Under The Ryukyuan Sun… they glanced back at their motherland, perhaps for the very last time, as they boarded the ships bounded for the scorching pineapple and sugar plantations of Hawaii, over a hundred years ago. The past weekend the descendents of these Okinawan immigrants celebrated their 25th Annual Parade and Festival in Waikiki. The event has grown so much, they could no longer use the existing bandstand in Kapiolani Park but constructed a special stage, with Diamond Head in it’s backdrop. Okinawa, along with the rest of the Ryukyu Islands was once an independent [View Full Entry]

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So, how can you pass up a $300 round trip ticket to Hawaii from San Francisco... home of the cold summer? The answer is, you can't! So this bear is back in paradise for 6 nights of relaxation and sitting on the beach. I boarded an American Airlines 757 on Wednesday morning and made it to Oahu on-time. And just who knew that gate agents could actually be helpful? I inquired at the gate about purchasing an upgrade and the agent actually tried to use my status to get it for me and when she was unsuccessful, she sent be back [View Full Entry]

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Sunday 5th As we had packed our bags before dinner last night we didn't have much to do before leaving this morning so we decided to go for a walk. We walked down the road toward the water and found a beautiful bay surrounded by trees with a fantastic view over the port of Hilo. After dropping our hire car off we were driven to the aiport where we reported our damaged phone and broken bottle of Scotch. Of course we were told that the fine print said we were supposed to do this within 4 hours but a report was [View Full Entry]

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Our decision for staying in Hawaii was done quite early on. Flying from Australia to the main land of the US takes around 14-15 hours, flying to Hawaii takes 9 hours.... and it's well worth a small stop! We flew with Air Canada (anything to avoid the US airlines) which turned out to be quite a nice airline with friendly people and movies on demand. On arrival 95% queued up on the "Foreigners" side of immigration where one person was working while the other 5% that went through the "US Citizen" side were served by 4 officers..... can someone explain the [View Full Entry]

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We only have two days in Hawaii, and didn't really intend to write another blog, but this place is so lovely we changed our minds. We both agree that Hawaii has to be at the top of the list of places we would love to return one day. When James (our son) was about ten years old he bought a board game called "Hotels". The setting of the game was Waikiki on Oahu, Hawaii. Players would circle the board and buy and develop hotels in a manner remeniscent of the gameplay of "Monopoly". Despite its simpicity, the game was surprisingly [View Full Entry]

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I'm back at home now, and I hesitate to write about my stop in Hawaii, simply because once I do it really means it was the end of this trip! And I have to wait out for another few months before I am able to venture out again on another, but it must be done :) My flight to Oahu was relitively painless. Luckily I got sat in a row of seats that had no one else in them, so I was able to stretch out my legs and sleep pretty well. So no complaints to that. I rather like Hawaiian [View Full Entry]

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I have always been a fan of Pop Tarts, but in America, I found the best pop tarts, ever. Fudge Sundae, or something like that. Marshmallow flavour, Sprinkles and fudgey goodness. I buy 2 boxes in LA (Target, of corse), eat one box, get halfway through the second box... then one morning I awake to find in the kitchen cupboard... ants... in my pop tarts. They've eaten their way trough the foil of the Pop Tart too, making them unedible. How annoyed am I? And I find out that they don't sell this flavour in Hawaii... ARGHGHGG!!! I blame Karma. Did [View Full Entry]

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We havent updated the blog for a while cos we havent been doing anything and it is great!! Last time we were properly active was in Universal Studios, I think Paul was quite disappointed with the lack of rides there (as there were only 3) but for me, I am not a lover of theme parks and rollercoasters so it was fun, apart from the never ending plugging of evan almighty which was v irritating! We went on the jurassic park ride 3 times with its 80 foot drop at the end (paul persuaded me to keep my eyes open [View Full Entry]

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The next day Eddie and I hiked Diamond Head which was a fortress in the late 1890's created by the king to observe the shores of Oahu to protect the kingdom. Diamond Head is a volcanic crater, cooled and hardened on the south-east edge of the island. It is about a 1.5 mile hike up, and it is STEEP! Thank modern infrastructure for paving the whole trail which made it nice and easy. Once you got up to the top you could see the whole south shore. Mind you there were outposts on the perimeter of the crater's crust, but [View Full Entry]

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Where I am depends on when I can connect to a computer but as I type I am flying over the Pacific Ocean on towards Fiji where the clouds look like cities. This ocean is vast and wide which makes it hard to discern sky from sea. It is still hard to believe that I am going to Fiji and that I JUST left Hawaii. I am so far from home--insane. This is a revolution of the mind. Roxanne, you don't have to put the red light, those days are over, you don't have to sell your body into the [View Full Entry]

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