Blogs from Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, United States, North America - page 30

With a week and a half off work, I decided to put the time to good use and jumped on a plane over to Honolulu, Hawaii. I hadn't stepped foot on Hawaiian soil since the last Harmony flight on April 9th. I certainly miss all the brilliant layovers that I had with all my friends at Harmony, so to go back over was like visiting an old friend. The sights, sounds and smells - all so familiar. The flight landed into Honolulu at 11pm. I collected my bags and went outside to get the tourist shuttle bus that takes you down into Waikiki. Roberts of Hawaii offers this service 24 hours and they drop you off right at your accommodation. I was one of the last stops and got off with a few other people. I ... read more

A few weekends ago, The Foster Gardens celebrated it’s Hundredth Anniversary with entertainment and free admission to the Gardens. Also many speeches were made praising the founder, Mary Foster for her visionary and progressive actions especially for a woman living during that era. Many of the trees there were huge in girth and tall almost giving the impression they could be about 500 years old, but mostly likely were not, as the garden was only a 100. Many of the trees were from other tropical countries of Asia, South America and Africa. She was also credited with bringing back a cutting from the original Bodhi Tree that the Buddha had attainment enlightenment under. Somewhere in India there is said to be a Mary Foster Temple dedicated to her by the people. In the following weeks, an ... read more

Aloha Week started off with a Floral Parade this past Sat. and coincidentally a Thunderbird Airshow in the afternoon. From what I read a while back, the origin of Aloha Week was commercial rather based on any ancient Hawaiian tradition. Since September and October was a slow season for tourism, the tourist industry cooked up the concept of Aloha Week to draw tourists to Hawaii during the 1930 or so. As the title indicates, the word Aloha has many meanings such as Love, Affection, compassion, mercy, kindness, charity greeting, regards, sweetheart, loved one, beloved, loving to love, hello, good-bye and even alas. So Aloha Week would most likely mean a week of showing Affection and kindness by the sharing of the culture of the Islands. The streets of Waikiki will be blocked off for one night ... read more

Today I join the prestigious travelblog.org website. I have not done any blogging from any website before, so bear with me. I have decided to go out there and see the world as much as I can. Hence, the "New to Traveling" part of the title. In a couple of months, 52 days to be exact, I will be visiting the tropical paradise Hawaii for the first time. If you want to be technical, it will be my second time around. The first occasion, I was three years old (as what I've been told). Personally, the first time does not count since I did not remember anything from the trip. That was more than 25 years ago. My relatives in Hawaii are very hospitable.They live in the city of Honolulu, the island of Oahu. I have ... read more

Okay, so it is day two here in paradise and somehow for the second time that I have been here on Waikiki in the past year, there is a parade. In December it was, of course, the Christmas parade, this trip it is the Okinawian Festival parade, who knew Okinawians had their own festival? Early in the morning I visited Ala Moana Mall that was engineered by my papa. It had been YEARS since I had been there... and my how it has changed. It was a quiet day otherwise, I loafed around the pool and then finished the day with a beautiful sunset and the registration party at Hula's. It was very fun and great to meet what seems to be a very fun group of guys. Tomorrow it is off to the windward side ... read more