Blogs from Hawaii, United States, North America - page 169

Aloha once again everyone! Our last planned stop in Oahu was at a luau in Paradise Cove on the leeward side of the island. We'd not explored that side of Oahu at all, so reaching our destination was a bit of a Mapquest adventure. Despite a few wrong turns, we managed to arrive on time and in one piece at the Ko Olina resort. At Paradise Cove, the luau grounds had a carnival atmosphere, i.e. many many activities going on all at once. I spotted tattoo artists, carvers, bead merchants, canoe rides, javelin throwing, tree climbing, hula lessons, trained parrots, and fishermen giving lessons on how to fish in the traditional Hawaiian manner (by casting a net). Grandma wasn't feeling in top shape so we took turns keeping her company on the veranda and checking out ... read more

How is it that I am consistently the last person to go to bed and the first person to wake up in this house? It's 10:30 Hawaii time and everyone is asleep after a long and grueling day of...yes, shopping! We returned to the Aloha market mid-morning today to finish exploring. Grandma also wanted an opportunity to enjoy the market since she wasn't able to come with us on Saturday (she wasn't feeling well so we left her propped up at the beach house with a newspaper and a good view of the surf). I won't bore you with more of the same since I described the market yesterday, but I will say that traversing the stadium and seeing most of the 700 vendors with an old lady in a wheelchair is an adventure in itself. ... read more

Aloha nach Deutsche Lande.. Ich melde mich nach etwas laengerer schreibpause nun wieder zurueck! Mein (unsere, war ja nicht alleine unterwegs) erstes ziel war hawaii..jaa.. viel zu erzaehlen..haben ja auch ziemlich viel gemacht in den 10 tagen.Also am ersten tag nach 5 ½ std flug haben wir uns gleich den ersten sonnenbrand eingefangen,als wir ne dreiviertelstunde in der prallen sonne auf den bus warten mussten.ok wir haetten uns auch ins bushaeuschen setzten koennen..;) im bus eingestiegen musste sich anja erstmal $1 von nem “wildfremden” leihen,da sie nur ne $50 bill hatte und der busfahrer auch kein wechselgeld hatte..das waere dann ein wenig zu teuer geworden. Aber es hat sich dann doch jmd bereit gestellt $1 zu spenden..nach gefuehlten 2 stunden busfahrt sind wir dann endlich in unserem hostel angekommen, haben uns auch kostengruenden dann fuer das ... read more

Another long and eventful day, and another late night blog update (11:00 PM in Hawaii, 2:00 AM in Albany ). We decided on a road trip today to get an overview of Oahu as a whole. The island is only 44 miles long and 30 miles wide, so we thought we couldn't possibly get very lost. With me navigating and Tina driving what could go wrong, right? In the end, I only got us lost twice, and then only briefly. The wrong turns ended up being accidents of good fortune since we ended up stumbling across parts of the island we wouldn't have seen otherwise! Here's a link to an Oahu Map for reference. We started in Ewa Beach, just west of Honolulu on the map, and the plan was to take H1 east until we ... read more

A couple of weekends ago, was the 14th Annual Honolulu Festival. Though it’s in it’s 14th year here, admittedly I know very little of the origin and the purpose of this Festival and only started taking interest during the last 3 years. From what I can gather, it seems to be sponsored by a major Japanese Airline. The Convention Center is rented out for Cultural Performances by visiting Japanese Dancers and performers as well as various local ethnic groups such as Koreans, Filipino, Chinese, Okinawans, etc. As last year, an Australian Aboriginal and a Taiwanese Aboriginal Dance Troupe were brought in also. The 2 days event climaxed with a 4 hour parade down the main drag in Waikiki, known as Kalakaua Ave. Many various dance troupes especially Hula Dancers from Japan, as well as traditional and ... read more