 |
| We did a little bit of downtown sightseeing...this is Aloha Tower. Kind of a 1950s vibe. Cruise ships used to bring visitors here but it looks pretty dead at this point. The university has bought the property and is using it for student housing and dining. |
Above are Iolani's Palace and the King Kamehameha statue. Below are pictures of the very cool State Capitol building. The statue is of Father Damien and the building has some neat symbolism. On the sides are structures that look like two black volcanoes. The columns represent the eight major islands of Hawaii as palm trees.
We ventured away from Honolulu today and explored the North Shore. The Banzai pipeline is here although it's pretty tame in the summer. There are still a few Surfers but not many barrel waves. Chris and Jackson did some mountain biking on Pupukea and found some World War II pillbox bunkers. Jackson enjoyed exploring them. I sat on the beach for 2 hours at the marine nature preserve. I did not bring a snorkel and mask but starting tomorrow we expect to rent some gear and look at the coral and the wildlife. There are also plenty of lava tubes underwater to enjoy. We had a really nice time today despite the rain storms which lasted almost the entire day. The smell of plumeria greeted me as I went to pick up the boys and we had lunch at the food trucks which was quite delicious. On the return trip home we stopped at Dole Plantation. Without Sanford Dole convincing the US government to annex Hawaii for business interests, it would have never become a state. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but it rings true. When we got back to the hotel we were so exhausted we just ordered a pizza. Tomorrow we fly out to the Big Island of Hawaii. Looking forward to escaping the crowds and seeing less concrete. But we still really enjoyed our time here.
No comments:
Post a Comment