Genealogy Trip to Hawaii - Day Two

This is a continuation of story of my family history related trip to Hawaii for the past two weeks. Our first day was full of meeting “new” cousins and seeing historic sites related to the Dominis family and Queen Lili’uokalani. This next day we checked out of our hotel on Waikiki Beach, Oahu to board a cruise ship to see the islands of Maui, Hawaii and Kauai. This was the vacation part of the trip, so I won’t go into great detail about the cruise, except to mention a few things:

The ship “Pride of America” very graciously has set aside quite a bit of space along the corridor of deck six to a historical museum showcasing the Kingdom of Hawaii, in particular the years of Queen Lili’uokalani and her brother King Kalakua, the “Merry Monarch”. This is located at the top of the grand staircase most modern cruise ships have on the main entry level deck. I passed by it every day on the way to the dining rooms and theater, and we photographed most of the items on display.

The “Pride of America” also has a cultural advisor on board the entire cruise, and she would give a demonstration, lecture or show several times a day. She was available for questions, and gave advice for shore excursions and historical sites at each port. We even learned a bit of the Hawaiian language. This was wonderful to know, and we tried to take advantage of most of her offerings all week.

There was a Hawaiian entertainer who sang almost every night at the martini bar. He sang a variety of popular music, mixed in with songs sung in the Hawaiian language. We only went up to hear him a few nights, but when my husband asked him to sing one of Queen Lili’uokalani’s songs he was very happy to fulfill our request. I didn’t want to hear another version of “Aloha Oe”, which we had heard a few times other places, but he was able to sing a lovely Hawaiian language ballad I never heard before. A very nice surprise, and I wish I could remember the name of the tune! Other than this singer, the other Hawaiian bands on board seemed to be the usual type you would find in tourist areas, singing touristy Hawaiian music.

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Copyright 2010, Heather Wilkinson Rojo