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Archive for October 31st, 2004

Indianapolis, a Beautiful Place

Sunday, October 31st, 2004

I’m writing this after we got home from Ukefest, and I have so many photos to post here and so many things to say that I can not get them all up on my site before I need to sleep. I’m giving you a few photos I took at different times during our trip.

Unfortunately, I had no luck with photos of performers on Friday night but I do have some other shots of Indianapolis I thought I’d share. I had not been into the city before and it was a beautiful and proud city to view.

The first photo I just could not resist (I did get permission from the parent to post it). It was halloween, and everywhere we drove we saw folks in costume… from walking down a sidewalk in Indianapolis, to taking payments at the gas station. And when we stopped to rest and get a drink one of the times we stopped… a daddy brought in his son, who told everyone he was Bob the Builder. He had a very fine costume which had plastic tools including a hammer, cellphone, and sound effects. He wanted to fix all sorts of things, including Brian’s laptop. Brian convinced him to fix his shoes instead. Here’s a shot of the tyke hammering Brian’s foot. Isn’t this just as cute as it gets?

OK… back to Ukefest and Indianapolis. The concert (I’ll get back to the performances later) was held at an auditorium in the Veterans War Memorial building, shown here from the outside… and then a hallway inside. The architecture is just wonderful in every way, and the building is immaculately well-kept. I was amazed at how new the structure seemed, when it is about a generation old already.

Next is a photo of the street at Monument Circle. On the far left you see just the base of a large monument. We walked up there briefly and there was an inscription about the Civil War, so it must also be another war memorial of some sort. The whole circle (a sort of small park in the center of a traffic circle/roundabout) is well-kept and well-designed. The base of the light fixtures had brass bears holding up the pole if I remember right. Like Chicago, only perhaps more… more something, I can’t find the right word. And again, the level of upkeep that they undertake to keep things in good shape, is really apparent.

Oh, in the traffic photo on the circle, you will notice most of all a building where the lighting creates a yellow heart. That is the building housing the electrical utility company. You sure can not miss it!

The final shot here is Michelle Kiba doing a hula dance with the Kupa’a-Pacific Island Resources ukulele group. I can not tell you how this woman glows when she dances! She is so beautiful I could not keep my eyes off from her dancing. She smiles, but it is not just a smile, it is more like she glows. I’m confident her technique is excellent, though I don’t know the dance enough to have appreciated that fully. It did not matter, though… she smiles and glows and moves to the beautiful music. It was perhaps the highlight of my whole weekend, other than being able to perform onstage.

I talked with Michelle briefly after the hula workshop on Friday. She teaches Hula (in California) and used to also do Middle-Eastern dance. I wish I could have talked with her more about that, but we both had so many folks to touch base with, that we did not chat long.

Have I mentioned how much I love cities? This one does not disappoint in the least. Aaaahhh…

There is more to post, but it’s bedtime. Catch you soon!