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.) 

We stopped first at the Kuan Yin Temple, 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.

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

 

 

Mind boggling, massive tropical trees!  

 

 

And of course, lovely tropical flowers. 

 

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

 

 

The Honolulu Chinatown neighborhood burned down several times and 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.