Sunday February 09, 2025 – Oahu, Hawaii, USA
We docked, Starboard to Quay at Pier 2 in Honolulu at 8AM on the Island of Oahu (The Gathering Place, 112 Miles of coastline) in the Chain of 8 islands (Ni’ihau, Kaua’i, O’ahu, Moloka’i, Lana’i, Maui, Kaho’olawe and “The Big Island” called Hawai’i) known as the USA State of Hawaii. We soon disembarked and walked the 20 minutes to the downtown area and specifically to the Roman Catholic Cathedral Basilica of our Lady of Peace. Located at 1184 Bishop Street, Honolulu, HI 96813; Phone +1 (808) 536-7036; http://www.honolululcathederal.org; Email – coolop@rcchawaii.org. The Sunday services are 6 AM, 8 AM, 10AM, Noon and 6PM. Anne arrived at the church during the 8 AM service and the cathedral was packed. We went to the 10AM service and it was also completely full including on the second level. So it seems like it is extremely active. We stood out from among the locals and were greeted warmly and given a Lei made of small shells. A very nice touch. It was interesting that the two saints in the reredos are Saint Marianne and Saint Damien. The connection is that St. Damien worked on Moloka’i island helping the Leper colony there. Brother Dutton, who is in the process of becoming a saint, was St. Damien’s assistant. The church that Anne attends when we are in Stowe VT, Blessed Sacrament Church, is related to the Dutton family. The property belonged to the Dutton family and was donated by Brother Dutton’s family to the Catholic Church. The outside of the church is decorated with burned wood carvings of the story of Brother Dutton going to work with St. Damien.
We then wandered back to the ship but not before going down a pedestrian Fort street mall, filled with closed stores. It is the beginning of the Chinatown area which we found out later, suffered greatly during COVID epidemic and most of the shops and businesses are now closed. So we took King Street and ended up at the Iolani Palace (completed in 1882), the residence of the Kings of Hawaii, its last monarch Queen Lili’uokcalani in 1893. It is the only Royal Palace in any US State. We then saw the statue erected in 1883 of King Kamehameha I (who united the islands in 1810) in front of the Ali’iōlani Hale (Hawaii State Supreme Court and Judiciary building), past City Hall and all the government buildings, The Kawaiaha’o Church (known as the “Westminster Abby of the Pacific”, built in 1842, using coral blocks as the first Christian Church) before heading down Punchbowl Street (so called as it leads to the Punchbowl (crater) Cemetery or it’s official name is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific) back to the Pier 2 and Queen Anne.
We had not booked any tours, as we felt it would be best to hire a local taxi driver to take us around. What we came across was the first driver, a pleasant man. From Vietnam but unfortunately was extremely limited (I’m being generous) in his knowledge of the English language and our Vietnamese is non-existent! So we went to the second taxi and were pleased that his knowledge and understanding of the English language was somewhat better. He was also from Vietnam. So we set off, giving him a list of places we wanted to visit. We soon found out that his English seemed to be – “This happened before COVID and this happened after COVID” and “ on the right side houses cost $15 Million, on the left side houses cost $10 million”. Nevertheless, we did get a nice impression of part of the Island. We started in Chinatown then to Waikiki Beach area , then to the Diamond Head Crater and viewpoint, through the very wealthy Kahala residential area past Hanauma Bay to Halona Blow Hole looking over the gorgeous sandy bear park to Makapu’u Point. We then returned to the ship, but decided that it was best if he dropped us at Waikiki Beach area where we had lunch overlooking the beach at the Hula Grill in the Outrigger Waikiki Beach Resort Hotel. A nice lunch and a spectacular view.
In the lobby of the hotel, we came across a young man – Jason – sitting behind a desk and asked him about a possible helicopter ride over the Island tomorrow. After much going back and forth because of weight restrictions, he eventually was able to get us seats on a 2PM tour tomorrow through the Blue Hawaiian helicopter service, which apparently is the best one to take. The only unfortunate incident wad that I lost my new Tilley hat that I bought in Canada for this trip. However we walked across the road to the International Marketplace (a very upscale mall) and found that there was a hat shop, Chapel Hats, and they had exactly the same model, color and type of genuine Tilley hat that I just lost. So it was fortunately replaced.
We then got a taxi back to the ship, finding the Vietnam driver proficient in English we made arrangements for him to pick us up the next day and drive us around (if you need a good driver contact him – Phu (Phil) – +1 (808)381-0839) and after some tea, we went to the 6:30 show to see the – Halal Lilia Makanoe – A Family Legacy of Hula (Dancing) – which is a local Hula dancing school where we were treated to stories, music and songs together with dancing by the students. The were 4 young (10 and under) boys, a dozen pre-teen girls and 7 teen-age girls in the dance troupe as well as one female percussion woman, who owned the school and was the singer and Master of Ceremonies as well as three men that played different instruments. A really terrific folkloric hula experience.
Roger & Anne Travels 