Pacific Vortex: muumuu and more

pg 150

She wore a short muumuu embazoned with red and yellow flowers.

The muumuu or muʻumuʻu is a loose dress of Hawaiian origin that hangs from the shoulder. Like the Aloha shirt, muumuu exports are often brilliantly colored with floral patterns of generic Polynesian motifs. Muumuu for local Hawaiian residents are more subdued in tone. Muumuu are no longer as widely worn at work as the aloha shirt, but continue to be the preferred formal dress for weddings and festivals such as the Merrie Monarch hula competition. They are also frequently worn as a uniform by women working in the hotel industry. Muumuu are also popular as maternity wear because they do not restrict the waist.

Etymology and history
The word muʻumuʻu means "cut off" in Hawaiian, because the dress originally lacked a yoke. Originally it was a shorter, informal version of the more formal holokū. Holokū was the original name for the Mother Hubbard dress introduced by Protestant missionaries to Hawaii in the 1820s. The holokū featured long sleeves and a floor-length unfitted dress falling from a high-necked yoke. Over the years, the holokū approximated more closely to European and American fashions. It might have a fitted waist, and even a train for evening. As the holokū became more elaborate, the muumuu, a shortened version, became popular for informal wear.

"He's daddy's fleet officer."

Perhaps Cussler means "first officer." There is no such term as "fleet officer." (Do a search on "fleet officer" on the web and all you get back are references to Star Wars and Honor Harrington.)

"I must have mentioned that I was staying at the Moana Towers."
I was unable to find any mention of a Moana Towers hotel in Hawaii. There is a region called Ala Moana...

Ala Moana (meaning path to the sea in Hawaiian) is the name of a commercial, retail and residential district of Honolulu, Hawaiʻi nestled between Waikīkī to the east and Kakaʻako and Honolulu Harbor to the west. King Street, to the north, marks the border with the neighborhood of Makiki.

Ala Moana is situated along the southern shores of the island of Oʻahu and features a vast stretch of reef-protected white sandy beaches. The civic center of Ala Moana is Ala Moana Center, once the largest shopping center in the United States and the currently the largest open-air shopping center in the world.

The main roads through Ala Moana are Ala Moana Boulevard and Kapiʻolani Boulevard. Ala Moana is a major transfer point in Honolulu's bus system, with bus platforms on both sides of Ala Moana Center. Across the street from Ala Moana Center is Ala Moana Beach Park, dedicated by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930s.