Hawaii, Day 4

[ladysprite]

This was a much better day. While I’m enjoying the conference, there were only a couple of lectures I wanted to hear today, and since I can safely miss a day or so and still earn enough CE hours to renew my license, I decided to skip half the day. This meant that I could catch the early morning session (Diagnostic Testing in Avians), then meet my sweetie for breakfast. This time, forewarned about the lack of prompt service, I was actually ready for the hour-plus wait for my bacon and eggs, and it was much less frustrating.

I went to one more lecture later that morning, then played hooky all afternoon. Arnis and I braved the local bus system, and found our way to the Foster Botanical Gardens. This is a giant meandering maze of greenery just outside a disturbingly overdeveloped section of Chinatown, and it is amazing.

Hawaii’s flora and fauna have been fascinating me since I arrived, since everything is so different from home, but this was just outstanding. They have a section on prehistoric plants, and another on beverage plants, and water plants, and some of the most amazing-smelling flowers I have ever encountered. There are entire grottos of orchids in every shape and size and color, with the most intricate lace-like petals, and pitcher plants, and honeysuckle, and a baobab tree big enough to hold up the entire sky, and two very lost Monarch butterflies. The trees here seem to fall into two categories – alarmingly tall, branchless spikes with a sudden giant cluster of leaves at the tip, or wide, fat little things that have a trunk shorter than me.

After the garden closed, we wandered around Chinatown peeking into flower shops that sold fresh leis and buying shave ice at a tiny hidden shop inside a gated plaza, until we found the bus that would take us back to our hotel. We then proceeded to not go into our hotel, but instead to wander around Waikiki’s shopping zone, buying large amounts of touristy kitsch to take home to our friends and chatting with a random guy on the street who had perched on his arms and shoulders two macaws, an Amazon parrot, two Eclectus parrots, and a cockatoo. They were all remarkably tame and sweet, and the blue and gold macaw sat on my hand and made baby-faces at me while we chatted.

After that, it was back to a local restaurant for dinner on the terrace while a live band played downstairs and the sun set over the ocean. I could get used to this very quickly. And, not wanting to call it a night quite yet, we started to wander through the International Marketplace.

From the outside, the International Marketplace looks like a little open plaza with a bunch of stands selling Aloha wear and shell necklaces. Once you enter, however, you realize that it is in fact a giant and endless mazelike warren of little stands selling Aloha wear and shell necklaces. And dancing hula statuettes, and candles shaped like King Kamehameha, and imitation designer purses, and silk flower leis, and bubble tea, and refrigerator magnets, and everything else that could possibly fit on a tray in a little wagon. I have no idea how we managed to eventually find our way out, but we did – past the waterfall, the bar, the guitarist, and the food court where even the Greek Deli sold tempura and teriyaki chicken. I managed to avoid buying anything, but I plan to go back during daylight hours and remedy this fact. (For the dresses, not the tacky tourist junk. I really have no need for a coconut bra, or a flashing glow-in-the-dark magnetic tiki god.)

And now I am touristed out for the moment, and ready to spend all day tomorrow in lectures.

Comments

[sdorn.livejournal.com]

Glad you got to see some of the flora and fauna, even if domesticated! Selvin Chance's photos (http://www.pbase.com/selvin/foster) of the plants are absolutely gorgeous. I was struck by the following on the Foster Botanical Gardens (http://www.honolulu.gov/parks/hbg/fbg.htm) website: A basic rule in any botanical garden is never put any unfamiliar plant or plant part in your mouth and use caution in touching any unfamiliar plant you encounter. To think that they even have to write that...

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Very much enjoying the travelogue... :-)