last day in Paradise

On Friday, niece Lisa took us to the Bishop Museum.  I could spend DAYS there!  one of their temporary displays is a collection of shell leis made with the teensiest shells in innovative, creative patterns.  They're called Niihau Leis.  I realized I had been mesmerized by one for about ten minutes, trying to figure how the creator had put it together, while Lisa and Kyle had moved on to a different room.  And then I got captured by the feather cloaks.  Then, the baskets caught my attention.  I lagged behind all the way through the Hawaiian culture exhibit.

Lisa took us over to the physical sciences building to see the volcano show.  They do a great talk about the formation of volcanoes and the different kinds of lava the Hawaiian volcanoes produce, while over in the corner, a furnace is melting actual rock (cinders that they get from Home Depot) until it becomes lava.  The docent then dons protective gear opens the furnace, and pours the lava.  It is SO neat!   It pours out on a steel plate and starts cooling and cracking, and all through the end of the talk, you can hear the cracks and pops as it shatters in the cold.

We never made it to the planetarium though I could spend a few hours there.  And there was also a display on the life of the Japanese immigrants to Hawaii.  Fascinating.  Could have stayed in there a lot longer, too.  All in all, it was a great way to spend a day.

Then, on Friday, we rented a car and drove around the island.  Away from Waikiki, this is still such a paradise.  The main highway is a twisty little two lane road.  There are freeways built across the middle of the island to connect the Marine base with downtown, and to connect the North Shore with the city, but in between - pineapple fields or wild forest.  On the windward side, there is maybe a mile of land between the sheer cliffs of the Pali, and the waves of the ocean.  Lots of farms through there and lots of people keeping horses.  And we passed the Polo Club, too.  I keep harkening back to episodes of Magnum PI where Higgins was playing polo.  How - civilized!

Then, Saturday night, to celebrate his birthday, Kyle took Lisa and Drew(our niece and her husband), Bud and Betty(my uncle and his wife) and the two of us to dinner at Sargento's restaurant at the top of our hotel.  Soooo good!  We ate until we were replete, and then they brought desert!  After we had eaten ourselves into a stupor, Kyle and I just had a short elevator ride back to our room.

So it is 6:30 in the morning, and check out time is eleven.  I find it VERY hard to start packing.