Aloha Festival Parade

Saturday I went with my mom to the Aloha Festivals Parade in Waimea. It was a beautiful day! Unlike the famous Christmas Truck Parade, this paticluar parade is known for the horses! And the very young cowboys! I don't even remember which group this little guy was with, but he seems to take his job very seriously. My mother remarked, "No wonder they are bow-legged at such a young age!"





I got some knitting done in between groups. This, apparently was a helpful thing, since the Royal Court appears barefoot on hot asphalt:

They need socks!













We had Boy Scouts with the Flags:














We had the County Band, which we love!:













But the highlight is always the horses:

This is the Pa'u Queen. We have Pa'u Riders representing all the islands and a bunch of other groups. They all work on their costumes, leis, and huge horse's leis. The flowers in the leis represent the different islands: Like orchids for the Orchid Isle and a type of moss for Kahoolawe. It was noted that only in Waimea, home of Hawaiian Paniolo, do the horses in each group match each other, the riders start so young, and the riders really control their horses beautifully! I also wonder if we are the only Pa'u Parade that has so many actual real Parade Wranglers on horseback!
These guys did a great job!














And of course, with horses, come the pooper-scoopers!

Each group of riders gets their own group of loyal scoopers, who all compete for a prize for originality of theme! (And I'm not sh*ting you!)



We had a great time!