Tag: entertainment

Don Ho Show – Day 146

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.

 

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:
Honolulu Hawaii — Waikiki — The Don Ho Show
 

San Francisco Tour and Show – Day 81

San Francisco Tour and Show

Day 81 – June 20, 2003 – Friday

We continue to extend our stay with son Ryan in San Francisco. More phone help today. Ryan has hired a new helper to start on Monday. Alcatraz tours are sold out for the weekend!

32 years ago today, on June 20, 1971, Barbara Jane Gray Windsor and I flew from Dallas to Montego Bay, Jamaica on our honeymoon. It was a wonderful honeymoon provided by my parents. We have so many funny stories to tell from that trip! We’ll never forget the unmarked taxicab with a trunk full of bananas; the little guy who fixed the problem with the two single beds in our “honeymoon suite” by strapping the legs of the beds together to form one larger bed with a massive valley down the center; the 15-year-old Cadillac “limo” convertible with longhorns mounted on the hood that picked us up for horseback riding; the horseback ride that left Bozzie Jane bruised from ankle to ankle; the looks on people’s faces around the pool when they saw the young groom and his bride with bruised thighs and legs; and the glass-bottom boat that ran out of gas and drifted out into the ocean.

We went on the San Francisco Fire Engine Tour and Adventure today. It was one of the tours available from Ryan’s company — www.alcatraz.us. We rode around in a big, shiny red fire engine with bells clanging. The 1955 Mack Fire Engine has been beautifully restored. The tour went from the waterfront through the Presidio, across the Golden Gate Bridge to Sausalito and back again. We had seen all of these sights before, but never in a 1955 fire engine. Robert and Marilyn Katzman dressed us up in fireman coats and hats. Folks on the street certainly do enjoy seeing you pass by. The Katzmans are really nice people. Marilyn sings songs and tap dances, and she got all of us singing. We learned a lot about firefighting, and we got some good photos. It was a lot of fun. Robert and Marilyn live in a real, restored 107-year-old Victorian firehouse bought from the city when modern fire trucks became too large to fit through the doors. They have a Dalmation and their own fire pole. I forgot to ask if they know Richard Tuck. There are so many interesting people in the San Francisco area!

The Fire Engine Tour crosses the Golden Gate Bridge twice, and we crossed it a total of six times today. The bridge links San Francisco with Marin County, and it can be crossed by car, by bicycle, or on foot. The Golden Gate Bridge took more than four years to construct, and it cost $35 million. It is a visitor attraction recognized around the world. The conventional wisdom in the early 1930s was that it would be impossible to bridge the Golden Gate because of insurmountable difficulties. Joseph B. Strauss thought it could be done, and it was his dream to do it. Though Strauss lived for only a year beyond the completion of the bridge, his dream came true, and he built one of the world’s most impressive landmarks. The 1.7-mile long suspension bridge opened to vehicular traffic on May 28, 1937, at twelve o’clock noon, ahead of schedule and under budget. President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the opening from the White House. The Golden Gate Bridge’s 4,200-foot-long main suspension span was a world record for 27 years. The bridge’s two towers rise 746 feet making them 191 feet taller than the Washington Monument. The Golden Gate Bridge crosses Golden Gate Strait which is about 400 feet deep. The two main cables that support the floor of the bridge are 4,200 feet long. These cables are 36 1/2 inches in diameter, the largest bridge cables ever made. Each cable is 7,659 feet long and contains 27,572 parallel wires, enough to encircle the world more than three times at the equator. The design of the Golden Gate Bridge is considered to be Art Deco.

Dinner was again provided by Ryan’s personal chef, Karen.

Tonight, we saw the renowned San Francisco show, Beach Blanket Babylon. It is a wonderfully entertaining show — more entertaining than many of the Broadway shows we’ve seen. Beach Blanket Babylon is hard to define; I guess you’d call it a musical comedy. There was great rock/pop music throughout — often with lyric changes to make the songs funny.

Beach Blanket Babylon is the longest-running musical in the world; it began in 1974. The show is hilarious with various “skits” and routines of different types. Each of the performers is incredibly talented. Val Diamond would be regarded as the star of the show, and this was her 25th year with Beach Blanket Babylon. She is outrageously funny, and she has an incredible voice that enables her to sing a wide range of songs.

The show is a musical spoof of pop culture, and the show continually changes to make current events part of the show. For example, Martha Stewart, the Dixie Chicks, and the French were the targets of jokes that generated a lot of laughter tonight. There’s a skit about Hillary and Bill and Paula Jones and Monica Lewinsky and the many other young Clinton women. President and Laura Bush, the Bush twins, Elvis, Snow White, Madonna, Eminem, Diana Ross, N’Sync, James Brown, Barbra Streisand, Puff Daddy, Jennifer Lopez, Tina Turner, Oprah, Whoopie Goldberg, John Travolta, Prince, Michael Jackson, Winona Ryder, Barry Bonds, Mayor Willie Brown, the Beatles, Britney Spears, PG&E, and the Village People were also included.

Big hats are a BIG part of the show. The crowd absolutely loved the show, and we certainly did. It was a full house. When you come to San Francisco, Beach Blanket Babylon should be a MUST DO! Great, great time. As different from “O” as you can get, but equally entertaining. See www.beachblanketbabylon.com. When you book your tickets, be sure to get seats on the area in front of the columns that support the balcony. Go with an open mind and prepared to laugh, and hoot and holler and have a big time.

We met some fun people tonight. Two couples from Greenville, South Carolina were really, really funny. And we sat next to four women (Maryann, Mary Ann, Theo, and Glenda) who have been vacationing together every year for 14 years.

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 website. 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.

 

More Information on the Sights Visited Today:
San Francisco California — San Francisco Fire Engine Tour — Golden Gate Bridge — Beach Blanket Babylon