Hawaiian Noir

We’re heading out tomorrow for an extended Hawaiian vacation. We’ll return the last week in June. The bags are packed and we’re itching to go. Unlike previous trips, we’re not doing a lot of island-hopping or condo jumping.

We stay for 30 days in the Colony Surf on the Diamond Head end of Waikiki. We’ve rented the same studio we stayed in last year on the top floor with a gorgeous view of Diamond Head. Imagine waking up to this sight every morning.

There is a small beach down below that is shared with Outrigger Canoe Club. It’s the perfect spot for catching the sunset. Not far from that beach is one of our favorite beaches—Kaimana Beach—where we used to go nearly every Sunday.

We’re calling this our Mai Tai and Music tour. Mary Fran has compiled a list of all the best Mai Tai bars and I’ve scouted out all the music venues. Some of them overlap of course. The House Without a Key in the Halekulani Hotel, The Royal Hawaiian Mai Tai Bar, and the Hilton Hawaiian Village have performers we hope to see and hear for the price of a drink or three. We discovered that the House Without A Key now recommends reservations, so we made them.

There are also some free performances we intend to take advantage of. Waikiki Beach Walk has regular performances by Blaine Kia and his wife’s hula halau. We also hope to catch the Royal Hawaiian Band at Iolani Palace or Kapiolani Park Bandstand.

We have tickets to hear Raiatea Helm at Honolulu Theater, Ledward Kaapana at Slack Key Lounge, and Henry Kapono and Ledward at the Blue Note. All in all, I’m pretty excited about Oahu.

After Oahu, we head to Maui. First to George Kahumoku’s Slack Key Guitar and Ukulele Workshop at Napili Kai. We attended last year and, man it was fantastic. I got to learn from, and play with, legendary Hawaiian musicians and up-and-coming performers. Plus an immersion in Hawaiian culture. We’ll be there a week. After that, we’ll be in Kihei Maui for two weeks.