South East of Honolulu are the neighborhoods of Aina Haina and Hawaii Kai. These are upscale neighborhoods that you reach when you pass by Diamond Head and the ritzy Kahala neighborhood and continue on to Koko Head and Hanauma Bay. As a guide I often pass through here, but rarely stop. There are some houses…
While it’s probably not what it wants to be known for, the town of Waipahu’s most famous resident is probably Edward Snowden, the NSA contractor who leaked large amounts of classified information from U.S. intelligence agencies. Of course, there is much more to Waipahu than just Edward Snowden. Waipahu is a central Oahu town which…
How many lighthouses exist on Oahu? If you’re just here to find the answer quickly – there are six. If you want to go deeper than that though – read on. Most people can only list one or two of the lighthouses on Oahu. Diamond Head Lighthouse is an obvious one and the one at…
The number one tourist attraction in Hawaii is the Polynesian Cultural Center in the town of Laie. Laie is also known as ‘the Mormon town’ and with good reason. The Mormons were early settlers in Hawaii and virtually the entire town of Laie is of the Mormon faith. There is a Mormon temple, a Mormon…
I’m not going to write much about this since I’ve already given you most of the words and some of the pictures from my old Nokia phone in the Flashback Friday Post about my 2008 Perimeter of Oahu Walk. This post is mostly to show some of the people I met and the beautiful scenery…
In 2008, I decided to walk all the way around the island of Oahu. Here is my record of that. I’ll add a Saturday Slideshow tomorrow with more pictures from my walk. It was awesome. Maybe I’ll do it again. (It’s funny to note how much I took with me – today, I would go…
There are a ton of military bases on Oahu. Strike that, there are two tons – or maybe more like 250,000 tons. close to 50,000 active military personnel plus their wives and children makes at least 125,000 people who don’t live in Hawaii except as a duty assignment. Add to that the 15-25,000 reserve personnel…
Whether you are a virgin or not – you should go in a volcano while you are in Hawaii. You can go in Diamond Head or head over to the Big Island but my suggestion is that while you are on Oahu, you visit a geologic masterpiece on the south side of the island. You…
Visitors often ask me – What is poke? And they say it so that it rhymes with the word joke…which is wrong but sort of cute and funny. Poke is a two syllable word that rhymes with ‘oh kay’ and it is one of the most wonderful contributions Hawaii has made to world cuisine. Poke…
Lanikai Beach gets all the glory, but if you ask me, the most beautiful beach in the world is just down the road in the town of Waimanalo. Waimanalo is a little cowboy town on the windward side of Oahu. Less than five thousand people, a large number of them Native Hawaiian. The name Waimanalo…