That’s me on the beach in Waikiki (Kuhio Beach to be exact). I put 1967 in the filename, but actually I’m not really sure when this picture was taken. At any rate, the late ’60’s. Suffice it to say, Waikiki looks completely different these days, and that half-constructed building in the background portends many things to come. This photo actually sent me off on a wild goose chase last night, trying to determine which hotel it was that is shown being built. In my ultimately fruitless search (it’s one of two hotels, as best as I can determine, but in the end it matters little), I came across this photo from 1999 which will give you some idea of the landscape changes Waikiki has gone through. (Coincidentally, this photo is from a personal site of someone who lives in the neighborhood I grew up in (Nuuanu), and whose children attend the same elementary school that I did (which I wrote about here)).
ADDENDUM: I later found some other photos taken on the same day, at the same beach. The above photo was taken in 1967.
It’s the Park Shore Waikiki Hotel, right on the corner of Kalakaua and Kapahulu. In this photo (shot in December), you can see it in last row of highrises before the park, the short one catching the sunlight, closest to the beach.
It’s incredible how many buildings have gone up in that area. You can still see St. Augustine’s (the church) in your photo, all alone. Now it’s hidden among the buildings.
Jeff-
thanks for filling in some of the gaps of my memory. I was trying for the longest time to remember exactly what the green-roofed building was (the church you refer to), it was like something on the tip of my tongue, but I just couldn’t get it to come out. (Despite growing up there, I have only been back to Hawaii twice in the last 17 years).