View From Here - Hawaii Travel Blog

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View From Here - Hawaii Travel Blog

Total Number of Entries - 491
  • Summer Whalewatching in Hawaii: Part Four

    Destination: Kauai

    cascadia research boatFalse killer whales. They look nothing like the black-and-white killer whales so well known in the Pacific Northwest and occasionally spotted in Hawaii. False killer whales are dark grey and grow to approximately 12 to 18 feet. Their skull and teeth, however, are similar to Orcinus orca and gave rise to the scientific name Pseudorca crasidens.

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  • Summer Whalewatching: Part Three

    Destination: Kauai

    Underwater photo of Hawaiian spinner dolphin by Bo Pardau"One animal. Twelve o'clock. Fifty meters," Renee called out. She had briefed me earlier on my duties and stressed the three things that Robin--captaining our Wild Whale research vessel--was adamant about. He wanted to hear 1) animal species or, at the very least, its behavior, such as splash, blow, breach; 2) location on the clock, using the boat's bow as 12:00 and the stern as 6:00; and 3) distance from the boat in meters.

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  • Summer Whalewatching in Hawaii: Part Two

    Destination: Kauai

    Underwater photograph of two Hawaiian spinner dolphins by Bo PardauAfter a fuel pump or something went out that led to the cancellation of the inaugural day of research, I was invited back on Saturday. It was to be the 600th day on the water over 12 years in Hawaii for Cascadia Research. In the intervening 10 days, the team had spotted, gathered tissue samples and photo-identified numerous individuals from several groups of rough-toothed dolphins. They’d also encountered their largest group of bottlenose dolphins in Hawaii—200 individuals. The highlight of the trip thus far, though, had to be spending about an hour mingling with four killer whales.

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  • Sharks, Shrimp & Pie

    Destination: Oahu

    snorkeler in water at shark's cove on oahuI convinced my co-worker Andrea to kick off a couple hours early and take me to one of her favorite snorkeling beaches—Shark’s Cove, a few miles past Waimea Bay on Oahu’s North Shore. She seemed gung ho, but when I upped the offer with dinner at a nationally-recognized shrimp truck, she was all in, as they say.

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  • What Is Life?

    Destination: Hawaii Island, Kauai, Maui, Oahu

    Laysan albatross adult flying into sceneOn the inside wrapper of my new bar of Indigenous Soap, my "Soap of Fortune" by the Blackfoot warrior and orator Crowfoot reads: "What is life? It is the flash of a firefly in the night. It is the breath of a buffalo in the wintertime. It is the little shadow which runs across the grass and loses itself in the sunset."

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  • Summer Whalewatching in Hawaii

    Destination: Kauai

    On my volunteer days at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge during the summer, I am often asked, “When do the whales come back?” What people really mean is, “When are the humpback whales in Hawaiian waters?” And the answer to that question is November through April. But there are more than just humpback whales in Hawaii.

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  • Java Kai Hanalei

    Destination: Kauai

    Java Kai Hanalei signI am standing line at Java Kai Hanalei. A sign behind the counter reads, “Unattended children will be given an espresso and a free puppy,” and I hope the free puppy this coffee shop on Kauai is handing out today isn’t my dog Lulu. There’s always a line out the front door of Java Kai, a converted plantation house in the place many like to call the “sleepy surfer town of Hanalei.” Sometimes the line goes out the door and down the two steps into the grass. I arrive, intending to grab a cup of tea and sit at one of the picnic tables on the lawn and write—with my black-and-white heeler mix at my side.

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  • Consider the Canoe--Part One

    takaya-tours-logo-on-jacketI've had personal relationships with the canoe. But it wasn’t until I sat with my right hip abutted to the gunnels of a 25-foot ocean-going canoe in a British Columbia fjord off Vancouver that I started to make a connection among all my canoe encounters. My group of a dozen travel bloggers sat two abreast in a canoe, paddling and stroking and listening and imagining as our guide with Takaya Tours shared traditional songs, stories and drumming from her First Nation’s people, the Tsleil-Waututh

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  • Poi Dog Blog: Tracey, Kate, Jan & Carl

    cute, little poi dog named luluAsk someone in Hawaii, “What kind of dog is that?” and they’re likely to say, “Oh, I don’t know. A poi dog.” Poi dog. Also known as “mixed breed.” Or, better yet, mutt. (I like how “mutt” doubles the “t” at the end of the word, a hint at the definition—a dog with an ancestry of more than one breed.) This column—Poi Dog Blog—as I’ve decided to call it, is simply a mash-up of articles I like from the Internet, all about Hawaii and written by a variety of authors. I hope you enjoy.

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  • Top 10 Omiyage (Gifts) from Kauai

    Destination: Kauai, Oahu

    Close up of Love Chance, owner of Indigenous Soap, and her young daughterOmiyage. The practice of gift-giving is an art in Japan. Those roots sprouted easily in the welcoming soil of Hawaiian culture when Japanese immigrants arrived. I've learned not to go anywhere with empty hands. Thankfully, these Hawaiian Islands offer a never-ending supply of gifts unique to Hawaii.

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