Honolulu City Lights

Last Friday I took Son1 on a tour of the Honolulu Christmas lights via Fire Truck Hawaii. It is a 1936 refurbished fire truck that once served at the Quaker Oats factory in Illinois. It was acquired by a few fire fighters in Hawaii when they got the idea to purchase an old fire truck to give tours. It is now affectionately called "Engine 50", named after this being the 50th state. Son1 jabbered all the way from our house to South King Street about riding Engine 50.

Engine 50 has bench seating on each side, and accommodates 6 passengers on each side. Son1 and I sat across from one another on the back ends. Each passenger was given a hand bell to ring each time the driver rang his old fashioned bell and blared his siren. People on the streets stopped and waved to us. The fire fighter gave us a detailed tour of the city and the lights. I couldn't really hear anything, even though the fire fighter was miked. Son1 couldn't help but ring his bell constantly.The fire fighter gave each child a souvenir fire hat at the end of the ride. That's the one Son1 has in his hand. The other is from his Halloween costume. I really wanted the little dalmatian to come with us, but he needed his rest. He had a cold and an ear infection.

This is a really bad photo of Son1 and the fire fighter. I have an important story about him a little later in this post.On the other side of City Hall and the lawn displays was this little electric choo choo train run by those carnival ride folks. We could see him on South King Street from Engine 50. Once we got off our tour, Son1 wanted to ride this next. So I took him. This engine driver looked like a hippie Santa. Now things here are a little laid back as far as safety goes. Yes, we had seat belts on. However, this Santa engineer played tea cups (spun the engine around over and over) with the three connecting cars in tow. All the folks inside screamed. We followed the paved path for awhile and then took off on the grass for some off roading. That was some bumpy grass! All this to the sounds of island beats being piped through the speaker system.

After we got off Son1 and I made our way to the restroom at City Hall. Along the way we looked at the lawn displays. This was his favorite. LOOK MOMMY IT'S THE BABY JESUS!!After leaving the restroom, and rearranging some things in my purse, I got this uneasy feeling. I didn't remember seeing my keys in my purse. I pulled open the clasp. No keys. I patted my pants. No pockets in my pants. I plucked out my cell phone. "Hubby, start praying. I can't find my keys. They aren't in my purse and I don't have any pockets, so I have left them somewhere." It was after 9pm at night, I was nearly 30 miles from home, and my locked car had Son2's car seat in it. He was home in his crib. So how could Hubby get to us? I grabbed Son1 by the hand, explained the situation to him in a frenzy, and we left City Hall, back to the electric train. Stuff had spilled out of my purse on the train. Maybe I dropped my keys there. I asked the ticket lady. No luck. I went to the line and was peering around in the grass. I explained my situation to one lady. No...she insisted I needed a flashlight. Everyone in line started to look. Someone brought me a flashlight. That's just the way local people are. They help immediately. We looked on the train. No keys.

I had one more shot: Engine 50. So now, Son1 and I made the long walk back up South King to the traffic light, crossed the street and doubled back almost the entire long city block. We had to hurry. Fire Engine 50 might make a run or two more. Soon the fire truck was back at the pick up point. The fire fighter and I both looked. No keys. The firefighter saw I was disheartened. He promised to look back at the station under the lights. I thanked him. Then he asked me to wait. He jumped back on the truck, shoved his hands deep in the red leather, and he pulled out my keys quicker than I could blink. The line cheered. I cheered. Son1 bellowed out a thank you. I called Hubby. We were both relieved. Afterward Son1 informed me he wasn't tired. Good. From Fire Engine 50 I had seen the mock queen sitting at Iolani Palace with her king. Iolani Palace is the only official state residence for royalty in the United States. This was a celebration for Queen Kapio'lani's birthday. So now we could walk down there, since I had my keys.

The palace was decorated with red and green Chinese lanterns for her birthday. It was very late, and by now the mock queen was gone. When we got there, Son1 asked me where all the people went. Then he wanted to know if the queen was sleeping in her castle. Shhh.....he said.
This is the side gate we snuck into the palace grounds.

We made our way back up King Street toward our car. Son1 begged to go back to City Hall, which was there on the corner. I tried to capture what I noticed for the first time...but the picture doesn't show it too clearly. Santa's toes are dangling in the water fountain below, and his boots are off there to his left. "Mele" (means "merry" in Hawaiian) has a gold Hawaiian bracelet around her wrist, that says her name in Old English lettering. Name bracelets are usually given to children at birth in Hawaii. The mother wears it until the child is older and it is passed on. In front of Mele is Lau Lau. This is a traditional Hawaiian dish that is wrapped in ti leaves with taro leaves and chicken or pork.

The other thing that fascinated Son1 was that the Lanakila Train blew steam every few seconds. That is what the blurry stuff is on the right above.

It was a late, but memorable night.