happy statehood, hawaii!!
mood: 
bouncy
bouncy
Happy Admissions Day, Hawaii! Today, my home state is commemorating its 48th year as the 50th state of the Union. Although President Eisenhower actually signed the official proclamation on August 21, 1959, this momentous occasion is observed in the islands with an official holiday on the third Friday of August.I may just be a little bit partial, but I must tout Hawaii's uniqueness. It's the most isolated population center on earth, the widest state in the nation (1523 miles long from east to west), and the only state with its own time zone. It's tops for ethnic diversity, with over one third of its population of mixed ethnicity, with over 50 languages spoken. Not to mention ideal climate, breathtaking natural beauty, people with unfailing aloha spirit, and more endangered species than anywhere else. And the food is another story entirely. But don't take my word for it.
Here is what Mark Twain said after visiting Hawaii in 1866:
"No alien land in all the world has any deep, strong charm for me but that one; no other land could so longingly and beseechingly haunt me sleeping and waking, through half a lifetime, as that one has done. Other things leave me, but it abides; other things change but it remains the same. For me its balmy airs are always blowing, its summer seas flashing in the sun, the pulsing of its leaping cascades, its plumy palms drowsing by the shore; its remote summits floating like islands above the cloudrack. I can feel the spirit of its woodland solitude. I can hear the path of its brooks. In my nostrils still lives the breath of a flower that perished twenty years ago."
Now, just for you, some breathtaking photos of Kauai taken by fellow blogger
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
krisbordessa, who lives in Kailua-Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. She took these on a recent vacation. Take it away, Kris!