Kevin and I attended the annual “Emerald Ball” hosted by the The Friends of St. Patrick.
Hosted at the Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaii’s Manoa Grand Ballroom on Saturday. The event featured Irish food and performances by Helen Loftus, Celtic Waves, Hawaii Irish Dance and Kieran Murphy; past St. Patrick’s Day parade chairman Chuck Wall was also honored as Irish Person of the Year.
To see more photo BY KAT WADE / Special to the Star-Advertiser
A story from Stephanie Silverstein Reporter-Pacific Business News
Mar 3, 2014, 3:20pm HST
Inland American Lodging Group Inc. said Monday that it has purchased the 645-room Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel for approximately $183 million.
The hotel will continue to be managed by Aston Hotels & Resorts.
“We are thrilled to add the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel to our portfolio,” Marcel Verbaas, president and CEO of Inland American Lodging Advisor Inc., said in a statement, noting that Oahu is one of the top-performing hotels markets in the country, with Waikiki comprising the most vibrant lodging market in the Islands.
The Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel, located at 2570 Kalakaua Ave. in Waikiki, was previously owned by RHAC LLC, a joint venture between Gaylord Entertainment Co. and RREEF Global Opportunities Fund II. It is the 12th-largest hotel on Oahu, according to PBN research.
The hotel has 23 floors and 645 guestrooms, including 42 suites, 90 percent of which have private balconies overlooking Waikiki Beach. The hotel has 3,300 square feet of indoor and outdoor meeting space and 19,400 square feet of retail space, which is leased by restaurants including Tiki’s Bar & Grill.
“With its superior location in this high barrier-to-entry market, this asset provides the opportunity to achieve high occupancy levels and premium [revenue per available room] growth,” Verbaas said. “The addition of this hotel not only further improves our geographic diversification but also exemplifies our strategy of increasing our portfolio RevPAR through acquisitions in markets with outsized growth projections.”
Stephanie Silverstein covers tourism, retail and money for Pacific Business News.
Chef Ronnie has prepared an amazing treat for this year’s Chocolate Festival. Made with love and a bit of skill, Chef has prepared a Crunchy Hawaiian Chocolate Spring Rolls with a Peanut Butter Crème Hand Rolled Spring rolls filled with chocolate cake, local chocolate ganache, dusted with Tahitian Vanilla Sugar.
Sitting down to plan a wine dinner. Great ideas from Master Sommelier Patrick Okubo of Young's Market Company of Hawaii, Chef Ronnie, Michael Miller, and Teresa Milton.
We are looking forward to having Winemaker Jesse Katz from Roth Winery & Lancaster Estate Winery host a wine dinner party at Tiki's Grill & Bar on Monday March 10th. -- at Tiki's Grill & Bar.
On Super Bowl Yelp Sunday, we take a look at some of the ono grindz you can get at restaurant Tiki's Grill and Bar in Waikiki at game time and during happy hour.
Malu Productions performs the Hawaiian War Chant at Tiki's Grill & Bar. They are using Hawaiian Uli Uli Feather Rattles Hula Dance Implements made from calabash gourd, filled with seeds, decorated with feathers.
Tiki's features live music 7 days a week. Full musical Line up can be found at www.tikisgrill.com
"Hawaiian War Chant" was an American popular song whose original melody and lyrics were written in the 1860s by Prince Leleiohoku.[1] The original title of the song was Kāua I Ka Huahuaʻi or "We Two in the Spray." It was not written as a chant, and the Hawaiian lyrics describe a clandestine meeting between two lovers, not a battle. The English title therefore has nothing to do with the song as it was originally written and performed in Hawaii.
The Hawaiian lyrics are unusual because they are often written with the letter "T" appearing where a "K" would be expected by many modern readers. However, the spelling reflects an older accent which is preserved to a large degree in the more northern islands, such as Niʻihau and Kauaʻi. Ta Hu Wa Hu Wai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiia...
Kaua I Ka Huahua`i - by Prince Leleiôhoku
Kâua i ka huahua`i
E `uhene lâ i pili ko`olua
Pukuku`i lua i ke ko`eko`e
Hanu lipo o ka palai
Hui:
Auwê ka hua`i lâ
`Auhea wale ana `oe
E ka`u mea e li`a nei
Mai hô`apa`apa mai `oe
O loa`a pono kâua
I aloha wau iâ `oe
I kâu hanahana pono
La`i a`e ke kaunu me ia la
Hô`apa`apai ka mana`o
You and I in the spray
Such joy, the two of us together
Embracing tightly in the coolness
Breathing deep of the palai fern
Chorus:
Oh, such spray
Listen
My desire
Don't linger
Lest we be found
I loved you
Your warmth
Calmed passion
Preventing thought
Source: Na Mele O Hawai`i Nei by Sam Elbert & Noelani Mahoe - Known as the Hawaiian War Chant, this is really a love ballad. Prince William Pitt Leleiohokukalaho`olewa (1854-1877) was the brother of King David Kalakaua, Queen Liliuokalani and Princess Miriam Likelike. His name, "flight on the day of the full moon", commemorates the funeral of Kamehameha III. A gifted composer, it was believed he would have been a wise king had he not died prematurely of rheumatic fever, at age 22.
Source: http://www.huapala.org/Kau/Kaua_I_Ka_...
Shot by Michael Miller with a Iphone 5.
Shore & Beach Vol. 76, No. 2 Spring 2008
Waikiki Beach, Oahu, Hawaii:
History of its transformation
from a natural to an urban shore
By Robert L. Wiegel Professor Emeritus
Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering.
University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1718
Also - Chronology of significant coastal events at Waikiki, 1825-2007
