My mom grew up in Manoa with her family and when she had me, she knew she wanted to move back to Manoa. I loved Manoa as a kid and I still do now. Everything has a homey, familiar feel to me and I wouldn't want it any other way. While I think it's gotten more populated with the UH kids over the years, it still has a lot of elderly Asian people that you can't help but love. It's always green with all the rain the valley gets. Unlike Palolo valley, it's nice and lush... with all the rain Palolo valley gets, it's still quite hot and brown :(.
Manoa has a really nice park where as a kid, you would find me there every Saturday playing basketball, softball, or volleyball for MGAC. Even now, I like to take Keebler there on occasion so he can sniff out the Manoa dogs! Also, Manoa Marketplace is the one stop shop for man, woman, and child with Longs, Safeway, Kay's Crackseed, and all the shops there. Don't come on a Sunday morning if you don't like crowds... the old people flock here for the open market and Longs' sales. One time I came here on a Sunday morning at 8 AM and I swear everyone's grandma was hobbling along in Longs trying to block me from moving down the aisles. That's okay... I usually know half the people moving down the aisles of Longs, Safeway, or wherever I am in Manoa. I guess that's what happens when you go to school there and half your family lives in the valley with you.
While burglaries have gone up in recent years (watch out and lock your doors!), I would love to live here again. I wanted to move back in with my parents again but now that I have a husband and baby, my husband said no. Sad face! I don't even think my parents would let me anyhow.
Manoa has their annual Christmas parade too! It's pretty good if you ask me. Manoa has a lot of good hiking trails if that's your thing too. Who knew it also had a golf course? My grandpa always used to write about Manoa history in the paper. Also, Manoa has good schools like Noelani and Manoa. I think Manoa may be better but when I was a kid, everyone wanted to go to Noelani which was a blue ribbon school at the time :). Yay go Noelani! I loved it there... okay this just goes to show you I love Manoa Valley. read more