U.S. Sen. Barack Obama arrives on Oahu today for nine days of rest and relaxation, his first break since presumably clinching the Democratic presidential nomination in June.

It'll also be Hawaii-born Obama's first return trip to the Islands in 18 months—he, his wife Michelle and his two daughters traveled to the state each December to visit family up until he announced his run for the presidency in early 2007.

So far, only two campaign-related Hawaii appearances are in the offing—one private, one public.

All 500 tickets for a $2,300-a-person private fundraiser at the Kahala Hotel & Resort next Tuesday have already sold out.

But Obama campaign officials said last night that the Illinois junior senator's first stop after landing this afternoon will be a "Welcome to Hawaii" event at Ke'ehi Lagoon Beach Park. Gates to the park—entry is at 465 Lagoon Drive—will open at 12:30 p.m. Entry is free, but RSVP is recommended. Click here to RSVP.

Keehi? Not the most picturesque park for the national media cameras, in our humble opinion. But, oh well.

Wondering what former local boy Obama’s tips are for an ideal Oahu vacation?

In an interview with the Honolulu Star-Bulletin in February, he listed his favorite things to do on the island:

• Go to the beach (a given, see photo above taken on his last visit)

• Visit Waimea Falls

• Check out the Honolulu Zoo

• Hang out in Kapiolani Park

• Watch the fireworks at Ala Moana Beach Park

• Hike up to Manoa Falls

• And, of course, spend some time with his tutu (he’s referring to the Island word for grandmother, not the ballet costume), Madelyn Dunham, who resides on Oahu.

All great ideas for any Oahu vacationer, though we can't recommend showing up on the doorstep of Barack Obama’s grandmother unless invited.

In the Star-Bulletin interview, Obama also recalled previous trips where he would go out alone to Sandy Beach (on Oahu’s southeast side) to do a little bodysurfing. Should he risk the at times dangerous shore break at Sandy’s on this trip, he won't be swimming alone. A Secret Service detail now watches over him at all times.

Obama may even have a beach of his own to wade in—he'll reportedly be chilling in a private oceanfront home at an undisclosed Oahu location. All beaches in Hawaii are accessible to the public so you may catch him chancing a wave or two.

If not, there's alway Zippy's. Everyone here eats there at some point.

  

We know how it is.

You go out of town on a vacation or a business trip. You have family or friends from out of town staying at the house for a week. You get slammed at the office. There’s a weeklong marathon of Magnum P.I. episodes on cable.

When daily life intrudes, you can’t find a few minutes to check out our daily updates.

Whatever the reason … we understand: Sometimes you miss one of our fine Hawaii Today posts while it’s on the homepage.

Our Hawaii Today posts never disappear. You can always find them—going all the way back January—by clicking “next entries” at the bottom of  the home page. There are now more than 300 posts on all things Hawaii. (Trust us, we counted ‘em.)

Still, we thought it’d be a good idea to bring some of our best stuff back up to the top of the homepage again—as links—in case you missed them. If you like it, we’ll do it every few weeks.

Here’s the first bunch:

• Vintage photos show bygone Hawaii from soldiers' view

• Pssst! Want to see an amazing new Kilauea volcano photo?

• New Kilauea volcano land collapses explosively into ocean

• Kilauea volcano magma meets ocean with 100-foot lava burst

• "Explosion-like" earthquakes, lava fountains stir Kilauea volcano

• Hawi was great! What about Lanai?

• Hidden Hawaii: Hawi and Beyond

• Free Hawaii trip up for grabs

• The Koko Crater Trail. I climb it.

• It's O-bon season in Hawaii

• Scenes from Lantern Floating Hawaii ceremony

• Indiana Jones and the Eight Best Movies Filmed in Hawaii

• Char's Chopsticks: Dim sum at Mei Sum in Honolulu’s Chinatown district

• Jack Johnson and Kokua Festival: A fifth-row dispatch

• My Favorite Places: Thurston Lava Tube

• Remembering Mauna Loa's last eruption

• Maui’s humpback whales

• Hawaii's state parks: Worth a visit?

  

All of us who love trekking Maui’s most amazing crater are suddenly happy campers.

Haleakala National Park has done away with the lottery system for cabin rentals within the mountain’s crater.

Why is this such good news?

Hiking and camping Mount Haleakala’s mountaintop “crater”—actually a massive “erosional depression”—is one of the top three or four backpacking experiences in Hawai‘i. It’s certainly a wonderland for trekkers who want to experience Hawai‘i’s stunning, raw volcanic landscape.

Haleakala’s bowl is 7 miles across and 2,600 feet deep, with more than 36 miles of curving trails between vivid red, amber and black cinder cones. Spread out among it all are rare endemic silversword plants (below), a hidden lava tube and rustic but comfy cabins to protect against the nighttime icy cold.

But until now, if you didn’t want to do a day hike into Haleakala or set up a tent in one of two small primitive campgrounds, trying to reserve one of the three cabins was a roll of the dice. You’d submit on paper your name, the cabin or cabins you wanted to stay in, and your requested dates. Applications would arrive from around the world. A lottery decided who got cabins.

Waiting to see if you’d won was exciting—a bit like Vegas for nature nuts. But it was hard for those of us on tight schedules trying to plan from Honolulu or Helsinki.

The new system is more practical. All reservations are taken over the phone on a first-come-first-served basis.

Call (808) 572-4400, between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., seven days a week to make a reservation. You can make reservation three months in advance, to the day. So plan ahead. The cost is only $75 per cabin per night for up to 12 people.

There’s a three-consecutive-night maximum stay in the crater, but a two night maximum stay at any one cabin.

An online reservation option will also be available soon.

 

About two weeks ago I replied to HAWAII Magazine reader Veronica Craig’s question about whether there was a walking trail up Koko Crater, marked by old railroad ties.

Even as I was writing the post, I knew I had to check it out myself. A day or so ago, I grabbed my favorite pair of worn out sneakers and hit the trail.

I convinced my friend to come with promises of free lunch after. Though it was the middle of the day, the cloudy skies sheltered us from the sun. The breeze that day was stiffer than normal which sent clouds of dirt into our eyes. Gunfire from the nearby shooting range rang out. It was more a war zone than a recreational hike.

“What did you get me into?” my friend asked.

The hike can be broken into three parts: the gradual slope at the beginning that goes for about three-quarters of the journey, the steep ascent up the final leg, and the rickety bridge that connects the two.

The bridge terrified me. It was suspended at least 8 to 10 feet above the ground and there were wide gaps in the railroad ties. I crawled on all fours, grabbing each tie for dear life, while children half my size playfully skipped past me. My friend laughed at me from the other side.

By the end it felt like we were walking 90 degrees upward. Large concrete pavers tripped me up on numerous occasions, nearly sending me tumbling down the crater.

We got to the top in a little less than an hour. From what we saw, it was time well spent. Hawaii Kai sprawled before us. Looking out beyond Diamond Head, we caught glimpses of the Waikiki skyline. On a clearer day we would have been able to spot Molokai in the distance, but still, the moment was breathtaking.

Bunkers from World War II perched along the top; fellow hikers stretched out on their rusted roofs, soaking up the sun. Exhausted and dirty, we sat back and took in the amazing views with great satisfaction.

I am not an advanced hiker. However, I recommend Koko Crater for anyone who enjoys a good challenge. It’s an experience that can’t be missed.

If you’ve gone up Koko Crater recently, tell us what you think. Is it indeed challenging, or am I begging for unwarranted sympathy? Let me know.

 

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is looking for a few good junior rangers.

Qualifications? You’ll need to be on the Big Island from June 16 through 19. You should love hiking, studying lava forms, following sea turtles, identifying native plants and birds and want to learn how to use a seriously cool GPS tracker. And—sorry, adult readers—your age will have to fall somewhere between 9 and 12.

Keiki O Hawaii Nei is a free junior ranger program guided by Hawaii Volcanoes National Park rangers. Think three-and-a-half-days of field trips exploring the park’s substantial acreage of pristine Big Island environmental coolness and its relationship to Hawaiian culture and you get the idea.

“The whole idea behind Keiki O Hawaii Nei is to weave the culture and the sciences together, making it fun and exciting for kids,” said park ranger and education specialist Joni Mae Makuakane-Jarrell. “The goal is to get them to love the park and take ownership so they can become rangers or leaders in their own community and, hopefully, make a difference.”

Keiki o Hawaii nei is Hawaiian for “children of beloved Hawaii.”

The annual program is open to the first 24 kids that sign up. All that’s required of parents is dropping their kids off at park headquarters each morning with a bag lunch, and then picking them up in the afternoon. Makuakane-Jarrell (that's her in the pic below) and the rangers take care of the rest.

Here’s a peek at this year’s itinerary:

DAY 1
A morning hike exploring the cultural uses of native plants at Kipukapuaulu—a forest oasis of rare endemic plants surrounded by Mauna Loa lava flows. An afternoon visit to Keauhou Bird Conservation Center, a San Diego Zoo-managed sanctuary for native Hawaiian birds.

DAY 2
A full day exploring Kahuku Ranch, using GPS (global positioning system) technology. The forest-filled 116,000-acre ranch is on Mauna Loa’s southwest flank.

DAY 3
Keeping tabs on the sea turtle population at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park on the Kailua-Kona coast.

DAY 4
A half-day hike exploring lava formations at Mauna Ulu—a small flank volcano formed near Kilauea’s summit during a 1969-1974 eruption.

Kids participating all four days get a Hawaii Volcanoes National Park junior ranger badge and certificate, a compass and other cool stuff.

“In the last five years, we’ve never done the same itinerary twice for Keiki O Hawaii Nei,” said Makuakane-Jarrell. “With 333,000 acres of park, we never have to take our kids to the same places.”

For more information or to sign your child up, call Hawaii Volcanoes National Park education center at (808) 985-6019.
 
 

You ask. We answer.

HAWAII Magazine reader Veronica Craig writes:

On one of our many walking trips around Oahu, we saw Koko Crater, with a walking track to the top that looked like steps. Nothing was mentioned in our travel books. Could you please let us know, as we would love to climb to the top.

We’re guessing the step-like “walking track” you’re referring to, Veronica, are the ties of an abandoned railway that runs along the crater's west side. This is one of the best trails leading to Pu’u Mai, the crater’s highest peak. The ties were for an incline tram used by the military during World War II, to transport personnel and supplies to a lookout post on the summit. 

Access to this trail starts at Koko Head Park in Hawaii Kai. The first part of the hike is over a newly landscaped hill behind Goeas Baseball Field to the bottom of the old rail track. It’s an exhausting trip. But the real fun is still to come.

Your next mission is a trek up the 1,000-plus “steps” to the top of Koko crater. The reward? A panoramic view of the east Honolulu shoreline—not to mention one heck of a workout.

A note of caution: Parts of the decades-old railway trail are in disrepair, possibly unsafe and recommended for experienced hikers only. If you do go, prepare accordingly and proceed with caution. You’ll find tips from The Division of State Parks for preparing for similar hikes here.

I haven’t hiked to the summit of Koko Crater yet, but it now definitely tops my list of things I need to do this summer. With views like this, I don’t think I can pass it up any longer.

Photos courtesy of Wikipedia/Commons

 

With the prices of just about everything skyrocketing these days, it doesn’t hurt to save a little. The same goes during vacation time, which is why TripAdvisor.com just released their annual list of the Top 10 free attractions in the country.

 We are pleased to note that a pair of local treasures found their way onto the list: Waimea Canyon at No. 3 and the USS Arizona Memorial at No. 6, respectively. 

Waimea Canyon State Park stretches across 1,866 acres with numerous hiking trails and can be accessed from Waimea on Hawaii state road 550. In addition to breathtaking views and beautiful vistas, the canyon has a unique geologic history— formed by a catastrophic collapse of a volcano along with the continuous process of erosion.

Meanwhile, the USS Arizona Memorial offers an entirely different experience. The visitor center at the Arizona is operated by the National Park Service and completely free to the public. Access to the memorial is by boat and is limited by numbered ticket. So if you do make the trip, go early! The 4,500 tickets offered daily usually run out by mid-morning.  However, this does not deter the one million plus visitors annually. It’s just that popular.

What topped the list? The dancing fountains of Las Vegas' Bellagio hotel. Go figure.

 

One of the joys about HAWAII Magazine is that our readers love to talk story with us. As a result, we’ve created a section in our magazine called, “Your Hawaii”—an assortment of short stories about our readers’ Hawaii experience.

In our May/June issue, HAWAII Magazine reader and geologist Lawrence Galiano and his wife, Lori, of Hammonton, N.J., tell us what it was like to spend an afternoon hiking over lava flows at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Here’s an excerpt:

“We were so close to it all—fresh lava was slowly moving just below the surface beneath our feet. … It was amazing to think that this was where the island was growing larger and larger each day.”

You’ll find the rest of Lawrence’s “Your Hawaii” story—along with tales from three other HAWAII Magazine readers—in our May/June 2008 issue, on newsstands now.

Interested in sharing your Hawaii experience with us? Submit your story and photos to yourhawaii@hawaiimagazine.com.

 

It’s winter outside our office window in downtown Honolulu--overcast skies, palm trees rustling in the chilly tradewinds. Must be as cold as 72 degrees.

What would I rather be doing on such a winter’s day in Honolulu, if I weren’t working? Five alternatives:

1.    Reading on the beach at Lanikai. Not swimming—the ocean’s a bit frosty this time of year. But sitting on the sand, finishing some long-ignored books with a view of the Mokulua Islands.

2.    Hiking into the Koolaus. My preference? The Waahila Ridge Trail above Honolulu, which begins with views of Manoa Valley, moves past the thick winter-green foliage of Kaau Crater, and ends with a more than two-thousand-foot-up view of Oahu’s windward coastline and the ocean beyond.

3.    Watching humpback whales breach off of Makapuu Point. The humpbacks return to Hawaiian waters from Alaska between December and March to breed and calve. This is one of the best places on Oahu to catch them leaping and frolicking.

4.    Having a mai tai at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel’s Mai Tai Bar. The best mai tai on Waikiki’s Kuhio Beach, with the best view—of gentle surf just footsteps away and Diamond Head. I should be blogging from there right now. Wonder if they have wi-fi.

5.    Driving around the island … stopping at the North Shore and Haleiwa town. The north shore of Oahu’s famously large winter swells are a bit unreliable this year. But ending an afternoon of surf watching with a monster Matsumoto’s shave ice—packed with ice cream, azuki beans and topped with a “snowcap” of sweet condensed milk—rules even in winter.

Any other winter-in-Honolulu suggestions from your own experiences?