Pink Palace on hiatus…

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The Royal Hawaiian Hotel aka the “pink palace” on Waikiki Beach is closed for 7 months for $110 million renovations. The 400 employees have either transferred to other hotels or will take time off. It will be interesting to see the impact 582 less hotel rooms available in Waikiki will have. Under normal circumstances it may have driven the costs of hotel rooms up but seeing how the economy is tanking right now, people may luck out. Their website is refering people to Moana Surfrider (Westin), Sheraton Waikiki and Sheraton Princess Kaiulani.

It is scheduled to reopen January 1 to ring in 2009.

It’s Carnival of Aloha time

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It’s time to see what the Hawaii blogosphere has to offer! It’s the Carnival of Aloha at Evelyn’s place. It’s a great way to see other Hawaii oriented bloggers in action!

Click here to make your way to the carnival.

Will road projects have you sitting in traffic?

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With the astronomical price of gas, a stop and go road project can put even more of a pinch in the gas budget of locals and visitors alike. The Honolulu Advertiser has just released major island road projects so you can plan your routes to work or your favorite island attraction.

Oahu Road Projects

Kauai Road Projects

Maui Road Projects

Big Island Road Projects

A reminder, you can go to HawaiiGasPrices.com to get a heads up on where you can get the cheapest gas on the island. Currently you’ll pay under $4.00 on Oahu but on Maui some areas are close to $4.50 per gallon.

Man made “lava” gives homeowners a creative option

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In looking for different, unique things we wanted to “bookmark” for our future home on the Big Island, I came across Pacific Gunite’s website. While they specialize in swimming pools and water tanks, they also specialize in a really cool process which allows you to be able to have the look and feel of real hardened lava which they call “lava-crete.” They take molds from actual lava flows and use it to make anything from patio pavers to pool surrounds to fireplace facades. I haven’t used them or anything so if you have and would like to leave your experience here, feel free. But I thought their work was too unique not to share!

Ocean safety a must

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As word gets out of another drowning at Hanauma Bay and with the summer vacation season approaching, now is a good time to familiarize yourself with local beaches and their hazards. The Hawaii Lifeguard Association and SOEST has a great website full of real time information such as jellyfish alerts, weather and surf conditions, safety tips and island by island breakdowns of popular beaches.

This website is a must visit whether you’re a local or visitor. Awareness is the key to knowing what to do when you may find yourself in a changing situation while in the ocean. To visit this wonderful resource, click below and add it to your favorites!

Stay safe everyone!

Visit Hawaii Beach Safety for lifeguard sponsored hazard conditions for Hawaii beaches

Hawaii IPTV review: Is it worth the money?

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There’s something about tv in Hawaii. It’s the warm aloha of local newscasts, cooking shows, various cable access shows and even the commercials. Whether you lived in Hawaii or visited on vacation, you find when you’re away, you yearn for the local flair. Enter Hawaii IPTV. I was so excited when I saw this because if there’s one thing I miss when I’m not in the islands, it’s watching Guy Hagi tell me the weather or Sam Choy tell me what local cuisine I can whip up. At Christmas time, I got $250 as a gift from my mother in law and saw this as a perfect opportunity to bite the bullet and put it toward subscribing to Hawaii IPTV for a year. (The start up cost including S&H is $344.99)

I was very glad to see they changed the set top box to a putty color rather than that hideous big bird yellow they had previously. We were so excited when it finally arrived. Immediately apparent is some of the broadband technology on which it runs on is outdated which the company needs to address. Now time to get to the good stuff, we tuned in to the “live” programming which is just the newscasts from KGMB, KHNL and KFVE. It’s implied you can watch the newscasts live from your time zone but we’ve yet to ever see one live. Over the past week, we are only able to see KGMB and none of the other two newscasts work for ANY of the days, only color bars and a delightful piercing audio. I emailed them a few days ago about it and have yet to hear back. I mean, KGMB is who we watch anyway but that’s not the point, we’re paying for all of the newscasts to be available.

Basically, in the course of a month you could watch every single program on there as nothing seems to be added since we’ve had it. We were especially excited to watch Sam Choy’s Kitchen cooking show and while there are probably 40+ shows, they’re all 11+ years old and the audio is bad to boot! The audio is bad on a lot of the shows. You have to do a lot of finagling with the audio on the remote that comes with it and your tv remote to get it to the point where its not completely grating. Some shows have a decent amounts of episodes like Sam Choy’s Kitchen and then you get Eh, U Da Kine, Ah? with Tony Solis and there are only 2 episodes and the audio is so bad you can barely hear what’s being said. I have to say that had the total cost been the bulk of my own money, I would be highly disappointed. Well, any amount, I’m still highly disappointed. The biggest reason I went ahead with it is the hint that they are negotiating to possibly get UH Sports for this year. If we could see Warrior Football, that would be a major plus but if that doesn’t happen, I have to wonder if this is worth keeping once the subscription is up.

Bottom line: Good idea, poor execution. I think the problems this system has are VERY fixable if the company wants to do so and build a good reputation. If the menu stays the same throughout the year with no new licensing agreements and added shows, people who are already subscribers are going to drop like flies. It’d be like deciding if you want to pay a monthly fee for newscasts which is nice but apparently not so much at this point in time for the KHNL and KFVE newscast viewers.

Paddle over to the Carnival of Aloha!

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Want to take a virtual journey via Hawaii’s best bloggers? Paddle on over to Homespun Honolulu’s Carnival of Aloha and read up on some great blogs about the beautiful islands of Aloha!

Click here to go to the Carnival of Aloha.

Hawaiian holidays await you…

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If you’re looking for a different way to spend your holidays this year, why not consider Hawaii? There’s nothing like saying “Mele Kalikimaka” (Merry Christmas) from your hotel or condo to the relatives back home shivering in blustery, snowy weather! Right now United Vacation has some great deals to make your Hawaiian holiday even better. We’ve flown United many times and that’s why I’m excited to hopefully inspire some mainlanders to go to the islands for a holiday to remember! Each Hawaiian island has something different and unique to offer…which will you choose?

Save some money on your trip to the islands!

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If you’re planning a trip to the islands or know someone who is, then now’s the time to get an Entertainment Book! Just click the little banner below and you can enter the zip code for the island you’re going to and it’ll bring up the book for Hawaii. It gives savings on dining, activities, shows and all kinds of stuff. This is the perfect honeymoon gift for the island bound newlyweds! Of course it’s a good way for locals to save money too! I just bought 2 for some friends for gifts. A little added perk? If you buy them online as gifts, you can log on yourself and actually get savings for your area! You earn a $25 gift certificate for dinner right away and then search places in your area for some great savings.

Beautiful Hawaii art at The Little Grass Shack

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When I’m traversing the islands, I am always blown away at the beauty Hawaii has to offer. What amazes me is that people who have never been there think it’s all palm trees and ocean waves. To be honest, some of my favorite parts of Hawaii are places that look nothing like “typical” Hawaii. I love the rural charm of Upcountry on any island. Wide open pastures, horses, cows or sheep grazing, fences made of tree stumps, sweeping views of the coastline and a natural peace that comes with being there. I have captured some of these great scenes in my photography which you can view at The Little Grass Shack. I like to put a slight filter on my pieces so that it appears as photography from far away but as you get close to it, it then looks like its been sketched with colored pencil. Kind of like two works in one.

Of course I have some art that you would expect like palm trees, various flowers, sunsets and the like and they all have special meaning to me. Each picture takes me to a meaningful place where I was inspired to stop and take it all in. I hope they do the same for you. My home is saturated with images of Hawaii, some mine, some other artists because nothing makes me feel like I’m there more than gazing into an art piece and escaping for a few minutes after a stressful day. These lehua blossoms are so unique and it’s those things that people don’t see everyday that I want to share with others. There’s nothing like seeing people’s faces light up and say “ooh, what are those?” and you get to explain the story behind them.

I welcome you to stop by my Hawaii Art Prints section to see all of the art prints available. You can choose from framed prints to other sized unframed prints that you can personalize with your own frame to blend with your decor. Mahalo!

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