Obama arrives in Hawaii to visit ill grandmother

Honolulu: US presidential candidate Barack Obama arrived in Hawaii on Friday to visit his gravely ill grandmother.

Obama was raised by his grandmother, 85-year-old Madelyn Dunham, for much of his childhood.

"She has really been the rock of the family, the foundation of the family. Whatever strength, discipline that I have, it comes from her," Obama said of her grandmother.

Obama arrived early on Friday in his native state, after an 11-hour flight from Indiana where he held a morning rally on Thursday.

Obama told CBS television that he decided to make the exhausting journey half-way across the Pacific to see Dunham since he "got there too late" when his mother died.

"I want to make sure that I don't -- I don't make the same mistake twice," Obama said.

Dunham is reportedly suffering from a broken hip and generally failing health. Obama was due to return to the trail in Nevada on Saturday.