Category ArchiveEverywhere Once |

Artful Honolulu Highlights

by Shannon on September 13, 2013 in Hawaii, Travel, United States

A labor of Hercules, mid-2nd century A.D. sarcophagus relief

At the Denver Art Museum, it was a vibrant Hayagriva sand medallion crafted by Tibetan monks. At the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts, it was the artist’s quietly dramatic Civil Rights-era painting “The Problems We All Share.”

The beauty of art museums is that no two are exactly alike; and yet a consistency is that at each one we visit, there is usually a piece or two that really stands out—for its beauty or unusualness, or because it’s an unexpected find or it inspires nostalgia.

What surprised us most about the Honolulu Museum of Art‘s 50,000-item collection is how many struck our fancy. Here are just a few of our favorites.

FDNY Memorial Wall

by Brian on September 11, 2013 in New York, Photo of the Day, Travel, United States

FDNY Memorial Wall Ground Zero (Greenwich St & Liberty St) New York, NY

8 Reasons to Love Honolulu

by Brian on September 6, 2013 in Hawaii, Travel, United States

Whenever we’ve asked for advice about where to go in Hawaii, whether for this latest excursion or one twenty years earlier, we invariably hear the same suggestion: skip Honolulu. It’s a place where the conventional wisdom has travelers stopping only long enough to catch a connecting flight to some other, presumably better, Hawaiian destination. We’re told Honolulu is too crowded; too touristy; too developed; too this or too that.

That’s too bad. Because what we found in Honolulu is an island city with almost too many great things to count. That won’t stop us from trying, though. We love Honolulu, and here’s our abbreviated list of reasons why you should too.

Hike Kauai

by Brian on August 30, 2013 in Hawaii, Travel, United States

A brief stop on the “Garden Isle,” the oldest and northern most in the Hawaiian chain, had us hankering for a hike. With rainforests, cliffs, canyons, and coast to choose from, we had a hard time narrowing down the list of options. Ultimately, we settled on two moderate jaunts that covered some of Kauai’s most iconic landscape.