Postcard Cafe

The Postcard Cafe is located in Hanalei on the island of Kauai, Hawaii.  The menu on its website sounds pretty darn tasty.

I haven't been to Kauai for 30+ years, and never visited this cafe.  However, I have received this postcard twice, from two completely unconnected friends.  I love that my friends send me postcards, and imagine it gave them a small pleasure to find one so appropriate to send me!

Hukilau

Love this old picture of a Hawaiian luau, circa 1963.  At some point, this song must have been sung:

The Hukilau Song

Oh we're going to a Hukilau

A huki huki huki huki Hukilau

Everybody loves the Hukilau

Where the laulau is the kaukau at the lû`au

We throw our nets out into the sea

And all the `ama`ama come a-swimming to me

Oh, we're going to a Hukilau

A huki huki huki Hukilau

What a beautiful day for fishing

That old Hawaiian way

Where the Hukilau nets are swishing

Down in old Lâ`ie bay

Hawaii, Revisited

Yesterday, I had hoped to post a postcard of every Hawaiian Island, or at least the ones for which I have postcards, but it was a long day, and I could only eke out a quick post. So today, I bring you all the Hawaiian Islands. Wish I were on one, or more specifically, in the waters off of one, right now, sun on my back.

From north to south, the northernmost island of Hawaii is Kauai. This is a postcard of the Na Pali Coast, which you can see via helicopter, boat, or trail. 30+ years ago my then boyfriend, now husband, and I hiked to the first beach on this trail, and spent a few days camping in a cave. It makes you think twice when you're hiking down the trail to the beach, and there's a tidal wave warning sign, complete with a bright yellow post that says something to the effect of "If the ocean recedes rapidly, get immediately up past this pole". It was a looooong way down to the beach. Tidal waves were always one of my recurring nightmares as a kid, so a sign like that makes me pause, just for a moment.





 
The next island from north to south is Oahu, the most populous island, and home to some of the best surf spots in the world: Sunset, Banzai Pipeline, Waimea Bay. A postcard from Oahu kinda hasta have Diamondhead on it. Either that, or a picture of surfers on Waikiki Beach. Here's sunset over Diamondhead.
 

Molokai is next, primarily known for the leper colony on its north shore. The colony, Kalaupapa, was located here because the sea cliffs provided natural isolation from the rest of the island. The story of one young girl's compulsory deportation to the leper colony is told in a book called Moloka'i. The mandatory isolotion policy was in effect until 1969.




 

Next up, Lanai. Truth be told, this postcard was written by somebody visiting Lanai, but I can't be positive that the picture is of Lanai. Lanai is known as the "pineapple island" because for years, practically the entire island was a pineapple plantation, and until 1990, there was only a single hotel on the island.

Further South is Maui. This postcard showing a humpback whale breeching is not an unusual sight during the winter and early spring in the waters off Maui. There are whale watching boat cruises, in which you can get relatively close to the whales, but you can also just stand on the shores and watch for them.








The big island of Hawaii is not only the largest island in Hawaii, it's the largest island in the United States. My cousin lives there, and when she got married, our entire family went for the celebration. While there, we took a helicopter ride over the volcanoes. It was my first helicopter ride (okay, I've only had two, but this was the first!) and incredibly thrilling, complete with headphones playing Apocolypse Now type music, and a rounded glass front, so you could look down through your feet (I got to sit in the front).  This postcard is of the Thurston Lava Tube, which is in Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park.

There are two additional Hawaiian islands, but I don't have postcards for them: Kaho'olawe and Niihau. Kaho'olawe was used by the US military primarily as a training ground and firing range, until 1990. Now it is only allowed to be used for native Hawaiian cultural and spiritual reasons. Niiahu is privately owned, and the general public has only been allowed to visit the island on a limited basis since 1987.

Aloha!

Hawaii

This is one of the older postcards in my collection which was sent directly to me, rather than a relative.  I was still in high school, and this was sent by a friend who went to Hawaii with the church youth choir.

The card includes not very secret secret code about rapscallion-like teenage activities engaged in at the time, but the best part about this card is that the sender taped "actual Hawaiian sand" onto the card when she sent it.  I must have been very impressed with this idea at the time, and actually still think it's cool, as I've saved this card all these years, and I received it well before I really started collecting postcards.  You can see the piece of yellowing scotch tape on the card on the left, which still has a few grains of sand on it.

Hawaii

In sorting my postcards, there are a lot from Hawaii. I suppose picturesque has a lot to do with that. This is one I sent to myself when our entire family went to the big island of Hawaii for my cousin's wedding. I particularly like the comment "Reagan trying to start a war in gulf". I guess that was on my mind at the time.