About Hawaii –Ten Fun Facts

India (SANEPR.com) July 25, 2008 -- 1) Hawaii has eight main islands: Niihau, Kauai, Oahu, Maui, Molokai, Lanai, Kahoolawe, and the "Big Island" of Hawaii.
2) Hawaii is the most isolated population center on earth. Hawaii is 2,390 miles from California; 3,850 miles from Japan; 4,900 miles from China; and 5,280 miles from the Philippines.
3) Hawaii is the only U.S. state that grows coffee.
4) More than one-third of the world's commercial supply of pineapples comes from Hawaii.
5) From east to west, Hawaii is the widest state in the United States.
6) The Hawaiian Islands mountain range tops are the biggest in the world.
7) Honolulu's zenith star (the star that rises directly above it) is named Arcturus. The Hawaiians called it Hokule'a (Hoo koo lay uh).
8) The first Asian-American in the U.S. Senate was Hawaii's Hiram Fong. Senator Fong was descended from Chinese immigrants.
9) Hawaii was the 50th state admitted to the U.S. union on August 20, 1959.
10) Hawaii has its own time zone (Hawaiian Standard Time). There is no daylight savings time. Hawaiian time runs two hours behind Pacific Standard Time, and five hours behind Eastern Standard Time.

As a focus for our trip we decided to visit Royal Dornoch three or so hours north of Edinburgh, and Machrihanish over on the Mull of Kintyre about as close to Ireland as you can get on mainland Scotland.

So we had booked a two night stay in the beautiful little town of Dornoch during our first week, and another two night stay at a quaint old bed and breakfast in Campbelltown about ten miles from Macrahanish.

Both of these towns have an interesting history going back hundreds of years. But of course, our primary interest was the golf courses that lay just outside of town. These are two ancient golf courses at opposite ends of Scotland, both with a well-deserved reputation for authenticity. Their remote locations almost guarantee they will not be overrun by masses of golfers.

We spent the first couple days at Linlithgow seeing the local sites. The first night there just happened to be a jousting match on the grounds of the Linlithgow Palace -- an historic ruin that was once the home of Mary Queen of Scots.

Before leaving for Dornoch on Wednesday we wanted to play at least one round in the south. Our host had recommended we go over to North Berwick just south of Muirfield on the east coast (the St. Andrews side).

So we played our first round of golf in Scotland at North Berwick. This was a fitting start to our trip, since North Berwick is considered a "primitive" links course with quirky features such as blind shots and walls you have to shoot over. It is the home of the original "Redan" par three -- which at the time seemed fairly unremarkable. Since then we have learned this hole has been copied by golf course designers more than any other in the world.

My own most memorable shot was the approach at #13, "The Pit". I hit what I thought was a beautiful iron just over the stone wall onto the green (yes, there is a wall in front of the green!) When we got there it was down in the "pit" behind the green and required a massive uphill putt, which turned into at least a four-putt before I got it down.

The next day we visited St. Andrews. Having played at North Berwick we were now accustomed to the "public" nature of these courses. People are perfectly free to walk across the fairway to and from the beach. So this gave us the opportunity to walk parts of The Old Course. We walked out a couple holes along the beach side, then came back along the famous "Road Hole" (17) and along the road to the even more famous Swilcan Bridge over the "burn" on 18.

On Tuesay we played the local course at Linlithgow as a guest of our host. This offered an interesting taste of the other kind of course in Scotland -- an inland or parkland course -- more like what we Canadians are used to, but a bit more rugged.

For more useful tips & hints, please browse for more information at our website:-

http://www.reprintarticlesite.com
http://www.toursguide.reprintarticlesite.com