Louisville Hula Club & Brookview Baptist Church

People usually write blogs in sequential order ... but you know, mothers have to be major multi-taskers... and as such do things when the moment presents itself. So we've had to make decisions like ... find a store to buy batteries to download pictures from the digital camera or go eat at Krispy Kreme? Find a store to buy batteries to download pictures from the digital camera or go to the Louisville Slugger (baseball bat) factory? Find a store to ... oh, you get the message. Well, amazing as it is, we did get to a store and remembered to buy batteries. So here are a few photos of our first few days.

Our First day started with sharing at the Louisville Hula Club Luncheon at Masterson's Restaurant. This concert was organized by a dear friend of the Hongos, Betty Jackson. Betty was like a mother to them while Randy was at seminary. She and her daughter Mary Ann were a sight for sore eyes. The Louisville Hula Club has been in existence for almost 40 years. One of the members who danced was 94 years old (she is definitely an inspiration to all of us, as we will be glad if we even remember our children's names at 94!). They danced very authentic hula - in fact they danced a song they had learned from a workshop in Indiana led by Leinaala Kalama Heine, (who dances for the Cazimeros). There were a lot of hana hous from the audience for these lovely ladies. And the food was awesome - some of us even had our first taste of tilapia (now how did you know we'd write about the food?). And to top it off, we met Elaine, a member of the hula club who has been a long time pen pal with one of the Hawaii prisoners at Otter Creek!


[The Louisville Hula Club performs.]

Later that afternoon, we participated in the Brookview Baptist Church Luau. A big mahalo to Inky Hoots for setting this up. We enjoyed fellowshipping with these warm hearted Kentuckians who put together quite a spread for the luau. Who would have thought that such decorations were possible in Louisville. In fact, Miss Opal even made hula skirts for the younger children to wear. We were very touched that Gene Wilkerson gave us 25 t-shirts for us to wear or share with others. Brookview was one of the churches that Danette had served as pianist during her seminary days. Since Randy had yet to join us, Gay did a fantastic job singing by her lonesome. What a great way to start our tour!



[Danette, Riverson & Inky Hoots; performing at the Brookview Baptist Church luau; Master's Touch with Pastor Troy Rust and his family.]