We found this article on google... it is VERY comprehensive about the town we are pretty sure we're going to end up in.
You can learn about Kailua at http://www.visitkailua.com/ and/or read the following article!
I've highlighted some of my favorite parts and points of interest for anyone thinking of visiting us! If you don't have the time or attention span, I recommend at least reading those parts...
Enjoy!
Kailua: the other side
By Don Chapman
With a population of about 58,000 residents, Kailua, Oahu -- not to be confused with villages of the same name on Maui and the Big Island -- is the second largest town in Hawaii. But to most Hawaii residents and visitors, Kailua remains as mysterious as the misty summit of Olomana, the 1,643-foot peak that nightly casts its sunset shadow over the town. The reason is simple: Kailua is on "the other side."
Kailua is also "out in the country" and "all the way over there." Those were the exact words of parents of a Honolulu professional woman who bought a condominium in Kailua recently. "We'll never see you now," her Kahala folks complained, as if Kailua was maybe the next atoll up from Midway.
In fact, "town" residents often go for years without being forced to drive to Kailua.
And although Kailua offers a remarkable number of good restaurants and one of the loveliest beaches in the 50th State, the town is off the beaten path from most commercial visitor attractions. It has no hotels and just 11 bed-and-breakfast cottages.
The irony is that the financial district (in Kailua, four banks in the same neighborhood pass for a financial district) is located just 11 miles from the bustle of downtown Honolulu.
And interesting miles they are, too. The Pali Highway (State Route 61) sweeps up through Nuuanu Valley and crosses the steep, green Ko`olau Mountains, emerging on the sheer Windward (eastern) side of the mountains through a tunnel whose arched exit frames a panorama that is invariably -- and accurately -- described as "like a postcard."
Odd, then, that non-residents seem to face the prospect of a trans-Ko`olau trip with all the joy of the ancient warriors of Oahu who fled the attacking army of Kamehameha the Great in 1795 and, rather than surrender, leaped off the cliffs (just above the tunnel).
This does not particularly disturb Kailua residents. You'll recognize them by their little smirky grins, unable to entirely conceal their feelings about living in such a lovely spot and getting it all to themselves. If the rest of the world wants to define "adventure travel" as a drive to Kailua, fine.
Just getting to Kailua has always been a challenge. To trade goods between Honolulu and Kailua, ancient Hawaiians had a choice of climbng over the mountains or hiking or sailing around Makapuu Point. They usually took the most direct route, which meant up and over the pali, the Hawaiian word for cliff. Today's Pali Highway, completed in 1955, follows an ancient foot path that Hawaiians used to cross the island with calabashes of poi and bunches of bananas on their shoulders.
Kailua is also "out in the country" and "all the way over there." Those were the exact words of parents of a Honolulu professional woman who bought a condominium in Kailua recently. "We'll never see you now," her Kahala folks complained, as if Kailua was maybe the next atoll up from Midway.
In fact, "town" residents often go for years without being forced to drive to Kailua.
And although Kailua offers a remarkable number of good restaurants and one of the loveliest beaches in the 50th State, the town is off the beaten path from most commercial visitor attractions. It has no hotels and just 11 bed-and-breakfast cottages.
The irony is that the financial district (in Kailua, four banks in the same neighborhood pass for a financial district) is located just 11 miles from the bustle of downtown Honolulu.
And interesting miles they are, too. The Pali Highway (State Route 61) sweeps up through Nuuanu Valley and crosses the steep, green Ko`olau Mountains, emerging on the sheer Windward (eastern) side of the mountains through a tunnel whose arched exit frames a panorama that is invariably -- and accurately -- described as "like a postcard."
Odd, then, that non-residents seem to face the prospect of a trans-Ko`olau trip with all the joy of the ancient warriors of Oahu who fled the attacking army of Kamehameha the Great in 1795 and, rather than surrender, leaped off the cliffs (just above the tunnel).
This does not particularly disturb Kailua residents. You'll recognize them by their little smirky grins, unable to entirely conceal their feelings about living in such a lovely spot and getting it all to themselves. If the rest of the world wants to define "adventure travel" as a drive to Kailua, fine.
Just getting to Kailua has always been a challenge. To trade goods between Honolulu and Kailua, ancient Hawaiians had a choice of climbng over the mountains or hiking or sailing around Makapuu Point. They usually took the most direct route, which meant up and over the pali, the Hawaiian word for cliff. Today's Pali Highway, completed in 1955, follows an ancient foot path that Hawaiians used to cross the island with calabashes of poi and bunches of bananas on their shoulders.
...
By 1845, the vertical portion was softened, the path widened to six feet and paved with stones, and it became passable on horseback. The first riders were King Kamehameha III and Minister of the Interior Gerritt P. Judd. In 1861, Judd set out to prove that the newly widened road could be traveled by wagon. This was an economic issue: Sugar cane was now being grown in Kailua and the neighboring bergs of Kaneohe and Waimanalo, and a wagon can carry more cane than a single man. Despite having its back wheels locked and three burly Native Hawaiians further slowing its progress from behind with ropes, the wagon flipped, fortunately without injury to man or beast. After two more years of road improvements, Judd became the first person to successfully negotiate the road in a wagon.
Construction of the modern Pali Highway didn't make town folks worry any less about the journey. And that warning about not carrying pork over the Pali persists. You also have to beware of wild pigs. The afternoon commute back to Kailua was slowed on a sunny March day this year while a state crew picked up the carcass of a large boar that had tried to dash across four lanes of five o'clock traffic and only made three.
"I grew up in Kuliouou, which was out in the boonies then," recalls Kailua resident Leslie Wilcox, KHON-TV morning news anchor. "Kailua was even past the boonies. On the rare occasions that we dared travel all the way over the mountains to Kailua, it was an expedition, a full day. We'd pack a big Thermos and a huge picnic basket with food, just in case.
"It's not that way now, of course, but we don't have to tell people that, do we?"
For those who make the drive, Kailua offers an array of pleasures from wet and wild to quite civilized.
The beach, as it was in the old days when a Hawaiian community lived off the bounty of the sea, remains a focal point of local life. (A
sign of those times is a large heiau , temple, near the YMCA.)
Construction of the modern Pali Highway didn't make town folks worry any less about the journey. And that warning about not carrying pork over the Pali persists. You also have to beware of wild pigs. The afternoon commute back to Kailua was slowed on a sunny March day this year while a state crew picked up the carcass of a large boar that had tried to dash across four lanes of five o'clock traffic and only made three.
"I grew up in Kuliouou, which was out in the boonies then," recalls Kailua resident Leslie Wilcox, KHON-TV morning news anchor. "Kailua was even past the boonies. On the rare occasions that we dared travel all the way over the mountains to Kailua, it was an expedition, a full day. We'd pack a big Thermos and a huge picnic basket with food, just in case.
"It's not that way now, of course, but we don't have to tell people that, do we?"
For those who make the drive, Kailua offers an array of pleasures from wet and wild to quite civilized.
The beach, as it was in the old days when a Hawaiian community lived off the bounty of the sea, remains a focal point of local life. (A
sign of those times is a large heiau , temple, near the YMCA.) "This is such a beach community," says Bob Twogood, who has manufactured, sold and rented kayaks in Kailua since 1982. "People choose to live here because of the beach. It's a big part of a lot of people's lives."
"This is a neat town," says physician Dr. Mark Chung, whose father helped found Castle Hospital in Kailua. "If I feel stressed out, boom, in three minutes I can be at the beach and rigging up my sailboard. Even if you're not at the beach, it's never far away. It's in the air, you can smell it."
Kailua Bay forms a five-mile crescent along a strand of white sand from Lanikai Point to Mokapu Point. Looking back at the shore from the sea, fronds of a thousand palms rustle in the breeze and glisten in the sun.And just beyond, or so it seems, Olomana looms, and beyond that the sheer face of the Ko`olau Range.
The bay is a lovely place to paddle kayaks, the calm, clear water suitable for beginners. Green sea turtles, on the federal endangered species list, bob outside the shore break.
Flat Island, an exposed coral reef, lies a quarter-mile from Kailua Beach Park and has a sand beach for easy access. But watch your step. Flat Island (Popoia is its Hawaiian name) is a favored nesting ground for Laysan albatross. For experienced paddlers, the two Mokulua Islands nearly a mile away offer a more challenging and secluded destination.
"Kailua Bay is protected by the reef, so you can stay inside and have a good time," says Twogood, who won eight medals at the 1982 U.S. kayak championships. "Or if you want more excitement, you can paddle out to the reef and catch some waves."
Twogood's first employee, Karel Tresnak, an Olympic medalst in white-water canoeing for his native Czechoslovakia, has gone his own way and manufactures, sells and rents `Cuda Kayaks just a few strokes down Kawainui Stream from Twogood Kayaks.
Kailua is also a world-class Windsurfing beach. This is, afterall, the Windward side. Steady onshore tradewinds blow about 75 percent of the time. Robbie Naish grew up on Kailua beach and won 15 straight world sailboard championships. He popularized the sport internationally and today you'll hear French, Spanish, Japanese, Italian and German spoken on the beach, as well as British, Australian and Canadian accents. Naish Hawaii, one of the most successful sailboard companies in the world, is one of several Kailua companies that rent equipment and offer lessons.
Bright sails streaking across the turquoise bay give Kailua part of its colorful ambiance. So do small children learning to surf in the gentle shorebreak on Boogie Boards, swimmers churning laps between buoys, joggers striding and lovers strolling on the beach, and members of the Lanikai Canoe Club paddling their outriggers at sunset.
Kailua Bay is also a terrific fishing and scuba diving area, as evidenced by the busy boat ramp at Kailua Beach Park.
Jack Aaron, a graduate of Kailua High School, opened the first dive shop in Kailua during the early `70s and over the years has PADI certified 10,000 divers, "nearly 100 percent local residents." (Likewise, Twogood says 95 percent of his kayak rentals are to locals.)
"This is a great bay!" Aaron exclaims. "I've dived all over the world and Moku Mano (the twin offshore rocks on the Kaneohe side of the bay) is still one of the best in terms of live coral and in terms of big game fish. You can go to a lot of places and see neat reefs and colorful fishes, but Moku Mano is where the big boys hang out. It's deep. I have a film we took that has over 80 sharks on frame for two minutes, which we captured in 120 feet of water. You can always find sharks at Moku Mano."
Shark sightings near shore, however, are "extremely rare," according to city lifeguards at Kailua Beach Park.
Finding a good bite to eat in Kailua until very recently was also extremely rare.
...
That would be El Charro Avitia, one of three Mexican eateries in town. (A fourth recently closed.) The oldest is Los Arcos, which opened in 1977. Owners Mary and Hank Magana, who spent 30 years as a Honolulu police officer, serve gourmet Mexico City fare as well as "border food" such as tacos and burritos.
Martha Harding and Greg Blotsky opened Cisco's Cantina 10 years ago and quickly earned a reputation for serving tasty food in large portions. That extends to the drinks. Cisco's is the home of the Megarita, a 40-ounce margarita that is one of Kailua's principal tourist attractions. "Megaritaville" T-shirts are steady sellers.
"We get people from all over Oahu, but we also get a lot of repeat customers from the Mainland and Canada," says Harding. "It makes us feel good, people coming to see us way over here in Kailua."
"This is a neat town," says physician Dr. Mark Chung, whose father helped found Castle Hospital in Kailua. "If I feel stressed out, boom, in three minutes I can be at the beach and rigging up my sailboard. Even if you're not at the beach, it's never far away. It's in the air, you can smell it."
Kailua Bay forms a five-mile crescent along a strand of white sand from Lanikai Point to Mokapu Point. Looking back at the shore from the sea, fronds of a thousand palms rustle in the breeze and glisten in the sun.And just beyond, or so it seems, Olomana looms, and beyond that the sheer face of the Ko`olau Range.
The bay is a lovely place to paddle kayaks, the calm, clear water suitable for beginners. Green sea turtles, on the federal endangered species list, bob outside the shore break.
Flat Island, an exposed coral reef, lies a quarter-mile from Kailua Beach Park and has a sand beach for easy access. But watch your step. Flat Island (Popoia is its Hawaiian name) is a favored nesting ground for Laysan albatross. For experienced paddlers, the two Mokulua Islands nearly a mile away offer a more challenging and secluded destination."Kailua Bay is protected by the reef, so you can stay inside and have a good time," says Twogood, who won eight medals at the 1982 U.S. kayak championships. "Or if you want more excitement, you can paddle out to the reef and catch some waves."
Twogood's first employee, Karel Tresnak, an Olympic medalst in white-water canoeing for his native Czechoslovakia, has gone his own way and manufactures, sells and rents `Cuda Kayaks just a few strokes down Kawainui Stream from Twogood Kayaks.
Kailua is also a world-class Windsurfing beach. This is, afterall, the Windward side. Steady onshore tradewinds blow about 75 percent of the time. Robbie Naish grew up on Kailua beach and won 15 straight world sailboard championships. He popularized the sport internationally and today you'll hear French, Spanish, Japanese, Italian and German spoken on the beach, as well as British, Australian and Canadian accents. Naish Hawaii, one of the most successful sailboard companies in the world, is one of several Kailua companies that rent equipment and offer lessons.
Bright sails streaking across the turquoise bay give Kailua part of its colorful ambiance. So do small children learning to surf in the gentle shorebreak on Boogie Boards, swimmers churning laps between buoys, joggers striding and lovers strolling on the beach, and members of the Lanikai Canoe Club paddling their outriggers at sunset.
Kailua Bay is also a terrific fishing and scuba diving area, as evidenced by the busy boat ramp at Kailua Beach Park.
Jack Aaron, a graduate of Kailua High School, opened the first dive shop in Kailua during the early `70s and over the years has PADI certified 10,000 divers, "nearly 100 percent local residents." (Likewise, Twogood says 95 percent of his kayak rentals are to locals.)
"This is a great bay!" Aaron exclaims. "I've dived all over the world and Moku Mano (the twin offshore rocks on the Kaneohe side of the bay) is still one of the best in terms of live coral and in terms of big game fish. You can go to a lot of places and see neat reefs and colorful fishes, but Moku Mano is where the big boys hang out. It's deep. I have a film we took that has over 80 sharks on frame for two minutes, which we captured in 120 feet of water. You can always find sharks at Moku Mano."
Shark sightings near shore, however, are "extremely rare," according to city lifeguards at Kailua Beach Park.
Finding a good bite to eat in Kailua until very recently was also extremely rare.
...
That would be El Charro Avitia, one of three Mexican eateries in town. (A fourth recently closed.) The oldest is Los Arcos, which opened in 1977. Owners Mary and Hank Magana, who spent 30 years as a Honolulu police officer, serve gourmet Mexico City fare as well as "border food" such as tacos and burritos.
Martha Harding and Greg Blotsky opened Cisco's Cantina 10 years ago and quickly earned a reputation for serving tasty food in large portions. That extends to the drinks. Cisco's is the home of the Megarita, a 40-ounce margarita that is one of Kailua's principal tourist attractions. "Megaritaville" T-shirts are steady sellers.
"We get people from all over Oahu, but we also get a lot of repeat customers from the Mainland and Canada," says Harding. "It makes us feel good, people coming to see us way over here in Kailua."
...
Bobby Lou Schneider has been running Buzz's at Lanikai since 1962 when she and her former husband Buzz bought the thatched-roof Lord's at Lanikai from the infamous Donny Lord. Located across from Kailua Beach Park on Kaelepulu Stream, Buzz's offers good food, reasonable prices, a terrific salad bar and loads of open-air atmosphere. It is a Kailua tradition and, with just 26 tables, reservations are advised.
The Peppino family's Italian retaurant opened in the early `70s and is noteworthy on two counts: the best pizza on the Windward side and Kailua's least pretentious restaurant setting, which is saying something.
One of the town's best new restaurants is Chez Sal. Owner-Chef Bill Salvador, former executive sous chef at the Sheraton-Waikiki and executive chef at the Naniloa Hotel, creates what he calls "Euro-Flip Cousine," a play on his Filipino heritage and his classical French training. He also offers "personalized dining. We can cook whatever you want if you gve us a little notice."
Other recent additions that have changed the dining scene in Kailua for the better include Jaren's and Someplace Else (American), Saeng's (Thai), Assaggio's and Onesto's (Italian) and the aforementioned El Charro Avitia.
There are also four Korean and at least three Chinese restaurants in Kailua. You can eat Greek at Yani's, Japanese at Bar-B-Q & Things and Hawaiian at Kolohe Hawaiian Restaurant. Harry's boasts a collection of bandleader Harry "Sweet Leilani" Owens' mementos. And there's a health food snack bar at The Source Natural Foods.
"I think it's good for all of us," says Mary Magana of Kailua's lively restaurant scene. "We have a reputation as a good dining town. It's not like Kaneohe, which has exactly one good restaurant. They have the shopping centers, we have the restaurants. In Kailua, you have a lot of choices. And people know that if one restaurant is full, they can find another good one nearby. And there's no parking problem."
Blotsky agrees: "Good new restaurants don't bother me. Mediocre ones bother me."
Jaren's and Fast Eddie's nightclub have the only live music for dancing in Kailua. Bill Cox and the Over the Hill Jass Band bring a crowd from around Oahu to Jaren's for Dixieland music once a month. The No Name Bar, popular with surfers and Marines from Kaneohe, also has live music.
The Kalapawai Market near Kailua Beach Park recently added four outdoor tables, gourmet coffees and rolls. You know it's going to be a good day when it begins with breakfast at the beach. Agnes Portuguese Bakery is another pleasant little morning space. The oatmeal raisin cookies are huge and moist, the malasadas authentic. Smitty's Pancake House also has its breakfast devotees. Times Coffee Shop is an old-time cafe where patrons sit on stools and watch their breakfast being prepared. The banana waffle and fried rice are specialties.
While the beach and the restaurants attract visitors, shopping is, admittedly, rather limited. There's a small Liberty House, Long's, Holiday Mart, Honolulu Book Shop. Far more telling is this: Kailua boasts four swimsuit boutiques. (But Windward Mall in Kaneohe is only 15 minutes away.) Kailua's three theaters tend to feature family films.
Golf brings other visitors. Mid-Pacific Country Club, a private club, opened in 1926. Olomana Golf Links, one of the best public-access courses in Hawaii, has water hazzards on 11 holes. The Royal Hawaiian Country Club in Maunawili Valley, the legendary Pete Dye's first design in Hawaii, is private, but has plans to add 18 holes for public play. The municipal Pali Golf Course at the base of the Ko`olaus is scenic and challenging. And the neighboring Ko`olau Golf Course, which opened in 1992, was recently rated by the United States Golf Association as the most difficult course in America.
Bobby Lou Schneider has been running Buzz's at Lanikai since 1962 when she and her former husband Buzz bought the thatched-roof Lord's at Lanikai from the infamous Donny Lord. Located across from Kailua Beach Park on Kaelepulu Stream, Buzz's offers good food, reasonable prices, a terrific salad bar and loads of open-air atmosphere. It is a Kailua tradition and, with just 26 tables, reservations are advised.
The Peppino family's Italian retaurant opened in the early `70s and is noteworthy on two counts: the best pizza on the Windward side and Kailua's least pretentious restaurant setting, which is saying something.
One of the town's best new restaurants is Chez Sal. Owner-Chef Bill Salvador, former executive sous chef at the Sheraton-Waikiki and executive chef at the Naniloa Hotel, creates what he calls "Euro-Flip Cousine," a play on his Filipino heritage and his classical French training. He also offers "personalized dining. We can cook whatever you want if you gve us a little notice."
Other recent additions that have changed the dining scene in Kailua for the better include Jaren's and Someplace Else (American), Saeng's (Thai), Assaggio's and Onesto's (Italian) and the aforementioned El Charro Avitia.
There are also four Korean and at least three Chinese restaurants in Kailua. You can eat Greek at Yani's, Japanese at Bar-B-Q & Things and Hawaiian at Kolohe Hawaiian Restaurant. Harry's boasts a collection of bandleader Harry "Sweet Leilani" Owens' mementos. And there's a health food snack bar at The Source Natural Foods.
"I think it's good for all of us," says Mary Magana of Kailua's lively restaurant scene. "We have a reputation as a good dining town. It's not like Kaneohe, which has exactly one good restaurant. They have the shopping centers, we have the restaurants. In Kailua, you have a lot of choices. And people know that if one restaurant is full, they can find another good one nearby. And there's no parking problem."
Blotsky agrees: "Good new restaurants don't bother me. Mediocre ones bother me."
Jaren's and Fast Eddie's nightclub have the only live music for dancing in Kailua. Bill Cox and the Over the Hill Jass Band bring a crowd from around Oahu to Jaren's for Dixieland music once a month. The No Name Bar, popular with surfers and Marines from Kaneohe, also has live music.
The Kalapawai Market near Kailua Beach Park recently added four outdoor tables, gourmet coffees and rolls. You know it's going to be a good day when it begins with breakfast at the beach. Agnes Portuguese Bakery is another pleasant little morning space. The oatmeal raisin cookies are huge and moist, the malasadas authentic. Smitty's Pancake House also has its breakfast devotees. Times Coffee Shop is an old-time cafe where patrons sit on stools and watch their breakfast being prepared. The banana waffle and fried rice are specialties.
While the beach and the restaurants attract visitors, shopping is, admittedly, rather limited. There's a small Liberty House, Long's, Holiday Mart, Honolulu Book Shop. Far more telling is this: Kailua boasts four swimsuit boutiques. (But Windward Mall in Kaneohe is only 15 minutes away.) Kailua's three theaters tend to feature family films.
Golf brings other visitors. Mid-Pacific Country Club, a private club, opened in 1926. Olomana Golf Links, one of the best public-access courses in Hawaii, has water hazzards on 11 holes. The Royal Hawaiian Country Club in Maunawili Valley, the legendary Pete Dye's first design in Hawaii, is private, but has plans to add 18 holes for public play. The municipal Pali Golf Course at the base of the Ko`olaus is scenic and challenging. And the neighboring Ko`olau Golf Course, which opened in 1992, was recently rated by the United States Golf Association as the most difficult course in America.
A favorite secret of Kailua residents is that the air they breathe is fresher and a couple of degrees cooler than Honolulu air. Prevailing trade winds blow onshore, bearing air that has been at sea for two thousand miles. Kailua town receives an average of less than 40 inches of rain per year. But as that moist sea air rises steeply with the land, it cools and condenses. The upper reaches of Maunawili Valley, just three miles inland from Kailua beach, receive nearly 75 inches of precipitation annually. The tops of the Ko`olaus receive more than 150 inches -- a true rainforest environment barely five miles from Kailua.
For all of its pleasures, Kailua remains a small town whose boundaries are clearly defined by nature: Five miles of beachfront on the east, Kawainui Marsh (the largest wetland in Hawaii and a nature preserve) and Kalama Stream to the north, Mt. Olomana to the west and the Keolu Hills to the south. The town is really comprised of what Judge Burns calls "a lot of little pockets." Those little pockets include old neighborhoods such as Mokapu, Lanikai, Coconut Grove, Keolu Hillside, Kalaheo, Kainalu, Pohakupu, Maunawili and Enchanted Lake. The cost of real estate varies with the neighborhood, but is generally less expensive than town addresses.
...
"And the public schools are really good," says Leslie Wilcox. "That's one of the reasons we moved to Kailua. There's the outdoor life, the beach, hiking in the mountains nearby. But mostly this is a real family place. We go to the public library and I'm always amazed at how many people are there checking out books with their kids or doing some research on their own."
The library is part of a municipal complex that includes police and fire stations, tennis, basketball and volleyball courts, athletic fields,
a gymnasium and an Olympic-size swimming pool. The pool was recently rebuilt and is now, lifeguards say, "the best pool in Hawaii."...
Kailua's big civic event each year is the Fourth of July parade and fireworks display. The parade has been an annual event since 1949. The fireworks show brings thousands of people to the beach to watch bombs bursting over Flat Island and their reflection on the sea, while thousands more watch from cars parked on hillsides for miles around.
Another newly annual event is the "I Love Kailua" block party. The fun includes "A Taste of Kailua," where local restaurants feature their favorite fare. Emcees this year were a couple of Kailua residents, radio and TV personality Michael W. Perry and cookie king Wally "Famous" Amos.
As the traffic out of town on any workday morning attests, Kailua has become a bedroom community of Honolulu.
"This is truly a residential area," admits Burns, who with his TV personality wife Emme Tomimbang lives on the same property his parents bought in `39. "There aren't a lot of commercial interjections."
"Yes, this is a bedroom community, but a lot of people do live and work here," says Kern Rogerson, who owns Jaren's. "I always get a kick out of hearing Capt. Irwin's traffic report on the radio, and I'm going `Traffic is moving nicely on Oneawa Street this morning, but I hit a red light, so my drive time to work will be eight minutes instead of seven.'"
...
"People seem friendlier on this side," Leslie Wilcox contends. "It's easier to meet people."
"Kailua is the best of both worlds," says Bobby Lou Schneider. "It has a slower pace, but it has just about everything you need. I find fewer and fewer reasons to go to town."
"It's very relaxed," Judge Burns concludes. "It's quiet and cool, easy to sleep at night. The air is clean. Sure, Kailua has changed, but it hasn't changed that much. I still take my dry-cleaning to Abe Cleaners, same as my dad did. Kailua still feels a lot like the way it did when I was a kid.
"People don't believe this, but I really enjoy the drive over the mountains. It's this long, green corridor, all the vegetation. It's a pretty drive, the air smells good. And once I come through the tunnel at the end of the day, that's it. I see Kailua and the ocean, and I'm home. I leave work behind on the other side. I don't think I could live in town."
And if you can't live in Kailua, it's still a great place to visit. Just don't bring any bacon.
Another newly annual event is the "I Love Kailua" block party. The fun includes "A Taste of Kailua," where local restaurants feature their favorite fare. Emcees this year were a couple of Kailua residents, radio and TV personality Michael W. Perry and cookie king Wally "Famous" Amos.
As the traffic out of town on any workday morning attests, Kailua has become a bedroom community of Honolulu.
"This is truly a residential area," admits Burns, who with his TV personality wife Emme Tomimbang lives on the same property his parents bought in `39. "There aren't a lot of commercial interjections."
"Yes, this is a bedroom community, but a lot of people do live and work here," says Kern Rogerson, who owns Jaren's. "I always get a kick out of hearing Capt. Irwin's traffic report on the radio, and I'm going `Traffic is moving nicely on Oneawa Street this morning, but I hit a red light, so my drive time to work will be eight minutes instead of seven.'"
...
"People seem friendlier on this side," Leslie Wilcox contends. "It's easier to meet people."
"Kailua is the best of both worlds," says Bobby Lou Schneider. "It has a slower pace, but it has just about everything you need. I find fewer and fewer reasons to go to town."
"It's very relaxed," Judge Burns concludes. "It's quiet and cool, easy to sleep at night. The air is clean. Sure, Kailua has changed, but it hasn't changed that much. I still take my dry-cleaning to Abe Cleaners, same as my dad did. Kailua still feels a lot like the way it did when I was a kid.
"People don't believe this, but I really enjoy the drive over the mountains. It's this long, green corridor, all the vegetation. It's a pretty drive, the air smells good. And once I come through the tunnel at the end of the day, that's it. I see Kailua and the ocean, and I'm home. I leave work behind on the other side. I don't think I could live in town."
And if you can't live in Kailua, it's still a great place to visit. Just don't bring any bacon.
8 comments:
Gorgeous!!! Absolutely beautiful !You two are going to have a fantastic time!
Dear K & C
Oh My Goodness!
This is truly a Paradise - you really know how to pick the best- naturally!!
I just am so excited for the both of you - Ed and I will plan a trip to see your area of the world- will let you know in 2008 when this will happen- hope we can see you- enjoy every second!! All the best to the best. Stephanie and Ed Dougherty
Congratulations on having the courage to make your dream come true! Love you guys! CALL ME! Mom.
I am trying to sign up but I am not to good at these thingsgrandmother
I think both of you have the best spirit. T & I stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Ohau, oh about 25 years ago and vowed to go back, hope we can and soon. Enjoy every minute of every day you are there it a beautiful place for beautiful people "Carly & Kev. Much love Patty and Tom
I think both of you have the best spirit. T & I stayed at the Hilton Hawaiian Village in Ohau, oh about 25 years ago and vowed to go back, hope we can and soon. Enjoy every minute of every day you are there it a beautiful place for beautiful people "Carly & Kev. Much love Patty and Tom
Carly & What's his name
Nice! Good luck and have fun.
Love,
Uncle Steve
hi guys! sounds like you're having a great time! make the best of your time there! your memories will last forever! i love you guys and miss you! have a wonderful time and take alot of pixs.
love you both! aunt marianne
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