We woke up to a sunny, beautiful day and were on the road by 9:30am. We spent the next 3-3.5 hrs at the Bishop Museum after arriving in Hoholulu. A wonderful place, beautiful inside, world class - superb exhibits with so many unique, high quality artifacts of the history of Hawaii. And what they are able to show is only a fraction of what they have in storage. This is real, first hand accurate history, not Polynesian Cultural Center history created by people who also believe absolutely that North American Indians are the lost tribes of Isreal.
They had a whale that was put back together bone by bone for this exhibit, along with turtles, a shark, and other fish in the recently renovated Hawaiian Hall. The building itself is beautiful with wooden stairs, rails and beams.
And there were a lot of canoes on exhibit:
And lots of Hawaiian artifacts:
They showed how the homestead huts were designed (full-scale):
Pam especially enjoyed the exhibit of the Ni'hau shell leis:
Such intricate woven purses and fishing nets:
And lots of Ni'hau jewelry for sale in the gift shop:
They had some interactive videos - Pam attemped to learn how to do the hula:
While Norm looked at photos in the old Photograph Viewer:
We then went to another section that held a world-class collection of 19th century Hawaiian art, books and collectibles. They had quite a few ukuleles (including who made them) and old colorful albums and sheet music:
Here is a photo of an outrigger that was redrawn for an album cover:
There is also a planetarium on the grounds. A 45 minute presentation told how the forbears of all inhabitants of Polynesia and Micronesia stem from sea voyagers who started sailing out from South China and Taiwan about 5,000 years ago. Island hopping finally brought their distant descendants to Hawaii about 900 years ago. Exciting stuff, particularly after walking through the museum.
After the Bishop we drove to the Iolani Palace - lots of metered parking available right in front.
We had just put 3 quarters in the meter (30 minutes), when another tourist walked by and pointed to a lamp post sign stating that all cars will be towed after 3:30 pm. The parking spaces become a traffic lane during rush hour! It was then 3:14 pm. That only gave us a few minutes so we snapped some quick photos and headed to Waikiki Beach.
King Kamehameha's statue is across the street:
We found a free parking spot just down the street from the Waikiki tourist area. What a beautiful day at the beach. We walked along the beach-side road, ultimate destination the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, to get a taste of the old days when it was pretty much the only game in town.
We visited the Royal Hawaiian 30 years ago, but this time we poked around more inside. Just a lovely building and grounds - and all that pink paint. They don't make 'me like this anymore.
Lots of old pictures and posters throughout the hotel:
After that, more walking and gawking. We came across Duke's Marketplace down a long, narrow street off the main drag. It seemed to have most of what we found at the Aloha Stadium swap meet (except no ukekeles) but more jammed together and quicker to negotiate.
Pam bought a ukulele made out of a coconut (just for decoration):
Then we window shopped and found a ukulele shop and a hula lamp that reminded us of Leo & Suzie's.
We ended our Waikiki journey at a Starbucks for some R&R with Frappaccinos:
Driving out of town a quick stop for a couple of Subways for dinner. Easy drive home.
Later, the evening news said that the very area we had been walking through was cordoned off by police because a nearly expired flare of some type had washed up on the beach near the Royal Hawaiian - talk about over reaction by the "bring it on!" types.
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