How clean would the house have to be?

Travel swap - I don't know if I'd be comfortable with someone else living in my house for 3 weeks - but hey, I guess they could feed the dogs.

Holy cr*p!

Hotels hit couples with pricey new 'site fees' Some hotels have raised their wedding fees by 1000%!! Do what I did, get married in a county park for free! (I got married at Pahoehoe Park in Kailua-Kona and it was beautiful)

forbidden?

Niihau / Eavesdropping at the edges of: Good article for those curious about available tours and current life on Niihau.

Wouldn't that be nice ...

USATODAY.com - Hawaii may get another interisland airline. The gist is that an airline called FlyHawaii is trying to get started as a low-cost carrier, but as of yet does not have federal permission to operate in the islands.

Phew!

SuperFerry Full Steam Ahead, thank goodness! After a couple of months of discouraging stories about the Hawaii interisland ferry, finally an encouraging one. With any luck, we will see the ferry by the end of 2006.

Thinking about moving to the Big Island?

Read The Lure of Life on Lava: I had to laugh about the volcanologists saying to each other "What are those people thinking?" about people who have built homes in areas that have recently been covered with lava.

If you ever happen to drive to the flow from the Kalapana side, you'll see a few trailers up and land demarcations indicating places where homes used to stand, and now these people have nothing except an acre of hot, barren lava field to live on.

Great review of whale watching tour

Even whales love Hawaii - if you're not sure about a whale-watching tour while in Hawaii, or just fishing around for activities, read this reporting. The author manages to convey the excitement that nearby breaching whales seem to generate in most people, including those of us who live here.

First Timer

First-time blogger Lisa here, to share all the news about Hawaii Travel! I live on the Big Island and whenever I hear of news that would be of interest to Hawaii vacationers, I willpost it here.

Weather today is nice and sunny and warm in East Hawaii.