Hawaii is popular especially when it comes to the culture of the people. The elegant and happy way of living in this country is the main factor that attracts many visitors. One fact about Hawaii is that many people come to Hawaii to have fun. Hawaii is the island of flower. It has peaceful environment and beautiful blooming gardens. Hawaii is an island paradise to some because of its richness in natures beauty especially the flowers that are abundant in this land. Aside from this fact, there are plenty of islands and white sand beaches around on this country that you can enjoy. Apart from swimming, surfing is one sport that is popular in this country.

Facts about Hawaii that encourage visitors to come include the pretty scenery and the breath taking backdrop of natural beauty. The people, Hawaiians dress up very beautifully and out of the ordinary thus making them standout and different from the rest of the world. The many beautiful beaches and resorts which seemed to be paradise for many are enough to entice visitors to come and stay in the land. Similarly, the beautiful Hawaiians add to this superb beauty. Happy and merry people in an equally exciting and beautiful paradise, what more could a visitor ask for?

Another fact about Hawaii is that Hawaiians are among the worlds most polite people. If you travel to Hawaii you will experience their hospitality and willingness to serve. This is the reason why many people like the Hawaiians and like to visit in Hawaii. In fact many foreigners are now living in this wonderland because of the peoples pleasant qualities. The people in the island will surely capture your heart when you visit Hawaii.

Hawaii is an island of treasure, because not only the place is regarded as one of the island paradise in the planet, the people are also treasures. Aside from the good personal qualities of these people, Hawaiians are very talented in dancing, singing and playing instruments. Thus, many visitors enjoy their stay in many bars and hotels in the island being entertained by talented Hawaiians. Come to Hawaii and experience a vacation of a life time in this paradise island. This is another fact about Hawaii that is commonly known to every tourist. You can really enjoy a good stay in this country. The place, the music, the food and the people are equally superb.

“Beverly Hills Chihuahua” was barking up the right tree with movie-goers, who put the Disney comedy at No. 1 for the weekend with a $29 million debut, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Featuring a talking Chihuahua with Drew Barrymore’s voice, the family flick about a pampered pooch lost in Mexico led a surge of new movies that boosted Hollywood business, which generally has slumped the last two months.

The top-12 movies hauled in $95.4 million, up 42 percent from the same weekend a year ago, when “The Game Plan” was No. 1 with $16.6 million.

“We had a huge weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. “That’s really due to the little Chihuahua. The little dog made a big difference.”

The previous weekend’s No. 1 movie, the DreamWorks-Paramount thriller “Eagle Eye,” slipped to second-place with $17.7 million, raising its total to $54.6 million.

The PG-rated “Beverly Hills Chihuahua” took advantage of a long drought for movies aimed at families, who found the idea of a chatty Chihuahua irresistible.

“They’re so cute, and they seem to have great facial expressions, so that adds to all the fun of the whole thing,” said Chuck Viane, Disney’s head of distribution.

Hollywood’s other new wide releases had fair to poor premieres.

Sony’s “Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist,” starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings as teens who fall for each other on a wild New York City night, had a sturdy No. 3 debut of $12 million.

The Warner Bros. Western “Appaloosa,” which had played two weeks in a handful of theaters, expanded solidly to come in at No. 5 with $5 million. “Appaloosa” was directed by Ed Harris, who stars with Viggo Mortensen and Renee Zellweger.

Vivendi Entertainment’s “An American Carol,” a satire of Hollywood’s liberal politics from director David Zucker (”Airplane!”), debuted at No. 9 with $3.8 million. The movie stars Kevin Farley as a Michael Moore-type filmmaker aiming to abolish the Fourth of July holiday.

Universal’s “Flash of Genius,” starring Greg Kinnear as the engineer who invented intermittent windshield wipers then spent decades suing automakers over the innovation, opened weakly with $2.3 million, finishing at No. 11.

Indeed, her tone was bitter as she described plans to close the park Sunday night in lieu of an agreement with the city or with private developer Thor Equities, which have competing plans for the 3-acre Brooklyn site.

“Despite rumors to the contrary, there are absolutely no negotiations going on, and there never were,” said Albert, whose family has owned Astroland for more than four decades.

She said uncertainty about Astroland’s future had created stress for its 400 employees and hampered the acquisition of spare parts for the rides, and that the park would close permanently.

“We cannot risk the safety of our customers,” she said.

The Cyclone, the famous Coney Island roller coaster, and the 150-foot-tall Wonder Wheel, a Ferris wheel, are separately owned and landmarked by the city so they are unaffected by the closing.

But the news that Sunday would be the last gasp for the Dante’s Inferno fun house, 22 other rides and three arcades drew hundreds of nostalgia-minded visitors, including elderly residents of the beach area and families with children who had never ridden on the Tilt-A-Whirl or the Water Flume.

Bobby Salony said bringing his wife and their daughters from Greenwich, Conn., was a kind of “unfinished business.”

“We had to come in and have one more time (at Astroland),” Salony said. “Twenty years from now, they can say they were here on the last day.”

On a nearby sidewalk, Amos Wengler strummed a guitar and sang a tune he wrote for the occasion: “Save Coney Island, don’t let them take it away, and the whole world wants it to stay.”

Wengler was one of a few who said they felt there was “still hope” that Astroland would not disappear. Even if a developer takes over, “you can always make it the same again,” he said.

Last fall, Astroland and Thor Equities, which owns 11 acres of seaside property that includes the amusement park, agreed to a one-year lease extension that expires Jan. 31, 2009.

Albert said Sunday that she had sought since June to negotiate an extension with Thor through 2010 but was repeatedly told the company had “no answer.” Her spokesman, Joe Carella, said Albert decided to close Astroland when it was clear that Thor had no intention of negotiating with her.

Thor spokesman Stefan Friedman said the firm was “extremely disappointed” that Albert had “decided to give up on the future of Coney Island” with several months remaining on her lease.

The Daily News reported that Astroland’s rides were already being offered for sale on the Internet, with prices ranging from $95,000 for the merry-go-round to $199,000 for the bumper cars.

After a decade at the final frontier, Star Trek: The Experience is going where no Las Vegas Strip attraction wants to go.

With a decommissioning ceremony — as befits any great vessel — the exhibit and its replica of the starship Enterprise are closing Monday.

Thousands of trekkies are “beaming up” from across the United Federation of Planets, er, the United States and around the world one last time, according to exhibit spokesman Chad Boutte.

Some seek a final encounter with the Borg, the television show’s race of organic robot aliens who tell everyone “resistance is futile.” Others just want to share a farewell drink — likely a stiff Warp Core Breach, with 10 ounces of rum — with fellow fans at the attraction’s restaurant.

Employees dressed as aliens discuss the minutiae of their worlds’ mythologies with visitors who learn, in typically circular trekkie logic, that the exhibit is a “time station” for transporting researchers and equipment between the 21st and 24th centuries.

For $49.99, fans can enjoy two virtual rides and the Museum of the Future, with costumes, “phasers” and Mr. Spock’s coffin. More than 3 million people have come through since the Experience opened in 1998.

In the end, the frontier the USS Enterprise couldn’t breach was earthly: The attraction’s owner, Cedar Fair Entertainment Co., and the Las Vegas Hilton, its landlord, couldn’t agree on a new lease. They worked as a typical landlord and retail tenant, with Cedar Fair keeping all revenue from the attraction, said hotel spokesman Ira David Sternberg.

Trekkies are incensed. They’ve scrawled reminiscences about the exhibit on the walls inside, and they’re calling Cedar Fair and the hotel to complain. But their online rumor that the space the exhibit occupies will become a theater for pop star Michael Jackson is unfounded, Sternberg said. He said nothing’s decided.

Karen and Eric Klein, from Easton, Pa., had planned to renew their wedding vows at the Experience on their 10th anniversary but came this week instead, four years early.

Jack Black’s cartoon tale “Kung Fu Panda” had the right moves at the box office, debuting as the top weekend movie with $60.2 million.

Adam Sandler’s comedy “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan” opened at No. 2 with $38.5 million.

The top 10 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Media By Numbers LLC:

1. “Kung Fu Panda,” Paramount, $60,239,130, 4,114 locations, $14,642 average, $60,239,130, one week.

2. “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan,” Sony, $38,531,374, 3,462 locations, $11,130 average, $38,531,374, one week.

3. “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull,” Paramount, $22,793,630, 4,190 locations, $5,440 average, $253,014,750, three weeks.

4. “Sex and the City,” Warner Bros, $21,218,305, 3,325 locations, $6,381 average, $99,177,283, two weeks.

5. “The Strangers,” Universal, $8,941,970, 2,477 locations, $3,610 average, $37,298,770, two weeks.

6. “Iron Man,” Paramount, $7,477,439, 2,931 locations, $2,551 average, $288,847,640, six weeks.

7. “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,” Disney, $5,658,836, 3,065 locations, $1,846 average, $125,977,010, four weeks.

8. “What Happens in Vegas,” Fox, $3,437,801, 2,366 locations, $1,453 average, $72,267,894, five weeks.

9. “Baby Mama,” Universal, $806,750, 922 locations, $875 average, $57,931,215, seven weeks.

10. “Made of Honor,” Sony, $804,055, 740 locations, $1,087 average, $44,689,497, six weeks.

Built for the 1958 World’s Fair in Brussels, the Atomium is a towering structure made up of nine giant aluminum-clad spheres linked with steel tubes. The sci-fi design represents an iron atom

magnified 165 billion times.

Originally planned as a temporary attraction, it became one of the best-known landmarks of the Belgium capital.

Belgium is marking the anniversary with fireworks, concerts, exhibitions and special showings of classic movies of the late 1950s including Alfred Hitchcock’s “Vertigo” and Jean-Luc Godard’s

“Breathless.”

The World’s Fair was the hot ticket of 1958, attracting 42 million visitors over six months, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower and France’s Gen. Charles de Gaulle along with movie stars

Sophia Loren, Jane Mansfield and Audrey Hepburn.

By the end of the century, the Atomium had fallen on hard times. Visitor numbers fell to just 120,000 in 2000. The building bounced back in 2006. After a two-year, $43 million facelift, it attracted 1

million visitors in 18 months.

The Atomium now contains a permanent exhibition of the 1950s, temporary art shows and a gourmet restaurant 335-feet up in the highest sphere, offering spectacular views along with local

delicacies such as Ostend oysters and Mechelen cuckoo.

Look out New York, Las Vegas is stealing your cooks. Sin City is quickly becoming the hotbed of celebrity-chef restaurants. And these restaurants aren’t notable just because their owners are on television.

The 2007 AAA Five Diamond reports are in, and The Strip claims four Five Diamond-rated restaurants: Alex at Wynn Las Vegas, Jo?l Robuchon in the MGM Grand and Le Cirque and Picasso, both in the Bellagio. These days, top dinner reservations are as important, if not more so, than a ticket to see Celine Dion or a Cirque du Soleil show.

The changes in the city’s dining scene haven’t gone unnoticed. Poker pro (and early Microsoft employee) Richard Brodie comments, “The tip for two at Guy Savoy is more than most families of four spend on dinner. It’s a paradise for the gourmet and the expense-account owner, but the day of the bargain is gone.”

Big-name chefs continue to set up shop here, and the foodies are following. According to Alain Gayot, editor-in-chief of Gayot.com, one of the more respected Web sites for dining and travel recommendations, “The money vortex has attracted many a chef to Las Vegas … From the French talent of Jo?l Robuchon to the Japanese art of Masa Ishizawa and the American seafood interpretations of Rick Moonen, Las Vegas is on its way to becoming the restaurant capital of the world.”

So, what are the best tables? The good news is that there are plenty of options. Each of the biggest resorts on the Strip has one celebrity-chef restaurant under its roof, if not a handful. Foodies who frequent Vegas make a point of ticking off one or two award-winners each visit.

In the past year, French heavyweight chefs Guy Savoy and Jo?l Robuchon opened their first stateside restaurants, now two of the most envious reservations in town. Most recently, Michael Mina added Stripsteak, the fourth title in his Glitter Gulch empire, which also includes Michael Mina at Bellagio, Seablue and Nobhill at MGM Grand.

Nobu at the Hard Rock is the city’s most prized sushi restaurant, and diners put Alex at Wynn Las Vegas on their list not only for Alessandro (Alex) Stratta’s refined French cuisine, but because of its elegant private location.

This being Vegas, several of these dining establishments boast unique and unusual decorating flourishes: Fleur de Lys with its magnificent flower sculpture, the hourglass staircase at Alex, or Picasso and its namesake paintings.

With the help of the Zagat Survey, we hit the Strip to research this list of the 10 most expensive restaurants in Las Vegas. When prices among competing high-end restaurants were equitable, we opted for the most recent and high-profile establishment in order to generate a top ten list.

So grab a reservation from this short list of gems, and seek out your wildest culinary fantasies. Just bring a healthy appetite and a good credit line.

It is an everyday lottery when it comes to fuel prices at German gas stations. Prices for regular unleaded and diesel gas bounces up and down, often changing twice on the same day. And drivers in this car-loving nation are unhappily dealing with increasing prices at the pump.

Record prices on the international oil markets have driven gas prices across Europe sky high, with a gallon of unleaded gas costing about $8.60 per gallon in Germany.? (In Germany, gas is sold by the liter with one liter of unleaded fuel selling for an average of $2.29)

The high prices hit people where it counts ? in the wallet.

“For us, as a family with two children, the high fuel prices are burdening,” said Britta Koester, a nurse who has a 20-mile commute to work at odd hours and no options for using public transportation. “I am totally dependent on the car; the infrastructure in our little town is miserable in that respect,” said Koester.

While filling up his small Volkswagen Golf, Dietmar Dannemann, 63, watched the meter at the pump carefully and tried to stop his purchase at an exact amount.

“As a member of the ADAC automobile club, I get one cent discount per liter, but I don’t want to get more than 15 liters today, the prices are too high,” he explained.

Meanwhile, Susana, a 33-year-old mother of two children, actually traveled across town to get a better price at the pump. “I get gas when I see a bargain,” she explained. “And, in my family, we call each other when we spot a station with lower prices.”

?The many islands of Hawaii were the evolution of a series of spectacular volcanic explosions and activities millions of years ago. Some of the volcanoes in Hawaii are still active volcanoes such as the Kilauea Volcano, on south-eastern part of the Big Island, is still spitting hot brilliant lava into the Pacific Ocean today.

The Big Island of Hawaii, the largest Hawaiian island is actually the youngest of the Hawaiian Islands. Some of Hawaii’s volcanoes can only be viewed from the air by helicopters such as those at the Volcano National Park. This is because accessibility is blocked off to foot and land vehicles by the flow of the deadly hot volcanic lava.

It is because of this, many Hawaiian tour agencies are offering helicopter and light plane tours for tourists to see Hawaii and view its majestic live volcanoes from the air. Hawaiian helicopter guided tours are conducted very professionally with well trained tour guides relating the history and the quirks of Hawaii in very interesting story telling narratives. Touring Hawaii and view its volcanoes by air is one of the favorite activities of tourists although it can get rather expensive if you are touring Hawaii by air as a family.

The Kilauea volcano actually looks like a bulge on the southeastern side of Mauna Loa. For many years Kilauea was thought to be a mere satellite of its giant neighbor, not as a separate volcano. However, it is now known that the Kilauea has its own magma-pumping system, extending to the surface from more than 60 km or 37 miles deep into the crust of the earth. In fact, the summit of Kilauea lies on a curving line of volcanoes which also include Kohala and Mauna Kea.

Hawaiian folklore has it that the Kilauea volcano is the home of Pele, the Hawaiian volcano goddess. The caldera was the site of nearly continuous volcanic activities during the 19th century and early 20th century. Since 1952 there have been about volcanic 35 eruptions have been recorded. The Kilauea volcano is amongst the world’s most active volcanoes.

There are helicopter tours taking off from the helipad at the Hilo Airport and soar directly to the Kilauea’s volcanic system to view the current volcanic activities and the coastal region which was devastated by previous lava flows and volcanic activities.

Along the tour your some helicopters will also soar into Kauai the Garden Isle, which is the oldest of the Hawaiian Islands. This jungle rainforest island serves as the back-drop for many Hollywood movies. The dramatic and rugged interior of the island is uninhabited, and is a landscape of pristine forests, plunging waterfalls, multi color hued rainbows and grand valleys. A helicopter tour of Kauai will also take you to Kauai’s dramatic wilderness areas which us only accessible by air.

So if you want to observe Hawaii’s natural beauty and active volcanoes from a bird’s eye-view, do consider a Hawaiian helicopter tour.

‘Disney’ and ‘Saving money’ aren’t generally words used together in the same sentence, but there are certainly some things that you can do to take a bit of the financial bite out of your vacation.

The first step in planning any vacation is choosing the dates, and this is where you can possibly save the most amount of money. If you can be flexible with you dates – say, flying on a Tuesday or Wednesday instead of on the weekend, you can often save a bundle. Certain times of the year are much less expensive than other times, and if you can shift your vacation even by a few days or a week, you may be in for a windfall of savings. For example, the Disney Cruise is much less expensive the 3rd week of August than the 2nd week, and it is even cheaper the 4th week of August. Prices in September hit rock bottom, so flexibility is key to getting the lowest rates. The same holds true for the Disney resorts and hotels.

So many things that you will pay a premium for at the Disney parks or on the Disney Cruise are available outside the parks for a significant savings. If you have children, just picking up Disney autograph books and pens at Wal-Mart before entering the parks will save you a bundle. While you are there, grab some fold-up ponchos for the rainy season, portable fans with water sprayers for the summer, and all sorts of Disney clothing and souvenirs.

Be sure to carry enough camera batteries, band-aids and sunscreen when traveling, as you really want to avoid the major markups on these types of mundane items. While Disney has a policy against bringing food into the parks, I have never been stopped for carrying our own chilled sodas and water bottles, along with snacks to keep us going. While I never seem prepared enough to make sandwiches, I have discovered that some things such as Pringles (potato chips in a can) and fruit snacks travel well and don’t melt in the Florida heat.

Eating out can take a major chunk of your money, so you’ll want to consider such options as having your main meal at lunch time (same food for less money than dinner time), or signing up for a dining plan if you plan to spend the entire day at the parks and enjoy eating full meals. Another option is to eat a big meal before arriving at the parks, and then go out to dinner after leaving (assuming you aren’t staying at the parks until midnight that night!) However, on a hot summer day, you’ll have to give in and spend a bit extra for cold ice cream or smoothies to keep you going!

There are discounts on theme park tickets available from AAA or other ticket discounters, and for the most part, you will reap the lowest prices on admissions by spending the most number of days at one entertainment venue. In other words, 5 days enjoying the Disney parks will cost you much less than 3 days at Disney parks plus 2 days at Universal Studios parks. Universal Studios tickets are often available in a package deal along with Sea World, Wet ‘n Wild and Busch Gardens, and Disney tickets get cheaper by the number of days, so that a 5 day pass isn’t appreciably more than a 2 day pass. Plan ahead, possibly even planning one vacation for one area and saving the other parks for the next if you plan to return to central Florida.

One of my favorite money saving ideas is to simply do things that are free. My family and I enjoy spending a day at the Disney Marketplace, where your family can stroll the shops, trade pins, play in the interactive fountains, enjoy fun entertainment and play at Lego World – all for free! Strolling around CitiWalk at Universal Studios (free parking in the evenings) or exploring the magnificent hotels around the area are all free attractions just waiting to be enjoyed. Good luck and remember: a dollar saved is a dollar you can spend on your next vacation!