Follow in the footsteps of Barack Obama
HONOLULU – Visitors to Hawaii are being offered the chance to explore the sites and favorite places of President-elect Barack Obama, who was born and raised in Honolulu.
Fans of Hawaii’s native son can visit more than two dozen Obama sites around Oahu including:
— Kapiolani Hospital for Women and Children where America’s next President was born on Aug. 4, 1961, to Barack Obama, Sr. and Ann Dunham.
— Punahou, the celebrated private school that Obama attended from fifth grade through high school graduation in 1979. Other notable Punahou graduates include America Online co-founder Steve Case and golf superstar Michelle Wie.
— Lower Makiki to East Honolulu where Obama lived in six different residences and spent most of his youth living in an apartment near Punahou School with his grandparents Stanley and Madelyn “Toot” Dunham.
— The Baskin-Robbins Ice Cream shop on South King Street was one of the first places Obama worked as a teenager.
— Obama had his favorite places to hang out with family and friends, which included Puu Ualakaa State Park on Tantalus, Kapiolani Park at the edge of Waikiki, and Sandy Beach, a popular body-surfing spot in East Honolulu.
-In August while vacationing with his family before the election campaign, the Obama family enjoyed some R&R on Oahu, which included golfing at Olomana Golf Links and Luana Hills Country Club.
The family also spent time at Kailua Beach Park, visiting Nuuanu Pali Lookout, snorkeling at Hanauma Bay, enjoying a traditional local-style plate lunch at Zippy’s, touring the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor, and paying respects to Stanley Dunham who is buried at Punchbowl, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific.
The Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau has created a special microsite at GoHawaii.com/Obama that highlights some of the significant places tied to Obama’s earlier days in Hawaii and where he vacationed in August 2008.
Oahu activity providers are also responding to visitor interest in Obama. Guides of Oahu has recently launched an Obama tour (ObamaTourHawaii.com) and other operators are expected to follow.
Today, Obama credits his upbringing in the islands as a major influence on his character and values, saying, “What’s best in me, and what’s best in my message, is consistent with the tradition of Hawaii.”
He grew up in Honolulu and spent much of his time under the care of his maternal grandparents, Madelyn and Stanley Dunham.
His grandmother, whom he called “Toot” — short for tutu (the Hawaii word for grandmother) — passed away on November 2, 2008, just two days before her grandson’s historic election as president.
People interested in learning more about President-elect Obama’s boyhood in Hawaii can read The Dream Begins: How Hawaii Shaped Barack Obama written by Honolulu journalists Jerry Burris and Stu Glauberman and published by Watermark Publishing (BooksHawaii.net).
For more information about Hawaii, the Islands of Aloha, visit
GoHawaii.com.
SOURCE: Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau
Ian Jarrett
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