And on Our Last Day …

Today, we went to the Bishop Museum!  But to start from the beginning!  Up this morning to another perfect day … seems like they have a lot of those here, doesn’t it??  We went down for coffee/chocolate milk and pastries around 7:30.  Debby got a Palmier, I got a chocolate croissant (which really had TOO much chocolate in it!) and R got two ham, cheese and mushroom croissants.  All good!  

 

We were out about 8:30 to get across town to the Bernice Bishop Museum for its opening at 9 am.  We were among the first to arrive at this lovely spot.  The museum was built in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in honor of his late wife, Bernice Pauahi, who was the great granddaughter of King Kamehameha I.  Its original collections were based largely on the royal family heirlooms of the Kamehameha and Kalakaua dynasties.  Both the museum and the collections have grown considerably since then, and both are truly first rate!

 

And, honestly, it was nice, at least initially having the place basically to ourselves, as we could read all the descriptions and take our time going through things.  The museum presents Hawaiiana in many of its forms, from the royal feathered kahilis (feathered staffs that were carried over the members of the royal family on celebratory or solemn occasions), tracing the history of the uniting of the islands by King Kamehameha I and following the Monarchy through its evolution and untimely ending with Queen Lili’uokalani and her surviving family members.  

Front of the Museum Entrance way

Like the statute in the garden!

Beautiful building painting!

Museum buildings

 

Main exhibition galleries on three floors

Whale!

Gourd

Wooden bowls

Royal feathered Kahilis

Loved the sign!

Mangos waiting to fall!

There was an entire floor of the museum devoted to the various Hawaiian gods and their differing responsibilities around the islands and the homes of the people.  The displays were incorporated with various poetry from island poets and sages through the years, with English translations (mostly!) provided.  Altogether a really interesting and moving experience.

 

The whole theme of the museum – detailing Hawaiian culture – added to our feeling of regret for how the Hawaiians were treated by the Americans in the past.  It is a very sad story as the American business and missionary interests worked to overthrow the Hawaiian monarchy and annex the islands to the United States.  One begins to understand that the recent protests over the observatories on Mauna Kea are only a part of a deeper, heartfelt movement.

 

Midway through the museum, we took a break for a presentation in their excellent planetarium of the Hawaii Sky Tonight, which was presented both via computers as well as a great star projector onto the domed ceiling.  The gal doing the presentation was really excellent and we enjoyed the show very much.  As Robert told her afterwards, it reminded him very much of his youth when he would visit the Adler Planetarium every month in Chicago to see their presentations … nowadays, it has become so standard to have movies rather than real people talking, it’s not nearly so interesting!  The real question tonight is, will be we stay awake long enough to see the Southern Cross in the night sky???

 

We finished touring the museum a bit after noon, and as we were a bit peckish, headed to the museum’s small café.  R and I had their hot dogs with chips and drinks, and Debby got a drink only.  Interestingly enough, by the time we were finished eating, the line for service at the café was amazingly long!  SO glad we’re usually early to eating spots!

 

From the museum, we decided we would take a drive through Punchbowl National Memorial Park, which is located at the top of Punchbowl Hill.  (Which, incidentally, is where Charlie Chan lived when Earl Derr Biggers was writing his books!  Punchbowl Hill, that is, not the Memorial Park!)

 

It’s a really lovely and quiet spot on the top of the hill inside of an extinct volcano.  We drove through the park, which is lovely in and of itself, and affords excellent view over Honolulu and Waikiki with Diamond Head in the distance.

 

Punchbowl Memorial Park

Lovely view!

Then, back down the hill again and back to the apartment for a brief respite before we were off again, this time for our final Honolulu dinner!  In looking for a place to eat on our final night, I remembered an article I had read from the NY Times about where to find the “real, old Waikiki” … and one of the suggestions was a restaurant called Side Street Café.  As it turns out, it was less than 2 miles from our apartment, just on the other side of the Ali Wai Canal.  It was very easy to get to – less easy, though, was the parking, but finally brilliant Robert figured out where and how to get to it, and Voila, we were in!  Yay!  

 

They open at 4 pm and we were (surprise!) the first folks there, and of course, we had a reservation. (Oh yes!  When I made the reservation, we were told that we could “only” have the table for 2 hours, and then we’d have to go!  Okay…)  We were seated at a nice booth, which was great, as most of the seating was at large, long tables in the middle of the room!  Then, we found out why!  Turns out, that each of their dishes feeds from 1-3 people – mostly three – or possibly 4 to 5!  Our wait person warned us that the portions were LARGE – and boy, she was right!  The fried rice came on a platter and could easily feed 6 – 8!  So, we opted for a “serving” of their special fried pork chops, a “serving” of their Kal-bi (Korean spiced and grilled) chicken, and the fried rice, which included everything including Portuguese chorizo, bacon and innumerable vegetables.  Debby did suggest that we take an “after” photo of our table … I figured they’d need a hose to clean it off, but we didn’t as we didn’t want to scare anyone!  At any rate, we did take our leftovers home, so now we don’t have to worry about what to have for breakfast or what to take on the plane in case we get hungry!  We WON’T! 

Kal-bi chicken, fried pork chops, fried rice! Lots...

 

The food was served quickly and was truly amazingly good!  And, while I don’t normally quote prices, the entire thing, including two glasses of excellent Sauvignon Blanc, came to a total of $112!  Amazing, considering what many of the hotels charge these days!!  At any rate, we only wish we had gone to Side Streeton our first evening, as then by now we might have finished everything up … oh well!  Next time, as they say!

 

From Side Street, it was less than a 10-minute drive back to the apartment, and we are now in for the night!  Debby is packing up, R is reading, I am blogging, and we’ll see what (if anything!) comes next!!

 

We’ll be out in the morning about 9-ish to fill up the rental car with gas and return it and us to the airport, for our 12:10 pm flight back home.  We’re expecting to run into an Atmospheric River in L.A. which hopefully will be letting up some as we make our way back to my wonderful sister’s house to spend the night!

 

So!  For now!!  Aloha! And Much love always!

m

xxx