Ballistic missiles, tsunamis and other Tropical Tales. . .

We arrived in Hawaii the day after its now-infamous missile warning was issued – a false alarm that reverberated around the world.

A few days after we arrived we missed the tsunami warning for the island of O’ahu. It had been real but issued during the night and withdrawn before we woke.

Last week we missed – again, by a day -- a high speed shoot-em-up freeway chase on O’ahu’s west side near our Ko Olina resort  in which the suspect was shooting at pursuing police and later held them at bay for 17 hours in the small town just north of us.

It seems that even a tropical island paradise has both 'wonders' and 'warts'.  Regulars here know I usually focus on the ‘wonders’ because I want to inspire you to pack up and head out on your own adventures or to entertain you armchair travelers. But sometimes the ‘warts’ are as interesting as the wonders and are worthy of focus . . . for example:

The Missile Alert

The emergency alert showing on some cell phones in Hawaii

In case you’ve been off the planet or away from the news in recent weeks, here's the gist of what happened: On Saturday, Jan. 13th the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency (HI-EMA) issued the alert shown in the photo above. It appeared on some cell phones and the state’s warning systems.

(Intercontinental ballistic missiles are designed primarily to carry nuclear warheads so with the war of words going on between North Korea and the U.S. you can imagine the way the message was interpreted).

Sunday, Jan. 14, 2018 headline in the Honolulu paper

Within two minutes officials knew the warning was sent in error - there was no missile -- yet it took 38 minutes to issue a corrected message. Now that might not sound like a very long time, but from the stories we’ve heard and read, it was for many an eternity and a horrifying one at that:

*families huddled together in interior closets and called loved ones elsewhere in the world to say goodbye. Then cell phone systems jammed and phones didn’t work.

*at least one man on the island of O’ahu had a heart attack,

* some hotels evacuated tourists, others had them shelter in place some issued emergency directives, others didn't.

* a local man told us he grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniels and headed to his roof to watch it end – he knew there would be no place to safely shelter, he said.

* a long-married couple visiting the island told each other ‘it had been a great run’, made themselves MaiTais and went to the beach to sip them while waiting for the end.

Remember, many residents of the island of O’ahu are only a generation away from - and can still tell personal stories of -- the World War II Pearl Harbor attack by the Japanese. So alerts for any type of imminent attack are taken seriously.

The Missile’s Fallout

The day we arrived on O’ahu; the day after the false alarm, the investigations were already underway. The employee in charge of pushing that button had done so in error, and was horrified about it, it was reported. News stories over the days following said the employee was placed on a leave of absence and death threats were being received at the agency.  . .

Headline Honolulu newspaper Jan. 31, 2018

Two and a half weeks later, the missile's fallout continues. On Jan. 31st headlines were still in mega-point type face and more information was being released about the investigation’s findings and conclusions:

*The employee who sent the false alert had been a ‘source of concern’ for more than 10 years. And had at least two times before this incident had confused drills with real events and had been ‘counseled’.

* 'HI-EMA had not anticipated the possibility of issuing a false alert and wasn’t prepared to issue a correction” and officials also mistakenly believed  they had to consult with the Federal Emergency Management Agency before  issuing an official notice of the alert being false.

* The Governor ‘was delayed in sending out social media notification because he forgot his Twitter password'.

* The employee was fired and the head of the agency resigned. (The employee has hired an attorney and been giving interviews to news media that counter some of the report conclusions.)

Then Came the Tsunami Alert. . .

Wind and rain often are part of an island visit

We first learned of the tsunami from an ex pat British friend back home in our Greek Mani who wrote a note saying, “Bloody Hell. . .now a tsunami?!”  I wrote back assuring him that the alert had been for the West Coast of the United States after an earthquake in the Pacific Ocean near Alaska. “No where near us,” I assured him.

Well, later in the day we learned that there had been an alert issued for our island as a second earthquake had occurred nearer Hawaii – several night owls here were up late enough to receive it on their cell phones.

Our resort  manager explained later that with a tsunami – unlike an incoming missile – there’s usually a four to six hour window before it hits so they were aware of the warning but opted to make sure it was going to stay valid  before rousting several thousand guests in the middle of the night. The alert was called off a few hours after being issued.

Ignorance is bliss, I’ve decided.

Shoot outs and other day-to-day realities

Beaches on O'ahu's west side

With a population estimate of 1.4 million people this island state ranks 13th in the US for population density.

The island of O’ahu (best known for its Honolulu and Waikiki Beach) has some 950,000 of the state’s residents. Crime shouldn’t be a surprise here but still it seems incongruous with the island’s beauty. We visitors find ourselves so enchanted with our surroundings we wonder how residents could possibly abuse this paradise with crime.

The shootout I referenced in the opening of this post took place on the Main Road on this end of the island, a few miles northwest of the resort. It involved a high speed chase with the fleeing suspect shooting at pursuing officers and ended with a 17-hour stand-off at a residence in the town of Waianae.. The alleged ‘shooter’ was reportedly under the influence of crystal methamphetamine, or ‘ice’ as it is called.  No one was injured and the suspect is being held on $3 million bail.
(Sounds more like an episode of Hawaii-5-0 than reality, doesn’t it?)

Junk card along one of the Waianae country roads

I’ve been working on a freelance travel article while we are here which has taken us to new territory on the island – beautiful places tucked away in the shadows of the Waianae Mountain range.  One of the most startling things about this new area was that locals are dumping cars along side the roadways.

We asked a local resident about the unsightly dumping and she said, “The Mayor came out and made them clean it up. They were all gone – they hauled them away but then they were all back again.”  'Really??', we asked ourselves. Sadly, that section of roadway looks worse than some third world countries we’ve visited. Warts, to be sure.

So . . .Warts or Wonders?

Lanikai Beach - windward side O'ahu

We’ve been asked a dozen times by people we’ve met this trip, “Why are you living in Greece?” but no one asks, “Why did you come to Hawaii?”   No one questions this tropical paradise as a destination. The parade of wide-bodies jets begin arriving early each morning from Asia and Australia and by early afternoon the parade is coming from the United States and Canada. The number of visitors here topped 9.4 million last year.

Ewa Beach area looking back at Honolulu and Diamond Head

Hawaii and our island of O’ahu haven't lost their magic despite bungled emergency alerts, irresponsible dumping, crime and other ‘warts’.

Sunset from our timeshare home at KoOlina - O'ahu

Bottom line is: no place is perfect – despite what the tourist organizations tell you.    And Hawaii’s welcome and its wonders continue to overshadow its warts. We are thankful the missile alert wasn’t real – what a shame it would be to destroy this tropical paradise . . .

That’s it for this week from the island of O’ahu. Our time in Hawaii has gone rapidly. Won’t be long before we are heading back to The Stone House on the Hill. Thanks for the time you spend with us and we wish you a safe and happy week until we are back together again.

Linking up this week with:

Through My Lens
Our World Tuesday
Wordless Wednesday
Travel Photo Thursday – 
Photo Friday
Weekend Travel Inspiration
Best of Weekend

Wet and Wild in Hawaii

That would be the weather to which this title refers, not Hula Babe and Beach Boy.

Our time here began 10 days ago in a picture-postcard setting; the type for which Hawaii is known. . .

. . . Mai Tai weather . . . . with tropical breezes, blue sky and plenty of sun.  These shots were taken during an outing we took along the coast to Ka’ena Beach Park at the tip of the western side of O’ahu.

Within a couple days of our arrival came the first ‘weather front’ – a storm strong enough to close the beaches on the island because of the dangerous high waves. A tourist was killed while golfing when a tree branch was blown down. A half dozen homes lost their roofs.

That tropical sunshine went into hiding behind heavy dark clouds; being fickle and peeking out  for a brief ‘sunset’ one day. So this week’s photos show you O’ahu when it isn’t postcard perfect – on the other hand, when it sure is interesting:

Our second outing was a Sunday drive under gray skies –  the kind of skies we  have in the Pacific Northwest . We passed Aloha Stadium an hour before kickoff for the Pro Bowl – I snapped the photo above between swipes of the windshield wipers. 

Those gentle Hawaiian tropical breezes have gusted throughout the week, sending sand and leaves flying. Grounds crews at Ko Olina, where we are,  have been kept busy cleaning up fallen leaves and blowing sand that has covered the grassy areas.

And the sea gods really threw a hissy fit this past week, tossing enormous waves at the shore– some the largest they’ve seen in 20 - 30 years.

These photos were taken on the day after ‘the front’s’ arrival – yet the waves still pounded the shore with a deafening rhythm.

We are reminded that while you can control many things about travel, Mother Nature still calls the shots on the weather. The photo on the left was taken a week ago, the photo on the right this Tuesday. Admittedly we aren’t suffering freezing temperatures like the mid-western United States nor fighting snow in Atlanta, but we are having a rather unusual, wet and wild time in Hawaii.

Gotta run. . .the sun’s finally out and the surf is finally down. . .just sprinkles and some wind. Time to get some rays. . .Hope you’ll return here soon. . .

Linking up this week:

Travel Photo Thursday at Budget Travelers Sandbox
Travel Photo Discovery on Monday

Traveling the Road Not. . ., well. . ., less Taken in 2013

I’ve chosen to put a new twist on Robert Frost’s poem, “The Road Not Taken”, as we reflect on our travels this last year.

Sadly, with limited amounts of time we will always have roads not taken, but we’ve also had some great travel by choosing roads, less taken. 

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

O’ahu, Hawaii – January – February

If you drive west from Honolulu, past the town of Kapolei, past Ko Olina, a planned unit development, past Waipahu town, you come to the end of the road, where waves crash against the shore and the real beauty of O’ahu is found at every turn. . .even on days when clouds cloak the Waianae Mountains.








Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

Greece – Mani, Peloponnese – April

We set out in our rented car from Nafplio, Greece to explore a section of the Peloponnese – a taster sized sample of a rugged, but beautiful part of this country with which we are so taken. Often times we found ourselves alone for hours on a narrow roadway that looped up and down, over and around the stunning countryside. (GPS hasn’t discovered this part of the world yet.)



And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.


Vancouver Island, British Columbia – September



The narrow roadway that cuts across Vancouver Island, British Columbia was a new route for us and one that cut through magnificent old growth forests leading us to Tofino, the small fishing (and tourist) village at the end of the road.






I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.


Mo’orea – French Polynesia – South Pacific – November

Never ones to favor those group tours organized by cruise ships, we prefer to set out on our own.

Lucky for us, Avis had an ‘office’ at the dock when we arrived in Mo’orea!  And some of the sights we saw were simply amazing to our American-safety-first way of thinking.


That’s it for this Travel Photo Thursday! Drop by Budget Travelers Sandbox where we are linking up today for some more armchair travel!


Our wishes to each of you for a Happy New Year – full of travel whether it be by car, bike, ship, plane or armchair.  And try putting away that GPS once or twice and set out on the road less traveled. We recommend it!

The Birthday Bangle: Weaving Heritage and History

The tale of this birthday bangle begins more than a century ago in the time when Kings and Queens ruled this tropical  Kingdom. . .



It was in 1887 during a visit to London by Hawaii’s Queen Kapiolani and Princess Liliuokalani to help celebrate Queen Victoria’s Jubilee, that they were given gold bracelets on which their names were engraved in Old English lettering and filled with black enamel.

(Another version of the story says King Kalakaua was the guest of Queen Victoria in 1883 and she sent the  bracelet with him for Princess Liliuokalani.) 

Whoever had the bracelet liked it so much that once they got back to the Hawaiian Palace they had other jewelry made in a similar style to give as gifts. Thus began the tradition of Hawaii Heritage Jewelry.

Just last year during our visit here I complimented a store clerk on the several Heritage bracelets she wore, saying I’d considered buying one at Costco but that it was stamped, “Kuuipo” (Sweetheart) - and I hadn't liked it.



She quickly cautioned, “Don’t buy one of those! You must put a name on it yourself.” Which made no sense to me at the time.

In the year that passed since that conversation I’ve learned that Heritage jewelry has been given over the decades by many Hawaiians to commemorate a life milestone: births, deaths, anniversaries, weddings, graduations, birthdays. 

A name is imprinted on the jewelry which is believed to carry the ‘mana’, the supernatural power that resides in a person, animal or object.

Basically Heritage jewelry becomes more than just a piece of silver or gold because it carries the spirit of the name imprinted on it and the wearer keeps that spirit close to them by wearing the piece of jewelry.



The Birthday Bangle

Readers of Travelnwrite know that this is one of those birthday milestone years for me.   It’s one significant enough to warrant a Heritage bangle. . .

In Hawaii, it is believed that the spirit of a place

is carried in the spirit of its name.

The place we call our second ‘home’ is on the island of O’ahu and was once a fishing camp of Hawaiian aristocracy. It is said to have been a retreat for King Kamehameha. The area’s present day name was given it by a well-known religious leader, Rev. Abraham Akeka,of Honolulu’s Kawaiahoo Church, who called it:

Ko’olina ~ ‘fulfillment of joy’

It seemed a two-fold appropriate name –or  mana - for my birthday bangle. After all, fulfillment of joy seems to sum up our travel lifestyle and I like the idea of  keeping the spirit of this special place with me all the time.

The bracelet’s Monarch pattern is a reminder of those Hawaiian ali’i who so long ago enjoyed these same lagoons along the island’s western coast as we do now (during at least a small portion of each year). 

The design I selected incorporates the ocean’s waves and our old friend “Honu” the sea turtle. 


As for its mana?  It’s there, that’s for sure. . . because when I look at the bracelet, this is what I see. . .

If you were designing a bracelet to carry a special 'mana' what would it have on it?

Aloha from Hawaii. . .

That’s it for this week’s Travel Photo Thursday. For more armchair traveling check out Nancie’s Budget Travelers Sandbox!

About  Hawaiian Heritage Jewelry:  My bracelet was made by the Honolulu Jewelry Company. They have no retail outlets, their office/factory is in a light industrial area near the Honolulu Airport. Their website: www.HonoluluJewelryCompany.com, 888-889-6986, Twitter or Facebook/honolulujewelry.  (With this company, not only could I customize the bracelet, but I met the four artisans who actually created it. . . and that makes it even more special!)

E Komo Mai to Our Hale Moana Home

E Komo Mai, (Welcome), to Hale Moana, our home on O’ahu, Hawaii.

It’s not a permanent home, it’s temporary, just a month, 1/12th of a year . . . but far longer than either of us once ever anticipated ‘living’ in this tropical paradise in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.



Over the decades we’ve gone to realtor open houses during visits to Hawaii and for decades have declared ownership of what we deemed ‘our kind of places’ to be beyond our budget. 

That was, until we discovered the world of timeshare ownership.  That was five years ago and life hasn’t been the same since. . .

Now, in the second week of our four week stay at Marriott’s Ko Olina Beach Club; our ‘home’ is on O’ahu’s western shore about 30 minutes from the Honolulu Airport and light years away from the hustle and bustle of that big city.



I’d worried – when we made our first purchase into this short-term ownership world – that we had been here only five days. What if we got bored after a week? Horrors! What if we got tired of returning to the same place year after year? (That part really isn’t a concern because you just trade your ‘home’ for one somewhere else).

My initial fears were unfounded (as they usually are) and we spent the next three years acquiring additional bits of time here. . .

This year we live in Hale Moana, the same building as our previous stays and each year we’ve had a different address within the building but all units are identical.  So E Komo Mai, or welcome, to our Hawaiian home were the temperatures are in the 80’s with sun and blue skies as compared to 'back home' where temperatures are in 30’s and 40’s:

As for what we do. . . well, we live here (and work here, for as much as we work these days).  A typical weekday finds us exercising in the morning, lunching on our lanai and then heading out to the beach or walking, or sunning, or reading or playing in the lagoon, pool or hot tub until it is time to fix dinner.  A far cry from owning homes in Mexico and spending most of our time working on them or making trips to the local hardware store. . .




Still there are those who don’t quite understand the allure of such an ownership. Ah, but those who’ve taken the plunge, all seem to be like us: having a ball at their second home ~ a home that requires no more work than writing an annual maintenance check and reserving our time.

Hope you’ve enjoyed today’s visit – on Travel Photo Thursday I will show you a bit of the island. . .you might be surprised at what lies Beyond Waikiki.  Aloha until then.

TPThursday: When Life’s a Beach. . .

As our summer days come to an end and autumn promises cloudy, cool – and damp – days in the Pacific Northwest, we start daydreaming about sun and sand.  Beaches beacon. Memories of some of our favorite beaches are the topic of today’s post.

Malaga, Spain’s  Costa del Sol: A Sunday morning stroll last November on the beach included a stop to inspect this new-to-us way of fishing. Tall poles were inserted in the sand and the line (barely glimmering in the sunlight) stretched out into the sea – so high you could walk under them.

Ko Olina, O’ahu, Hawaii:  We’ve spent the month of January ‘living’ at Ko Olina the last couple of years thanks to taking a plunge into the ‘timeshare’ world.  This is one of our favorite spots at this development on O’ahu’s western shores, some 30 minutes from Honolulu.

Copalis Beach, Washington State:  Now you might think this photo, taken last March, is of a cloudy beach, but in this part of the world we have ourselves believing this is ‘filtered sun’.

Cabo San Lucas, Mexico:  A Carnival Cruise stop introduced us to the beauty of the beaches in this part of Mexico last April.

Riviera Nayarit, Mexico:  As much as we enjoyed our quick visit to Cabo, it was the week spent at Rancho Banderas, just north of Puerto Vallarta where our place overlooked this beautiful – and little used – beach.

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada:  While images of beaches may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of this city on the tip of Vancouver Island, all you need do is walk a view blocks from the Inner Harbor and you’ll find them.  Well-maintained trails lead from the roadway overlooking them to the cove beaches below.

How about you?  Has life been a beach this year?

This is post links to Budget Traveler's Sandbox weekly feature, Travel Photo Thursday.  Head over there for more photos.  Hope you’ll stop by again as we tell you of our continuing adventures in Italy this month.  You can subscribe at TravelnWrite or follow along on our Facebook page