Now you can stick Hawaii stamps on the missives you send back home while you vacation in these islands. The second set of the United States Postal Service’s “Flags of our Nation” series was released the day after Labor Day, and it includes a first-class stamp depicting the Hawaii state flag along with the ocean, mountains and flora of the islands.
Flags of our Nation is a three-year, multi-stamp series, featuring the Stars and Stripes, the 50 state flags, five territorial flags, and the District of Columbia flag.
In this release, Hawaii joins seven other states, Guam and the District of Columbia.
The stamps are arranged alphabetically in strips of ten and sold in coils of 50. You’ll be able to buy them at home before you leave for Hawaii, or get ‘em while you’re here.
September 4th, 2008
Ah, kids and their snacks. “You’re going to ruin your dinner!" “Your teeth are going to rot away!” “Why do you waste your allowance on that junk?” You hear those parental wails here in Hawaii just as often as you hear them where you live.
Here, the offending snack is crack seed. Crack seed, which originated in China, is preserved fruits that have been cracked or split with the seed or kernel partially exposed to enhance the flavor. The common term for this category of snacks is “li hing mui.” The flavor might be extremely sweet, salty, sour, or sweet and sour; found in various fruit marriages with plum, mango, peach, lemon, ginger and apricot. The treats are packaged and sealed in small plastic bags and sold everywhere for prices kids can afford.
For thousands of years, the Chinese used preserved dried fruit to supplement their meals when they traveled over the mountainous terrain of China. It naturally replenished the salt lost through sweat over their long journeys. The salt also helped their bodies retain water and lessened muscle cramps. When the Chinese immigrated to Hawaii, the dried fruits provided a cheaper alternative to the expensive fruits and vegetables on the island. The Chinese snacks found homes in the shops of Chinatown, originally having been shipped from Mainland China. But it wasn’t long before local shopkeepers began developing their own crack seed to suit local island tastes.
Another popular local snack, arare, has evolved from the Japanese rice cracker, which was brought to Hawaii by Japanese plantation workers in the 1900’s. This crunchy cracker made of glutinous rice comes in a variety of flavors and styles. It is usually baked with a mixture of salty soy sauce and it’s sweet. It also can be fried or wrapped in seaweed, surround a nut, or be flavored with sesame seeds. It is perfectly normal at movie theaters for a kid (or adult) to buy a bag of popcorn and a package of arare, dump ‘em both into a box, mix ‘em up and much away for a couple of hours.
If you bring your kids on your Hawaii vacation, they will have the opportunity to try those ubiquitous snacks. You can expect a reaction you’ve heard before: “Yuk!” It’s just as well. Crack seed and arare are really addictive once gotten used to, and not readily available on the mainland. When Hawaii families vacation on the mainland, they always pack a couple of weeks’ worth of the stuff in order to mollify the kids.
Posted By Jim Winpenny
September 3rd, 2008
A lot of people make Hawaii’s Aloha Festivals the main reason for vacationing in the islands. It’s Hawaii’s proudest cultural showcase, a celebration of music, dance and history intended to preserve the unique island traditions. If you’re going to be in Hawaii in mid-September, it’ll be hard to miss the Festivals.
What is known today as Aloha Festivals was born in 1946 as “Aloha Week,” a cultural celebration of Hawaii’s music, dance and history, intended to preserve the unique traditions of Hawaii. It took a year to plan the first Aloha Festivals, and in the fall of 1947 the festivities began. Since then, the celebration has expanded to include more than 300 events on six Hawaiian islands over a two-month period. In 1991 the name of the celebration was changed to Aloha Festivals. This year’s theme is Hula — "The Art of Hawaiian Dance," so you can be sure to see even more of that beautiful dance than usual while you’re here.
The Festivals now encompass all the cultures of the people of Hawaii, and some 30,000 volunteers participate in the staging of the events, which are attended by nearly a million people.
If you’re going to be in Hawaii, you’ll want to get a ribbon. It’ll enter you into a sweepstakes for great prizes including round-trip air travel to Manila, Las Vegas and the South Pacific. Beyond that, it’ll get you discounts at a bunch of events and local merchants, and sales help to fund the whole operation. It’s just five bucks, and even locals sport ribbons during the time the festivals are taking place.
Highlights worth planning for include the Waikiki Ho`olaule`a, Friday night, September 12, a huge block party that features the arrival of the Royal Court; and the Floral Parade on Saturday morning, an equestrian procession of female and male pa`u riders, extravagant floats loaded with flowers, and marching bands;
There will be something happening everywhere, constantly. Any Hawaii-Aloha agent can bring you up to date as the schedule fills out. Pick one from the Hawaii-Aloha Web site (hawaii-aloha.com) or call 1-800-843-8117.
Posted by: Jim Winpenny
September 2nd, 2008
It must be nice. It’s being reported that actor Owen Wilson is moving to Hawaii. He made a couple of movies here, likes the place and decided to move here. Just like that. Why not? He’s not the first celebrity to do so. Roseanne Barr Drew Barrymore, Pierce Brosnan, Kelsey Grammar, Woody Harrelson and Oprah Winfrey all have done the same thing recently.
The thought occurs to just about everyone who visits the islands that living here would be great … if. Those celebrities work wherever their work takes them and can “live” anywhere they choose. They can afford to. “Average” people enjoy the thought, consider the cost, and usually dismiss the idea almost immediately.
Not so fast. Average people do move to Hawaii regularly. The people who find it easiest to move here are the rich (of course), military personnel, and younger adults who don’t mind working second jobs as, say, bartenders, and whose worldly possessions can fit in a duffel bag.
Okay, but what if you have a lot of stuff, just a moderate amount of money, don’t want to work two jobs, and don’t have Uncle Sam to pay for or help you with your residence?
Consider the following good stuff:
There’s a very low occurrence of person-to-person crime compared to other areas around the country. Even in Honolulu, which qualifies as a large American city, the violent crime rate is very low.
Health care is superb.
There’s always a whole lot to do, especially for kids. Even if you aren’t a beach lover, you can still do practically anything you like every day. Outdoor recreation is a way of life.
People are really friendly in the islands.
Need we mention the weather? It never gets too hot or cold. Whenever it’s raining, it’s going to be sunny elsewhere on your island.
Yes, housing, groceries, cars and gas cost more than they do on the mainland, but you need only one wardrobe and it can be relatively light. And you’ll use less gas (You can’t drive far on an island).
Hawaii’s population doubled between 1960 and 2000, and it’s still growing apace.
So if you vacation in Hawaii and decide you love the place, don’t dismiss out-of-hand the idea of re-locating. Go ahead and think about it.
All the Hawaii-Aloha agents are extraordinarily familiar with our islands. They live here, or were raised here. They can answer — honestly — any questions you might have about living (and certainly visiting) here. Pick one from the Hawaii-Aloha.com Web site or call 1-800-843-8771.
September 1st, 2008
When you come to Hawaii, you expect – and surely will find – the sun, sand, sea, and surf of lore. You know coming in that the place is beautiful, even spectacular, and that the weather is just about perfect.
But you’d like to push the envelope, to take all those givens a step further with an experience only a fortunate few have undergone.
Take a ride in a glider. It’s a rush like no other, but a whole lot safer than, say, skydiving, mountain climbing or even hiking.
You and perhaps one other passenger join an accredited glider pilot in a sleek, engineless aircraft that is towed skyward by another airplane and released. As the glider soars, under complete control, you behold the splendor below in a calm, quiet way. You see everything clearly, and somehow it’s even more spectacular than any photo or film could reproduce.
Gliders can stay aloft for hours, but your flight probably will last anywhere from ten minutes to an hour (Your call, usually based on cost).
You may wonder what keeps you up there. It’s really simple. The sun’s energy heats the ground and that heats the air above the ground. The warm air rises in columns known as thermals. Your pilot knows the visual indications of thermals – cumulus clouds, cloud streets, dust devils and haze domes – and has an instrument known as a variometer (a very sensitive vertical speed indicator) which shows visually (and often audibly) the presence of lift and sink. Having located a thermal, a glider pilot will circle within the area of rising air to gain height.
Another kind of lift occurs when the wind meets a mountain or cliff. The air is deflected upwards and gliders can climb in this rising air by flying along the feature.
The best glider rides in Hawaii probably take place over the North Shore of Oahu, where the conditions are ideal, and the scenery is amazing. Commercial glider companies take passengers on flights as often as twelve times a day.
Those who have undergone the experience often describe it as “birdlike.”
Most pilots do not lay any kind of spiel on you while you’re soaring, but they’re all well-versed in the landscape and will willingly engage you in conversation during your trip. Most passengers are content to gaze in peace and awe.
You can request a aerobatic flight, for which you are provided with a parachute. On an aerobatic flight, you’ll get loops, barrel rolls, clover leafs, hammerheads, and you’ll fly upside-down. It’s not great sightseeing, but it’s a whole lot of fun.
Gliders are remarkably safe. You don’t have to worry about a fire, or losing fuel, or the engine conking out because there is no engine, and you’ll always be within gliding distance of the airport.
Glider rides aren’t heavily promoted here, but you’ll see ads in some of the visitor publications. If you think you’d like to try the experience, pick an agent from the Hawaii-Aloha Web site home page (hawaii-aloha.com.), or call 1-800-843-8771.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
August 28th, 2008
What is it where you live? Pigeons that deface statuary, buildings and the occasional human head? Squirrels? Locusts? Mice or rats?
Here in Hawaii, the pest of choice has been the mongoose. And we brought the pestilence on ourselves.
The 1800s were big for sugar cane. Sugar plantations shot up on a lot of tropical islands, notably the Hawaiian islands and Jamaica. The sugar cane attracted rats, and the rats caused serious crop destruction and loss. In 1872, the Small Asian Mongoose was imported from Calcutta to Jamaica. A published paper that praised the results intrigued Hawaiian plantation owners. In 1883, the owners brought 72 mongooses from Jamaica to the Hamakua Coast (Northeast) of the Big Island. These were carefully raised and their offspring were shipped to plantations on other islands. Didn’t take long for the mongooses to take over. Mongooses males become sexually mature at four months and females produce litters of 2-5 pups a year. Only the islands of Kauai and Lanai have been spared the proliferation – so far.
The experiment didn’t exactly work. Mongooses consider rats an okay thing to eat – the way you might think walnuts or rutabagas are okay to eat. But mongooses also like lizards, crabs, toads, frogs, birds and bird eggs, fish, spiders, and the grubs of all kinds of beetles and caterpillars … and just about anything else they can get their savage little mouths around. insects, spiders, snails and fruits. They’ve also been known to catch mammals many times their size, and even the young of deer. They also eat snakes, but snakes aren’t a problem in Hawaii. (Some people erroneously believe we have no snakes because the mongooses wiped them out. Not so. We’ve never had snakes.) Mongooses aren’t cause for concern to you. The only time you’re likely see one is if it darts across the road in front of the car you’re in.
Most of the animal-pest-eradication attention in Hawaii today has been distracted by the coqui frog. That tiny creature has taken over as "pest of interest" because of its ability to quickly adapt to Hawaii from its native Puerto Rico and reach scary numbers. It has no predators (unless you count the mongoose) and its mating noise is literally unbearable.
But that’s another story.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
August 27th, 2008
It’s almost becoming a game – checking to see what extra charges the airlines are laying on to compensate for fuels prices … and what free services hotels are offering to attract guests.
In Hawaii, some hotels have begun to provide free overnight parking for guests. Overnight parking has been costing an average of $20 a night, and has gone as high as $29. Other hotels are including free parking as an incentive within the packages they offer. Aqua Hotels & Resorts, for example, is offering a "snooze-n-crooze" special at 11 of its properties that includes a room, rental car and complimentary daily parking. Some Outrigger and Ohana hotels also have packages that include free parking.
Turtle Bay Resort, on Oahu’s North Shore, has gone for a daily, $20 "resort fee" of $20. It includes parking, Wi-Fi Internet access, a daily newspaper, coffee, an hour of tennis court time, and free snorkel gear for an hour. Guests seem to consider that a bargain.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
August 26th, 2008
As you read this, airline flights are in a mess, all across the country.
Every airport in the United States has been affected by an unexpected glitch in an Atlanta scheduling computer. The FAA has indicated the problem has been corrected, but has not said when things will return to "normal." The glitch led to ground stops on hundreds of departing flights and is forced some flights in the air to circle their arrival airport rather than land. The problem began at about 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time and worsened, with thousands of flights in the air and thousands more due to depart. Gate-hold times exceeded one hour as air traffic controllers worked to get flights already in the air on the ground. So far, we have no word of problems with Hawaii-bound flights.
If you are scheduled to fly later today, don’t assume the airlines are disseminating up-to-date information. This is an FAA issue, not an airline issue.
Keep watching this space. We’ll keep it as current as we can.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
August 26th, 2008
Getting aboard your flight to Hawaii for your long-anticipated island vacation should give you a rush of pleasure and excitement, shouldn’t it?
But let’s face it. Airlines are cutting back. Service is deteriorating. Travelers – you among them — are getting cranky. Who takes the brunt of all that pent-up hostility?
Right. The flight attendants, trapped between the struggling airlines they work for and an increasingly angry flying public. They have tough aisles to patrol.
They’re at the front lines. They listen to the complaints, try to offer explanations and do all they can to defuse passenger frustration. It’s been pointed out that it’s no longer enough for flight attendants to be poised and personable, or even multilingual. They have to be wearing tough skin, as well.
A lot of the nation’s largest airlines are operating their flights with the minimum staff required by the Federal Aviation Administration. That means more work for everyone, especially when flights are full, as they usually are. On top of that, flight attendants remain responsible for not only the service, but also for your safety. They are expected to know first aid, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and to be vigilant against possible terrorist activity.
So the next time you’re inclined to go off on a flight attendant because he or she wants $7.00 for an in-flight pillow, take a deep breath. It’s not the glamor job it once was.
Posted by Jim Winpenny
August 25th, 2008
According to a recent study by the National Business Travel Association, Honolulu applies lower taxes on things such as lodging, car rentals and meals than do other high-visitor places such as Chicago, Nashville and cities in Florida. The study ranked 50 cities, calculating the amount of taxes paid by travelers who stay at hotels, rent cars and eat restaurant meals. For instance, tax on a room for a night, a car for a day and a meal in Honolulu would be about twelve, six and three-and-a-half dollars respectively, compared to 16, 18 and eight-and-a-half dollars in Chicago.
Big difference. And remember … Hawaii amenities such as the almost-perfect weather, the surf, the rainbows, the scenery and the endless variety of things to do are not included in those taxes.
August 22nd, 2008
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