The King's Birthday

King Kalakauai, the last reigning king of the Kingdom of Hawaii, was born on November 16, 1836. The flag on the lower right is his royal standard. Above it flies the state flag of Hawaii, with this writing on the red stripe: Ke Ali’i Ai Moku Moiwahine Lili’uokalani. To the best of my googling it honors Queen Lili’uokalani, the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, but I don’t have an exact translation.  On the left we have the US flag and the California state flag. 

After I got home I realized that the better shot would have included the surfer statue, which was behind me and to the left. I also realized that I should have spent more time talking to the dignified older man who was tending the flags, getting up from a nearby bench from time to time to carefully unfurl them as they got scrambled in the breeze. 


There is a lot of history here, and pride and fierce love, and I’m sorry I missed a chance to hear his story.