The Don Ho Show
Day 146 – August 24, 2003 – Sunday
A leisurely Sunday in Hawaii.
Room service breakfast always seems to taste mighty good. Just the traditional stuff — eggs, bacon, hash browns, and toast. No pie this morning.
I took a few minutes to submit news about our trip to the Food Network and the Travel Channel. You never know, maybe they’d like to do a story about the Best Pie in America.
One of my new Hawaiian friends, Ted Nakamura of Ted’s Bakery, called this morning. He made a special dessert just for me — one of their seasonal big sellers that they didn’t have the day I visited the bakery in Sunset Beach. He drove all across the island from the North Shore to bring it to me. Now how nice is this! He brought not one, but TWO big cakes. The Pineapple Cheesecake is a layer of cake, topped by a layer of cheesecake, topped by pineapple. The Chantilly Cake is a cake that Ted does for a lot of weddings. I had a slice of each before the Don Ho show and again after. I gave the rest to the staff of the hotel, and they were very appreciative.
I was planning to go see Pearl Harbor before the Don Ho Experience tonight, but my left foot was really hurting. Pearl Harbor has been postponed until tomorrow. I spent the day reading on the balcony of the hotel and down next to Waikiki Beach. I just kept to myself — didn’t even try to meet anyone or take any photos (as it’s been overcast all day, and I’ve previously gotten a number of great Waikiki photos in good sunlight). Just chilled.
The sun came out as I walked down the street to the Don Ho Show.
I met some really nice folks at the show. The folks I was standing next to in line, Sherry and Tony, just happened to be from a few miles away in the Atlanta area. Small world. Tony is the Treasurer of an intimate apparel company. He says they don’t cover all parts — just the best parts. Then I looked up and saw a man wearing a Texas Tech cap. I met Pat and Phyllis. Pat graduated from Tech five years after I did. He doesn’t like Bobby Knight (Texas Tech basketball coach) — first Tech alum I’ve met who has said that.
At my table, I met Paul and Bev from Portland, Oregon and their granddaughter, Haley from Clackamas, Oregon. Bev brought the lyrics to a song that Don Ho sings that was written by her stepfather, and she had a chance to speak with Don about the song. 11-year-old Haley is a star pitcher on a fast-pitch softball team. We’ll be looking for her in the Olympics someday! She learned to surf today. Kathleen and Scott from San Diego were celebrating their second anniversary on Oahu. They went to Las Vegas for their first anniversary and were really ill the entire time they were there, but all has been great on this vacation. Jim and Charlotte were also at our table — at the far end, so I didn’t get as much time to speak to them. They’re from Montgomery, Alabama, and they support the Ten Commandments statue! Jim played football at Mississippi State in the late 1940’s. I also met Pam and KC at the next table over. KC is a middle school teacher. We talked about the importance of education and the problems with inadequate funding for schools and the need for higher pay for teachers!
We were given the opportunity to meet Don Ho before the show. He seemed like a very nice man. I gave him my card and some pink beads, and I thought it was really nice of him to wear the beads during the show. Don started and ended the show with “Tiny Bubbles.” He said he did that because most of his fans are so old that they often forget he did the song if he only sings it once. The show was entertaining. Don did more talking than singing, and he had a funny routine. He joked a lot about how old he is and about his fondness for the ladies. Two teenagers were extremely entertaining. A lovely 19-year-old named Peilani danced beautiful hulas, and a 14-year-old named Harmony played a ukelele like it was a flamenco guitar.
Don Ho had been entertaining for something like 50 years, though taking a page from Jack Benny’s book, he said “39.” He was the King of Entertainers in Hawaii, and I was very glad I was able to see his show. See www.donho.com.
The Daily Journal of Round America:
Each day, we collect our thoughts on a web page just like this. We drop in some of the photos from the day. Our goal with the Daily Journal is to write about the towns we visit, the sights we see, the people we meet, and the pie we eat. We write about where we are, where we’ve been, and where we are going, but we also make observations about what we’ve seen and done as well as about life in general.
You can follow our travels from the Daily Journal section of this web site. Other pages of interest include the running report of “vital statistics” on the Trip Scorecard, our nominations for the Best & Worst of the trip, as well as a rating of the pie we eat. If you’d like to see information for a specific state or town, click here, and then click on the state of interest and the full itinerary is shown.