View From Here - Hawaii Travel Blog

Signs of Spring

Kim Steutermann Rogers  on Fri 3/5/2010

Ode to Hawaiian Monk Seal Mom

Kim Steutermann Rogers  on Fri 12/4/2009

Meet "KP4." Here, he squawks at his mother. At six days of age, he's a cutie. But he hasn't quite figured out exactly where on mom's body that yummy-liquid-stuff dispenses. I spent three hours with the pair yesterday, and he poked mom in the belly, neck, back and tail the entire time. A few nudges he got right and milky liquid streamed down his throat--and elsewhere.

Red Sky in the Morning on Big Island

Kim Steutermann Rogers  on Sun 11/22/2009

The best way to view lava up close and personal would be to see where it entered the sea.  Yet I'd always heard the ride by boat was too long from the Kona side, so no enterprising sailors ever offered an official tour. Then, I heard about Lava Ocean Adventures.  With them, this past Friday, I experienced lava in a way I had always desired.

Now in Video: Kilauea Point

Kim Steutermann Rogers  on Mon 11/16/2009

And now, a video that visually says what I tried to put into words in my last post: There is alway something happening at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge.

39th Kona Coffee Cultural Festival

Kim Steutermann Rogers  on Sat 11/7/2009

The 39th annual Kona Coffee Cultural Festival officially kicked off last night with a lantern parade on Ali'i Drive in downtown Kailua-Kona. For the next 9 days, the event will celebrate all things coffee with samplings, farm tours, dinners, a cupping competition, a coffee picking contest, art exhibit, fun run, parades and more.  In anticipation, last week, I toured a couple Kona coffee farms on Big Island.

Multi-Cultural Healing on Kauai

Kim Steutermann Rogers  on Wed 10/7/2009

For centuries Hawaiians traveled to a healing heiau (sacred site) in Lawai valley. Then, in the late 1800s, Asian immigrants arrived to work on sugar plantations and erected Taoist and Shinto temples. In 1904, a series of eighty-eight small Shingnon shrines--miniature temples with figures of wood and stone--were crafted and set along a path to replicate a traditional temple pilgrimage route of more than 1,000 miles in Shikoku, Japan, that was established more than 1,000 years ago.

Hawaii's Road to Statehood: #4

Kim Steutermann Rogers  on Fri 8/21/2009

At 6:45 this morning, after I fed the laying hens (abandoned chicks my husband rescued from the wild a few years ago) in their coop and as I walked the dog, I noted the muted sun rising behind a bank of clouds in the eastern sky. I remember thinking how far north in the sky the sun sits these days, as I reached into the newspaper box at the end of my driveway. It was still early—for me, at least—and I hadn’t cleared the fog in my mind with my morning cup of tea yet, so I wasn’t quite prepared for the bold headline stretching across the breadth of the newspaper’s front page. “Statehood!” the one word headline exclaimed. 

Hawaii's Road to Statehood: #3

Kim Steutermann Rogers  on Thu 8/20/2009

Not always, but most stories start at the beginning. This story about Hawai'i's road to statehood, then, really starts with Kawaiaha'o Church--or, at least, what it represents.  In 1820, Christian missionaries arrived from America. On July 21, 1842, the "Great Stone Church" was dedicated, making it the first permanent Western house of worship in Hawai'i. Building it was no small task.

Hawaii's Migratory Birds

Kim Steutermann Rogers  on Mon 8/17/2009

Wedge-tailed shearwaters are migratory. Just like the Pacific Golden Plover that arrived in my yard today from the Arctic—it will stay until April or May. Just like the Laysan albatross. Just like Lee Sass.  You know Lee Sass. He served as my mentor at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, answering my myriad of questions about the seabirds--and, let me tell you, I can ask an annoying amount of questions. I recounted an incident on this blog last December about a mysterious bird perched on a rock on Moku’ae’ae Island, just north of Kilauea Point. Without looking, Lee predicted the seabird in question was a Great Frigatebird. Even with binoculars, the bird was difficult to identify. A crowd gathered. We debated. Lee stuck with his original guess; the rest of us decided the perched bird was a brown booby. Lee wasn’t convinced.

Hawaii's Road to Statehood: Part 2

Kim Steutermann Rogers  on Fri 8/14/2009

Across the street from 'Iolani Palace sits Ali'iolani Hale. Built in 1874 by King Kamehameha V, the building was originally intended to house the royal palace and serve as the seat of government. Due to escalating costs--even then building costs could get out of control--the palace portion was skipped--giving the subsequent king--Kalakaua--something to build.  The story about this property that I find most interesting relates to the statue in front.