This is the Aston Aloha Surf Hotel that we stayed in at Waikiki.
This was the Banyon Tree in the Food Pantry parking lot next door to the Aston Aloha Surf Hotel. It provided shade to most of the parking lot.
Some of the wildlife at Waikiki Beach, Honolulu.
More of the local fauna at Waikiki Beach.
This was where we sat and viewed the local scene at Waikiki Beach from.
Kathy and I watched these Hawaiin youths
paddle their canoes on the nearby Ala Wai Canal that was built in 1922
to drain the then swamps of Waikiki.
This the catamaran sailboat that we paid
$15 each to go on the first time and $12 the second time. The Royal
Hawaiin Hotel can be seen in the background. The fellow with the
red and yellow striped swim trunks is one of the crew members.
The pink hotel on the left center is the
Royal Hawaiin built in 1927 and the u-shaped hotel with the green Banyon
tree in the front on the right betwee the towers is the Moana Hotel opened
in 1901. We attended quite an interesting talk on the history of
the hotel and Waikiki. The Hawaiin speaker reminded Kathy and I of
the radio show called "Hawaii Calls" that we dimly remembered being broadcast
to North America some 50 years ago in our youth. The guy said the
radio program of Hawaiin music was broadcast over shortwave radio from
the Banyon Court of the Moana Hotel for the 40 year period from 1935 to
1975.
This is me on the north shore of Oahu.
The waves were normal size on the day we were here but a week later were
reported as high as 50 feet. We missed them, though because we were
over on Maui to visit my brother, Bob and his wife, Roberta.
Kathy at the same spot.
Kathy at the same spot.
This is an old Bank of Hawaii building that
was used as a bar for decades and was open when we were last here 6 six
years ago but it was closed down this time. It is located in the
village of Waialua on the north shore of Oahu. It was a real interesting
bar and I was disappointed that it was closed down. While we were
driving through the area, I noticed that the sugar cane and pineapple fields
that used to be there were gone. I asked a store clerk in Haleiwa
(another village to the northeast of Waialua) about the reason for this
and she said that the Hawaiian farmers can't compete with the labour
costs of these commodities produced in Central America. I noticed,
though, that there are still sugar cane fields on Maui when we flew there
to visit my brother and sister-in-law.
This is Waimea Bay on the north shore of
Oahu showing the large surf coming in here. I went swimming here
nearly 30 years ago and got caught in a rip tide which swept me along the
shore to the left of here where the surf pounds on rocks. I had quite
a time extricating myself from the current. I finally grabbed onto
the sandy bottom when a large wave dropped me onto the beach in about 6
feet of water and then, after the water drained out, I got up and ran like
hell towards the beach. It was a frightening experience. When
Kathy and I went over to Maui, we missed some exceptionally large surf
reported to be up to 50 foot waves that came in here about a week after
this picture was taken.
Every 7th wave is the biggest they say.
It is hard to estimate the size of the waves from shorte but I think these
were about 10 feet or so.
This is the lilfe guard stand at Waimea
Bay Beach. The lifeguards had to rescue several people from the water
due to a rip tide that was active when we took these pictures. They
stop work about 5 pm and one of the life guards was warning people over
the megaphone not to go into the water unless they absolutely knew what
they were doing.
Maui
This is Bob and Roberta at a national park on the north shore of Maui.This is the pool mentioned above in Waianapanapa State Park.
Maui
This is my brother, Bob, at the beach near
Wailea. We had just come back from a visit to the nude beach that
is behind me as I took this picture of Bob.
Here it is - Maui's nude beach at Wailea.
Kathy and I at, I believe, Hookipa Beach Park on the north shore of
Oahu.
This is Bob and Roberta at a national park on the north shore of Maui.
This is Kathy and I at the same spot.
This is the grave of Charles Lindbergh which is near the spot of the
pictures of us taken above.
Brother Bob suddenly had an atavistic urge to climb up into this banyan
tree near the Lindbergh gravesite.
Roadside flowers near the Lindbergh grave site.
This is the shore line near a series of
pools that drains into the ocean here in Waianapanapa State Park on the
north shore of Maui.
Looking down towards the sea.
A rather interesting tree that we walked by on the way out to the road
from the pools pictured above.