Last full day

 

 

 

Since we're in Honolulu, I thought, why not see Chinatown? Although to be honest, they are all pretty much the same. (I mean that in a nice way.) 

But we stopped first at the Kuan Yin Temple to get in the spirit, the air filled with fragrant smoke from hundreds of burning sticks. Monks chanting, drums and community worship going on inside. Buddhists burn incense to purify sacred spaces, among other reasons. A nice experience.

Best of all, the temple is adjacent to Foster Botanical Garden, which turned out to be a surprise highlight of the trip. 

 

 

Mind boggling massive tropical trees! I have lived a long time, and never seen trees anything like those. 

 

 

And of course, lovely tropical flowers. 

 

Then we hoofed it several blocks to the heart of Chinatown, thinking about lunch.

 

 

The Honolulu Chinatown neighborhood burned down fairly recently, so the architecture is not especially interesting-- just the usual Asian food markets, restaurants and tourist stores. 

 

We passed a Dim Sum restaurant, but feeling the intrepid travelers, settled on the open market food court, filled with (frankly) not-so-clean cooking stalls and tables. But the takeout lunches were flying out of Papa's Court stall, which turned out to be a good choice. Once you got past the confusing menu.

 

Black bean chicken for John. Wonton soup for me. Fresh and hot. 

Then another Uber ride back to the hotel, and one last dinner tonight on Waikīkī. Back to bean-soup-from-the freezer reality tomorrow. With luck, flight departs for Seattle at 1:20 pm.

A different vacation experience for sure, but fun. We are both well.  

 

Our neighborhood

Duke's Alley, next to our hotel, is a maze of tiny stalls selling cheap jewelry, trinkets and souvenirs. I got sucked in there, of course. Almost couldn't find my way out. 

Shopping, shopping. The International Marketplace, bustling away 32 stories below our room, has a big Target, high-end stores, and fancy restaurants. And there's another fancy mall across the street with more designer stores and a food court. 

We got take-out Panda Express there and watched the game in our room on Saturday. Sweet. Go Hawks. 

The famous pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel is across the street on the beach. Remember the lyrics to Joni Mitchell's "Big Yellow Taxi?" She wrote that song when she came to Hawaii for the first time in the 1970's. She woke up in the morning and saw the skyscrapers and sprawl starting to creep up the green mountain paradise. 

"You don't know what you got til it's gone." 

Yup. Waikiki was a wetland with fresh springs and a fertile sacred place for royalty. The iconic beach is artificial and the sand replenished every 5-7 years. 

As you've probably guessed, this is not a relax under the coconut tree type vacation. But Honolulu is a fun and friendly city. The Uber drivers are a hoot and full of local information.They say international travel is down. Expensive visas are required now for foreign visitors. Some are staying away from American politics. You could have fooled us. The streets are absolutely jammed with people from all over the world, and so many young Asian families. But many are residents of Honolulu. 

You expect Hawaii to be expensive, but we were surprised the prices are comparable to Seattle. The sales tax here is only 4%, compared to 11% in Seattle. Our shocked Uber driver said we must have wonderful roads and services in Washington from paying all those taxes. We laughed. 

As for today's excursion, we walked to the Honolulu Zoo. Not a world class zoo in terms of animals, but the inmates looked happy and the grounds are pretty.  A nice peaceful break from the hustle bustle on Waikiki Beach.

 

 

 

 

Black tears

 

A peaceful and still early morning at the Pearl Harbor National Memorial yesterday. We had time to visit the museums and watch the excellent documentary film before our 9 am boat tickets to the Arizona Memorial. 

 

The famous white structure was built over the sunken battleship Arizona, straddling the hull, parts of which are still visible. 

Of the 1,102 Arizona crew members, more than 900 sailors and marines are still entombed in the wreck below, making this site a most solemn National Memorial Cemetery. 

 

 

The shrine room with a list of the names, and a place to reflect on the devastating 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor that killed 2,403 Americans. 

 

We grew up with parents who experienced World War II, and are the last generation to hear those stories directly. John's dad was a Marine in the South Pacific and our dad served in Panama. We both wished they could have visited here. 

 One of the smoke stacks still visible above the surface. 

 

And a most poignant sight. Over a half million gallons of heavy bunker fuel is still trapped in the ship's hull, leaking 2-9 quarts a day. At the current rate of seepage, the ship could continue to leak oil for another 500,000 years.

This phenomenon is widely known as "The Black Tears of the Arizona."

 

 

We all know the history, but visiting the actual site is a profound and memorable experience. 

The view

 

We have an ocean view room on the 23rd floor (nice) but the unit next door is ocean front. We can crane our necks around the corner and see what $1000 a night gets you. 

BTW, this is not a typical fluffy clouds Oahu sunset.  Exceptionally dry atmosphere right now. 

The vibrant night scene from our balcony. Kinda like Las Vegas, but more cosmopolitan and with an ocean. What to say? Many things have taken me by surprise here, especially the noise level. 

 

Looking down on the show at the International Marketplace far below. The beating drums and voices carrying up through the skyscrapers-- binoculars useful to see the hula girls. 
 

 OK. A classic shot of the beach. We walked over yesterday and sat on the sand. 

The water too chilly and rough for us, but thousands of people swimming and surfing from morning to night. 

An early start this morning for our half day tour on the north shore. Which turned into a very long half day-- we boarded the bus at 7:30 and got back to the hotel at 4. 
 

The Honolulu nightmare traffic to blame! However, such courteous and patient drivers compared to Seattle. Must be the climate and the aloha lifestyle. 

The Dole Plantation. A classic tourist trap, but hey, the whole island is. When in Rome. 

 We rode the little Pineapple Express train...

Through the fields...

 Ate a ears of local corn. And a pineapple whip (mandatory.) 

Walked through botanical garden...

Colorful...

And everyone bought nuts at the next stop. 

And finally, a 2 hours at Halewia town on the north shore for shrimp lunch then walking around the shops. And a shaved ice. 

Tomorrow, Pearl Harbor. 

Arrival in Paradise

All my weather worries (as usual) came to nothing. After a cruel 2:30 am wake-up, we were at the Hawaiian Airlines counter when when they opened, and the flight departed on time at 7 am. 

 

 

In minutes we were above the dreary Northwest clouds, cruising along in a spanking new Boeing 787. I like gazing out at the clouds and ocean below, doing some daydreaming on the Dreamliner.  

 

 

The 787 doesn't have those typical pull down window shades-- there's a button you press to lighten or darken the glass by your seat. 

 

Pretty slick technology, but on this flight the windows were controlled by the cockpit, and the cabin was dark for most of the 6 hour flight!  So I had this weird view of the sun through the dark window, looking like the moon. Everyone was either sleeping or glued to the screens.  

 

Anyway, about 2 hours from Honolulu, the windows gradually lightened like a fake sunrise, giving the discombobulated feeling of coming off a night flight.  

 

 

 

We were met in the baggage claim by the representative, and soon in the shared van to our hotel. Everything went smoothly, thumbs up Costco travel. 

 

 

Our room is high up on the 23rd floor with partial view of Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head in the distance. The outside balcony is noisy for sitting, due to all the HVAC systems roaring below, but other than that no complaints. The service here is very nice.

 

 

Only the old people remember Don Ho. What would he think of this glitzy new Hawaii?

 

We walked around for a while in a daze, checking out the fancy malls and designer stores. This area is a luxury shopping destination for the world, and if nothing else, great for people watching. 

 

We shared a simple pizza at the Maui Brewing Company and went to bed early. What a long day.

 

 

 

And a new one begins. Up early for the included breakfast in the hotel lobby cafe. We plan walk over to the beach this morning and stick our feet in the ocean. Tomorrow, a bus tour of the North Shore, and on Saturday, Pearl Harbor. 

 

Aloha!