1.   Around thatched-roof huts, surfers strum ukuleles, grill burgers or prepare to ride the celebrated waves.

2.   On our December visit, two Hawaiian men were sitting at a picnic table in the shade, one picking a guitar, the other strumming a ukulele.

3.   Petty Booka, a Hawaiian-flavored Japanese group, had two young women wearing leis and strumming ukuleles, harmonizing songs by Patsy Cline and the Ramones.

4.   The soft-spoken Akaka would often begin his Sunday sermons at Kawaiahao Church, the largest Congregational church in Hawaii, by strumming a ukulele.