Open For Business !

After 3 years and $20 million we reopened Hawaiian Hall last weekend.

I think there about 7 separate "special" openings - for the staff, for families, for members, for major donors, for the media, for tourism industry types, and then last Saturday, the big one - everybody.


Kim's halau provided the lei and took part in the opening ceremonies of which I saw absolutely nada: too busy running around with a screwdriver / allen wrench / cell phone / worried look.


The inside is now climate controlled (read: it has AC now) and lighting is conservation department approved. Lots of modern works of art by native artists really brings the place alive. Plus now the famous whale has some friends to hang out with now.


Uncle Dano was in charge of dismantling and rebuilding the hale pili. Pretty much everybody in the extended family helped out in one way or another: carrying rocks, building the foundation, gathering pili, lashing posts, or just sitting around and providing moral support.


Here's some people learning about the hale by playing interacting with my touchscreen kiosk. I actually changed some stuff about 3 hours into the opening day since I got to see people getting confused. Works better now. Come check it out....

Prince Lot Hula Festival

A couple weekends ago Kim's halau performed for the umpeenth time at the Prince Lot Hula Festival at Moanalua Gardens.



Only got one slightly blurry pic. They were scheduled to go on at a blissfully early 8:30 (usually they go on at 2 p.m. when it's stinking hot) but were even a little ahead of schedule. We got there just in time....



The after pics are the better ones anyways.



Homemade ti leaf skirt. And don't be fooled : those things are heavy. Once you get them moving around they want to keep going.



Time to pound poi....or pa‘i ‘ai if you want to really be correct. Step one, clean kalo.



Ready for pounding



Choose ku‘i



Check



Final instructions



Twenty minutes later....



Yum.

Brad + Kim = Cosmic Upheavals

So Kim and I just celebrated our 15th anniversary. And once again the universe (ok maybe just the solar system) is in on the remembrances with good sized fireworks.

Way back in 1994 we had a massive blowout of a party to get hitched. We got incredibly lucky in that hurricanes passed by Oahu the day before and the day after. Well, Fabio was just a Tropical Depression but GIlma was a doozy.

Also, literally as we said our vows, parts of Comet Levy-Shoemaker 9 were smashing into Jupiter with forces vastly greater than all the nuclear weapons on Earth combined.

Well, for our 15th, it's happened again. And Jupiter took the hit again.

Hate to see what the cosmos has planned for our 20th.

Happy Birthday to Me

Ross Simpson-ized me.....

The family that geeks out together....

As seen on our kitchen table last weekend - the products of our family's geeky hobbies.

From left to right: Brad's work-in-progress Corsair (yes, former Bachelor, yours); Lily and Jake's Lego Y-Wing (a present from U. Bump for Jake's b-day - took about 10 person hours); and Kim's Ni‘ihau shell bracelets (made at a workshop organized by Aunty Karen).

Happy Lahaina Noon

The kids have been spending the summer on campus doing day camp.

I've really liked having them around - at least a couple of days a week I get to eat lunch with them. Our paths cross a lot around campus too - they get to see me fixing things, walking around, taking pictures, painting things....

Today, instead of eating with the campers as usual, I took them out to Bob's for hamburgers, fries and a malt.

While we were there I realized that today is Lāhaina Noon for Honolulu - the day the sun passes directly overhead.

Everyplace in the tropics has a two days when the sun passes right overhead, and that's what we watched at exactly 12:37.

It's pretty cool to see shadows of things like inverted cups (above) or flagpoles just disappear....

Happy #6 to Jake

Spent all afternoon this past Sunday at Ala Moana eatin, drinkin, swimmin, biking, cakin, and openin. A good time was had by all. Best. Birthday. Evar.


Fully loaded


U. Jim - always safety conscious


Squirt gun battle!


Pinata


One..more...swing....


Feeding frenzy !


Cake time


Time for dessert


Presents!


Rainbow on a sunny day


Last one at the party

At Kaimana Beach

Auntie Terry took a nice picture of us at the beach beach last weekend....

For Sale

One slightly used 9'0" surfboard

Two rather heavily used surfboards. One is 2'3" and lacks a fin. The other is a 6'9" singlefin.

*sigh*

Here's the story:

So there I was (as all good stories should begin)...it was Wednesday and I was at Big Lefts.

Faces were 10-14ft and pretty consistent. Only about 10 minutes between sets.

Friendly mellow crowd with all the guys I only see in the summer time when we migrate back to Big Lefts from where ever it it that we all surf the rest of the year.

So I wait until the sun has set so I can score a macker and don't quite make it into one. Naturally the NEXT one is the bomber and is about to crash right on my fool head.

Ditch board and swim for depth.

BOING! There goes the leash...buh bye board....

UH-oh.
Getting dark.
Big-ish waves.
No board.
300 yards to shore a good 150 yards of which is about 12-24 inches deep over coral (read: pokey, sharp, w/urchins).

This was gonna suck.

I was lucky to find both parts of my former board after about 100 yard swim. At least I could paddle over the shallows on something rather than coming in with a load of echinoderm needles in my hands, feet and who knows where else. Just had to watch out for jagged fiberglass....

Took a long time to finally get in - quite dark by then - but got in in one piece whereas my J. Johnston wasn't so lucky.

Guess that's what I get for calling Burke a sponger....(see below).

IM'ing w/ Burke

BradMEvans: anyway
BradMEvans: i'm going surfing....
arjuna808: anyway. surf's up!
arjuna808: enjoy
BradMEvans: you didn't surf the other day right?
arjuna808: i did on sunday
BradMEvans: rather you boogieboarded
arjuna808: well, ok, bodyboarding. still a form of surfing
arjuna808: it's not golf
BradMEvans: don't make me come up there and open a can of whoopass
arjuna808: SNOB
BradMEvans: sponger

2 Years - Big Difference

Lily and Fiona at the Children's Discovery Center


2004



2006

Lily picks THE SLOWEST LINE EVAR!

Hilarious

I try not to double post from BoingBoing too much, but man this is funny.

Doing Uncle Bump's Job

Gotta share a couple pictures of my niece



Love the curls.


asucolby (AKA Uncle Bump): you better not post that I thnk she looks like Bigfoot....



Of course not. She's looking the wrong way...

Perfection

In the foreground:
J. Johnston 9'0" atop my car comfortably parked in the Super Secret Spot.

Actually not so secret. In fact the MOST sought after parking spot at Ala Moana Beach Park during a summer swell: directly inshore from Tennis Courts and Big Lefts, right next to the showers for afterward.

In the distance (250-300 yards that is): Solid 10-12 foot faces at Big Lefts, light offshore winds, chill crowd.

The only drag were the two helicopters hovering 50' off the water trying to find/rescue some poor soul. Hope s/he was ok.

Lily in the Honolulu Advertiser

From Keiki Art Day at Bishop Museum

Grandpa Gene's visit

Way back during Spring Break, Grandpa Gene was out for a quick visit.

Here's some pics:

In full coach mode


2 times over

Cute pic from the zoo

Watching the monkeys....

Shave ice!


Manning the AAA

Bogeys mark 27

Bowfin museum

In Das boot

Dorky hobby, Part XXII

What can I say?

The Spitfire is just a gorgeous plane

When Gene visited I made him help with the airbrushing. Turned out pretty nice IMHO.