La Dolce Vida @ The Four Seasons

 I was invited to attend a really special event at the Four Seasons Hualalai (recently voted the #1 resort in all of Hawaii by readers of Travel and Leisure) called La Dolce Vida: the Sweet Life. It was a fund raiser for the Kona Hospital sponsored by HI Luxury Magazine and the Four Seasons. 

It was a beautiful night on the grass near the Beach Tree. The music was incredible and the weather was perfect. We had a glorious sunset and met up with some great friends who came to the event. It was great to see part of my Four Seasons Ohana there too. But the star of the night was the FOOD!

The event was a showcase of the trip that Chef Nick of Beach Tree and his sidekick Chuck a.k.a. “Carlos”, restaurant manager made last spring while the restaurant was closed for repairs from the Tsunami. They toured wineries and restaurants in California’s Central Coast and then made their way to Italy where they wined and dined and cooked throughout their trip. They brought back more than just memories. The foods and wines that they experienced on their trip were shared with the lucky people at the event. Several stations were set up and we nibbled and sipped our way around them.

Chef Nick is a buddy of mine. I spent a day with him last fall and he even taught my friend Janet and I how to make his mother’s special recipe of gnocchi. You can read more about that, including the recipe here.

At the event I even got to meet some of my Facebook friends who I had not met in person before. They came to the event after I posted about it. One of them is beautiful Joy who is a talented hula dancer.

If you are on the Big Island, you must make a visit to the Four Seasons Hualalai and have lunch or dinner at Beach Tree where you can partake in some of Chef Nick’s Italian Inspired menu items made with mostly local ingredients. His wild boar ragu is to die for. Beach Tree is one of the best places to watch the sunset on the island.  

First Direct Flights!

A big ALOHA was bestowed upon all 160 passengers aboard United Airlines inaugural flight from LAX to Hilo. The 737 landed and was given a water filled welcome by two Hawaiian Fire Trucks who created a welcoming wall of water with their water cannons as the plane taxied to the gate.

 

This was a very special event for those of us who live in Hilo. The daily flights to Los Angeles and weekly flights to San Francisco not only make it easier for us and our friends/family to get to and from the mainland, but these flights bring visitors directly to our side of the big island of Hawaii. The Hawai‘i Tourism Authority estimates the new flights could bring 40,000 additional visitors to Hawai‘i Island and may generate about $50.6 million in visitor spending annually.

After landing, Hawaii Mayor Billy Kenoi boarded the plane and welcomed the passengers, then grabbed an armful of leis and started presenting leis to the passengers as they deplaned.

Captain Lance Lau piloted the first flight. He was born and raised in Hilo, so it was a homecoming of sorts to him. He is a flight instructor for United/Continental Airlines in Houston. Captain Lau was honored to take the captain’s seat for the inaugural flight to his home town and arrived looking like a movie star.  

This family from Hilo booked tickets immediately when they went on sale for the grandmother and son living in Los Angeles.

Down in the arrival lounge, Mayor Kenoi, Miss Aloha Hawaii, Tatiana Boteilho, and Big Island Visitors Bureau Executive Director, George Applegate were among the dignitaries welcoming passengers. Members of the community were in the reception area along with musicians and hula dancers. Shiny red gift bags were awarded to each passenger arriving in our lovely city. Hilo Coffee Mill gave the passengers a taste of Hilo’s best coffee while they were at the luggage carousel.

Hilo was once the second most busy airport in Hawaii. The introduction of overseas service to General Lyman Field (now Hilo International Airport) in 1967 initially met with success. Joining United Airlines and Pan American Airways in providing nonstop service to Hilo from the west coast of the U.S. were Braniff, Continental, Northwest Orient, and Western Airlines. The number of overseas passengers flying through Hilo peaked at 313,428 in 1971 and remained between 250,000 and 300,000 for most of the decade. Beginning in 1979, however, overseas passenger traffic began to fall steadily, leading one carrier after another to suspend service to Hilo. By the mid-1980s (when the sugar industry left East Hawaii) overseas traffic had fallen by such an extent that United Airlines, the sole remaining overseas carrier, terminated scheduled service on December 1, 1986. The number of overseas passengers travelling to Hilo had declined in each of the previous eight years. During the first eleven months of 1986, United Airlines had served a mere 20,914 passengers in Hilo. Hilo would be left without a direct connection to North America for nearly two decades.

In 2006 ATA began direct flights to Hilo from Oakland and the flights were well filed accepted. ATA even had to use larger aircraft because demand for the flights was so high. However, in just 2 years ATA filed for bankruptcy and once again Hilo was left with no direct flights from the mainland.

When Continental merged with United there was at last an announcement of new service to Hilo. The flights were highly anticipated and there was a huge turnout at the airport to welcome the first flight.

ALOHA to all of those landing in our lush green beautiful town which is blessed with old Hawaii traditions, beautiful waterfalls, amazing flora and fauna, an active volcano and an abundance of culture and art.

If you are interested in visiting Hilo, drop me an email and I will forward you a packet of information about our area. There are some great deals on United from LA and San Francisco in September and October! 

Big Island Film Festival Opens!

Last night Hawaii Island Mayor Billy Kenoi and his staff put on a spectacular reception along with partners Kenwood Winery and the Fairmont Orchid Hotel.  Film makers from across the country joined in the celebration of the opening of the Big Island Film Festival. 

May 11^th-15^th the Big Island will feature an array of short and independent films for the viewing pleasure of the people of Hawaii and her guests visiting from other islands and the mainland. Luminaires of various distinctions will present and share their films in the casual and aloha friendly environment of the Shops of Mauna Lani and the Fairmont Orchid Hawai’i.

Sixtythree films are being presented, something for everyone. Ten of the films featured in the lineup were made in Hawaii, four of them from the Big Island. Do check out the full offerings and schedule here. Join us for a day or a weekend of interesting and entertaining films. The films shown at the Shops of Mauna Lani every evening are all free (thanks to the generous support of the Shop of Mauna Lani) and family friendly!

This is the sixth year of the festival, which grows every year. Film makers are engaged in various workshops and round tables while at the festival and John Mason, Film Commissioner for Hawaii will do a talk story/interview with Hawaii Five-O insiders Angie LaPrete, renowned film and TV producer and Chico Powell, Film and TV Production Accountant on Thursday, May 12 at the Shops at Mauna Lani at 6 pm. This event is open to the public and is free.

The highlight of the Mayor’s reception was when Kahu Danny Akaka, Cultural Historian, at Mauna Lani and Christof Leudi, General Manager, of the Fairmont Orchid Hawaii blew two Pu (Hawaiian Conch Shells) in perfect synchronization in each direction then performed a chant and blessing together to open the festival. Christof Leudi has immersed himself in Hawaiian Culture, coming far from his homeland in Switzerland. It was very special for me to be part of this ceremony.

Meanwhile, please do join us in Kohala this week as we celebrate films of outstanding quality and great interest. More pictures and video clips to come over the next 5 days. 

Big Island International Cooking Club: Cajun Night

With an inspiration of the 5th anniversary of Katrina, the Big Island International Cooking Club's August venue including sausage making with Cajun spices as well as many terrific food offerings from the Big Easy and surrounds. If you live on the big island and you are interested in joining our group, please send me an e-mail While I could type on and on about this fun night, I think I will just let the pictures do the talking, after all, that is what you want anyway!

Oktoberfest & Meeting Helene Hale

Disclaimer: This post is not about food... but it is worth reading

Last night was the Hilo Women's Club's Oktoberfest. I won 2 tickets because of a contest on Twitter to tweet about the event. I am sure my followers on Twitter were tired of my relentless tweets on the subject. Nonetheless it was a fun evening for a very good cause and along with seeing some neighbors and meeting some new friends I just happened to be sitting across from an Icon of Hawaiian Political History, Helene Hale. As she was introduced to me as the first woman "Mayor" of Hawaii, I wondered if I heard correctly and later found out that I did. It was then I realized I was sitting across from someone very special. If you are here simply for some fun Oktoberfest pictures scroll down to the end of the blog, but I implore you to read on about Helene Hale as she was the best thing about my Oktoberfest experience! If you read this article with interest, be sure to click the many hyperlinks along the way.

My table mate at last night's Oktoberfest, 91 year old Helene Hale

For those of you who don't live in Hawaii, county politics on the island of Hawaii are more like state politics in most mainland states (except for the very large ones.) The Mayor is the head of the entire county and in this case it is the entire island of Hawaii. We do not have city governments, though Hilo is the second largest city in the state of Hawaii. We only have county and state officials, so being the head of the governing board of the largest island in Hawaii is a pretty big deal. Back in the days of Helene's reign we did not even have an official Mayoral position, but we did have the equivalent; Chairman & CEO of the Big Island Board of Supervisors and she was the first woman to hold that post. Not since the reign of Queen Liliu'okalani had a woman governed the Big Island of Hawaii. She also was the first African-American elected to office in Hawaii, though in actuality she is actually of mixed races of African American, American Indian "and a few other nationalities" as she described in her April 1963 cover article in Ebony Magazine. Side Bar: Interestingly, when I worked in Chicago as Director of Public Relations for East West University, I shared an office wall with the president of Johnson Publications, the company that publishes Ebony. EWU is on Michigan Avenue next door to Johnson Publications.

Born and raised in Minneapolis, Ms. Hale was teaching at San Diego State College in 1945 when she met Poet Laureate Don Blanding. Through his poetry about Kona she fell in love with Hawaii and decided to relocate her family there. She was planning on being a stay at home mother and housewife in Kona but found that she and her husband could not acquire a teacher's cottage at Konawaena High School on the West Coast of Hawaii Island unless both of them contracted to teach there. And so went the dream of staying at home with her two young children and a new dream began of making Hawaii a better place. While teaching at Konawaena she was turned in to the Un-American Activities Committee because of her liberal democratic position in a generally Republican conservative state. While charges were eventually dismissed, the School Superintendent Ernie DeSilva told her, "Keep your mouth shut and get along."

"You don't tell that to Helen Hale!" she remembers. She turned in her resignation the following day and took on a less lucrative job of selling children's books door to door. She had no clue then as she traveled to Sugar Plantation Camps speaking to housewives that she was actually gaining training for her eventual role as a key politician in Hawaii.

In 1954 ( the year of my own birth, which seems so long ago) she ran for and won a seat of the Big Island County Council after spending a relentless term of 18 hour days going door to door to promote her candidacy. She was the only democrat elected to the County Board of Supervisors and she won by a mere 212 votes. She promised a wholesale purge of unnecessary County Brass. I wish she were in office today!

In 2004 Ms. Hale's son Jasper who suffered from Schizophrenia and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder died and she has spent her remaining years championing mental health issues in Hawaii and the Nation. Here is a link to an article she wrote about Losing her son and gaining a call to help mentally ill. It is a heart rendering account of a mother who found herself helpless to save her son from the voices that eventually ended his life. It is the voice of reason for continuing stem cell research, but most of all it is a very said punctuation to an otherwise wonderful life. No parent should have to bury their child, least not from a disease that can be treated.

She has also been a supporter of Senior issues such as death-with-dignity laws, jury service exclusion for seniors over 80 and retesting senior drivers over the age of 70. Interestingly, she must still be able to pass the test at 91, because when she was ready to leave the Oktoberfest she got up said goodbyes and drove herself home.

Over the years she served on and off on the County Council, being unseated a few times and establishing businesses, but never giving up on improving Hawaii. In 2000 at the age of 82 she ran for office again, this time to fill the seat of State Representative Bob Herkes. She was widowed for a second time and said she had "nothing better to do". She represented Puna and her campaign slogan, cleverly chosen by Hawaii County COuncil Woman Emily Naeole was "Recycle Helene Hale!" She served there as the Chairwoman of the House Committee on International Affairs where she publicly voiced an opinion in 2003 against entering a war with Iraq without UN backing (THAT'S MY GIRL!) and trying to encouraged the Aloha spirit in urging negotiations over invading Iraq.

She was ridiculed by Republicans ad others for "Offering Aloha to Saddam." In retrospect with thousands of American Soldiers dead and even more maimed, her fears seem much more grounded. Knowing what we know about the false pretenses the war was based on and the economic devistation that this war has caused us, I have even more admiration for this woman of Hawaii.

Ms. Hale had a stroke in 2006 and continued through her legislative term but decided to retire from political office as soon as a suitable replacement could be found.

With accolades for her many years of service and her fight to build a gym for Pahoa High School, she was recently honored at the ground breaking for the Helene Hale Gymnasium at Pahoa High school. Here is video from that event. Her legacy will live on there and throughout much of Hawaii.

OK... so here are some pictures from the Oktoberfest! I would have had more, but my camera's screen burned out midway through my photo shoot. Anyone have suggestions on what I should buy as a replacement?

OK... this is a plant, not a real Hilo Women's Club Member OOMPA!

Beverly Heikes, President of Hilo Women's Club and her son dancing "The Chicken Dance"

Wes finishing his second brat!

Beverly Heikes , President Hilo Women's Club

My neighbor Virginia and her son Joe. Should we cut her off???

Chicken Dance!