Blogs from Hawaii, United States, North America - page 180

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 Kingdom with their own language and culture, but fell under Japanese Rule during the early 1600. Basically most races here automatically consider Okinawans as Japanese, but seeing how the local Okinawans hold their own special Festival, one can surmise the Okinawans ... read more

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 to the electronic check-in kiosk and guess what, I ended up in first class. And, I have learned something new about American... check in at the Kiosk, it is the only way to obtain a ... read more

Hai gusy, Its the last day of our 2nd honeymoon leg, if we look at the high-level objectives matrix, we can do a quick sanity check and verify that indeed the primary goal of being married was successfully completed. And the rest, as they say, is gravox! We are taking so many photos over here its crazy, with backpack, camera and guide-book in tow, we are your textbook tourist n00bs, but it has paid off, and we have some great photos, we just had a lot of trouble finding internet cafes, Hawaii is just not that technically savvy quite yet! Though thats a good thing, and here in Vegas, the idea of an internet cafe, is a slimy old PC in the back of a $2 souvenier shop, yuck! In any case I managed to include ... read more

Although the Rockies were amazing, what got me through the week in the tent was the thought of the following week in Hawaii!!! We got a taxi from our hostel in Calgary at 4am to get our flight to the Island of O'ahu. We were staying in a hostel one street from Waikiki beach and the temperature on this island has never gone below 24c! Bring it on! Went to the beach on our first day and managed to get a little bit burnt - even though I was in the shade - I don't know how I manage it! Then in the evening we watched competitors practice for the tandem surfing competition that was happening all week. They were amazing - lifting the girl up above their head in all sorts of gymnastic moves - ... read more

Woke up at about 0430 today thanks to falling asleep at about 6 the night before, we decied to take a walk down to the beach to watch the sunrise, upon arrival we approached what we thought liked like a nice rock to sit on, to our supprise as we got close the "rock" let out a loud snort! On closer inspection the rock turned out to be a massive monk seal. We were later told that the seals come up onto the beach to rest during their travels and that it was a fairly rare event. When the sun came up at about 6ish the seal was reavealed in all his glory, absolutely beatiful he was (photos to follow). Soon a crowd had joined us, including wayne, who overheard me offer Casey a brew to ... read more