The Hawaii Traveler

Today’s guest posts is from Mary Jo Manzanares, Travel & Culture Channel Editor and travel blogger at Flyaway Cafe.
“Hawaiian Eye” was a television series that ran from 1959 – 1963, and starred Robert Conrad and Anthony Eisley as crime fighting detectives in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The detectives hung out at the Shell Bar, where at least once an episode that ran into “Cricket,” a singer and photographer at the bar played by Connie Stevens. The bar was located at the Hawaiian Village Hotel, where the guys were house detectives and also had an office. Some viewers would swear that the guys …read more

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Today’s guest post is from Mary Jo Manzanares, Travel & Culture Channel Editor, and travel blogger at Flyaway Cafe. 
If you watched the NFL Pro Bowl over this past weekend, you got a glimpse of Oahu, Honolulu, and the Waikiki area. It’s very tempting to think of the island as one of sun, sand, surf, sunbathing, and adult beverages. All that would be true, of course, but there is another side to Hawaii, a side full of history, culture, and reverence.
On my recent trip to Honolulu, I had the opportunity to enjoy both aspects of island life, and today’s post touches …read more

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This is a guest post from Mary Jo Manzanares, b5media’s Travel & Culture Channel Editor and travel blogger at Flyaway Cafe.
One of the higlights of a trip to Honolulu is a visit to the USS Arizona Memorial.
Located at Pearl Harbor, the USS Arizona Memorial honors the site where World War II began for the United States. The memorial was dedicated in 1962, and is the water gravesite for 1,102 crew members who were killed in the December 7th, 1941 bombing.
The memorial was designed to span the hull of the battleship, without ever touching it. The structure is 184 feet long, …read more

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When the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson visited the islands, he was at the top of his game. He’d published Treasure Island and Doctor Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde.  It was 1889, about fifty years after Herman Melville visited while making his way back from Tahiti. In 1873, Isabella Bird got off her boat on the way to New Zealand to assist a friend whose son had taken ill. Two years later, her letters about her stay were collected and published as a bestselling book titled Six Months in the Sandwich Islands.
Arguably none of them stayed and savored the islands like …read more

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Although Hawai’i is one of the United States, it comes with its own, native history and language. Hawaiian is a beautiful language, full of syllables and nuances that are easy to miss, if you’re not paying attention.  Here’s how it all works:
The Hawaiian alphabet uses only 12 Roman letters ( a, e, i, o, u, h, k, l, m, n, p, w). And those apostrophes are not really apostrophes; they’re what’s called an ‘okina, a diacritical mark that indicates a shortening, or sudden stopping of sound. (Called a glottal stop.) An ‘okina is a special character that Internet browsers don’t …read more

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For yesterday’s test, we turned our attention to the history and geography of Hawai’i. Here are the answers, and if you answered them all correctly, write in or comment to receive an extra-special something.
Q: What’s a former name for the Hawaiian Islands?
A: Unlike Prince, Hawaii’s former name was not a symbol. It was once called The Sandwich Islands.
Q: How Many Hawaiian Islands are there? (Hint: It’s more than eight.)
A: The entire collection of Hawaiian Islands comes to a sum of around 137 islands, islets, atolls, and shoals.
Q: True or False: the Hawaiian Island archipelago is the most isolated grouping of …read more

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Aloha, and say “welcome back” to the Tuesday Test. This week, we turn our attention to the history and geography of Hawai’i. Even if you don’t know the answers–especially if you don’t know the answers–take heart: Answers are revealed tomorrow, at which time you’ll be able to impress your friends with your knowledge and insights.

What’s a former name for the Hawaiian Islands?
How Many Hawaiian Islands are there? (Hint: It’s more than eight.)
True or False: the Hawaiian Island archipelago is the most isolated grouping of islands on Earth.
How did the landmark known as …read more

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Honolulu Harbor in 1881
 
The Hawaiian Islands, as you know from previous posts, are comprised of about 137 islands, islets, and shoals that were once known as the Sandwich Islands, named by Captain James Cook, whose trip there was sponsored by the fourth Earl of Sandwich.Now called the Hawaiian Islands, this archipelago of nineteen islands and atolls, numerous smaller islets, and undersea seamounts crawl northwest by southeast in the North Pacific Ocean at the top of the Polynesian Triangle. Thus endeth the history lesson.
Now on to the more interesting question: What’s with those other, tiny little hunks of lava out …read more

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Here at The Hawai’i Traveler, we primarily talk about the eight main Hawaiian islands of interest to tourists and armchair travelers, but thinking outside the box brings us, strangely, to a triangle–The Polynesian Triangle, that is.
Hawai’i is actually comprised of a chain of 137 islands, islets, and shoals. Only seven of these islands are inhabited year round and four are the main attractions: The Big Island, O’ahu, Maui, and Kaua’i.
At first glance, Hawai’i is a lot like a little piece of Americana wrapped in ti leaves and served with poi. The atmosphere is unlike what most of us travelers …read more

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Off the west side of Maui are three visible islands (and the crater). One is Moloka’i, one of Hawaii’s lesser-visited, more sparsely-populated islands–also called the Friendly Isle. Another is Lana’i, the most private of the main islands. The third is totally uninhabited, unlike the other forbidden island in the chain, Ni’ihau. It’s Kaho’olawe, an island that will likely be long vacant due to its interesting, and later very unfortunate history.
During the 1800s, during the rule of King Kamehameha I, Kaho’olawe was the site of the Hawaiian kingdom’s penal colony. Men were banished there, for such crimes as stealing, breaking …read more

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