Honolulu

I'm too old to understand why some of the students slept out on the deck last night.  And where did they get those sleeping bags?  Give me a bed any day.  They did get a nice view of Honolulu as we pulled into the port this morning.  Then the ship was cleared at 8am, and everyone was off.

Nancy and I headed to the Botanical Garden. Here she is posing in front of a Kapok tree, so you get an idea of the dimensions of this tree .  It's worth noting that we must have beaten all the students to the Garden since we didn't see any of them there.

What we did see were tons of interesting plants and gorgeous flowers.  Many of the flowers were not blooming now.

After the Garden, we went to Zippy's for lunch.  Zippy's is a local chain which could be best described as a hybrid between McDonald's, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Captain D's with a local flavor.  They had milkshakes made from real milk and real ice cream--nothing you would find at the above mentioned eateries.

Some of you readers know that my students library workers at UVa gave me a Edgar Allen Poe doll to take along. Poe attended UVa, and I dress us his bust for holidays, so they sent him to remind me of them. Anyway, Mr. Poe lost his raven during our stormy seas last week when he took a tumble in the library. Zippy's is open to the outside, and a few doves roam around.  I set Mr. Poe on the floor to see if he could entice one them to join him on the rest of the voyage.

Then a lady customer sat down and inquired about his presence.  I explained the circumstances and that we were part of Semester at Sea.  Well, it turned out that she sailed with SaS while a student at Chapman College in 1969.  We had a great conversation, and then were joined by a customer at another table who thought SaS sounded perfect for her son.  Mr. Poe didn't get the bird, but he sure provided an entree into a great conversation.

Then Nancy and I walked through town and by the old Royal Palace..  It was an interesting juxtaposition of the traditional and the new.  Don Gogniat challenged us in Global Studies to take one picture in each port that sums up that place.  I think this is the one for me.. Nancy found one in Hilo, but didn't have  time to take the picture. She was at the Post Office in a small town, and they had a "take a penny/leave a penny" bowl.  It was overflowing with pennies.

Then to Starbucks for coffee.  Be advised that, unlike Charlottesville, coffee shops in downtown Honolulu are not required to provide bathrooms for their customers.

Our previous conversation at Zippy's led us to one of  the beaches that the locals use. There we found a group of SaS students sunning and playing cards.  They consented to have their picture taken for my blog.

After  some time at the beach, we headed back to the ship and passed a movie theater.  3D Avatar was playing, so we got tickets and watched the movie that all the kids said I should see.  We ran into two of the SaS faculty who were heading to the same movies. A giant popcorn and a large Coke provided dinner in situ.

For my birder friends, this guy says hello.