A holiday episode of "Hawaii Five-0" next week includes Chin Ho Kelly (Daniel Dae Kim) taken hostage by McGarrett's father's murderer. So much for the holiday spirit.
On Dec. 1 I walked out of the 3D Travel offices to Honolulu's version of a Winter Wonderland. Every building in the downtown area dresses up for the holidays: the trees are wrapped in lights, the buildings are draped in wreaths and boughs...
It's December 1, and for many of you the holidays are well under way with trees bought and trimmed, presents collected and soon to be wrapped, shopping lists attacked and parties planned. Here's a Hawaiian-themed playlist to keep the spirit going.
Next week we're back with a new episode of "Hawaii Five-0" titled "Palekaiko," which is a non-word in Hawaiian but is meant to mean paradise. I'm thinking they intentionally named it that because it turns out for one honeymooning couple that Hawaii is not paradise at all.
A curious thing happens when your family moves away to the Mainland (my father retired two years ago and moved to Idaho, an impossibly cold but beautiful, forested place) — your holidays are sometimes free.
The Koko Crater Classic Triathlon — no where near Koko Crater. An armored truck heist purportedly on Kalia Road in Waikiki was, in fact, next to the parking structure at Neil Blaisdell Center in Honolulu. A humdinger of locales when the Five-0 squad splits up to take out four triathletes who just stole millions worth of diamonds...
I love hiking, and I'd say I only do it for the gorgeous Island vistas and the connection to nature, but it's also to help me stay in shape. This becomes especially important through the holiday season when the calories start to pile on and then, quite out of nowhere, something else starts to pile on. Boo.
An armored car heist that isn't about the money but involves a countdown to murder? Guess we'll see what the writers mean next week. In the meantime, sneak peek scenes include...
The squad investigates the dirty deeds of a femme fatale (former "community," aka CIA) while protecting a dictator who is in the Islands en route to the U.N. Strap on your aviator goggles as we fly around Oahu:
We've got a female killer and the attempted assassination of a foreign dignitary in the next episode, oddly named "Poipu," which is a lovely beach and resort area on Kauai's south shore
A reminder to all you Scene Spotters: You can now fly to one site on 3DHawaii.com that includes all the major filming locations on Oahu: Find it here » One link flies you there, then you can fly among all the locations in 3D –– it's our one-stop-shop of "Hawaii Five-0." Enjoy!
Next week's episode titled "Manao" (pronounced Mah-nah-OH, has many meanings including thought, belief, idea, knowledge) has the following description: A Hawaiian luau turns into a nightmare when the body of a dead cop, who turns out to be Danny's ex-partner from the Honolulu P.D., is found in the barbeque pit on the next episode of Hawaii Five-0. Ew...
Since my birthday is on Halloween, you’d think I’d be the perfect person to write about the Haunted Lagoon, which just finished its third year at the Polynesian Cultural Center. You couldn’t be more wrong.
We have a new feature in Scene Spotting: One page you can link to with the primary locations around the Island where "Hawaii Five-0" has been shooting.
Have you had the Doubletree cookie? I have a friend through the UCLA Bruin Club of Hawaii (Go Bruins!) who used to be the front office manager at the Doubletree Alana Hotel, and he was the HOOKUP for these amazing cookies...
Next week's episode "Hoapono" is filmed in large part on the Battleship Missouri at Pearl Harbor, where a bad guy –– or not, we'll have to wait and see –– takes hostages. It's also where McGarrett's grandfather served and died during World War II
I didn't do a count on how many times "haole" made it into this week's episode, but it was more than a handful. It means foreigner, but commonly refers to white people. It's starting to rub our favorite necktied detective Danno Williams the wrong way...
Now that CBS has picked up "Hawaii Five-0" for a full 22 episodes, we can scene spot until May. Good times! Chime in here on where you would like to see the series film next that you haven't seen yet.
Last week I did a decadent thing for a Wednesday –– and this is Hawaii, so that really should be more the norm, but we all have busy lives and responsibilities that interfere with life in the tropics. Every so often, though, even us residents get to play tourist.
Next week's episode, "Koolauloa," involves the sharp-shooter murder of a surfer, so we're getting quality beach time with the cast and especially, evidently, Kono (Grace Park). All fans of bikini-clad babes, set those DVRs to "record."
The series took a turn for the real with this episode, referencing a sex trade and Kuhio Avenue as the "red light" district in Waikiki. In its defense, it also has fantastic dance clubs. But props to the writers for reining in the fantasy a bit.
Not many clues in next week's sneak peek of the episode entitled, "Nalowale." We can make out the beach fronting the east Honolulu neighborhood of Aina Haina...
Nice surprises with this episode. D.L. Hughley makes an appearance as a con, and Balthazar Getty was the criminal (Dawkins) who busted out of prison to get to a pile of cash. I'm not strong on recognizing the local actors, but couldn't mistake Q (stage name) as the guard who let Getty get away...
The granddaddy paddler's race between Hale O Lono Harbor on Molokai and Duke's Beach fronting the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Oahu ended today with no great surprises: Tahiti's formidable Shell Va'a team won its fifth straight ...
The point of a "hidden gem" is to let you, Fine Reader, know about cool places to go and dine in Hawaii that you might otherwise overlook because it's not on the Main Tourist Drag. But even I didn't know about Bruno's Forno and it's two blocks from where I live.
It's the introduction of Kukui High School, the fictional alma mater of Chin Ho Kelly and Steve McGarrett, where they met all those years ago (as set up in the pilot episode).
I did a post a few weeks ago about the easier hikes to do around Oahu. They're actually some of my favorites because they deliver on the views without working you over. But when it comes to hiking, honestly, I dearly love getting worked.
Past the pilot and heading into the meat of the series, "Hawaii Five-0"'s newest episode starred several prime Oahu locations, including one of our favorites: The Hilton Hawaiian Village, which we've built out in 3D.
It was a supremely sunny day on Saturday as the annual Aloha Festivals Floral Parade wound down Kalakaua Avenue. The pau riders (pronounced Pah-OO) and their horses trotted regally down the street between convertibles bearing state political stars and marching bands...
If you're visiting Hawaii, chances are you left your fuzzies (i.e., pets) at home, where they are whimpering, sad-faced, longing for your return. I know, pets make it rough to go anywhere.
During the six-year run of "Lost," we'd have parties and name the sites on the Island where they were filming. It made for some good comedy. The Ala Wai Boat Harbor was Sydney, Australia. The canal was Korea. And, of course, Kualoa Ranch and Mokuleia served as a mythical island that channeled eletromagnetic energy.
September is Aloha Festivals month in Hawaii, a series of events that celebrates Hawaiian culture through song, dance, tradition and food. The best part? The hoolaulea.
V Lounge caused a tremor in Hawaii's pizza scene when it started serving up its kiawe-wood-fired creations in 2009. The pizzaiolo chef, Alejandro "Aker" Briceno, has a global perspective...
It was a C-R-O-W-D, and I know part of that is because of the hype surrounding the reincarnation of the classic series, but I can't help but wonder if it's also because everyone misses Sunset on the Beach. The movie-on-the-beach program fell victim to city budget cuts, but CBS pulled it off with big-time sponsor Chevy. C'mon Honolulu, can we get a sponsor?
I didn't have much time for it on Saturday, but there was no way I was missing out on the 1st Annual Rice Fest at Aloha Tower. Rice is important among most cultures in the world, of course, but I don't know of a place that has our same level of cultural fusion that places rice in such high priority in our diet. Literally, nobody in Hawaii doesn't eat rice.
You know that restaurant that wins all these awards and about which you heard amazing things, but you never got around to dining there because [insert excuse here]? You always meant to go to this place: It buzzed like a bee in the back of your mind. Remember to check this place out! it said.
It may seem to the outside eye that Hawaii is a state of casual wear and slippers. And that's true for the most part, but we have some talented, fashion-forward designers and labels...
Second place is losing (they say) and not worth crowing about, but our scrappy team came just inches shy of glory at last night's Stump! trivia smackdown at The Manifest, and I can't help but think a victory is, well, manifest.
On Friday, I walked around Diamond Head, lounged and snapped photos at Duke's OceanFest and consumed more food and tea on the Veranda at the Moana Surfrider than one human should rightly pack in. How's a girl to cap that?
It's easy to forget when you live in a place its uniqueness and allure. That's true of most places, even in the world's most tantalizing destinations. You just... get used to it. But it's different with Hawaii.
Saturday was the occasion of Yelp's first birthday in Hawaii – that site with the "power to the people" reviews of restaurants and more. They hosted it at the urban, arty Fresh Cafe, which itself just hit a year in business.
Oahu has hiking enthusiasts aplenty, so it was unusual to see a trail with hardly anyone on it. Guess that's the benefit of hiking in remote Pupukea on the famed North Shore.
It was a packed house at the Academy of Arts for the Joy of Sake Thursday night. More than 300 sakes with various degrees of rice refinement (as noted by labels Daiginjo, Junmai and Ginjo) were available for tasting. It's hard to get your head around the scope of that, but simply put, you're not going to try all of them.
We're getting a weekly pau hana ("work is done," aka happy hour) thing going at the Team Vision Virtual offices. The Manifest, an art-filled, edgy bar in Honolulu's Arts District in Chinatown, offers a trivia night on Tuesdays called Stump!
One assumption you might make about a Hidden Gem is that the product or service (in this case, food) that's being proffered is exquisite and unique, a must-have or-do experience, but not easily found or well known. And you'd be right. But this one you may have heard about. They're legendary, after all. But tucked into a nondescript strip mall on King Street near Keeaumoku in Honolulu, you wouldn't know it by looking at it.
Those of us who live in Hawaii are often asked where we go on vacation – and usually with a droll smile indicating that we would have no reason to travel anywhere since we're already in paradise. And, well, not to brag, but sure – nothing makes us happier than staycations
Believe it or not, the scrappy group at Team Vision Virtual doesn't spend all day behind a desk working out website kinks (though, admittedly, pre-launch there was a stretch of it). We get out to play, too!
Welcome to 3DHawaii.com, the only place you can virtually travel through Hawaii in three dimensions -- no funny glasses required. This blog is your first stop for the latest on the site, including the newest buildings (and towns!) built out in 3D, events happening around the Islands and other cool things to do in paradise.
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