Ho'omaika'i Keoni! Congratulations John!
Hope your wedding and honeymoon in Hawai'i brings you a lifetime of joyous memories!
Visting Hawaii - general information thread
Speaking of genuine hawai'ian leis, that was one of my wife's requirements while we were in Hawai'i. She had visions of disembarking from the plane and having girls in aloha dress drape a lei on her shoulders. Well, our plane got to Honolulu airport at 2:15AM and there was noone there giving away or selling leis. She was a bit disappointed.
So, the day we left the hotel to board the ship, I took a cab with my friend Denis to get genuine leis for our wives. The taxi driver had been instructed by the hotel's doorman to take us into Honolulu's Chinatown, where they make leis by the hundreds every day.
The girl who served me could not have been more helpful. When I told her that my wife was a natural redhead, her eyes became as big as saucers. Natula' ledhai' she said. Oh, how wondefu'. I have jussa ting forya. And she proceeded to get a box from one of the many refrigerators behind her. It was larger than the others, for some reason. She opened it and showed me this lei made from 500 green orchid blooms. "This is most beautiful rei for natula' ledhai ", she said.
I had to agree that it was absolutely stunning. I bought it for next to nothing, considering the work and the amount of blooms in there. My friend ended up buying a dendrobium bloom lei that lasted 3 days at best. Gail's lei lasted 11 days, with refrigeration and misting. She wore that thing 3 or 4 times a day on the ship. Every time he visited our cabin, our cabin steward would pull it out of the mini refrigerator to mist is for her.
Gail boarded the ship wearing her lei and she got off the ship still wearing it. This was a 10-day cruise. Back on land, when it finally wilted, we went to Ala Moana park, where she broke the string and dropped the blooms in the sea. Here is a picture of her as she opened the box and realized what was in there.
Take care, all.
Sylvain.
You have such a servants heart, Sylvain. That is meant to be a very high compliment. Always thinking of someone else and yourself last. God bless you and Gail.
That was indeed very kind of you, I'm sure she'll remember that for ever :) Beautiful lei too.
Sylvain, Nice Slide Shows of Your Trip, Thank You!
We are going in just a couple weeks to the Big Island. I'm taking a laptop with me and hope to take and download pictures while we are there. What program did you use to make that nice transitional slideshow, and put music in the background? Do you store the music on you computer and then choose and add music button? Or does the program go online and search for music for you? I would like to learn how to do a slide show like that. Thanks So Much For Sharing Yours!
That music got me thinking too, I need to sample some Island music while I am there. Anybody have any favorite Hawaiian music to recommend?
Few of my favorite artists:
IZ
Hawaiian Style Band
Ka`au Crater Boys
Hapa
Makaha Sons of Ni`ihau
Pure Heart
Sylvain, that is one gorgeous lei!!! Love the pics of Gail when she saw them. Those pictures are priceless!!
Hi Amanda.
Hi LouC!! :~)
We visited the Big Island and Kauai a year and a half ago and loved them both. We used a lot of Keoni 's recommendations - he knows a lot more about Hawaii then he lets on :-) and had a great time.
Wonderful news about your engagement John, best wishes to you both.
This was a ginger in Carol's garden.
Aloha, everyone.
My morning starts with a BANG!!! I am aghast, nay... flabergasted. I am running out of words, a rare occurence for me. That plant pictured above has been on my "Absolutely must have come he// or high water" list since I first saw it at Hawai'i Tropical Botanical Gardens in Papaiku on the Big Island. It is etlingera venusta: malay rose ginger, a.k.a. porcelain ginger, etc. I include a picture I took then. I have been dreaming about that plant for over 3 years. I do not know anyone who has it.
Please, please if anyone has it, or if you know someone who knows someone who has it, I need a tuber or two of that one. I will pay, no problem. All I could find were seeds on the internet from sellers with dubious reputations (at best). I freely admit to being notoriously useless with seeds, specially the expensive ones. I learned my lesson about internet seeds when I purchased bird of paradise seeds and received datura seeds. So, I ask again: I want that ginger badly. It calls my name at night. Please D-mail me if you have it.
Mahalo nui loa.
Pu'ole, a.k.a. Sylvain.
Carol, AlohaHoya, is no longer on DG. Sylvain, you will need to track her down in the other building. I'm sure she would share.
I found Carol easily. And yes, she would be able to help me in my quest for E. venusta. If you want something hard enough, the Universe will conspire to give it to you. Quod erat demonstrandum.
Sylvain.
Hello Sylvain,
I think you got so excited about that ginger that you didn't notice that I want to know how you did that slide show on UTube:-)
I asked you up above, but then the ginger picture appeared after me and I couldn't compete for your attention ;-)
Maybe now that your Ginger request has been fullfilled, we can talk about your slide show? I really like how the pictures transitioned and the music was in the background. What program did you use to do that? How do you get the music on there?
I'm on my way to the big Island in less than two weeks, so I will check out that Hawai'i Tropical Botanical Garden in Papaiku. Do you have any other recommendations for Botanical gardens to see on the big island? We are renting a car and driving around to sightsee and visit friends. Carol is on my list of folks to visit. So I'll get to see that magical ginger too. Sure am looking forward to it!
Diana
Hi Diana,
I'm not sure what Sylvain used to make the movie but it looks like the Picasa movie maker with the "Pan and Zoom" slide transitions. Picasa even lets you upload directly to youtube when making movies.
Janel
Thanks Jane, I was wondering if it was Picasa. I have that on my computer and I use it regularly to correct exposures on my pictures, then I just store them in desktop folders. I haven't explored all of picasa's features, I'll have to do a trial run on a slide show. I still wonder about the music though, how would you get that Hawaiian music to play in the background? Maybe you have to download and store some music on your hard drive and then there must be an add music button on Picasa?
I'm pretty functional with my computers for daily stuff, but when it comes to music & graphics, I feel I'm still somewhat in the dark ages. Part of my problem is I don't have any tech smart teenagers in my life to teach me how to use all this stuff :-) Crazy huh? Lots of things I still don't know about using features on my TV & DVD player too.
I can tell you about hundreds of plants, but I look at all those buttons on the remote for the sattelite TV and I feel like a cavewoman!
Diana
Hi Diana,
I believe there is a tab in the Picasa movie maker for adding music that you have stored on your computer. I usually just play with programs and push buttons until I find out what they do, unless they say something like Uninstall, or Format Hard Drive :)
Janel
Sylvian, thank you for sharing your beautiful videos. I would have been in absolute heaven. One place I want to go before I die.
John, congratulation on your engagement.
This message was edited Sep 18, 2010 7:58 AM
A glorious morning to everyone.
CreeksideFarm, I distinctly remember answering your post a few hours after it was displayed on Dave's Garden. In this case, I guess the Gods decided to laugh. Four days went by before Ardesia knocked me over with her etlingera venusta picture. I sincerely thought I had answered your queries. So, without any further ado, here are the details you requested.
Q: What program did you use to make that nice transitional slideshow, and put music in the background?
A: First, the selected pictures are all run through PhotoShop CS4 where they are all adjusted for brightness, contrast, color balance, cropped to 480X360pixels at 72dpi before being saved in a separate folder in preparation for the next step. I then use Windows Live Movie Maker (WLMM) included with Windows 7 to put together the movie. You can use either movie files from your digital camcorder or pictures. You just have to select them and drag them over to WLMM. The music is from a CD that I copied to my hard disc. My wife and I both own MP3 players, so the hard disc is chock-full of MP3 music files. Then, WLMM offers an icon where you can upload the whole movie to YouTube, providing you have a YouTube account. If not, open an account before attempting the upload. I also recommend saving the movie at every step of the movie's creation and before uploading to YouTube. You wouldn't want your work to go up in smoke: bothersome. Picasa? I have heard of it but I do not use it, so you're on your own if you choose to go that route; sorry.
Q: Do you store the music on you computer and then choose and add music button?
A: Yes, I added the music that was already stored in my computer.
Q: Or does the program go online and search for music for you?
A: To my knowledge, WLMM does not go online to search for music for you. YouTube does offer music that is not copyrighted to include with your uploaded movie. I checked out what they had and found nothing I liked. However, I have tried uploading another movie clip and it was rejected because the sound track was copyrighted. Trial and error prevails here, I guess.
Q: I would like to learn how to do a slide show like that.
A: I just told you how to do it. It doesn't come instantly. I had to work on it a bit, but WLMM is fairly user-friendly and the Help topics are quite helpful.
So now, I will click on Send and return to make sure it really did go through.
Take care, all.
Sylvain.
Yep, there is my answer right above this post. Have a great hawai'ian vacation. Aside from the Hawai'i Tropical Botanical Garden, you will find that a lot of little towns have botanical gardens where you can gawk at unbelievable plants for free. I can not begin to tell you how many gardens we saw while we were there. The islands truly are paradise.
On the Big Island, do try to visit the Mauna Loa macademia nut plantation where you can see the groves, buy those unbelievable nuts with all kinds of flavorings added to them: macademias in milk chocolate, dark chocolate, sugarfree chocolate, hickory smoked, sea salt and my favorite: sinus-clearing wasabi. Al;so, please give Carol a hug for me. When you return, if you have questions about putting your slide show together, I'll gladly give you a hand.
Take care.
Sylvain.
The best mac nuts I found were bought from some Hawaiians selling them along with jewelry and other trinkets at an overlook near South Point on the Big Island. I was really just being polite, we stopped to take pictures, not buy anything but they were there and you know how that goes. The guy gave us some interesting history on the area and we were appreciative. Little did I know the nuts were fabulous, and far superior to those we found elsewhere. Naturally we did not get back that way. I would have bought 20 lbs if we had. Must have been the freshness, the ones we get in cans around here are nothing close.
I can't seem to locate the picture but we passed a house, near Volcano Village on the BI and they were using these large calla lilies for a hedge. There must have been 10,000 of them along the road - all blooming. It was a sight.
Give Carol a hug from me too, you are in for quite a treat.
A site along the road on Kauai.
Oh my goodness. That is beautiful, ardesia. And the description you gave of the calla lilies sounds incredible!
hmmmm, never really thought about visiting hawaii, since a lot of it sounds similar to here, but i think i should add it on my "countries to visit" wish list... :~)
isaac
I live on the island of Kaua`i. Here is a website of a shrine/garden that most people do not know about. It has a fascinating history. Its an "only on Kaua`i" kind of place.
http://www.lawaicenter.org/pages/home.html
IN the history section there is a profile of grandma Nonaka. I used to take my kids to Nonaka Farm in the Hanapepe Valley to look at the pigs...lol Kauai does not have zoos. Nonoka farm was my kids zoo. The Nonoka family still has a restaurant on in Hanapepe on Kamu`ali`i Hwy. I wish I could remember the name of it but at the moment I can't. It looks really funky inside but they make the best Chinese roast pig and roast duck, take out, on the island. They also have fabulous, the bomb lilikoi/passion fruit chiffon pies.
This message was edited Sep 21, 2010 9:43 AM
This message was edited Sep 22, 2010 1:10 PM
Is this the Hanapepe Valley?
Aloha, everyone.
Ah... Kauai... Waimea canyon. What a wonderful place.
Here is a picture of myself on that memorable day. The winds were so strong on the belvedere that I took off my Maui Dirt Shirt and flew it like a kite, holding it by the hem and letting the wind blow it up. That japanese tourise couldn't believe his luck at seeing a sumo wrestler flying a kite there. This is one of my regular stunts. Gail rolls her eyes when I do that and she tries to make believe she doesn't know me. When the wind is strong enough, I remove my shirt and hold it like that. I do that on cruise ships, too.
I also stick 2 straws on my bicuspids at McDonald's, thereby producing a reasonable impersonation of a walrus, but that's another story. Gail also rolls her eyes at that, for some reason. Go figure.
Aloha.
Pu'ole, a.k.a. Sylvain.
hahahahaha
Thank you Sylvain, for all your encouragement and directions for the slide show/ movie.
I do have windows 7, just got it within the last month on a new laptop. Up til now I was using Windows XP, so I have yet to experiment with the Windows Live Movie Maker (WLMM) included with Windows 7. I will do it soon, and make a sample slide show with the pictures I have already saved in my folders. I don't have much music saved on my hard drive, and don't use mp3 players yet. I have a few CD's I could copy to my music folder. Not really anything with a Hawaiian theme though, I'll have to get something when I get over there for the music part.
I like that picture of the shirt waving in the wind. It's kind of like one of those, "I made it to the mountian peak" scenes. I'll have to take an extra shirt with me and see if I can get one to fly like that. Or have my husband fly his, as I'm not going to take mine off, sorry..... I don't want to scare anybody ;-)
I just read online about a Wayfaring and Navigational Festival in Hilo. It happens once a year in October, I watched the littel U-Tube video of last years event and it looks fun. We will pencil that into our agenda. My husband loves boats. Especially sail boats. He was a sailor in the navy years ago and everytime he has a chance to get near a sailboat, he is there. So I think that will be a good one for us. I hope we can find some other boat related venues. Anyone out there have an suggestions on where to see or even take a little ride on a sailboat?
Thank you all for your suggestions, all are appreciated and I'm getting pretty excited about the trip!
Diana
Thanks, now I can label that photo. :-)
I have Found some really nice places on the Big Island we are looking at buying i would like to know how to get a local new paper or an on line news paper some local information or any thing about the area.
Sarge
Here you go Sarge;
http://ee.hawaiitribune-herald.com/edition/
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/classifieds/
http://ee.westhawaiitoday.com/
http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/classifieds/
http://honolulu.craigslist.org/big/apa/
Hope that helps!
Aloha, Dave
Thank you for the information me and the wife are looking forward to seeing the area.
I sent you a D Mail TY
Sarge
Thanks Dave for those Newspaper links, that is helpful for me too. While I'm not quite moving there yet, I am visiting and will be there in a few days. Will be on the Hilo side next week and will be looking for some nice gardens to visit. Might go to the Hilo Farmers Market next Wed. and the Sailing & Boating Festival on the U of H Campus next Friday. I'm going to read the local newspaper online for the next few days. So thanks again for those links. You probably know Carol too and I'm planning to visit her while I am there.
If you have any last minute advise to pass on to me, I am open to ideas.
Aloha,
Diana
Be sure to cruise all the County and State Beach Parks on the Hamakua Coast. Including Hakalau, which is private, but open to the public. Perfect for a weekday picnic (a bit crowded on weekends).
The Puna Coast is the most beautiful scenic drive (State Hwy. 137, Kapoho - Kalapana Rd.)
The Saddle Road for native plants. Stainback Hwy., if you have a 4-whl.-drv.
Kona side is the most tourist-trap-like.
Hilo side has the most gardens (because of the water).
Carol & Bob are the best of neighbors. If you like tropical plants, you will be impressed and surprised, when you see the gardens that they are building. Their well cared for collection rivals any botanical garden on the Island for content. Each time I've been there, Carol always shows me plants I've never seen before. You'll also be sure to learn something about Hoya!
The DLNR Arboretum on Kilauea Ave. is worth seeing (your allowed to collect fruit & seeds with a simple permit) in Hilo.
Also the Botanical Gardens at the University of Hawaii at Hilo (Cycads and Palms; I helped plant them).
There are Palm Society, Bamboo Society, Native Plant Society and Vireya Society plantings at Pana'ewa Zoo near Hilo.
This photo is a picnic area in old Sugar Cane factory ruins at Hakalau Beach Park. A privately owned and maintained recreation area for the public!
Puna Coast!
Kona sunset.
I love those photo shots they are awesome Dave.
it may be some time before we move as well , even though we are looking at places in Hawaii the News links provide a way to learn about the area other then the net its self.
I have found that it is much like shopping for a car when looking at property on line you get what they want you to see andthen have to look up some of the words they use so you know what they are trying to sell you. I have been surffing several local real estate folks sites on the island and looking at what is there keeping in mind what Dave has informed me of (I kind of knew that.... but not about your area that info was very helpful to me Thank you Dave) many places look so nice untill you look up some of the words ...permited,catchwater, offgrid,needs-up-dated, needs TLC and many more are just the same as here in our own state but some of those i had to look up .
I will Say I will be making a trip to see any place be for buying it . I would never but it blind and would have some one such as a lawyer look at the contract before i did so.
Dave you have been very helpful. thanks again.
Sarge
I believe most of the places on the BI have catchment systems. The rainwater is delicious but the systems do need regular maintenance to keep that water pure and clean.
they did show a few systems that were installed . I think some of them were a UV,osmosiss-? type , and many had double systems instaled and double filtered . is that unusual ? or just smart ? the more the better I would think but it would an expence worth the effort.
Sarge