Part of the reason is the cost of living, of course. But it also is Hawaii's fascination with gambling. Loads of people make the 6 hour flight to Las Vegas on a regular basis to try their hand at our local gaming establishments.
And if you ever need proof, consider this page in the local Honolulu newspaper...
Kimo's Vegas -- the important Las Vegas highlights from a Hawaiian perspective.
The irony? Hawaii is one of only two states that make all forms of gambling illegal (the other is Utah). There is no state lottery. No native american casinos. Even a church bingo for money is illegal.
Of course, that never stopped my grandfather from raising his chickens to fight (and wager upon).
Speaking of my grandfather, he came to Hawaii (as an illegal immigrant, but that's another story) in 1906. He spent much of his life as a fisherman and over the years had many a battle with a shark when one of those darn things tried to take the fish that he had caught.
Here's the remains of a shark that lost one of those battles with Grandpa...
Yes, that's a real jaw from a shark, complete with my son Bretty's head being swallowed whole.
Grandpa Bernie entertained everyone by playing a little piano today...
But the agenda for the day was to find a beach and go round Makapu'u point for a complete tour of the southeastern part of the island.
We started with a little diversion to the Pali Lookout...
A "pali" is a cliff, and this lookout has a remarkable view of the Windward side. This particular spot also has great historical significance in Hawaii.
Going back some 200 years, Hawaii was divided into various chieftans, each ruling a part or all of a single island. King Kamehameha I was ruler of the Island of Hawaii (also known as the Big Island) and was determined to unite all of Hawaii as a part of a single kingdom some time in the late 1700s.
Of course, some of the other Chiefs didn't want to be under Kamehameha's rule. Chief Kalanikupule of the Island of Maui had previously conquered and taken the Island of O'ahu under his rule -- and he was the last powerful Chief to resist Kamehameha.
Kamehameha's forces, with the aid of a cannon taken from European explorers who previously visited the Island of Hawaii, drove Chief Kalanikupule's forces up the Nu'uanu Valley onto what is now the famous Pali Lookout.
It was at this spot that Kamehameha drove them over the cliff to their doom -- and thereby formalized his absolute rule over the newfound Kingdom of Hawaii.
The founding of this Kingdom was terribly violent period in Hawaiian history.
Our three boys, of course, were more interested in getting to the beach...
O'ahu has something like 125 individual beaches -- almost all of which are absolutely beautiful. Honolulu is a very crowded city, but there is a reason for that. Other islands may have an incredible beach here or there, but the Island of O'ahu and the City of Honolulu is home to some remarkably friendly beaches...
The nice thing about Kailua is that it is on the other side of the Ko'olau Mountain Range from Waikiki. That means that most tourists never get to this side of the island so the beaches aren't really all that busy at all (which Malia apparently loved)...
The boys got busy making sand castles, but eventually it was David who made the largest and most elaborate castle while the others went swimming on the shore...
Unfortunately for David, high tide was quickly arriving to wash out his castle...
If you squint really hard, you can see Cari holding the two baby girls standing out there in the shallow waters of this beautiful beach...
I know that view quite well because right across the street is Buzz's...
When I worked for the State of Hawaii nearly a dozen years ago, my colleague Deb Hallof and I completely rewrote the entire business plan for the Employment and Training Fund (a pool of money used to give workforce development grants) while sitting at the bar at Buzz's and sipping a few cocktails. See how governmental decisions are made in Hawaii!
After a few hours of swimming and playing (and a bit too much redness on Cari's nose), we washed off in the public showers, changed clothes, and set forth to explore the southeastern part of O'ahu.
You can see Rabbit Island in the distance...
It is so named because it looks vaguely like a rabbit head, nose and paw sticking out of the water.
And of course you cannot forget Makapu'u -- my most favorite beach of all for boogie boarding. Long board surfers don't frequent this place because it has the perfect break for surfers like me who prefer the boogie board...
Of course, I was a much skinnier man back then and I doubt whether they make boards buoyant enough to keep my body out of the water!
If you look closely in the rocks near Makapu'u you can see a remnant of World War II. Follow my lovely wife's nose to the left until you see what appears to be a hole in the rock in the center of this picture...
Here's a zoomed-in photo of that same hole...
It's an old U.S. Army "pillbox" -- a concrete bunker that was used as a lookout and a first line of defense against an anticipated Japanese invasion of Hawaii during World War II. The hills around Koko Head have a whole network of caverns and defensive positions like this one.
Coming around the point, we find our way to the beach of which I have the worst memories - Sandy Beach...
Sandy Beach is one of those unusual beaches which have a very close-in shore break. You cannot surf there with a board but it is the best place I've ever seen to body surf. Body surfing is basically surfing without a board -- which means you have to catch a really powerful wave which breaks right up on the sand. It also means you have to be a really strong swimmer.
My brother Bernie once brought me here when I was a little boy and all I remember was getting tossed and throw by these huge waves breaking on the shore. I would tumble and roll into the sand and didn't know which way was up.
I hate Sandy Beach!
It is also near the famous Blow Hole so Kekoa and Bretty jumped on the wall to pose (Kekoa in his best surfing stance)...
The Blow Hole is an old volcanic tube that remains hollowed out. When a wave hits the rocks from the right angle, the water rushes through the tube and comes shooting straight up in the air like a geyser.
Unfortunately, today the surf was completely flat so at most you had a bit of mist and foam.
So to cheer everyone up, we stopped for ice cream! Check out the grins on these kids...
Malia put the biggest scoop she could on a spoon and tried to shove the whole thing in her mouth...
The ice cream shop was in Koko Marina...
One of the most exciting things for the kids, though, was the fact that in the evening it began pouring rain -- more rain than we'll see in six months living in the Mohave Desert. Grandpa Bernie had to walk around in the rain for a bit...
The rain lasted only about 30 minutes, but once it was gone, the skies were clear all over again.
By by then, it was time to eat!
So off to Zippy's it was, with a typically Hawaiian dish of Fried Saimin (which are noodles fried with spam, char siu pork and cabbage) and a piece of fried chicken...
Cari, David, Bretty, Kekoa, Nalani & Malia all ate mainland stuff like pizza and hamburgers...
But Kekoa is quicly becoming a local boy just like his Grandpa Bernie...
And as if the day weren't long enough, Cari found out that there was a hula show going on in Pearlridge that night, so we were quick to check it out - completely with the little kids...
And the older dancers...
What a very long day!
And on a little aside, there still remains a box of very old junk of mine down in my parent's pool room and in it I discovered this little birthday card from my old college housemate Matt Shepard...
Matt got Douglas Adams (the author of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) to write me a birthday card. (Thought you'd appreciate that trek down memory lane, Matt!).
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