WASHINGTON — The presidential candidates have traveled a great distance, in miles, years and station in life. Honolulu-born Sen. Barack Obama looks to a view of O'ahu to remind him where he came from.

The Associated Press asked candidates running for their party's 2008 presidential nomination to name the item that most reminds them of where they came from.

Obama, D-Ill., had an unsettled childhood. His mother divorced when he was 2, and he lived in Indonesia for four years until his mother and stepfather sent him back to Hawai'i, at 10, to be schooled there under the care of his grandparents.

His reminder of where he came from: A picture on the wall of his Senate office showing O'ahu's South Shore cliffs and crashing surf, where his mother's ashes were scattered after her death in 1995.

In a series of questions, The AP recently asked candidates about their personal side, exploring their tastes in music, food and TV; their routines; their backgrounds and more. The questions also revealed some unusual hidden talents, among them Obama's strength at poker.

Nothing brings back home for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., like the burgers at the Pickwick restaurant in Park Ridge., Ill., her girlhood hangout next to the movie house of the same name. The Pickwick still serves burgers with chopped green olives piled on top ($6.75 with soup and fries, coleslaw or fruit) and in 2003, on the occasion of her last visit, renamed the favorite the "Hillary burger."

Former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani looks at the pocket watch handed down by his Italian immigrant grandfather and sees back in time, to his roots.

For former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, the roar and clatter of a freight train take him back to his childhood home in Hope, Ark., down by the tracks. "Trains," he said. "My childhood home was only about 200 yards from the train tracks."

The textile mills of North Carolina do the same for former Sen. John Edwards, D-N.C., who worked for a time in their dusty heat on his way to becoming a successful trial lawyer and senator, but they are vanishing.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, gave an answer that sounded flip on the surface: "a compass," he said. But he could well have used a compass to keep his bearings as a child. The eldest of seven children born to a truck driver and a homemaker, Kucinich lived in 21 places — including several cars — before he turned 18.

Southwesterners in the race also found food to be the strongest tie to their past. Green chile and enchiladas were the reminders of choice for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., respectively.