Sunday, 11 August 2019
We found this cemetery-on-a-hill view of downtown Hoh-noh-loo-loo. That’s Diamond Head on the left horizon.
Temperature is higher here, although humidity is a teeny-tad lower. But you’d pretty much only notice if you had a measurement device. Your skin might not.
Saturday, 10 August 2019
We spotted this in a fishing boat, not sure what it is. Long line? Hooks…lines…carpet fragment.
This heiau (sacred place) is in a busy park at a good surfing spot. Many signs remind non-believers that this is a sacred place, to avoid—no cars, scooters or entrance. But, oh what a scenic place! I couldn’t tell if there was a adjacent village anciently; it could have been by itself overlooking the ocean.
Friday, 9 August 2019
Marigolds and petunias, pure everyday.
Figleaf crop. Everyday leaves.
Thursday, 8 August 2019
The basil keeps growing. 😀 (pesto delayed until weekend)
Tintagel is reunited. 🤭 (new footbridge; opening delayed until☑️ Sunday due to high winds)
Wednesday, 7 August 2019
In the middle of watching another wonderful documentary, totally different from “Chasing Coral“—watch it if you haven’t already.
Today’s is “Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin.” I remember the covers of her novels from the early Earthsea titles, the Hainish Cycle titles, and more, but I don’t remember reading a single one. Embarrassing. Time to track down several and inhale-read.
UKL had something in common with President Obama—both had one parent who was an anthropologist. Not too smug, am I? 😀
Tuesday, 6 August 2019
Among assorted post-trip photo-processing chores, I added selected images to our “screen-saver” collection. Great fun! And we can play the collection…anywhere.
The Guru does the complicated stuff, like geolocating images from the camera that does not support texting or phone calls; that takes real time and know-how!
Monday, 5 August 2019
We “lost” six hours overnight, that curvature of the Earth thing. We made a full circle* by returning home from the airport via MARTA. We saw the sun come up from the train.
Home, we discovered that leaves are coming down already; is this from stress? It can’t be drought. Hey, it’s raining now!
BTW, I’m not yawning now, as I’ve had two naps of several hours…hoping to sleep an approximation of overnight later. Fingers crossed.
I think we can legitimately call ourselves home fries.
* Two ways: geographically and by transportation type.
Sunday, 4 August 2019
Good morning, rainbow.
Good morning, ocean.
Good morning, fisherman. Best of luck.
Good morning, surfer and lighthouse.
Good morning, tunnels.
Good morning, working fishing boat. Hope you’re not tired, hahaha.
Hello, lei stands.
Aloha, loves.
Sunday, 4 August 2019
Castle building, now part of the Bishop Museum complex. Condemned due to termite damage, so closed. Perhaps work has begun to renovate it?
I picked one artifact from this huge museum, of Hawaii, of the Pacific, of life in Polynesia: a wooden Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku surf board. Duke lived from 1890 to 1968 and was a fast swimmer as well as surfer. May his waves ever curl perfectly. Duke was named after his dad, who was named in honor of the Duke of Edinburgh. Duke seems like a perfect surfer name.
Fascinating garden on the grounds, with coast plants in one area, another zone of highland plants, and a third of canoe plants, that is, the ones the Polynesians brought to feed themselves. They brought food plants, and plants that they grew with the food plants to make mini-ecosystems that worked. These are breadfruit. Polynesians needed nutrients and carbohydrates from plant sources—they got a lot of protein from fish; this dietary situation is similar to what other traditional peoples living by rich coastal waters have had to contend with.
Chinatown. Way cool; and hot/sticky where it wasn’t air-conditioned. Like this market. A few others had AC. I’d try to shop here for fruits/veg at least sometimes if I lived here.
Loved this sign in the restaurant where we ate: Only Good Vibes, and the two gals playing pattycake while waiting for their food.
We did not have dessert, so I never found out what magic crack is.
Wending our way back to the rental, we went by the Aloha Tower. Majestic. It opened in 1926 and is a lighthouse. After the bombing at Pearl Harbor it was painted to disappear in night-darkness.
This restaurant is gone, but its historic sign has carefully been kept. The restaurant was open over seven decades, if I have it right. The building had degraded and “had to” be demolished.
I’d say building preservationists so far have been more successful with the Castle than the restaurant.
Saturday, 3 August 2019
We stayed up late (as in: after dark) last night chatting on the lanai/patio. At least three of these little lizards showed up to hunt bugs around one especially bright light. I hadn’t seen these pale ones before. This one has a shortened tail.
This morning I felt like I needed fluids. I doubled up with coffee and kombucha. After two portions of each, I felt not-quite-so-dry.
Our big expedition was to the Pearl Harbor Memorial. They’ve been fixing the landing dock for over a year, and we could not land, so we motored by, with first one side of our boat facing the memorial and then the other side, as passengers were required to stay seated at all times. The flag pole is attached to an original part of the Arizona‘s mast. The white float far right is above the bow. It was a solemn visit. The 20+-minute video before we boarded the boat was excellent; visitors were instructed not to talk during it and indeed (surprise), people were quiet.
Mid-afternoon, the Guru and I entered Puowaina, more commonly known as Punchbowl Crater. More military dead are interred here, in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. I believe the current tally of dead exceeds 53K; markers are all flat, which contrasts with Arlington National, for example. We were surprised that the floor of the crater is so high.
Then, we went to the core of the civic-ceremonial and governmental section of Honolulu. This is the ‘Iolani Palace; construction began in 1879. It replaced an earlier building that dated to the early 1840s (if I have it right), built during the reign of Kamehameha III (born 1814; died 1854; reign 1825–1854). This building dates to the reign of King Kalākaua (born 1836; died 1891; reign 1874–1891). TMI?
This fenced area is on the palace grounds; it is a burial mound and super kapu (forbidden—because of its extreme sacredness). The lands around the palace, including other city blocks, was part of a royal sacred area prior to the arrival of foreigners. Behind the fence on the back side, I saw a guy shooting up and that was during an idle glance; that was not something I wanted to see (and have seared into my memory). Elsewhere people were sleeping on sidewalks and on the grass. Homeless problem here, too, in that end-of-the-road way….