For some, sand and surf are the first things that come to mind when thinking about Hawaii, for us it is shave ice.  We’re not talking about snow cones, that’s totally different. With shave ice (not “shaved ice”), the ice comes out in fine flakes which absorbs the syrup flavors better and melts like snow [...]

Saturday morning we woke up very early and hiked up Diamond Head. The park opens at 6 am, and I highly recommend going early to beat the heat and the crowds. The early part of the hike is on concrete walkway and very easy, but the last part is like doing a StairMaster workout (271 [...]

I’m trying to stay on East Coast time, so we’ve been going to bed early and waking up really early. At 4 am it’s still dark outside and we can’t see the ocean even though we are almost right on the beach, but I can hear it as I’m writing this near the hotel balcony. [...]