If you love the Big Island of Hawaii and rubber duckies, then have we got a Fourth of July celebration for you: the 17th Annual Great Waikoloa Rubber Duckie Race. The whole day is filled with family fun including face painting, duck waddling contests and free-style quacking. There's even free popcorn and cotton candy.
The main draw of the event comes during the afternoon when the plastic ducks are released. The top 50 finishers are eligible for prizes, including a week-long stay at an Outrigger Villa or the Hilton Waikoloa Village. If your duck doesn't come in first, hope it comes in 17th, as that will get you 17 $100 bills.
Best of all, the proceeds from the event go to the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Hawaii. Last year the group was able to raise almost $40,000 for charity. Ducks start at $5 per bird, or get a $20 "quack pack" which includes three ducks and a shirt. If you didn't get up at the, uh, quack of dawn (sorry!), then you'll be able to stay up and enjoy the fireworks display around 9 pm.
Hanalei Bay is a two-mile crescent shaped epitome of a surf town on the north shore of Kauai. It features a low-key attitude, great surf during the winter months and that all-important picturesque setting. There are even lifeguards to keep you safe after even the most gnarly wipeout. (Maybe that's why our readers love it so much?)
If you work up an appetite from all the surfing and sun, check out the nearby taro plantations. The starchy Hawaiian vegetable is a staple for islanders, though cooked up as poi, it doesn't always impress visitors.
The Hanalei Wake-Up Cafe has more mainland fare. The walls are covered with pictures of great and not so great surfers, and plastic chairs and an outdoor balcony make this place an ideal hole-in-the-wall breakfast spot. We recommend the Over the Falls French Toast, but get there early as the place closes by 11:30 am.
Finally, check out the Princeville Resort if you need somewhere to stay. Even when surrounded by stunning ocean views, who doesn't love an infinity pool?
That little taste of summer vacation you had this weekend just wasn't enough! You've just got to get away before that Croc tan line fades. That's what Woody Harrelson must have been thinking when he told a reporter he wants to do a 40-day fast on an uninhabited island--when he has time in his work schedule, of course.
Harrelson already lives on Maui but that isn't deserted enough for his swimming and surfing sojourn. Nor, apparently, did biking from Seattle to LA or winning this weekend's Cannes celebrity poker charity challenge do it for him: Nothing will work except a full fast:
I mean, I don't take it lightly. I know it's gonna be hard. But can you imagine? Eating nothing for 40 days? Swimming and surfing every day in a remote place? Where does the mind go?
Visitors have been enjoying the show at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park since March, when a new vent exploded open in Halemaumau Crater at the summit of Kilauea. The volcano has sent a continuous flow of fluffy white gas into the sky, adding some excitement to the park's already impressive lava flows.
But Kilauea has also covered the Big Island in a haze of "vog"--volcanic fog--which is heavy in sulfur dioxide and has some island residents wheezing and worrying for their health. Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park has been among the voggiest areas, leading rangers to close parts of the park nearest the summit, and even temporarily shutter the entire park in April.
The Big Island Visitors Bureau launched a press push this week to bring visitors back to the park, noting that the trade winds returned last Friday, pushing the vog out to sea and creating clearer viewing opportunities.
If you'd rather check the vog from a distance, the NPS has set up a webcam on the volcano.
It's not just the presence of some of Hawaii's best surf schools that make this town on the north side of Oahu a prime surfing destination. In its evolution from remote plantation to tourist destination, the city of 2,225 described by Outside magazine as "the anti-Waikiki" has lost none of its charms, and the waves still hit its shores in a way that makes even experienced riders say, "Dude!"
With a high sand-to-reef ratio and a low difficulty rating, new surfers can feel comfortable, too. Major surfer dude and singer Jack Johnson even wrote a song called "Haleiwa."
To get you in the mood, we've also got some footage from the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, held in Haleiwa in 2005, just after the jump.
A separatist group occupied the Iolani Palace in Honolulu yesterday, closing the landmark to tourists to protest the "occupation" of Hawaii by the United States. The peaceful demonstration by the Hawaiian Kingdom Government lasted about eight hours, and no arrests were made.
The group says it wants to reestablish the Iolani Palace as the seat of the islands' sovereign government. The HKG plans to reoccupy the grounds today, though the organization doesn't plan to lock people out like they did Wednesday. Still, might not be the best day to visit.
The palace was the residence of the last two Hawaiian monarchs and it's now a National Historic Landmark. When it's not being occupied, you can visit on a docent-led "Grand Tour" for $20 or just take a self-guided tour of some of the galleries for $6.
If you loved "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" and "Knocked Up," head to the theater today for the Judd Apatow crew's latest: "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." We hear it's solid for some crude humor and raunchy-joke laughs.
A devastated Peter (Jason Segel) takes a getaway trip to escape the break-up he's going through with his TV star girlfriend Sarah (Kristen Bell), thinking he's escaping from it all. Turns out she was thinking the exact same thing and also shows up in Hawaii... with her new man. Of course the spot's not big enough for everyone and they keep crossing paths.
Roeper just called it one of his "Top 50 comedies of all time," and we admit, we're intrigued. To get you in the spirit, we offer you some cool things to check out in the Hawaiian islands, perfect for getting over your next breakup.
Where To Stay:Aloha Cottages, Maui Get over your newfound singleness by slipping off to one of these two secluded cottages (The Thai tree house or Bali Bungalow). They're a step up and replete with private outdoor soaking tubs, oriental carpets, granite counters and hand carved art. You won't risk running into anyone with your own private entrance and driveway.
We've been known to hate on airlines like EasyJet, JetBlue and United, depending on our mood--and who's screwing us over that day. But we've never started an all-out campaign to smear a company's reputation like the folks over at Don't Fly Go Airlines.
A treasure trove of documents and rants about annoyingly-named inter-island carrier go!, the site hopes to put the airline out of business. You'll find info on the alleged asleep-at-the-yoke incident in February as well as court documents and info about go!'s parent company, Mesa Air Group.
But given that go! has allegedly burned through cash to put Aloha Airlines out of business, will Don't Fly Go actually work? How do you bankrupt a company that's willing to lose money? And can you really convince people to pass up $49 one-way fares?
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by kjb
