Hawaii Part 4

Mokoli'i Island, photo by Benjamin

One day, we drove to the North Shore of Oahu. At certain times of the year, the North Shore is where all the really big surfing goes on. When we were there, the waves were pretty small, so no surfing. But we did go snorkeling. No pictures from that, unfortunately.  We stopped at a park where you could see Mokoli'i Island. Benjamin had kayaked there on an excursion with members of his program.  This time, we just observed from a distance.

Mountains to the south of Mokoli'i/Kaneohe Bay.

Here's a red-crested cardinal that we saw at the park. Neat - not native, but neat.

We were staying in the Manoa Valley, where the University of Hawaii at Manoa is located. At the top of the valley is the Lyon Arboretum, a university-owned arboretum. Of course we had to visit it, and we did, on our last morning.

This was a little more like what I was expecting from Hawaii - tropical, rainy jungle. We didn't get to see nearly enough of the gardens, since there were tons of little paths wandering through the forests, and we had to stay on the main one due to time constraints. But what we saw was very cool.

This is a Thai-style walking Buddha statue in the gardens.

Manoa Falls. Photograph by Benjamin

 Right next to the arboretum was Manoa Falls. I didn't get a chance to take the hike, but Benjamin did with some of the other people in the program. No-one paid any attention to the danger signs. Including Benjamin.

Photo by Benjamin

This is a statue of Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China. Although this was a Chinese cemetery, there is no explanation of why the statue is there. There were a lot of statues around Honolulu though, so I guess it isn't really out of place.

And one last look at Benjamin, standing by the Center for Korean Studies on the University of Hawaii campus. He was in Hawaii for three weeks for work purposes before I came to visit and bring him home.

Now that I am done with my Hawaii pictures (I took a lot more, of course, but I won't subject you to those unless you come to visit us) I will have to find something else to blog about. Ah well, fall is almost here, and with it (slightly) cooler weather, so hopefully we will be able to do some hiking soon.