician's word for a grumbling stomach is "borborygmi?"
That's what the kids found out while they tried to make this machine vomit...
Of course, this is perhaps our favorite picture (note Kekoa in the red shirt bending over below)...
Yes, that's our son Kekoa coming out of a giant anus.
Ah, the things you learn.
We ended up in a volcanic exhibit in the building across the way, but David wanted to make sure everyone saw how cool his hat and shirt looked walking down a tunnel with the black light...
Not surprisingly, there is an enormous exhibit explaining volcanos -- starting with a model volcano itself...
The kids get to play around with different combinations of heat and gas and if you get it right, an eruption is the result...
Of course, this is only what you see above ground. You can descend into the volcanic tubes and into the volcano itself...
Below the volcano is a demonstration in which they take volcanic rock from Kilauea (the volcano currently in an eruption stage on the Big Island of Hawaii) and heat it to some 3000 degrees until it becomes lava again.
Then they pour it out for all to see...
David holds the two primary kinds of volcanic rock found in Hawaii.
A'a is on the left and Pahoehoe on the right...
Pahoehoe is the smooth rock which comes from slow moving and calm lava flows. A'a is the sharp rock from a violent eruption.
As a kid I used to remember the difference in geology class by thinking that when you step on the sharp lava rock a'a, that's what you say -- "ah ah."
Hawaii's volcanos don't actually look anything like the typical mountain like volcano in the model above. They are called "Hawaiian shield" volcanos because the are relatively flat and hill like -- similar to a Hawaiian shield laid flat on the ground. They are very rare but a prime reason Hawaii has developed into the lush region that it has become.
Here are the boys working with wax to make their own Hawaiian shield volcanoes...
There is also a 9th island in Hawaii called Loihi, which is some 3000 meters above the sea floor, but still about 900 meters below the surface of the Pacific Ocean. It continues to be formed by an active underwater volcano and will emerge from the ocean in about 20,000 years to form yet another island in the Hawaiian chain -- just like all the others formed over time.
Here David and Bretty are controlling a robotic submarine in a giant tank that was used to explore Loihi by geologists...
The entire day at Bishop Museum was hosted by my alma mater, Iolani School...
I attended Iolani from 7th through 12th grades and they were kind enough to provide bento lunches for everyone on the lawn of Bishop Museum.
My kids must be turning "local" because they are beginning to love local food of musubi, fish cake, spam and chicken...
Once we left the museum, we had an hour to kill before picking up Alyssa at the airport as she returned from Molokai. And while I was more than happy to simply drive around so the girls could fall asleep, Cari kept bugging me to drive over to Salt Lake which is close to the airport.
Of course, this is what she really wanted...
The original Soon's Kal-bi -- my most favorite place to eat in the whole wide world.
And while we just ate lunch and I had no desire to eat anything, Cari insisted that we pick up some food...
Meat Juhn on the left, and Fried Mon Doo on the right!
We put both on the floor of the van and everyone just grabbed some for themselves.
What animals in my family!
Alyssa's flight arrived from Molokai and she clearly had a very good time. We left one of the digital cameras with her and would post some pictures, but she did't take any! She was having too much fun to stop to take a picture apparently!
So we headed back to my parent's house to yet another party.
Thankfully, Adorna was cooking, so you knew it was going to be very, very good...
The kids went out on the deck overlooking Pearl Harbor where they were fascinated about Grandpa Bernie's stories about playing music with spoons when he was a kid...
But then Grandpa started showing them how he played music on a green leaf when his father was on the boat fishing...
And, well, I think they thought that was bit odd!
Finally, everyone started arriving for yet another party...
And someone got the bright idea of having everyone pose for a picture...
But Nalani had no energy left and decided to crash on Grandpa Bernie...
So goes another party in Hawaii.
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