lifeasdaddy

lifeasdaddy - My general impressions of Hawaii

As I mentioned we were in Hawaii a few weeks ago.  I was last there in 1989 and this trip I noticed that there were more Americans vacationing there and fewer Australians than 17 years ago.

Australians now have many more moderately priced vacation options particularly in Asia, so I attribute the decline in Australian tourist numbers to increased competition from other destinations.

Increased American tourist numbers?  Hawaii is so much safer for Americans than other destinations.  It has the benefit of the strict US border controls, and the USA is a country at war.

The USA is a country at war, and the war footing is apparent everywhere on Oahu.  For many decades there has been major Army, Navy, Marine, Air Force and Coast Guard bases on Oahu due to it's strategic significance.  Most of these bases are located on the main highways (Eisenhower's National System of Interstate and Defense Highways) so even tourists like us cannot help but to notice them.  As with most communities in the United States, the participation in war is no mere academic distant concept.  It is very real in Hawaii.  There can be few places with such a concentrated and diverse operational military presence.  No doubt for security reasons, few of the military personnel wear uniform off base, however the large numbers of physically fit young males with short haircuts in Honolulu has only one source.

Noticeable too are the many vehicles with stickers on them proclaiming "Support our Troops".  Not something I'd noticed on my last visit to California (post September 11)

Ford Island, part of the National Historic Landmark of the greater Pearl Harbor precinct is undergoing development to provide more military housing.    This construction work is visible while riding the bus from the USS Bowfin visitor center to the USS Missouri. A war machine grinds on.

Picking up some free newspapers around Honolulu, I read about increasing (for want of a better description) Hawaiian nationalism.  It's not something which seems to get much mainstream coverage, but it's a movement which has some similarities to those of other indigenous peoples.  From an Hawaiian nationalist website:

"The cause of Hawaii and independence is larger and dearer than the life of any man connected with it. Love of country is deep-seated in the breast of every Hawaiian, whatever his station."
  - Lili`uokalani, Hawaii's last Queen

I'm going to write about eating out on Oahu in another blog post.

lifeasdaddy - Eating out on Oahu, Hawaii

Best meal we had during the trip was at John Domanis.  It was not mentioned in any of the 4 or 5 tourist guidebooks we consulted, but came as a personal recommendation to our friend and dining companion Jean-Marc from a long time resident.

John Domanis has great seafood, attentive service and a nice outlook over the ocean.  It is approached via part of Honolulu's working port, so don't be put off by that.  Valet parking is very reasonably priced too.  Check out the details and typical menus on the restaurant's website here.

Best tourist restaurant experience was at Duke's Waikiki. Duke's Canoe Club Waikiki is located inside the Outrigger Waikiki hotel. This restaurant is mentioned in every tourist guidebook. The food was pretty good, but what you really come here for is the ambience and people watching.  There's the restaurant, then there's the hotel's pool, and then on the other side the most famous beach in the world.  The restaurant is chock full of memorabilia about Duke Kahanamoku, the father of surfing.

HINT: We read that Duke's does not accept reservations for dinner, so early in the afternoon we asked the restaurant hostesses what time they suggested we attend to have the shortest wait for a dinner table.  On that Saturday, they suggested we arrive at 6.15pm, and expect one hour waiting time.  We arrived at 6.00pm and reported to the restaurant reception desk.  They noted our names, and we were advised to come back at 7.10pm.  Returning on time, we had to wait only 5 more minutes to be seated at our table.   The one hour waiting time gave us enough time to go next door to have a cocktail at The Royal Hawaiian Hotel's  Mai Tai  Bar.  Again, one of those quintessential experiences.  Sure it's commercial - but this is Waikiki baby, and money talks.  We had fun drinking our outrageously kitsch cocktails, and the friendly bassist from the bar's jazz trio who was on his break kindly took our group photograph.  (Photo will be posted when it comes to hand.)

DINING WITH CHILDREN ON OAHU

For dinner, the standout for kids is the Pacific Beach Hotel's Oceanarium Restaurant.  The aquarium is huge.  Maybe 6 metres high, and 30 metres long. The photo attached to the restaurant's website gives some scale against the dining tables and chairs.

The restaurant is very busy, and probably has at least 3 seatings per night.This place is obviously a favourite of locals, and there were at least 3 kids' birthday parties.  Not the place for a romantic dinner for two. The tables are generally long, seating 9 or ten people.  Prime tables abut the aquarium tank and the gimmick here is that a diver in the water swims up to the table celebrating a birthday and places a sign against the glass "Happy Birthday Billie".   When the birthday cake comes out for the boy or girl of the moment, 9 or 10 waiters gather around the table and sing Happy Birthday to You.   It's hokey, but the pay off is the ear-to-ear grin of the birthday boy or girl.  If I were 7 or 8 years old, I would think it was the bee's knees.  Bookings essential, and I assume to get one of those prime tables on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night you would need to book weeks ahead.  Gabrielle and I probably got more out of the aquarium aspect than Edward did, but he enjoyed the food, the general hubbub and sense of occasion.

The food is OK for a high volume buffet.  Like Duke's, you don't come here for the food, you come because this ambience is something you can't get anywhere else.

I couldn't take suitable photographs there, but here's some Flickr sets.   There's a nightly Dinner  Buffet, and on the Sunday night we dined the Dim Sum Station was active.

I'm not exactly sure how much  the Oceanarium Restaurant charges for the buffet, but we went with 5 adults and 3 kids under 4 years old, and paid about $35 each for the adults and nothing for the children.  Check their children's prices before you go. Drinks and tax were extra.  A great kids' holiday experience. 

For casual lunch eating with the kids, a standout was the  Poolside Grill at the Marriott Ihilani Resort and Spa.

I mentioned this place when I was writing about beaches for kids, but what I didn't tell you is that less than a metre from our table was a giant pond full of hammerhead sharks.   On the two days that we lunched there, a hotel staff member came around with a group of hotel guests at 11.30am and fed the sharks.  The sharks feeders and guests actually stand in the pond, but are protected from the predators by a small rock wall.  This rock wall also allows the small fish to swim out of the reach of the sharks so there are no disturbing displays of the natural world to bring on tears in the little kids.

The food was tasty and hearty, and reasonably priced for an establishment of this type (read moderately expensive) The bonus is that a spend of more than $25 yields free parking in the resort car park, close to the Ko Olina lagoons where it is otherwise near impossible to park.

Generally, everywhere we went on Oahu children were warmly welcomed.

lifeasdaddy - Edward plays his Ukulele

Gabrielle bought Edward a Ukulele in Hawaii. 

He's long been a fan of guitars, mainly because of Murray.

This one's a Leolani Ukulele. 

So far, Edward's uke playing sounds more sitar than guitar, but he's just starting out.

You can also see Ed's special friends Teddy and Elephant.

Here's youtube of some fine ukulele playing.  And for something more traditional.

lifeasdaddy - A 3-year old boy's favourite activity in Hawaii.

We asked Edward this evening what he enjoyed most on our trip to Hawaii.

"The Pineapple Express", he said.

That's a 20 minute train trip on narrow gauge through the Dole Pineapple plantation in north Oahu.

lifeasdaddy - Ko'Olina Lagoons. The best beach for children on Oahu, Hawaii.

I won't go into much detail about those beaches we found inappropriate for kids this week, I'll just tell you the best we found.  This is for children under 5 years with limited or no swimming ability.

      I add this caveat:  I believe that children need to be supervised constantly, continuously, and 100% of the time while in the water.  This level of supervision includes the beach I am about to name.

The Ko'Olina Lagoons are a set of 4 man-made (woman made?) seawater lagoons which are protected from waves by rock breakwaters.  The beach is made of fine sand and is gently graded.  Here's a pic of Edward practising his swimming.

The lagoons are surrounded on the land side by a master planned development comprising the Marriott Ihilani Resort & Spa, a timeshare condominium development and the Ko'Olina Marina.  As such it is a gated community and when approached by road a security guard at the shack will ask your reasons for visiting. Each of the lagoons has a small amount of free public car parking - around 20 spaces each - which were full each time we visited.  Apparently the public car parking fills by around 9am each morning.  When the public car parking fills, the guard turns away beach goers.  The trick is to tell the guard that you are going to eat at the Resort restaurants, and also visit the beach.  The guard will issue a lagoon pass.

At Lagoon #1, the first on the right hand side as you drive in, there are reasonably clean amenities blocks, and open air beach side showers wash off the salt water.  There is also foot access to the Marriott resort where you will arrive at the Poolside Grill.  We had lunch at this casual dining outlet twice and both times were very pleased with the food, beverages, and especially the service.  (Thanks Ryann)  Here's the menu, and you can see that the prices are higher than McDonald's, but quite reasonable for this type of hotel and environment.  Importantly, parking in the hotel/resort car park is free with a spend of more than $25 in the resort's food & beverage outlets, so if you park in that car park (probably your only choice) then be sure to take your car park entry ticket with you and have it validated by your server upon payment.

Contrary to what may be read elsewhere on the Internet, there are no lifeguards on duty.

See this Google Map for a satellite view of the lagoons which appear as crescent shapes.  You can zoom out on the map to see driving directions, and it's position relative to the rest of Oahu island.

It's about 25 or 30 minutes drive from Waikiki.

The kids loved having a swim amongst the gentle waves and building sand castles on the sand.

lifeasdaddy - What's it like to play Pine Valley Golf Club, world's no. 1 course?

The anonymous blogger who is playing his way through the world's 100 best golf courses has just played Pine Valley.

His excited account makes fun reading.  To this hacker anyway.

lifeasdaddy - Great hotel marketing website.

Terry Teachout mentioned recently that he was going to San Francisco and staying in a boutique hotel.

His hotel was the Hotel Adagio, part of the Joie de Vivre Hospitality group.  JDV hsa got a great looking website, and is distinguished by a gimmick of matching your personality to a hotel in their group via their Hotel Matchmaker, Yvette.

It also has a section where "locals talk about this neighborhood" - in this case Donald Graves.

I like it.  It seems to give you a good insiders view about good places to go, see and eat at.  Helps in getting restaurant reservations before you hit town.

lifeasdaddy - More on road trips

I'm interested in books about road trips across the USA.  A good accompaniment to reading those books is a series of photos which William Gedney took during his Cross Country project:

" On March 16, 1966, Gedney received word of the award of a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship for him to do "Photographic Studies of American Life." The fellowship was for the period of time between June 1966 and May 1967. Under the auspices of this fellowship, but with no particular agenda, Gedney purchased a Suburban Carryall, loaded it with the necessary items, and set out across the United States. He made pictures in cities and towns across the midwest and on the West coast, including Ohio, Illinois, South Dakota, and California."

See the photos here.

Joerg Colbert drew my attention to this.

lifeasdaddy - Ed feeds one of Santa's Reindeer

This week we took some vacation time and went down the coast, stopping in at the Birdland Animal Park. 

One advantage of this zoo is that humans can get up close and personal with most of the animals there.

We explained to Edward that one of Santa's Reindeer was having a rest at the zoo in readiness for duty on Christmas Eve.

He thought it was just great being able to touch the deer that touched the hand of Santa.

[n.b. Yes, dear reader of course I know it is really a fallow deer  - don't spoil the story! ]

lifeasdaddy - Edward goes back to the library

  Back to the Forestville library today.  Returning the last lot and selecting some new ones.  We sat is the children's section which is well set out with child-sized stools and tables, read three stories together, and then checked out our latest haul.

A bedtime story for Edward.  A CD of Christmas stories to play in the car (seems dud after listening to two stories on the way home)

A book for me:  Almost Heaven: Travels through the Backwoods of America by Martin Fletcher.

I hope it'll be as good as William Least Heat-Moon's Blue Highways which I read about 20 years ago. It beguiled and enchanted me.