May 8, 2006 6:36 pm - May Festivals on the Big Island and Kona Coast
If you like Jazz then you're probably going to like this festival. It starts Thursday night May 11 over at the Honoka'a Peoples Theatre for 2 nights and then on Saturday moves over to the Aloha Theatre in Kainaliu.
Great Ladies of Jazz will follow on Sunday afternoon at the Four Seasons Resort Hualalai at 3:30 pm.
The opening act will be Brittni Paiva followed by Ms. Eloise Laws and Niki Haris. For all the details click here.
Big Island Film Festival
Wednesday May 17 thru Sunday May 21
Come checkout independent narrative films and filmmakers at the debut of the Big Island Film Festival. This is going to be held out at the Hilton Waikoloa and Marriot. The local community is invited to attend.
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May 8, 2006 8:26 pm - Ocean Fair May 13 2006
Jack's Diving Locker is hosting its 2nd annual Ocean Fair Saturday May 13th from 10 am to 4pm. The fair is a combination marine education symposium, introduction to scuba and snorkeling, spring cleaning sale and craft fair.
Schedule of Events
- 10 a.m. Status of Hawaii's Coral Reefs
- 11 a.m. Sharks of the World
- 12p.m. Sea Turtles on the Kona Coast
- 1p.m. Humpback Whales
- 2p.m. Digital Underwater Photography
- 3p.m Manta Rays of Hawaii
Jack's Diving Locker is located at the Coconut Grove Marketplace at 75- 5813 Alii Dr Kailua Kona
Call 329-7585 for more information.
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May 10, 2006 9:06 pm - Pride of America
I knew it was Wednesday when I looked out my living room window this morning.
Wednesday is when the Pride of America cruise ship visits Kona. She is the first American Flagged cruise ship in the last 50 years.
Because she is an American flagged ship she does not have to stop at a foreign port. Ships with foreign flags are not allowed to pick up passengers in the U.S. without having a foreign port of call on their itinerary.
Below is the Pride of America's weekly schedule. Some people use a calendar to tell what day of the week it is. I use a cruise ship; it works for Wednesday and Thursday anyways. Thursday the Pride of Aloha visits.
Pride of America's weekly itinerary:
Sat. Honolulu, Oahu
Sun. Hilo, Hawaii
Evening sail by Mount Kilauea
Mon. Kahului, Maui
(Optional tour to Lanai is available)
Tue. Kahului, Maui
Wed. Kona, Hawaii
(Scenic cruising)
Thu. Nawiliwili, Kauai
Fri. Nawiliwili, Kauai
Sat. Return to Honolulu, Oahu
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May 14, 2006 7:55 pm - Radiance of the Seas
Saturday was a very busy day out in Kailua bay. If you look close at the photo you will see the Atlantis submarine just off the rear port side of the Radiance of the Seas.
I have never been on the sub but my fiancé Eila has. She said she didn't see any fish when she went. I suspect it's like scuba diving sometimes you see all kinds of cool stuff and other times you don't see nothing.
The sub is towed from Honokahau harbor every morning to a site just south of Kailua bay. Then a tender boat goes and picks up tourists from the Kailua pier and takes them out to the sub. Then all the people board the sub and it descends about 100ft for around something like 45 minutes.
After the sub surfaces, all the passengers disembark back to the tender boat and return to the pier. Then the cycle starts all over. I watch it all the time from my shop.
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May 17, 2006 5:37 pm - Update to Kona Map Tips
I've been informed by the nice people that produce The Ready Map Book of West Hawaii that they have a new website with all their map books on it located here: http://www.hawaiimapsource.com/
If you're visiting Maui or Kauai they have map books for those islands and east Hawaii also on their new site.
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May 29, 2006 9:12 pm - Queen K Hiway Widening Underway
The hiway is actually being expanded to 4 lanes all the way out to the harbor. It looks like it's progressing at a pretty good pace.
This photo shows a section of lava that has been carved out and prepared for the new road. This view is looking south between Honokahau harbor and the police station. 
This project has been underway for the last few months. I'm kind of surprised at the progress being made to this point. At the south end of this picture out of sight are a couple of huge excavators with rock hammers that chisel rock all day long to clear the path towards town. Reason being there are some hills of what's called blue rock in the path of the proposed hiway.
What's blue rock? It's solid lava rock. The only way to remove it is either blasting or hammering it out. The preferred method in Kona is to hammer it out with an excavator.
A couple of years ago when the property for Lowes was being prepped, the contractor decided to blast some rock out and used a little too much and launched a 100 pound rock through the roof of a neighbors house! Lucky no one was killed that day.
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