Oahu Medley Shirts

Its Summer, and while customers wear Hawaiian print clothing year round, Summer is the dominant season for Aloha wear. That's also when Wave Shoppe starts releasing new clothing, I should say that this is clothing that we started on months before. To put that in better perspective, we are ordering fabrics this week for products we plan on releasing for the holidays. 

Last month we released the starter line of Hawaiian print Kaftans in which are proving to be very popular with our customers. Now we begun the process of adding new mens Hawaiian shirts to the company website and our 5 star rated Amazon store.

Oahu Medley Hawaiian Shirt

While we only have a few sizes completed, this blue shirt is available now. Our staff decided to name it Oahu Medley, mainly  because the print contains objects and colors that people closely associate with Oahu and the Hawaiian islands in general.

If we were to describe the shirt in more detail we would say that its a pretty straightforward, yet classic design with outrigger  canoes, surfer and longboard and Hawaiian foliage and flowers. 

The outstanding sizes for the Oahu Medley Hawaiian shirt should be added in a couple of weeks, then we move on to more upcoming releases of mens Hawaiian shirts.

Don Fracisco De Paula Marin Coffee in Hawaii

In 1813 Don Fracisco De Paula Marin, a Spaniard whom eventually became a confidant of Hawaiian King Kamehameha, recorded in his journal a story called "Manin". In that journal he noted that he had planted coffee on the island of Oahu.

Don Fracisco De Paula Marin had many passions and talents, one being he was a horticulturist, planting seedlings left by Spanish ships, unfortunately the first seedlings did not live. As the time passed by, Fracisco De Paula Marin again began diligently and successfully planting coffee in the islands. Then in 1825 royal governor Boki and a group of select local agricultural people brought plants from Brazil, and also successfully planted coffee in the valley of Manoa.

The coffee plants produced beans without any trouble. As the coffee plants kept growing and propagating, it eventually lead to all of the islands of Hawaii being introduced to coffee. As the coffee groves produced more and more delicately flavored brown beans, they also began to usher in a period for small factories to begin commercially processing coffee.

As this industry was further developing, the government successfully made the improvements that benefited the coffee groves, such as sound agricultural research, farming techniques unique to the geographical area. The coffee industry had great amount of support from everyone, to the point that it was prospering the Island.

Coffee in Hawaii was as popular as Hawaiian shirts from Wave Shoppe and macadamia nuts from Mauna Loa. Of course once coffee became a extremely popular as well as valuable commodity, the government soon decided that they needed to tax the daylight out of it.

One of the best known and rarer coffee plants is the Kona coffee plant. The price of this coffee was so high, that this alone made the Kona farmer's pretty famous through out the world. The Kona's brown coffee bean is now often blended outside of Hawaii.

This amazing coffee is been successfully selling in the markets since 1970. Even today Kona coffee is still the best tasting coffee in the islands.

While we do not offer a coffee themed shirt, we do have a beautiful brown coffee colored Hawaiian shirt in a mens cut (pictured above). Consider picking one up for yourself, the shirts are made in the USA and it will grow on you!

Mahalo

4th of July Celebrations Hawaii

Independence Day, commonly known as the Fourth of July, is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. It’s also one of my favorite BBQ holidays and most people would agree with me.

This year the 4^th is on a Wednesday so throwing the traditional Hawaiian party or Luau is going to be tricky. Many people I know plan on celebrating the 4^th on the day of, as well as the weekend before (and yes, I will be wearing my 4th of July Hawaiian shirt) and of course you will find yourself starting the holiday weekend in June, which in my opinion will feel sort of odd to some. But who really cares, you still get a day off work as well as a short, fragmented work week.
 
I wear Wave Shoppe Hawaiian shirts every day and can cook out on the grill whenever I like, so having my holiday weekend start in a different month is no big deal. While I am thinking about it, if you don’t have a new Hawaiian shirt for the weekend you may want to check out Wave Shoppe’s current holiday promotion and save yourself some money and time by shopping online.

 If you’re going to be visiting the Hawaiian islands during the 4^th of July you’re in for a real treat as all of the Hawaiian Islands celebrate the 4^th of July with fireworks and in multiple locations on each island.  The listings below link to Hawaii for visitors website.

Oahu 4th of July Celebrations
Independence Day events on Oahu include fireworks displays at Ala Moana Center, the Aloha Tower Marketplace, Maunalua Bay, and Turtle Bay and several 4th of July Celebrations in other Oahu locations. 

Big Island 4th of July Celebrations
4th of July celebrations on Hawaii Island include the Kailua-Kona 4th of July Parade, the Volcano 4th of July Parade, the Parker Ranch Independence Weekend Rodeo, the Great Waikoloa 4th of July Extravaganza, the Mauna Lani Turtle Independence Day, and the Firecracker Open Big Game Fishing Tournament. 

Maui 4th of July Celebrations
Parades, festivals, and fireworks displays celebrating the 4th of July on Maui Island. Independence Day events on Maui include the Lahaina Fireworks Show and Concert, the Kaanapali 4th of July Celebration, and the Makawao Rodeo. 

Kauai 4th of July Celebrations
Festivals, and fireworks displays celebrating the 4th of July on Kauai Island. The biggest Independence Day celebration on Kauai Island is the "Concerts in the Sky" festival, live music event, and fireworks show in Vidinha Stadium in Lihue, East Kauai.

Charles and the Four Letter Word

I will never forget my first visit to Oahu I was so excited when I was booking the trip one of the things on my wish list was to get a room overlooking the ocean where we could relax and watch those amazing sunsets framed by palm trees. My husband Charles sitting right next to me envisioned a room in the industrial area where we could focus on business, after all, many of the Hawaiian shirts from Wave Shoppe are made in Hawaii (as well as the mainland) and that is where we were going to meet our designers who would help us create our first custom fabric.

I remember finding an awesome room overlooking Waikiki while he was busily, or should I say carefully plotting the hotel that would be most convenient to businesses he needed to visit.

Being the wonderful wife that I am and not wanting him to waste too much time on his idea of a cheap room with no view or ocean breezes as soon as he came up with his dream “work” hotel I swiveled in my desk chair leveled him “the stare” and said “We ARE going to have an ocean view”.

My husband pulled his wallet out from his back pocket and pretended to dust it off thought for a moment and said those magic words “Ok Dear”.

Don’t get me wrong he is not a “Yes” man but he realized that it must be important to me and my husband does everything he can to make sure I am happy. So we got a great room overlooking the ocean and when we opened that balcony door to the first sunset it was stunning. The next day after lunch I sprung on him the dreaded FOUR LETTER WORD I casually mentioned that I wanted to SHOP.

I know I heard him mutter under his breath “you own a freaking Hawaiian store” but he denies it to this day, so we decided to check out the shops closest to the hotel. As we walked down the sidewalk of Waikiki we found a little store called the ABC store.

It was filled with cool stuff lots of touristy stuff and of course every family and friend I knew wanted something. We weren’t paying much attention to the names of the stores but after about the fourth store my husband looked at me in horror and said we were in the same store and there was one on every block and you know he was right.

There is an ABC store on just about every corner but just to make sure I didn’t miss anything I checked them all out. Next on my list was The International Market Place which is an open-air market filled with hundreds of booths it is one of the best places to go if you are looking for souvenirs they had entertainment in the form of a band and a group of hula dancers.

My husband watched a man carve tikis while I looked at each and every booth.

The next day we visited Hilo Hatties and that is one cool store! Then the following day we finished our shopping spree with a trip to the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet with one of my girlfriends who had once said “don’t miss that place it has everything” so we went there and was amazed at everything that was offered and there were great prices too.

It was hot that day and humid as it had rained a little in the am, so after our two hour tour we were ready for an early dinner. Charles decided on going down the strip to an all you can eat crab at a hotel buffet and arrived back to the room just in time to enjoy another sunset in paradise and vegetate for a while.


If anyone know's of some other cool places to shop while on Oahu please hit me up, as we will be going back again this summer and I am sure Charles will appreciate your referral.