On to Oahu

After a fabulous day in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, our time on the Big Island has come to an end and we've travelled to Oahu for the final two days of our trip.  Oahu is home to Honolulu and is the most populated island in the state. Honolulu is also the state capital, so our first stop after arriving was to visit the capitol building.

Hawaii is our 50th state and its capitol reflects both the recency of its statehood as well as pays homage architecturally to heritage and culture. There's no large rotunda or marble statues here.  It has a more modern design with one strikingly unique feature -- it is an open-air building surrounding an interior courtyard.  When you walk into the courtyard and look up, you see the sky.  Office doors open to the outside walkways on each floor, and on the top floor there are openings with views towards the ocean on one side and the mountains on the other.  

Hawaii has a part-time legislature and they have adjourned for the year.  As a reult, the house and senate chambers weren't open.  We asked in the Senate Clerk's office if we could see inside, and the Sergeant at Arms unlocked the doors for a private tour.  She told us about the symbolism of the building, and how certain features represent volcanoes, canoes, and other cultural icons of Hawaii. The sentate chamber has a moon theme, as evidenced by the chandelier, and the house chamber honors the sun.  She's worked at the capitol for 36 years, and was very proud of her history.

One final note about the open-air concept.  We've noticed this is a very common design feature in Hawaii.  My assumption is that because the temperatures stay fairly consistent year-round and there's always a breeze, that this is a way to save on energy and construction costs.  Both of the airports in Kauai and Hilo were open air.  The check-in counters and baggage claim were essentially outdoors.  Many of the post offices we passed on the islands had their individual PO boxes outside as well.  No need to go inside a building to retrieve your mail.