Blog

I came into a pamphlet offering students the opportunity to "swap" institutions for a semester and attend any other state school for no additional cost while I was a sophomore in college. At the time, I was a student at Portland State University. I brought the brochure to my advisor's office and requested to go to Hawaii after 10 days in a row of overcast skies and rain.I relocated to the Big Island a few months later in order to attend the Unive...

Here are the top five national parks that our readers will love in 2024, ranging from OŻahu's World War II Valor National Monument to Hawaii Island's Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park.Only nine locations in the Hawaiian Islands are recognized as "national parks," despite the state's more than fifty state parks. Similar to state parks, national parks and monuments play a crucial role in preserving beautiful, cultural, and historic regions. Every tim...

Tonga is a group of nearly 170 islands in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, covering an area about the same size as Japan. Merely thirty-six of those islands are populated. Cook famously referred to Tonga as the "Friendly Islands," so it's no wonder that the country has white sand and coral-fringed beaches, lush rainforests, and amiable people. However, there are a few fascinating facts about Tonga that could surprise you.The only monarchy in Ocea...