The Bishop Museum And The Historical Hotels Of Waikiki

...Continued from previous post:
       By the following day, Sunday, April 12, the ducklings were back in the fountain, looking happy as ducks in water,

...and now, thankfully, after their swim they were able to hop out of the water to dry off (see post from 5/16/2026, https://www.ailantha.com/blog/duckling-911​www.ailantha.com/blog/duckling-911).

        That afternoon we visited the Bishop Museum, Hawaii's state museum of culture and history, as well as home to the world's largest collection of Hawaiian and Pacific Island historical artifacts.

    The Bishop Museum offers a panoramic view of Honolulu from its campus, 

...and it also houses an observatory.

       ​Though Tom and I have visited the Bishop Museum more than half a dozen times over the years, still it’s among our favorite Honolulu gems and we always look forward to returning and spending an afternoon lost in the exhibits. 

​     This year there was a special exhibit in the annex building called Aloha Bricks ’26, 

...that offered images of Hawaii represented by Lego structures. The pieces were intricate and beautiful.

       
​        The Bishop Museum

      The Royal Hawaiian Hotel

      The Iolani Palace

       Some were pictures made of Lego bricks glued to a backing.

​         There was also a room in which folks could make Lego sculptures. 

     The room was hung with Lego pictures made by students from all over Hawaii of their school’s emblem.

       The next day I suggested we visit Waikiki’s two beautiful old historic hotels, the Royal Hawaiian and the Moana Surfrider. 
        Hotels in Hawaii generally welcome visitors to their lobbies, even to cut through to the beach.  (The exception being the Hale Koa, which is technically military property. One is required to have a military or guest ID to be on the  hotel campus, and one might randomly be asked by security to show one's ID).  
        And so late Monday morning we set out down Kalakaua Avenue. We arrived at the Royal Hawaiian Center, the shopping mall on the same block as the Royal Hawaiian hotel, and decided to cut through the mall. Here we saw a curious sight. 
          There was a line of people, which we took to be young folks and their parents, apparently waiting their turn to get into a store which allowed only a certain number of shoppers in at a time.

     However, across from this line on the opposite side of the hallway was another line. These were the customers who were waiting to be called over to the line outside the store.

          This we learned from the informational diagram posted at the beginning of the beginning line,

...from which we also learned the pronunciation of the store's name, which we could not make out from the graffiti-esque lettering on the store's sign. 

      Anyway, the store's name was apparently pronounced "Stussy." It was a clothing store, though there didn't appear to be very many articles of clothing for sale inside the store, just a few things scattered about.

      I wondered if there were even enough articles of clothing for all the customers waiting in line, though I figured they probably had more clothes in the back. At least I hoped they did for the sake of all those folks waiting in line.
     We cut through the Royal Hawaiian Center to the Royal Grove, the lovely little park next to the Center, with palm trees through which one catches glimpses of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel.

       There is a pathway through the park that leads to the hotel grounds.       

     The Royal Hawaiian, Waikiki's iconic pink hotel, was opened in 1927 as a luxury hotel, then was requisitioned by the U.S. Army during World War II, after which it returned to luxury hotel status, which it still is, along with being a repository of history and old photographs.

      The hotel has a beach front with a splendid view of Waikiki that anyone, hotel guest or not, can enjoy, since all beaches in Hawaii are public property by state law, even if they front hotel property.

       After our tour of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel we headed back to the Royal Hawaiian Center for some lunch.

      After some consideration we decided instead of buying something from the food court to go down to the ABC Store on the lower level and pick up some sandwiches and chips, most ABC stores having a pretty considerable packaged deli section.

      After lunch we continued several blocks up Kalakaua Avenue until we arrived at the Moana Surfrider.

     Opened in 1901, The Moana Surfrider is the oldest hotel in Waikiki,

...and (in case it should ever come up on trivia night) is nicknamed "The First Lady of Waikiki."
​          The Moana Surfrider is also quite beautiful inside, 

...and is hung with artifacts from the past.

        It's amazing how interesting a hotel lobby can be.

       To be continued...