Exploring Honolulu

Oh, boy, time is flying and it's hard to catch up,,, Yesterday morning we went out to explore Honolulu, the historic core in Downtown and Chinatown. Of course, we walked, and, at the end of the day it added up to about 12 mi/20 km. Weather was cloudy, but warm.

After some coffee and a cookie we started our walk through Midtown first, with a stop at the Hawaii Fabric Mart, the same company we have visited before on Mauai. This time we bought some fabrics for dresses (?) and pillows, will have to see how it works out with my sewing talents ,,, (wish my mom would still be alive!). Couldn't resist since they had such a fantastic selection for incredibly cheap prices! On through Midtown with fabulous murals (see below), but not much more else offered, to Downtown Honolulu.

Lots of highrises in Downtown Honolulu, surrounding by historic buildings from the 19th century, as the Mission Houses (built by Protestant missionaries from Boston, pic on left), the Governor's Mansion, and the majestic Iolani Palace (pic below). There was also a huge Banyan Tree, similar to the one in Lahaina.

Also, the founder and unifier of Hawaii, King Kamehameha, and his successor Liliuoklani, are honored with statues (pics below). Unfortunately, the palace was closed for President's Day Weekend, but our "historic tour" was nevertheless interesting. We passed by the Hawaii Capitol Building, a quite unusual building: without a golden coppola (right picture).

There was a fancy Buddhist Temple (Kuan Yin Temple) - pic above- on our way to the Foster Botanical Gardens, before we entered Chinatown, a world on its own, which apparently is not highly frequented by tourists. There was a huge open market with vendors, selling groceries for very reasonable prices. Here it would have been easy to get provisions to cook in an apartment! Also, we found shops selling clothing of all kinds (even hula skirts!)- funny articles of all kind.



Next stop on our walk towards the harbor: the Art-déco-style Aloha Tower from 1926, 184 ft. (56 m) high. It functioned as a lighthouse and, till today as a landmark. To our full surprise, the observation deck was open and free and we took the elevator up to enjoy the views. One big cruseship was anchored and we saw big industrial areas around.

From the pier closeby, adjacent to the Hawaii Pacific University (in a former shopping mall), we watched colorful tropical fish without having to get wet.

The walk back to Waikiki wasn't really romantic first, passing by industrial/harbor installations as well as tent villages of homeless people, followed by the Yacht Harbor.

We noticed a strange tree, which we - in the hotel - identified as a "Sausage Tree" (Kigelia Africana) befoe we stopped at Waikiki Brewing, the one and only brewery rooted in Waikiki, for Happy Hour. Through the Hilton Hawaiian Village - a self-sufficient town on its own - we walked back to Waikiki Beach.