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Hawaiian Vanilla Farm Tour & Lunch
Vanilla (orchid) growing on a hapu'u fern Vanilla has the reputation for being, well, somewhat bland, but did you know that vanilla is quite a fascinating plant? Vanilla is actually an orchid that only blooms for one day. If the orchid is to produce a vanilla bean, it must very carefully hand pollenated on that one day of blooming. I learned these interesting facts while visiting the Hawaiian Vanilla Company for lunch and a tour. Though learning about vanilla is interesting in itself, the owner Jim Reddekopp weaves a family love story into his presentation about vanilla and how he came to farm it. Jim and his wife Tracey were living on Oahu with their first two children when they decided that before they had more kids, they wanted to raise their children on a farm. Soon after, they decided to more to Hawaii Island’s verdant Hamakua Coast to start the US’s first (and I believe only) vanilla farm. Jim and Tracey now have five children that he jokes are on a work to eat program. Jim Reddekopp prepares a vanilla-infused appetizer. Jim Reddekopp does not hied his passion for his family and vanilla. The two are clearly intertwined. It was inspirational to hear how the Reddekopps grew their farm dream into a viable small business that currently employees nine people. How inspirational was it? Well, on the drive back to Waikoloa, Andy and I started daydreaming and brainstorming what sort of farm we could start in Hawaii. We enjoyed a very tasty vanilla-infused, three-course lunch as part of the Hawaiian Vanilla Experience ($39/adult and $15/child ages 4 to 12) followed by a tour of the farm. Almost every part of the lunch incorporated vanilla in creative and unusual ways. For example, the roasted potatoes were seasoned in a vanilla southwest spice. I certainly learned by tasting that vanilla is not just for desserts. Vanilla was added to each part of this savory lunch. After lunch, we took a tour of a vanilla farm “field” . There, we looked closer at the type of environment and tender loving care that vanilla farming requires. Vanilla Plant The Hawaiian Vanilla Company is located in lovely old timber building that originally housed a coffee mill in the 1920s. It’s roughly half way between Hilo and Kona. We drove there from Waikoloa Beach Resort in about an hour. It’s quite a scenic drive, too. (See this map for directions .) If you’re in this area, you might want to consider also visiting Akaka Falls , Waipio Valley lookout and if time permits, Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden . Hawaiian Vanilla Company offers other tours and tastings in addition to this lunch tour we enjoyed. Tour reservations are strongly recommended. You can book by calling 1-877-771-1771. Having lunch and farm touring at Hawaiian Vanilla Company was far more than a vanilla experience. — Mahalo to the Hawaiian Vanilla Company for hosting our tour. © Go Visit Hawaii – Republication of this entire post is prohibited without prior permission. Using extracts of less than 100 words are permitted with full attribution and link back to GoVisitHawaii.com .
Continue reading...Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s 2012 State of the State Address: “Investing Now for Hawai’i’s Future”
23. January 2012
Hawaii House (c) 2012 All Hawaii News “Investing Now for Hawai’i’s Future” State of the State 2012 The Honorable Neil Abercrombie Governor, State of Hawai’i January 23, 2012 (as prepared) Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, former Governors, distinguished justices of the courts, mayors, representatives of our Congressional Delegation, members of the Hawai’i State Legislature, other elected officials, honored guests, family and friends.
Continue reading...Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa Family Vacation
20. January 2012
Hawaii Travel Deals Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa3 nights with air from $2,789 pp,doPromo Code: PLWS Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa is a family vacation destination with a touch of Disney magic where everyone can enjoy amazing adventures. Adults, teens and kids each have their own special acticities on this resort plus there’s ample family fun, too. Spend the day playing in one of the best pools in Hawaii.Walk down to the beach for a day of sunbathing. Explore the island of Oahu with guided tours and activities. At night you will enjoy delicious dining and super entertainment. This HAwaii family vacation package includes Roundtrip air from SFO, Accommodations in a Two-Bedroom ‘Ahu ‘Ula Suite, All hotel taxes and kids stay FREE. Call for pricing from your home airport. Call 1.800.330.8820 or click here to have a Hawaii Travel Specialist contact you about booking this Oahu family vacation. TravelWizard.com: Specialists in the Art of Travel: Call 1-800-330-8820
Continue reading...The Royal Hawaiian W Air $777
16. January 2012
Hawaii Travel Deals – Waikiki, Oahu 3 Nights From $777 pp,do Promo Code:PLWS Book this Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii vacation with Travelwizard.com and enjoy roundtrip air from SFO, 3 nights at the Royal Hawaiian – A Luxury Collection Resort and your kids stay stay FREE. Valid for travel 1/23/12-5/21/12 with Monday departures. Call 1.800.330.8820 or click here to have a Hawaii Travel Specialist contact you about this Oahu vacation . TravelWizard.com: Specialists in the Art of Travel: Call 1-800-330-8820
Continue reading...The Royal Hawaiian W Air $777
16. January 2012
Hawaii Travel Deals – Waikiki, Oahu 3 Nights From $777 pp,do Promo Code:PLWS Book this Waikiki, Oahu, Hawaii vacation with Travelwizard.com and enjoy roundtrip air from SFO, 3 nights at the Royal Hawaiian – A Luxury Collection Resort and your kids stay stay FREE. Valid for travel 1/23/12-5/21/12 with Monday departures. Call 1.800.330.8820 or click here to have a Hawaii Travel Specialist contact you about this Oahu vacation . TravelWizard.com: Specialists in the Art of Travel: Call 1-800-330-8820
Continue reading...Cruise ships returning to Hawaii, state preps for legislative session, Yagong announces candidacy for Hawaii County mayor, security zone planned for…
16. January 2012
Cruising in Hawaii (c) 2012 All Hawaii News More people are setting sail for Hawaii. More than 104,000 travelers arrived in the islands on cruise ships — mostly from the West Coast — in the first 11 months of last year, according to the most recent data available. That’s a 14.5 percent increase from the same period in 2010. Associated Press. 2012 Who’s Who Legislative Guide. Star-Advertiser. Expediting Hawaii’s excruciatingly slow economic recovery will be a top priority for East Hawaii’s all-Democratic legislative delegation, which returns to work on Wednesday. Tribune-Herald. When asked what their priorities are for the legislative session starting Wednesday, Maui’s three state senators had some different projects in mind but agreed that job creation will likely dominate their time. Maui News. After their salaries are restored to 2009 levels in July 2013, Hawaii teachers would get a raise every year that they receive at least an “effective” performance rating, under a tentative contract with the state. Civil Beat. Attorneys and advocates, academics and activists alike gathered Saturday to honor the life and legacy of University of Hawaii law professor Jon Van Dyke. Star-Advertiser. Honolulu Thirty new American citizens will be sworn in by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Honolulu on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Associated Press. As part of today’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will welcome 30 new U.S. citizens. Star-Advertiser. City government offices will be closed on Monday, January 16, in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal and state holiday. KITV4. A developer plans to spend more than $7 million to build nine big T-shaped breakwaters off Iroquois Point beach to protect a rental community, stop erosion and replenish sand fronting former Navy housing near the mouth of Pearl Harbor. Star-Advertiser. A Wahiawa senior center remains in violation of federal grants rules, according to a Jan. 12 letter to Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Civil Beat. State Rep. Jo Jordan plans to return to an oft-flooded section of Puhawai Road in Waianae this morning with more than 60 volunteers to cut back branches and clear debris from an area that will undergo millions of dollars of flood-prevention work over the next several years. Star-Advertiser. They call themselves the mangrove manglers.
Continue reading...Cruise ships returning to Hawaii, state preps for legislative session, Yagong announces candidacy for Hawaii County mayor, security zone planned for…
16. January 2012
Cruising in Hawaii (c) 2012 All Hawaii News More people are setting sail for Hawaii. More than 104,000 travelers arrived in the islands on cruise ships — mostly from the West Coast — in the first 11 months of last year, according to the most recent data available. That’s a 14.5 percent increase from the same period in 2010. Associated Press. 2012 Who’s Who Legislative Guide. Star-Advertiser. Expediting Hawaii’s excruciatingly slow economic recovery will be a top priority for East Hawaii’s all-Democratic legislative delegation, which returns to work on Wednesday. Tribune-Herald. When asked what their priorities are for the legislative session starting Wednesday, Maui’s three state senators had some different projects in mind but agreed that job creation will likely dominate their time. Maui News. After their salaries are restored to 2009 levels in July 2013, Hawaii teachers would get a raise every year that they receive at least an “effective” performance rating, under a tentative contract with the state. Civil Beat. Attorneys and advocates, academics and activists alike gathered Saturday to honor the life and legacy of University of Hawaii law professor Jon Van Dyke. Star-Advertiser. Honolulu Thirty new American citizens will be sworn in by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Honolulu on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Associated Press. As part of today’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations, the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will welcome 30 new U.S. citizens. Star-Advertiser. City government offices will be closed on Monday, January 16, in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal and state holiday. KITV4. A developer plans to spend more than $7 million to build nine big T-shaped breakwaters off Iroquois Point beach to protect a rental community, stop erosion and replenish sand fronting former Navy housing near the mouth of Pearl Harbor. Star-Advertiser. A Wahiawa senior center remains in violation of federal grants rules, according to a Jan. 12 letter to Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Civil Beat. State Rep. Jo Jordan plans to return to an oft-flooded section of Puhawai Road in Waianae this morning with more than 60 volunteers to cut back branches and clear debris from an area that will undergo millions of dollars of flood-prevention work over the next several years. Star-Advertiser. They call themselves the mangrove manglers.
Continue reading...Why did the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wear a lei on his famous 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, his relationship with Akaka and other Hawaii…
14. January 2012
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and civil rights leaders wear lei during their 1965 march Ever wonder why the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights leaders on that famous march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala. wore lei? Turns out King had special ties to the Aloha State, and to the family of U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. It’s altogether fitting that the Hawaii Legislature opens its annual session this week as the state and the rest of the nation commemorate what would have been King’s 83rd birthday. King, in his 1959 address to a special session of the Hawaii Legislature, praised Hawaii for its ethnic diversity. “We look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice, what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country, and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice,” King said in his address. Five years after those words, King carried a bit of Hawaii to Alabama. That five-day, 54-mile march from Selma, where an Alabama state trooper had shot and killed church deacon Jimmie Lee Jackson, to the state capital, helped bring King to the forefront of the nation’s imagination, spurring the cause of nonviolent protest that would be picked up and championed by an entire generation, fomenting the hope of equality for all mankind. The lei were no artifice. King had strong Hawaii ties, from his 1959 address to the Hawaii Legislature to his relationship with the Rev. Abraham Kahikina Akaka, older brother of Sen. Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii. Abraham Akaka, kahu (shepherd) of Kawaiahao Church in Honolulu, developed a close friendship with King when King came to Honolulu in 1964 to participate in a Civil Rights Week symposium at the University of Hawaii, according to Akaka’s obituary in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
Continue reading...Tax hikes mulled, statewide bag ban sought, Hawaii flunks Race to the Top, teacher union vote set, Lingle, Hannemann net union endorsements, yacht…
10. January 2012
Former Gov. Linda Lingle (c) 2012 All Hawaii News The State of Hawaii Organization of Police Officers on Monday endorsed former Gov. Linda Lingle for U.S. Senate, which gives the Republican a window into the blue-collar labor community that usually prefers Democrats. Star-Advertiser. On Monday, the United Public Workers, Local 646 announced its endorsement of former Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann to serve Hawaii’s 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives. Hawaii News Now. The state plans to tighten spending rather than increase taxes to cover a predicted $19.3 million state budget deficit in fiscal year 2013, Hawaii officials said Monday. Associated Press. Tax increases and other revenue-generating measures are being considered by the Abercrombie administration to deal with budget shortfalls expected to top $164 million in fiscal year 2014 and grow in successive years. Star-Advertiser. The state’s recently downgraded revenues forecast won’t scrap Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s financial plan for this year or next. Civil Beat. The effects of newly downgraded tax revenue projections will be “minimal” for the current state budget but will be “quite considerable and severe” in future years, causing Gov. Neil Abercrombie’s administration to at least consider the possibility of future tax increases, Budget Director Kalbert Young said today. Hawaii Reporter. State Budget and Finance Director Kalbert Young told lawmakers Monday the Abercrombie administration is drawing up a revised six year financial plan in order to deal with long-term deficits that rise above $300 million within the next four fiscal years. KHON2. Hawaii missed major milestones during its first year of implementing reforms under a $75 million “Race to the Top” education grant, the U.S. Department of Education said. Associated Press. In its first year of a four-year, $75 million Race to the Top grant, Hawaii missed “the majority” of its education reform milestones, a new U.S. Department of Education report says. Star-Advertiser. Several states that won a slice of the U.S. Department of Education’s $4.3 billion Race to the Top competition have had to delay plans to implement ambitious reforms and two could possibly lose money if they don’t get back on track. Associated Press. The Hawaii State Teachers Association hopes to hold a ratification vote on a new six-year contract on Jan. 19. Star-Advertiser. The tentative agreement reached by the state and the Hawaii State Teachers Association could help to save federal education funds. Hawaii News Now. The Governor says a tentative labor deal with the teachers union should help the state secure $75 million dollars in federal “Race to the Top” money. KHON2. With the legislative session gearing up, advocates are pushing for a statewide law to bring O`ahu into the mix and deal with some unforeseen problems the plastic bag bans created. Hawaii Public Radio. State roundup for January 10. Associated Press. Oahu The city has awarded a $38.8 million contract to Los Angeles-based AECOM Technical Services Inc. to design the rail transit project’s airport segment. Star-Advertiser. Judge: Civil Beat Can Blog Honolulu Rail Lawsuit. Civil Beat. Honolulu officials have taken the first major step toward using the new belongings ban to remove homeless people from public sidewalks. Civil Beat. Sun, surf and 24,000 cubic yards of sand; the state’s plan to replenish the shoreline along Waikiki requires large equipment to pump that sand from more than 1,500 feet offshore. KITV4. State Sen. Donna Kim, a frequent critic of programs and activities at state airports, got an unpleasant surprise when she took the new shuttle service from Honolulu International Airport to her home in the Kalihi neighborhood of Honolulu. Hawaii Reporter. Hawaii’s slow and uneven economic recovery appeared to rub off on Oahu’s housing market last year, as median prices dipped a little on relatively flat buyer demand. Star-Advertiser. Hawaii The Big Island saw about a 15 percent decline in single-family home sales in December, but hardly any change in condominium sales, according to Hawaii Information Service. Pacific Business News . A Hawaii USDA office will be closed as part of an effort to cut costs. KHON2. Reimbursement for services — particularly from Medicare and Medicaid — will continue to be a top issue for Kona Community Hospital and West Hawaii physicians, a Big Island senator said Monday. West Hawaii Today. Ten Hawaii Island couples had applications for civil unions certified last week, according to the state Department of Health. Tribune-Herald. Maui Maui home sales were mixed in December, while prices for both single-family homes and condominiums were down by double-digit amounts, according to the Realtors Association of Maui. Pacific Business News. Makawao Veterans Cemetery may reach capacity for burials in one and a half to two years, so plans are being laid for the purchase of a 10-acre adjoining property. Maui News. The Wailuku copy and business center, Maui Business Etc, will be the site of a lunchtime “Coffee Talk with Mazie” on Wednesday, January 11. Maui Now. Kauai Single-family home sales on Kauai dropped more than 50 percent in December compared to the same month in 2010, according to Hawaii Information Service. Pacific Business News. The Kaua‘i County Council in May approved — and funded — dozens of county job positions which have yet to be filled, Council Chair Jay Furfaro said Monday. Garden Island . Kaua‘i Community College opened its classrooms Monday for the start of the spring semester. Garden Island. Molokai American Safari Cruises (ASC) is resuming scheduled two-day stops to Molokai later this month after company officials, local protesters and state and federal authorities reached an agreement. Molokai Dispatch.
Continue reading...Visit Hawaii’s Big Island W Air $1281
3. January 2012
Hawaii Travel Deals Mauna Kea Beach Hotel 3 Nights From $1281 pp,do Promo Code:PLWS Book this vacation to Hawaii with Travelwizard.com and it will include roundtrip air from BOS on American Airlines, 3 nights at the Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and kids stay FREE. Valid for travel 1/16/12-3/5/12. call for pricing from you home airport and alternative travel dates. Call 1.800.330.8820 or click here to have a Hawaii Travel Specialist contact you. TravelWizard.com: Specialists in the Art of Travel: Call 1-800-330-8820
Continue reading...
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6. February 2012
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