Trip to the Us

Topics : Royal Poinciana , Hawaii , HONOLULU , United States

By Robert W. Bone

For Postmedia News

HONOLULU - Hawaii is the only state in the United States where the sun shines from directly overhead. If you stand on Waikiki Beach at high noon from mid-May through mid-July, you'll have a hard time seeing your own shadow.

What you will see in Hawaii are brilliant flowers and tempting fruits that do not grow elsewhere in the country. And you'll experience comfortable temperature and humidity levels that make some sweltering mainlanders jealous.

The summer solstice -the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere -is June 21, the official beginning of summer. But Hawaii's summer begins about a month before that, and it is positively the most beautiful season to visit the 50th State.

But who needs a vacation in Hawaii in June or July when the sun shines also in North America?

A fact often overlooked is the fact that while summer can get devilishly hot, muggy and maybe smoggy in many parts of the mainland United States and Canada, it does not do so in Hawaii.

Daytime temperatures in the islands generally hover between 75 and 85 degrees. The relative humidity is kept down to a tolerably dry level in the islands. At about 54 per cent, it is usually even lower in the summer than in the winter.

The cooling, northeast "trade winds'' are more reliable in the summer than in the winter, gently caressing the islands and rustling the palm fronds as they're supposed to do, about 90 per cent of the time.

On those 10 days out of 100 when they don't - when the uncomfortable "kona winds'' blow up from the southwest - everyone escapes to their favourite air-conditioned bar or hotel. Or sometimes they seek the climatically controlled halls of Honolulu's Bishop Museum, whose cool cases preserve the mementoes of Polynesian history - and also preserve the sanity of the patrons.

Surfing at Waikiki Beach is better in the summer, with waves high enough to be interesting but...