Good morning and welcome to Aloha Thursday at Sunrise Santa Cruz. For today’s laua of love I was going to blast out of beautiful sunrise from last Sunday but since we’re talking our 50th state I thought we’d go with some free throws from the south Pacific. Or maybe it’s because I keep hearing the voice of Jack Lord saying over and over, “Book em, Dano.” That’s a little “Hawaii Five-O” talk for your mainlanders.

These pictures are from lovely Sunset Beach which is located on the north shore of Oahu. Sunset Beach is one of the locations for the Triple Crown of Surfing along with Pipeline and Waimea Bay where the waves are monster huge in wintertime. These shots were taken during the summertime when the swell is as gentle as a lamb shank. The first shot of Sunset gives you a good idea of the what this gorgeous beach is all about. Then it’s my daughter Aimee in a tidepool, some rainbow action, sunrise at Sunset, another rainbow and sunset at Sunset. The only things that’s missing are the trade winds and some teriyaki sauce.

Last week I wrote about my home state of New Jersey. Today I’m going to toss out a few facts about the state I wish I could call my homey. Hawaii consists of eight main islands that were formed when under-sea volcanoes erupted thousands of years ago. The islands are the most isolated population center on the face of the earth. Hawaii is 2,390 miles from California, 3,850 miles from Japan, 4,900 miles from China, 5,260 from the Philippines and light years away from Omaha, Nebraska. From east to west Hawaii is the widest state in the U.S., not including Charles Barkley.

Hawaii is the only state that grows coffee but one of 50 that serves ice tea. More than one-third of the world’s commercial supply of pineapples come from Hawaii. Hawaii was the 50th state admitted to the union on August 20th, 1959. Hawaii has its own time zone (Hawaiian Standard Time.) There is no daylight savings and time runs two hours behind us here in California. But really, if you live in this tropical paradise and you are cruising around everyday in a bathing suit and flips flops then you are light years away from any mainland inner city urban experience.

Hawaii is a warm water paradise. The wind blows east to west and the warmest temperature ever recorded on the islands was 96 degrees at a coconut stand in downtown Honolulu. Temperatures are usually 72 to 82 degrees with trade winds that blow late in the afternoon to let you know you are in paradise. Even when it rains it’s a warm shower. Sometimes it rains and there’s not a cloud in sight. They call it liquid rain, which is not to be confused with a liquid lunch.

The island of Kauai is home to Waialeale Mountain, which averages 488 inches of rain per year and is considered the wettest spot on earth. The Big Island of Hawaii at 800,000 years old is the youngest of the island chain. It was the first island discovered by voyaging Polynesians and is home to Kilauea, the world largest and most active volcano besides Texas Tech basketball Coach Bobby Knight. Two of the tallest mountains in the Pacific-Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa-dominate the center of this island. Most of the world’s macadamia nuts are grown here and the island is the worldwide leader in harvesting macadamia nuts, orchids and Big Island t-shirts. Orchids grow wild on this island. The Big Island is also home to more scientific observatories in one place than anywhere else in the world and houses the world’s biggest telescope. All I can say is if I lived in that neighborhood I would definitely keep my window shades down at night.

That’s our hula dancer’s show for today. I hope you enjoyed our look at Magnum P.I.’s old stomping grounds and my daughter’s favorite vacation spot. So enjoy the final day of Fall 2007 and check back tomorrow for our last blast of the year. It will have all the colors of a Sunset Beach rainbow and more.