Hawaii

NANOS was in Honolulu this year.  Jen's parents came to spend the week with the kids and Scott and Jen had a fantastic time traveling together. 

Welcome to Hawaii!

This was the view from our Hotel. We were right on the ocean in Waikiki. Our view was mostly city side, but we had a little bit of the ocean view off our balcony.

We went to church with the locals. They were glad to see us. Their regular organist called in sick and Jen played the organ for their service. The music director gave Jen this lei.

A real flower lei as a token of thanks from a local Hawaiian. It doesn't get more authentic than that. It happened to be the music director's birthday. Her son gave her a double lei to wear to church on her birthday, and she shared one of her leis with Jen. The flowers smelled absolutely fantastic.

Sunday evening we took a walk around Waikiki. It is a busy and crowded city, but we still found this awesome park and gawked over the trees and flowers.

These are hibiscus flowers

I was particularly impressed by the banyan trees.

These trees drop aerial roots and spread out growing new trunks expanding it's footprint and "walking."

These plumeria are pretty famous for lei making.

We caught the sunset back at the beach.

On Monday we had some time to visit Pearl Harbor. They offer a ferry ride out to the Arizona Memorial.

 

 

The remains of the ship are just under the surface.
Over 1,100 men died on the Arizona alone during the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Over 900 were never recovered and this memorial is their final resting place. 

Dr. Haines and Dr. Kotay presented their case of "Down-gaze palsy due to a sarcoid-like reaction from paraneoplastic disease."

We had a lot of great meals in Hawaii. These were delicious poke bowls. We enjoyed the combinations of Hawaii local food mixed with other American and Asian inspired dishes.

We drove just a bit out of town and found a fantastic hike at the Hawaiian Nature Center. I don't think it is an overstatement to say that this was the best hike I have ever done. We hiked over 8 miles and climbed through various ecological zones. The scenery and especially the diversity of plant life was amazing.

 

Large banyan trees in the wild

The very first thing we saw on the hike was this little waterfall in a wild banana grove, which was strewn with tropical flowers coming down out of the trees.

Flowers grow abundantly on trees and shrubs and vines

The vegetation was so diverse. I recognized a few tropical plants, but mostly I was looking at unfamiliar sights in every direction.

 

There was just a small element of danger as we hiked through the mountains.

Sometimes it was the sights that were impressive, but sometimes it was the sounds. Hearing the wind rattle the bamboo in this forest was an awesome experience. 

 

There were sections of the trail that had as much color as hiking a deciduous forest in autumn.
 

And the mountain vistas were stunning.

The next day we traveled through a mountain tunnel on the Likelike Highway to explore the windward side of Oahu.

We went kayaking in the Kahana Valley

 We paddled up the river as far as it was navigable. We started out in a tidal river and ended up in a freshwater stream with a steady current.

Lots more to explore

For example, we spotted these trees that looked like they were growing pineapples. (I know that pineapples do not come from trees.) On closer inspection we discovered this odd fruit called a hala. 

The segments of the hala fruit have these fiber that work for a paintbrush. How about that? 

The wind was super gusty at the beach but it was well sheltered on the river. The weather actually worked out very well. Lots of cloud cover, a bit of sun and some epic breezes to enjoy. We did see a little bit of rain, but it never lasted more than a couple of minutes.

After we explored the river we paddled out into the Kahana Bay. The surf was up with all the wind, so we couldn't go to far into the ocean. 

We beached the kayak and played in the shallow bay. We were the only ones there. This was so much more fun than the tourist saturated beaches of Waikiki.

 

 

 

 

The bay was so shallow you could just keep walking further out.

It wasn't hot, but a chilled coconut was a little extra refreshment. They have these coconuts growing on their property and share them with the visitors. 

The next day we started with an early morning visit to the Punch Bowl, The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific

 

They have some information about all the conflicts in the Pacific

The overlook from the rim of the punchbowl.

We went to the North Shore and watched surfers on Bonzai Pipeline Beach.

There are chickens everywhere in Hawaii. This was at the beach, but we saw them in the mountains and even in the city.

Food trucks are a big part of the laid back North Shore culture. We found some more interesting food options, like walnut honey fried shrimp or green papaya shrimp salad.

Our next stop was a visit to the Laie Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Unfortunately, the temple was closed all week, so we only visited the grounds. This was a beautiful and peaceful location. 

 

 

We then went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. We were really impressed with the performers there who shared their cultural heritage with us.

 

The dinner and the performance were both top notch experiences.

We spent the last night glamping in a banana farm.
(That Kia Soul was our rental for the week.)

 

On our last day we started the morning with a visit to this Buddhist Temple.

Another pleasant stop. I was so impressed that this was built in the traditional style with dowel construction. No nails or screws.

Our last stop was the Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden

We had another wander in beautiful natural environment.

This path was a bit overgrown, but we adventured forward.

When we finished the trail we found this sign. The sign says "End of Maintained Trail." Maybe they should have one of these signs on both ends of the trail!

Aloha!