Fort DeRussy, Hawaii

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“Two extended and blended multi-generational and crosscultural families become intertwined and interwoven with each other to form a tangled web of relationships. Funny and emotionally moving.” –R. Bruce Logan, co-author of the award-winning Back to Vietnam: Tours of the Heart ​

​FORT DERUSSY, HAWAII

...Continued from yesterday:
     Our hotel, the Hale Koa, Hawaiian for House of the Warrior,

...is actually part of an American Army installation, Fort DeRussy,

      Located on Waikiki beach, Fort DeRussy is a recreation facility for active duty military personnel  and their families, but can also be used by military retirees, as is my mate Tom.
​      Tom, back when he was a 23-year-old First Lieutenant.

      The Hale Koa lobby, an open-air structure, overlooks a courtyard,

...lush with tropical plants, 

...and in the center of which is a massive Indian Banyan tree named Gus,

...but which my grand daughters call the Tree of Life.

      Beloved by staff and hotel visitors alike, Gus is over 80 years old, and the two towers of the Hale Koa were designed around this tree.   
​       The courtyard opens into a botanical garden,

...within which  is tucked a swimming pool.

     The botanical garden opens into another courtyard, in which can be found another lovely tree,

...as well as Happy's, the popular on-post short-order eatery,

...where the food is, in fact, quite good,​

...and where we've eaten a good number of lunches and dinners.

      Next door to Happy's is the Barefoot Bar.

       There's also a snack bar overlooking the beach,

...next to the aquatics complex that also overlooks the beach.

      Fort DeRussy opens onto a pretty stretch of Waikiki Beach,

...where the snorkeling is purported to be exceptionally good,

...with a view of Diamond Head.

      Next to and across the street from the grounds of the Hale Koa, Fort DeRussy stretches on for half a dozen acres of green space that is open to the public to enjoy.

​     Fort DeRussy also houses the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii,

...and there is a unit of the U.S. Pacific Command here, the Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies.

     I would imagine that being stationed at Fort DeRussy, Hawaii must be the best military assignment on the planet.