Na Moolelo – “Stories of Hawaii”
I remember my first visit into a world-class museum. It was the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco. I cannot recall what works of art I saw, nor even the artists. Nevertheless, I remember the great sense of anticipation I felt. I remember the immaculate polished floors, the immense scale of some of the pieces....
I visited a splendid place today. My companions were a small group of plant lovers from the Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden and Clyde Imada from Bishop Museum as chief identifier. Our destination was a remote coastal area in Kau. It wasn’t an easy journey. The path took us through dry, weed infested, and eroded habitat. At times the dust ...
In 1963 a pre-med undergraduate student at UH Manoa got a summer job washing test tubes. The student was Ken Kaneshiro and the job was for the new Hawaii Drosophila Project. Today, Dr. Ken Kaneshiro is an eminent evolutionary biologist. He built his world-renown scientific reputation by studying the sex lives of flies. Of course, these flies are no...
Mauna Loa is massive. Geologists call it the largest volcano on earth. It covers half of the surface area of the Big Island. Besides it size, Mauna Loa is one of the best-studied mountains on earth. It is also one of the most active volcanoes on the planet. While Kilauea continues to pump out the magma and capture the headlines, the giant Mauna Loa...
Yesterday in the kitchen I snatched a kiss from my wife. At that moment I felt like kissing her. Not wanting to lose the moment, I came up behind her, put my arms around her waist, leaned over and as she turned I kissed her gently. It was a beautiful spontaneous moment between the rice and the salad. The other day, I watched a Yellow-Fronted Canary...
Hawaii is one of the best known places on earth. People everywhere dream of a once-in-a-lifetime vacation to our Islands. I suspect most perceptions of Hawaii are similar to what mine was before moving here-white sand beaches, coconut trees swaying in the breeze, and aqua-blue, bath-tub warm ocean. The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau is now s...
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It was a fun week of learning. Thursday, Christina, Matt, and I attended the Mauna Ulu training at HVNP. Interpreter Jay Robinson and Cultural Liason Keola Wang shared there manao of this dynamic area. Despite all of us being intimate with the eruption site, we all learned many new insights to share with our guests.
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et another fun-filled trip to the summit of Mauna Kea last night. We had the best weather I’ve seen in a couple of weeks. Beautiful views on the way up from saddle road looking back at sun rays falling through the clouds over Pu’u Wa’awa’a, Mauna Loa was spectacular with it’s dusting of snow at it’s peak, and puffy clouds ringing Mauna ...
Thirteen hours, State Forest Permits, National Wildlife Refuge Permits, and keys to private property all add up to an epic day of island adventuring. The pre-dawn to dusk day came about from a client request for a full day of private birding. He wanted to see as many of the native birds as possible and only had one day. A few minutes into the...
There’s nothing I like more than being in the field with an expert. So the day I recently spent with Don Swanson on Kīlauea was very enjoyable. I was part of a small group of local residents who signed up for a seminar sponsored by the Friends of Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park (
I spent the weekend hosting Matthew Miller, Features Editor for Islands Magazine (http://www.islands.com/). Saturday we spent the day with two birdwatching guests at Hakalau National Wildlife Refuge and were treated to glorious weather and cooperative birds. I found my first mi...
I recently got caught up in a conversation with some visitors about traffic in Kona. It was an interesting discussion and, like a good drive, travelled through several topics by the time we said good-bye. I think I sold them on doing one of our Nature Adventures at least. But the one thing that struck me later in thinking about our talk, was ...
