Honolulu Beyond The Beaches, Part 3: The Ala Moana, The Bishop Museum, And Other Places

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​Honolulu Beyond The Beaches, Part 3: Sand Island, The Ala Moana And The Bishop Museum

...Continued from previous post:
      On Tuesday, March 26, ​we drove 8 miles west along highway H-92 in search of Sand Island, an island across from Honolulu harbor that was used as an internment camp for the Japanese American citizens of Honolulu who were arrested after the 1941 attack by Japan on Pearl Harbor. 
       Today Sand Island is a state park.

      We went there in search of some historical marker or information regarding the Japanese internment camp that used to be on the island. But all we could find was an urban sea port area that opened to a public beach and picnic area where families, probably on Spring break, appeared to be enjoying themselves,

...which is, of course, a far better use of the island.     
          On our way back to Waikiki we stopped for lunch at the food court at the Ala Moana Center (see post from 5/4/2024, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/eating-around-waikiki​), the first of quite a few visits we would make there during our two weeks in Honolulu.
          Located just about a mile from Waikiki beach, the Ala Moana is the largest outdoor mall in the world.

         Sometimes on the mornings when the New York Times didn't arrive - which was often - at the Post Exchange of the Hale Koa, our military post hotel (see post from https://www.ailantha.com/blog/another-spring-another-visit-to-the-hale-koa), we would walk the mile from the Hale Koa to the Ala Moana, as the Barnes and Noble there was apparently the only other place in the vicinity where one could procure a print copy of the New York Times.
       It was a nice walk,

...down Ala Moana Boulevard.

...until we reached the mall.

        We generally headed first for Barnes and Noble to get our newspaper,

...where the magazine racks were covered with the face of this guy, whom I'd never heard of,

...leading me to wonder, who the heck is Pedro Pascal and why is he on all the magazine covers? (I never did look up who he is. Sometimes it's more fun to just not know).

        Usually after we got our New York Times we'd stroll around the mall for a bit.

...where we'd sometimes stop at the food court for for lunch if it happened to be lunchtime,

...or if it wasn't, sometimes we'd just sit at a table for a while and read the paper while splitting  a thoroughly mediocre Cinnabon. 

       One of my favorite places in the Ala Moana Center - just because I got a such kick out of it - was a cafe that was under the mall in the parking garage, where folks nonetheless gathered and sat outside on the patio - even though it was in the parking garage.

      The walk from the Ala Moana back to Waikiki was also a pleasant one.

      On Wednesday, March 27,  we visited - make that revisited - another of my favorite Honolulu gems, the Bishop Museum, Hawaii's largest museum of the culture and natural history of Hawaii and the Pacific Islands.

       The original historic museum building, constructed in 1898.

      Feather standards used to honor the high chiefs.

     Fish hooks.

      The Polynesian Islands room.

      Models of the canoes used by the ancient Pacific voyagers.

      ​Here's Kaneikokala, the eerie, ancient shark god carved in rock, which was set in this spot in concrete when it arrived at the museum in 1908 and has stood here ever since.

          The story goes that when the museum was being renovated in 2009 the museum staff attempted to move the statue for safekeeping during the renovations. But no matter how hard and deep the workers dug and drilled beneath the statue they couldn't dislodge it. It was as if  ​Kaneikokala had rooted itself into the ground and refused to be moved. And so it was decided that Kaneikokala did not wish to be moved, and so  remained in its place during the renovations, which were carried out respectfully around it.