Final Oahu Adventures

Our last day in Oahu was spent driving up the east side to the North Shore and back down through the middle of the island.  We stopped at beautiful lookouts and turquoise beaches.  We found a Buddhist Temple and saw an arch out in the ocean.  We spotted sea turtles from the shore and discovered fields of pineapple as far the eye can see. We stumbled upon a grove of rainbow eucalyptus trees.  We found Hawaii's first cidery on our way back to Honolulu and had a delicious kahlua pork and flatbread pizza from a food truck.  It was a fantastic final day in Hawaii.  Now, it's time to head back home and back to work.  We've had a wonderful two weeks in paradise.  Our last day in photos:

Waikiki Beach

Gorgeous Coastline

Byodo-In Temple

Sea Arch

Fields of Pineapple

Rainbow Eucalyptus Tree

Paradise Ciders

Pearl Harbor National Memorial

In our life quest to visit all 50 states, we also want to visit all 50 state capitals.  This was the main reason for coming to Honolulu.  While Honolulu is well known for Waikiki Beach, it is a large city with over a million people living in the metropolitan area.  Once you get away from the ocean, driving around Honolulu is like being in many other large cities....traffic, congestion, people, etc.  I don't mean that as a criticism, but more as an observation.  We love visiting big cities and seeing the diversity of cultures, food, and architecture, and Honolulu has been great.  However, if you're wanting a tropical beach vacation, different places on Oahu or the other islands are where you want to be.

After the capitol, the other reason we wanted to come here was to visit Pearl Harbor and see the USS Arizona Memorial.  The Pearl Harbor National Memorial is jointly administered by the National Park Service and the US Navy. Pearl Harbor is still an active military base and remains the headquarters for the Navy's Pacific Fleet.

The USS Arizona Memorial is both a monument and a graveyard to the 1,177 sailors who were killed in the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor.  Active duty naval personnel pilot the boat from the visitor center across the harbor to the Arizona.  It is a very somber and moving memorial and a reminder of the devastation that occurred here. In addition to the sailors who died in the atack whose remains are forever entombed on the ship, a number of survivors chose to have a burial at sea and have their remains interred here with their shipmates.

After visiting the memorial, we took a shuttle bus to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum located on Ford Island.  We had the added bonus of meeting our long-time college friends Kim and Mark who live in Honolulu. We haven't seen them since graduating over 30 years ago. Mark retired from the Navy and now works at the Aviaton Museum managing their capital projects.  Kim is the associate minister at First United Methodist Church in Honolulu. We were so fortunate that Mark was able to give us not only a great behind the scenes tour of the museum, but they also drove us to other spots on Ford Island that most of the public don't get to see since military ID is needed to be on this part of the base.

USS Utah

We were able to see the USS Utah Memorial where part of the ship is still exposed above the water.  We saw bullet strafing in the concrete next to the float plane ramp and the original memorial marker that still stands even after the current Arizona memorial was constructed.  We drove past some of the houses where active duty families live, with a blue sign identifying the current residents and a black and white sign that identifies the residents from December 1941.

After our visit, we went to a local brewery with Kim, Mark, and their daughter Ashleigh to catch up on the past 30 years.  It was a wonderful conclusion to a great day of learning and reflection.

With our friends Kim and Mark

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.

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park

My new favorite highway sign

One of the main reasons we wanted to visit the Big Island was to see volcanoes.  Kilauea is the most active volcano in the world, and for the past few months has been having intermittent eruptions.  We were hoping the timing would work out for our visit and that we would see one.  Spoiler alert -- we did not.  Nevertheless, it was a fantastic visit.

View from Devastation Point

We drove along the rim of the calderra and stopped at various lookouts over the landscape. Even though there was no eruption, we saw steam vents throughout the park giving us a gentle reminder of what was boiling beneath the surface. Our best view was at the aptly named Devastation Point, where we walked about a mile from the parking area to a lookout directly across from the active steam vents in the calderra.  

The most scenic drive in the park is called the Chain of Craters road, a 19-mile road that takes you from the calderra all the way to the ocean.  We drove through lush tropical forest near the top of the drive as well as through lava fields that looked as though we were driving on the moon.

Not far from the ocean was an area with thousands of petroglyphs carved into the lava rock.  We had to hike about 1.5 miles round trip across a lava field in order to see them. Ancient Hawaiian culture did not have a written language, so these petroglyphs provide a glimpse into the lives of this ancient culture.  We recognized human forms and animals such as the sea turtle, while others were more abstract.  The National Park Service has mapped over 23,000 of these rock carvings in this area.

We met a Bulgarian couple who had been camping along the coast for a week.  They were in search of a ride back up to the calderra and had been waiting for over three hours without any luck when we met them. After hiking to the petroglyphs, they were still in search of a ride so they hopped in the car with us.  We drove down to the ocean to see a sea arch that was still standing before driving them back to the campground where they were spending the night next to the calderra.  They are ski instructors in Switzerland who spend their summers traveling to various locales across the world. Even though we only spent about an hour with them, conversation flowed easily.  It was a nice reminder that we have much more in common with others around the world than we do differences.

Sea Arch

Luau Time

We capped our Tuesday evening attending a luau at the Royal Kona Resort.  I didn't realize just how popular luaus are and that they sell out in advance. Our original plan was to book one in Kauai, but the entire island -- both north and south shores -- were sold out.  We then booked ahead for the Big Island but had to travel to the west side to Kona.  While I'm sure these luaus cater to tourists, the music and dance are very much rooted in Hawaiian culture and tradition as well as the larger Polynesian culture. We saw dances from Tahiti and the Maori people of New Zealand as well as Hawaii.  We had great seats up front, a delicious meal, and wonderful music and dancing.  A fantastic way to cap off our day.

Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden

During yesterday's Hamakua Coast scenic drive, we stopped and toured the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.  Recommended by a friend as the most beautiful spot on Hawaii, we had to pay a visit since it was just outside of Hilo.  It was not only visually stunning, but a testament to one man's vision.

Dan Lutkenhouse Sr. discovered the Onomea Valley on the Big Island while vacationing in 1977.  In the process of retiring from his trucking company in California, he and his wife decided this is where they wanted to retire and spend the rest of their lives.  They bought a 17-acre parcel, and once Dan started exploring the land, he decided he wanted to build a botanical garden in order to preserve the beauty of this valley.  What he saw was an area overgrown and choked with invasive species, weeds, and thorn thickets.  What he envisioned was a beautiful sanctuary of tropical plants.

Every day of the week for seven years (!!), Dan and his assistant Terry worked with cane knives, sickles, shovels, and other hand tools to clear paths through this jungle landscape.  No heavy machinery was used.  Without any formal botanical training, but a love of nature, the Garden opened in 1984.  It is a colorful tropical paradise with plants from around the world, including a section filled entirely with orchids.

We probably stayed close to two hours wandering through the garden, walking all the way down to the ocean and back. Reflecting back on the time we spent there, I keep returning to this concept of having a vision and making it reality.  It's difficult to fathom that two people spent every day for seven years doing heavy manual labor to make his vision come to fruition. Perseverance.  Determination.  Stamina. The result is a thing of beauty and a legacy his children now carry forward in his memory.

Big Island Adventures

Rainbow Falls

After a wonderful week on Kauai, we're now on the Big Island also called Hawaii.  Its nickname reflects the fact that this is the largest of the Hawaiian islands.  We're staying in Hilo on the east side.  Monday was our travel day between islands so we didn't do or see a lot; however, yesterday was chockablock full of adventure.

We started off visiting Rainbow Falls.  Frequently, the sun shining on these falls creates rainbows, but our day began with overcast skies so no sunlight to refract.  Still a lovely double falls only 10 minutes from our house.

Akaka Falls

After the falls, we started driving the scenic drive along the Hamakua Coast north of Hilo. Sections of the drive meander through the middle of lush topical forest.  For much of the route, you are seeing the ocean, and there were multiple viewpoints to stop and admire the views.  We took a brief detour from the scenic drive to visit Akaka Falls, a 422-foot waterfall that is the most famous on the Big Island.  We were fortunate to nab a parking space right by the trailhead for the short hike down to the overlook.  The waterfall is the centerpiece of Akaka Falls State Park, another area of lush tropical forest.

We then finished our drive up the Hamakua Coast and headed across the island to the west coast.  What a stark contrast!  The west side is much drier as evidenced by a lack of vegetation and the landscape is dominated by lava fields.  There are oases of green and trees scattered throughout the section of the west coast we visited, but the predominant view was that of old lava fields.

We visited two National Historic Sites -- Kaloko-Honokōhau and Pu'ukohola Heiau.  These two sites are along the 175-mile Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail along the west and south coasts of the Big Island.  It was created in 2000 to protect and interpret traditional Hawaiian culture and natural resources.  Here we learned about King Kamehameha I who consolidated all of the Hawaiian island chiefdoms under one rule, as well as how they managed to survive and thrive in such a harsh volcanic landscape.

After all the sightseeing, we attended a traditional luau which I will post about separately. We finished our adventures with a gorgeous Hawaiian sunset before our 90-minute drive back to Hilo.  A beautiful end to a fantastic day.