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Wanderung 16

Holts Hawaiian Hula Holiday.

January 2008

Wednesday, January 9, 2008: Walking in downtown Honolulu.

Bob:

Crossing timezones predictable upsets our sleep rhythms, so we both had problems with being wide awake after about 3 in the morning. We finally gave up after 5:30 and took showers and dressed in a very liesurely fashion before heading down to breakfast at 7:30. It turned out to be "breakfast with the birds" because we were eating in this open patio area and the birds, not being bird brains, were hovering over us (sparrows) or under foot (doves) for crumbs or accidental discards. I saw three sparrows sit on the back of one chair facing a 10 year old girl across the table, just waiting for her to either drop something or leave her muffin unprotected. She shooed them away, but they didn't go very far nor for very long before returning to watch for their free meal. Unfortunately, the "continental breakfast" was the U.S. idea of a continental breakfast rather than the German version, so we just had coffee, juice and three different kinds of rolls plus bananas. So we stoked up on carbohydrate but nothing else before we set out for the downtown Honolulu Volksmarch.

Monika:

Well going to bed early, meant that I woke up early. Actually, I woke up at 1:30, 2:30, 3:30, and by 4:30 my body refused to go back to sleep. I did keep quiet so that Bob could sleep another hour, but by 5:30 Bob also was awake. When the sun came up, we went onto the balcony of our room and took some nice pictures of the city and the mountains in the early morning. By 7:30 we could finally go downstairs for a "continental" breakfast. I never quite figured out what continent is supposed to have only sweet rolls for breakfast. In Europe the breakfast menu always was a lot more varied even if it was not an English "fry-up". However, at this hotel, we did get a nice mixed juice and bananas besides the sweet rolls. So, we got plenty of carbs, however, very little protein.

Bob:

The first step was to buy 4 day bus passes for $20 each at the ABC store down the block from us, and the second step was to use "The Bus" to get to the Honolulu YMCA where our walk started. It turned out we didn't even have to ask for the walk box because when we waltzed in wearing full walking regalia topped off by our red "Charging Charlie" caps, the guy at the counter took one look at us and silently put the box in front of us. We filled out our start cards, took the directions, map, and description of points of interest along the route, and started what turned out to be a long but thoroughly enjoyable walk winding all through downtown Honolulu.

Our first stop was Our Lady of Peace Cathedral, which according to our Historical Notes was built in 1843 with coral blocks quarried from the harbor. Then we traversed the old commercial center of town with big, fancy, old office buildings built by the "Big 5" companies that dominated Hawaii's business and politics from the late 1800s to mid 1900s. I thought the mosaics of undersea scenes at the entryway of one building were particularly nice.

Winding our way down to the waterfront, the soaring masts and spars of the old, square-rigged, "Falls of Clyde" loomed up on our left, which was an outdoor exhibit of the Marine Museum next door. A graceful white dinner-cruise type of ship named the "Star of Honolulu" was docked right across from it. I took pictures of those while Monika took pictures of the tropical fish feeding right at the foot of the pier.

Monika:

Our goal today was to justify our trip to Hawaii. Our German relatives laugh that we mainly walk to get stamps in books. Now the Volksmarch we were going to do was for stamps in two very special books: Walk 50 the States, and Walk the 51 Capitals. This would actually complete the 50 states book, since we had walked in Juneau during our last Alaska cruise (Wanderung 13). However, the 51 capitals was more difficult. We still will be missing Helena, Montana, since they had stopped the walk just when we were there. The Trenton, New Jersey, walk is a given as a group walk only, since the local club feels it is not safe enough for individual walkers! Oh well. But Honolulu in Hawaii gave us a nice stamp in each of the two books.

To get everywhere, we were going to try the supposedly excellent Oahu bus system called, appropriately enough, "TheBus". We found out that you could get a four day pass with unlimited bus trips at the local variety store and since tomorrow we were going to take the bus around the island, this seemed a good deal. So we boarded the bus, switched at the Ala Moana shopping mall, where it seemed all buses stopped at one time or other. We found the bus we were supposed to take to our start point, and as promised, the YMCA was right there. When we came in, the guy at the desk must have deduced from our hats what we wanted, because he had the start box waiting for us.

We sat out with a map, written instructions, and a sheet with historical notes keyed to our walk. In other words, we not only knew where to walk and how to get there, but also what we were seeing. It was really fun. We first walked through the financial district and passed some of the ornate buildings of the "Big 5", 5 companies that pretty much ruled Hawaii for much of its existence after the Americans had discovered it. The walk led us down to the Aloha Tower at the waterfront. Bob was intrigued by the old ships, but I enjoyed the colorful fish, that swam close to the pier. Of course, having a vending machine with fish food, explained why the fish liked this place. But the fish aren't picky; an old man came with bread crusts that he threw into the water, and a veritable feeding frenzy ensued. One very big fish from the depth even came up for a tasty morsel. I was leaned over the pier clicking away with my camera. After a while, Bob had taken enough pictures of the boats and came to investigate why I was leaned over the pier. He was also astonished to see all these pretty fish this close.


 


 


 

Bob:

We circled around the Aloha Tower Marketplace to amble back past the Old Honolulu Police station to Chinatown. Apparently the "Charlie Chan" mysteries were based in part of a real detective named Chang Apana who worked there. The Chinatown area was quite extensive and economically very vibrant. Several open air markets and "jumble" stores seemed to be really catering to Chinese customers. There were Chinese restaurants, of course, but other Asian minorities also played a role in the culinary offerings as we saw a sushi outlets and a Vietnamese noodle shop.

Monika:

We continued walking through the Aloha Tower mall and were intrigued by a ukulele shop. Some of these instruments were beautiful, but we decided not to load us up with a new instrument at this time.

From the Aloha Tower we went to and through Chinatown. It reminded me a little bit of Chinatown in Vancouver although on a smaller scale, since it also was a bustling, alive place with all kinds of open air markets and restaurants meant for the locals not tourists.

Bob:

Winding past the impressive Art Deco exterior of the Hawaii Theatre dating from 1922, we worked our way over to the Hawaii State Capitol. Built in 1968, it was basically modern but featured the "no walls" type of architecture that I was beginning to realize was a consistent theme in Hawaii. Even the roof featured a large rectangle completely open to the sky. On either side we had statues of Queen Liliuokalani , the last royal ruler of Hawaii, and Father Damien, who treated the lepers out on Molokai, I think it was, and ultimately succumbed to the disease himself.

Monika:

. After Chinatown came the government part of town, with a very modern capitol that had an open courtyard. It was supposed to symbolize the openness of Hawaii, the only island state. A statue of the last queen of Hawaii stood rather symbolically between the new statehouse and the old palace, where she had reigned.

Bob:

By the time we walked past the new, modern Honolulu Police Station dating from 1992, two hours had elapsed and we were surprisingly tired (jet lag and heat, probably), hungry (too much carbo for breakfast) and thirsty. So we bought some sandwiches and a bottle of Coke at the commissary at the police station and enjoyed a nice snack. The area around the police station was quiet and we were uninterrupted by anything except a mini-dove who came begging and was so cute that Monika did give him some sandwich crumbs.

Re-energized, we walked past the Mission House and Kawaiaho Church where the missionaries preached religious and cultural change to the natives. The missionaries also ended up with most of the land in Hawaii, coincidentally, and some of them became the agribusiness giants of the "Big 5". The mausoleum for King Lunalilo was next to the church entrance, and off to one side was one thing from the old Hawaii, a very old pool and fountain where Chieftess Ha'o would take ceremonial purification baths.

Monika:

What with picture taking and looking at things, we had been on the go for one-and-a-half hours and the carbs from breakfast were gone. We both were getting hungry, tired, and grouchy. Our instructions promised a cafeteria at the main police station. But when we saw all the security we would have to traverse, we opted for a little snackbar, where we found sandwiches. Bob had a turkey sandwich, I went for the ham and cheese. These weren't great, but they gave us the umpf we needed to continue our walk. We walked past a few parks, then came to the old mission church and cemetary.

Bob:

Continuing past the a government building with the statue of King Kamehameha out front, we entered the grounds of Iolani Palace, the official residence of the last kings and queens of Hawaii and the "only true royal palace in the United States"! Who knew we had one? The palace was quite pretty but clearly designed in a "Western" as opposed to native Hawaiian style.

Our next stop was Washington Place, a charming and modest white buidling that was the governor's residence until 2002. An eternal flame was burning at a small war memorial in the middle of the street beside the residence. The current governor's residence was also a graceful white building, but quite a bit larger.

Monika:

After that we went back past the state office with a statue of King Kamehameha and past the only royal palace in the USA to finally get back to the state capitol. From there it was only a hop skip and jump past the governor's mansion and an Episcopalean cathedral to our start point.


 

Bob:

Our last stop was St. Andrew's Cathedral, completed in 1958 after 91 years of work! Very pretty, and after some searching out back we found the bust of Queen Emma who founded the attached school for girls in the priory, which was the third and final checkpoint. Curling back to the YMCA, we paid for the walk, stamped our books, and went shopping at the Safeway that was catty-corner from the Y.

Bringing our groceries back on The Bus, we settled in to rest and have a belated lunch. As evening approached, Monika and I were both sorely tempted to fall into bed and nap, nap, nap, but we both knew that doing so would only slow down the adaptation of our biorhythms to the new daily cycle. So we reluctantly pried ourselves away from the bed by the expedient of taking a walk down to Wakiki beach. The water was so warm that pretty much everybody, men, women, and children, were paddling around in the gentle surf. Monika took off her shoes and waded along the shoreline, but I stuck to walking along the high water mark as I had my hiking boots on. The sun set in a blaze of glory while we were wandering along the beach, and we watched the surfers finally give up for the day and float ashore with their boards.

Monika:

We had seen a Safeway across from the Y earlier, so while Bob handed in our start cards, I went shopping, so that we could have dinner at home and also have milk and beer for a variety in beverages. So loaded we caught the next bus back to the Aloa Mona shopping mall and another one to Waikiki. Back at the hotel we had sandwiches and then rested for a bit. When I started to fall asleep, I quickly went downstairs for a cup of coffee. I really did not want to go to bed too early.

It was getting near sunset and we decided a little walk to the beach to get some sunset pictures would just be the ticket. It really was beautiful and we both tried to get nice pictures with the surfers coming in for the night into the setting sun.

Bob:

We turned around to walk back to our hotel room as darkness fell, but then we noticed a performance on a small stage at the edge of the beach and we stopped to watch a bit. The show turned out to be a Hawaiian music and hula dancing performance and we watched it until the end of the show about 8 p.m. The hula dances came in a "pure" form where the dancer used her body only or in several variants in which the dancer uses a gord, split bamboo batons, or something that looks and sounds like a marimba with a ring of flowers around the end. I actually enjoyed the pure form the best; the dancers movements and transitions were always extremely graceful and flowing, and that reminded me a lot of classical ballet. Very pretty, and a great way to end our day. After finding our way back to our hotel later, we worked a bit on our journals and answered email before turning in for the night.

Monika:

When it got dark we thought we would go back, but heard hula music and stopped to see a performance of a local hula group. There were three musicians, three solo dancers, and ten group dancers and it was quite interesting to see different styles of hula dancing. This made for a perfect ending for a very nice day.

Copyright 2008 by R. W. Holt and E. M. Holt
Prolog
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January 2008
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Epilog

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