Happy Labor Day everybody.  I hope your weekend is going well.  Today we begin our series on the Okinawa Festival.  Here is a pictures of the Okinawa Prefecture Junior & High School Wind Ensemble Select Band that flew all the way from Okinawa to perform at the festival.  This year was the 28th annual Okinawan Festival whose theme was “Sharing Uchinanchu Aloha” or sharing aloha from Okinawa.

Here are some pick, white and a purple water lily growing over in McCoy Pavilion at Ala Moana Beach Park.  Somehow almost reminds me of the Frogger video game when you jump across the lily pads.  Looking forward to the start of a nice long 3 day weekend.

Perhaps one of the most looked forward to item at the Greek Festival is the Pastry Booth filled with homemade pastries including this bento box of Baklava.  Always in high demand lines form at the Pastry Booth from start to finish much like the malasada booth at the Punahou carnival.   Along with Baklava they also serve kourambiedes, melomakarona and much more.  The dough is rolled the old-fashioned way with broomstick rolling pins and honey, nuts, fruits and creams mixed with love.  Secret recipes have been passed down generation to generation giving the Greek festival product a special unique quality.

Entertainment was abound at the Greek Festival .  Here is a photo of the Nisiotes Dancers who performed a variety of Greek fold dancing in colorful regional costumes.  Accompanying them was the Nisioupoula “Little islander” Dance Group.  Also performing at the festival was Fotia a Greek band from California and the renowned guitarist Sotos Kappas.

One of the most famous food items at the Greek Festival 2010 at McCoy Pavilion in Ala Moana Beach Park is the Gyro.  The Greek dish consists of meat, tomatoes, onions and a tzatziki sauce (yogurt based)  served on a pita bread.  The meat (usually a beef lamb combination is cooked on a tall vertical spit and sliced into thin crispy shavings.

We begin our look at the 2010 Greek Festival at McCoy Pavilion which is a part of Ala Moana Beach Park.  If you haven’t been there yet head out there today (Sunday August 29) as the festival runs from noon to 8pm.  Tons of Greek food, dancing, entertainment and of course the very popular pastries. Click here for more information.

We end our Pacific Aviation Museum’s Biggest Little Airshow series with the Bell UH-1 Iroquois.  The Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) was an all-purpose military helicopter used for air assault, cargo transport, zero-medical evacuation, search and rescue, electronic warfare and ground attack.  It goes it nickname “Huey” from it original Army designation HU-1.   The Pacific Aviation Museum is located on Ford Island and open to the public.  There is an admission fee.  For more details you can visit their website here.

One of the new arrivals at the Pacific Aviation Museum is the  Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 Fagot.  Clocking at at over 35 feet long and 12 feet tall this jet flies at 668 mph.  The Soviet Union developed the MiG-15 following World War II.  During the Korean War the MiG-15 operated extensively against United Nations forces.  In 1952 the Soviets produced MiG-15 (NATO code name “Fagot”) to a number of communist nations including North Korea.  On September 21, 1953 a defecting North Korean pilot flew and advanced version of the MiG-15 to Kimpo Air base in South Korea which provided NATO forces with much intelligence data.

We continue our tour of Hangar 19 at the Pacific Aviation Museum  with the Convair F-102A Delta Dagger.  This plane is 68 feet long and 21 feet tall and flies at 810 mph.  Its primary purpose is to intercept and destroy enemy aircraft and was the world’s first supersonic, all weather, jet interceptor.  The F-102 made its initial flight in 1956 and at its peak Convair built 1,000 of these.

Here is one of the full sized airplanes at the Pacific Aviation Museum its the Grumman F-14D Tomcat.  It is 62 feet long and 16 feet high with a 64 foot wingspan and can reach speeds of Mach 2.2.  This supersonic, twin-engine variable swept-wing, two-seat striker fighter was used by the U.S. Navy from 1974-2006 for air combat in all weather conditions.  It can track up to 24 targets and attack 6 enemies simultaneously with Phoenix AIM-54A missiles.  The museum display F-14D was built in 1991 and served at NAS Miramir and arrived at the museum on June 27, 2008.  It is one of the many planes on display at the museum.