Hawai'i trip 2017 - Day 5

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Mai Tai Bar

With locations in Daytona Beach Florida, and this one in Honolulu at the Ala Moana Shopping Center, this looked like a fun place to hang out.

www.maitaibar.com

Hawai'i trip 2017 - Day 4

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Hawai'i trip 2017 - Day 3

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Hawai'i trip 2017 - Day 2



After we woke up and had a nice breakfast at our hotel we headed back out to explore Waikiki. I knew rain was on its way so we didn't really plan anything for this day.

 

After we wandered into a few clothing stores I talked everyone into checking out an inviting coffee shop, Honolulu Coffee.

 

www.honolulucoffee.com

 

Honolulu Coffee shop at the Moana Surfrider hotel

Farm to Café: The Evolution of Honolulu Coffee Co.

For a quick lesson on the recent history of café culture in the United States, look to Honolulu Coffee Co. In 1991, Ray Suiter, with the help of his father, Ray Suiter Sr., opened the first Honolulu Coffee Co. at the Dillingham Transportation Building downtown. Or, rather, it was Café Vienna back then, inspired by Ray Sr. and his wife Jeanne’s travels throughout Europe. They had grown up on vacuum-packed coffee from Maxwell House, but, when they toured Europe as missionaries and experienced the cafés there, they fell hard. “The coffee-drinking experience in Europe is something that you relish and enjoy,” says Ray Sr.

Ray Jr., having been dragged along, shared their obsession, and so they opened Café Vienna, complete with string-quartet performances on some nights.
 
Ray Sr. refuses to believe Starbucks has any redeeming qualities (“I can’t even imagine someone enjoying a cup of Starbucks coffee. I think it’s just dreadful,” and, “The worst thing that ever happened to the name cappuccino is Starbucks.”). And yet, Café Vienna shared the same values as Starbucks in the beginning: to bring the European café culture to America.
 
Eventually, the Suiters renamed Café Vienna to Honolulu Coffee Co., after realizing “people in Hawai‘i and tourists don’t want to drink Viennese coffee,” says Jeanne. And Honolulu Coffee Co. grew. It grew so much that Ray Jr. sold it in 2008, tired of running so many retail stores. He just wanted to roast coffee. Which is what he does with his new business, Kona Coffee Purveyors—which contract-roasts for other companies (including Honolulu Coffee Co. at the moment) and sells direct over the Internet. (His younger brother, Sam Suiter, who grew up working in Honolulu Coffee Co., loves retail, and recently opened his own café.)
 
Former investment banker Ed Schultz, along with other partners involved in cafés and roasters in Kansas City, bought Honolulu Coffee Co. to “be part of the industry from farm to cup,” Schultz says. “Hawai‘i is the only place you could do that.” In that sense, he aligns Honolulu Coffee Co. with the “third wave” of coffee shops (the first being diner coffee and the second, Starbucks). He realized that great coffee needs to start with great beans. He plans on opening a “coffee experience center” in the old Hard Rock location, where he’s building roasting facilities and will offer tours, all geared toward telling the story of Hawai‘i coffee.
 
Honolulu Coffee Co. also recently purchased a 30-acre farm in Kona. It’s not big enough to supply all of the cafés—especially not with the company’s plans to open 40 cafés in Japan by 2016. Rather, it functions as a lab to experiment with everything from pruning to drying methods, so Honolulu Coffee Co. can tell the farmers they source from—whether in Kona or Guatemala—how they might grow coffee better. All for a better cup of coffee.

http://www.honolulumagazine.com/Honolulu-Magazine/December-2014/Farm-to-Cafe-The-Evolution-of-Honolulu-Coffee-Co/

 

http://www.moana-surfrider.com/

 

Hawai'i trip 2017 - Day 1

Sunday, February 5th, The Adventure Begins

 

After a very early wake up time, 3:15 to be exact, we set out for the airport. (To our great surprise, Daniel woke up no problem and was ready to head to Hawai'i. Probably because we traumatized him so much with talk of how early we were going to have to get up in the morning.)

 

We met Madison and Jocobi there and boarded a SkyWest flight to Los Angeles. The flight went well and we arrived on time to a foggy LA.

 

Next flight was a United 777 to Honolulu. To our shock and slight sadness the United flight had no entertainment options. No TV's in the seat back in front of you?! Oh dear, this was going to be a long flight. Plus the seats looked to be out of the 1980's. I shook my head and felt bad for my kids.

 

The flight took off on time and we were on our way. Soon we discovered though it was going to be an even longer flight than we thought once we ran into a strong headwind that gave us some turbulence that I had come across on a flight in a long time.

 

Six hours later, four of which were spent in our seats, and the flight attendants in their jump seats, we landed in Honolulu.

 

The rental van was picked up quickly from Hertz and we were on our way to Waikiki and the Hyatt Place Waikiki Beach hotel.

 

 



 

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