February 21 - Byodo-In Temple, Japan

      Or so it would seem.  Actually, it was established in 1968 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants to Hawaii, and is copied after the 950 year old Byodo-in Temple in Japan.

   

 The smell of incense filled the central temple where Buddha resides.

 Koi congregate at a feeding spot.

 We heard a splash and looked over to see this little girl being fished out of the pond.  She was crying, but seemed most upset about losing one of her flip-flops, saying, "The fish are gonna eat my shoe!"  It reminded us of a time when a five or six year old Ryan tumbled into a pond looking at fish on one of our western trips.

     

February 20 - Honolulu first look

     We've got three weeks on the Island of Oahu, home to Honolulu, Waikiki Beach, Pearl Harbor and the Battleship Arizona Memorial, and the big surfing at Banzai Pipeline on the North Shore.  But there are plenty of lesser known attractions that we hope to explore.  The island is home to nearly a million people.  Compared to the Big Island's 190,000, Maui's 144,000, and Kauai's 66,000, it's obviously much more crowded.  Yet in our four days here so far, we've hiked on a great pali (cliff) trail with way fewer people than along the Na Pali coast, explored free botanical gardens with a huge variety of tropical trees, kayaked over a massive off-shore sand bar following green sea turtles that we shared with very few tourists, and driven through Honolulu twice during rush hour at speeds that, while somewhat traffic jammed, seemed like driving the Monte Carlo Rally compared to the snailcreep through east Kauai.
     We've only scratched the surface.  I'll do some quick catching up now that we're at an Airbnb for five days in a small town north of Honolulu.

 We spent the first night at Nancy's place overlooking the city and Waikiki.  This is a view of Diamond Head from the front porch.  I fixed hamburger/asparagus stroganoff on potatoes with the same view from the kitchen window.

     Nancy is about five years older, and way more traveled, than we.  When we walked into her living room I was impressed by her collection of Buddhist, Hindu and Islamic art.  And she has a fairly large library on her shelves.  A fellow booklover, I thought to myself.  It helps to know what people are interested in you if wish to engage them in conversation.  As I scanned the titles I realized that nearly all of them pertained to Astrology.  Hmm, I guess we'll keep to travel topics.  

     She was a very gracious host, and except for having a major street  right outside our bedroom window heading up the hill towards other neighborhoods, with the attendant loud trucks, souped up Japanese coupes, and motorcycles, it was a nice place to stay.  When we finally figured out to close the windows in our room at around 6 am it wasn't too bad.  

      Before heading over the hump of the island to our next Airbnb, and since it was a rare rainy day, we decided to visit the Bishop Museum, a huge complex dedicated to Hawaiian history, culture, and natural science.  

February 19 - We arrive on our last Hawaiian Island, Oahu. A posting without words or photos.

February 18 - Our last day in Kauai. Posting without photos

     We said goodbye to friends at the YWCA campground, then meandered along the southern coast, looking at towns and shores and beaches we hadn't seen before.  In Lihue, we checked into the Kauai Palms Motel, a place that sounds more exotic than it actually is, but a fine place to spend our last evening on Kauai nonetheless.
    We went to the Kauai Brewery and had a fine dinner and microbrewed beers, then returned to our hotel and packed our bags to ready ourselves for a new island.

February 17 - We're booked.

     Another day, another try to get our internet work finished.  We drove back down to Waimea.  This time, the library was open, and we successfully got all our bookings taken care of.  While Diana was doing that, I paged through a Lonely Planet Indonesia book and got excited about the total eclipse there on March 9, 2016.  I think I know where we'll be spending next winter.
     We hoped to get a hike in before dark, so we drove back up the mountain and parked at the trailhead for the Awa'awapuhi Trail. It's 6.2 miles roundtrip with a 1600 ft elevation drop to the overlook.  We didn't start until 3 pm and weren't sure we could make it before our 6:30 darkness cutoff.  But we decided to push hard, because the view at the end was supposed to be quite nice.
    We made it to out to the overlook in an hour and ten minutes.

 It was worth the hike.  I scarf down some peanuts while enjoying the view, since we hadn't had time for lunch.

"Hey brah, how 'bout sending a little aloha my way?"

 We heard, but did not see, goats on these slopes. 

 Ko'ae Kea (White-tailed tropic bird) soaring along the Na Pali coast, and sharing airspace with ...

     ... helicopters ferrying tourists in and out of the narrow valleys.

     We had a bit of climb ahead of us before returning to the car, so Diana catches a few winks.  After hanging around the overlook for half an hour we set a punishing pace back, partly because I had a a pasta meal planned and hoped to have enough time to prepare it before it got too late, but mostly just to see how quickly we could do.  We made it in and hour and twenty-two minutes.  Tired me out, and it would have taken a lot longer if the trail had been wet.  But the sun was still up when we got back to the car, and we felt pretty good about ourselves.
    That night, after dinner, we met a couple born on Kauai with a seven year old son.  Brigit works at a dude ranch on the north shore, and she told us her husband Goff drives all day for a living.  Drives?  How much driving can you do on a little island like Kauai.  Turns out, he was an Army helicopter pilot in Afghanistan for two years.  Now he flies tourists around Kauai - eight flights a day that each last 50 minutes, with a 10 minute break in between.  He told us it can be tiring - flying the 'copter, providing the narration, and making sure everyone is happy.  He said he flies a lot more here than he ever did in the Army.  We talked around a campfire for a couple hours, getting a local point of view about Hawaiian chickens, pig hunting (although they don't), the culture divides on Kauai and between the islands, and whatever else you talk about while drinking intoxicating beverages.

February 16 - President's Day: A hike, a film, a closed library

      We had a good plan for the day.  Start out with a hike into the canyon:

 A couple of sunny days dried out muddy trails, ...

 ... but proved too much for one unfortunate hiker.  What was he doing out here, anyways?

 However, we survived!

      Part of the Waimea festival includes a film festival.  Even though it was a beautiful day, we were sort of stoked about getting to spend some time munching popcorn and watching films.  They were showing movies from 9 to 9.  We arrived around noon, in time to watch a Korean film.  The name of the movie was Haemoo.  It was Korea's Oscar submission for best foreign film, although it wasn't accepted by the Academy.  It was very good, although grim and violent.  Not one that Diana would have signed up for if we'd know. 

     Then we watched a short film which was a senior project by a recent graduate of the Hawaii Film School.  The director was there to talk about the film - she spent a year in pre and post production for the eight minute film.  Film making must be pretty hard, because the result of all her work was barely watchable.  Oh well.  The next feature film was made in Japan about an aging actor who specializes in samurai death scenes.  Hmm, more Asian violence, perhaps? After two not so enjoyable films we were worn out, so we passed.
     Besides, we wanted to finalize booking all our accommodations on Oahu.  We're going to be there for almost three weeks, and it takes a long finding the best combination of camping and Airbnb places.  So, we headed over to Waimea Public Library, looking forward to settling in and getting our work done.
      And, of course, it was Presidents's Day, and the library was closed.  Darn.  That meant we'd have to drive the half hour back up to the YWCA for the night, then come back down the next day to finish up.  Just on a whim, I wondered if we might still get Wifi outside the building, even though the other libraries we've visited turn the internet off when they're closed.  Fortunately, we did get a signal, so we sat on a low curb next to the outside wall and rattled away on our computers for a couple of hours.  But we still didn't finish up our work.  By then, our computer batteries were low and our knees and backs aching from the poor sitting.  Oh well, it's a pretty drive up the mountain.

      

February 15 - Celebrating the life of King Kaumualiʻi

      OK, so we didn't know who he was, either.  But the small town of Waimea on the southwest coast of Kauai thinks he was an awesome guy, so they celebrate him at an annual festival.  We found out about it and thought it would be a good place to experience a little bit of Hawaiiana.  Like any small town festival, it was high on enthusiasm and local pride.  We stayed for a few hours, and really had a good time.

 We each started out with a bowl of smoked pork on rice - fatty and scrumptious.

 This father and son duo from Kona, on the big island, revved up the crowd with soulful Hawaiian music.  They were very good.  You can check them out at http://www.meleuhane.com/

 Then some hula.  That's the good king's portrait behind the dancer.

"Are you going to make a move, or what?"  We learned how to play Hawaiian checkers.

 Then we strolled around the old fort located at the mouth of the Waimea river and checked out the beach scene.

There is a county campground at the beach.  It would be a nice location to stay.  Unfortunately, it's the home of a small contingent of homeless souls.  The bathroom was foul, and the ukulele-strumming local chief of the assembled entourage was not especially friendly to us when we walked the grounds to check it out.

So we drove back up the canyon road to the YWCA camp.  Ah, home!