Blue Hawaii(s)

October 22, 2009
2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Hawaii’s statehood. In 1957 Elvis first came to Hawaii to perform and fell in love with the islands. That very same year the “legendary” Hilton Hawaiian Village bartender, Harry Yee, created a cocktail known as the “Blue Hawaii,” which apparently started the kitsch “tiki culture” (Andrea and Greg, take note!) In the upper panel you can see that I am sampling a Blue Hawaii with a colleague from Johns Hopkins. It was okay…certainly not as good as the locavore mai tai from the other night at Alan Wong’s restaurant. In 1961 Elvis returned to the Hawaiian islands to star in the movie “Blue Hawaii,” which is a fun movie, and continues to inspire visitors to have a cool tropical drink under a palm tree! I paired the drink picture with a picture I took earlier in the week of the iconic volcano crater Diamond Head. I never get tired of that view!