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Two Museums on Waikiki

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This Museum Is on the Grounds of Fort DeRussy

Unknown to most tourists in O’ahu, there are two interesting museums on Waikiki itself. The first is on the Ewa (Western) side on the grounds of Fort DeRussy. The building used to be part of Hawaii’s coastal defenses and was once called Battery Randolph. Today, the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii (admission free) covers the military history of Hawaii from the days of Kamehameha I with his war clubs studded with sharks’ teeth to the Viet Nam war.

Particularly interesting is the exhibit dedicated to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. The museum was closed during most of the Covid 19 epidemic but has recently re-opened. And when you have finished with the exhibits, you can wander among the shore defense cannon on the roof.

The story is that they were going to demolish Battery Randolph but found it would be too expensive as the walls were so thick. The upshot: An interesting little museum worth an hour or two of your time.

Within a few hundred yards of the museum is one of my favorite Waikiki eateries: The Shake Shack, right on Fort DeRussy Beach.

The other Waikiki museum I last visited some twenty years ago: It was a little museum dedicated to Father Damien de Veuster, a Catholic saint who dedicated his life to helping the lepers on Molokai. They are in process of expanding the museum greatly. When I saw it, it occupied a couple of rooms adjacent to Saint Augustine Catholic Church on the Diamond Head Side of Waikiki. At the time, it was free of admission costs, though I do not know the current status. Here’s where you can find more info: The Damien and Marianne of Moloka’i Education Center, costing some $6 million to build.

These are two sights you can visit without having to take one of those expensive, super-crowded tourist trolleys.

Sonnet 129

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The Waikiki Malia Hotel in Waikiki

It was our second night in Honolulu. We had a room on the 12th floor of the Waikiki Malia Hotel’s Malia Tower. The next room away from the elevator was occupied by a couple of young women who were entertaining young male guests. Because the two rooms were connectable by a locked door, we could hear pretty much everything that was said.

Martine and i were pretty tired by 10 pm, because that was the same as 1 am Los Angeles time. Still we were entertained by the goings-on next door. All four were obviously on on liquor and possibly worse, and the girls were doing a major snow job on the guys. After three quarters of an hour, all four left to go out; but before long one of the couples returned to have very noisy sex.

After about ten minutes, the sounds from the other room were of conflict. The guy was complaining that his driver’s license was missing. After the act, there appeared to be no love lost between the two. As I lay in bed, I could easily have predicted this. After the guy left in a huff, everything went quiet; and we dropped off to sleep.

I was reminded of Shakespeare’s famous Sonnet #129 on the subject of lust:

Th’ expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action; and, till action, lust
Is perjured, murd’rous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despisèd straight;
Past reason hunted, and no sooner had,
Past reason hated as a swallowed bait
On purpose laid to make the taker mad,
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have, extreme;
A bliss in proof and proved a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind, a dream.
    All this the world well knows, yet none knows well
    To sun the heaven that leads men to this hell.

Back from O’ahu

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The Lyon Arboretum in Honolulu’s Manoa Valley

Martine and I returned from Hawaii late on Tuesday, somewhat the worse for wear. We both had a low-level cold during the entire week of our vacation. In my case, it ratcheted up into a full-blown cold when I woke up yesterday morning.

Still, it didn’t prevent u8s from enjoying ourselves in Hawaii. We went everywhere by bus (except to Lyon Arboretum) since we both still had our HOLO cards for TheBus [sic]. Unlike most tourists, who spend of $1,000 or more for a rental car and hotel parking, our total transport expenses were $40.00 for a one month senior citizen pass for TheBus.

Honolulu is an endlessly fascinating city—which most tourists don’t realize, mainly because their main focus is on Waikiki. Some 83% of all hotel rooms in the Honolulu area are on the two-mile-long peninsula of Waikiki, on the Diamond Head side of the city. Most tourists who don’t have rental cars take expensive and overcrowded shuttles to a handful of tourist sites. Martine and I were on the more comfortable and air-conditioned public buses which most tourists didn’t know how to take.

More’s the pity, because there’s a lot to see downtown, in Chinatown, and on the western (Ewa) side of the city. And I don’t just mean Pearl Harbor.

It’s a pity that most Honolulu tourists end up ghetto-ized in Waikiki, and maybe just taking an exploratory jaunt to the Ala Moana Shopping Center. I guess most vacationers would rather not overthink their pleasures. Me, I overthink everything. For me, the preparation just extends the fun beyond the time I am in the islands.

Travels with Chris and Topher

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Chris Raney and Topher of Yellow Productions

In doing research for my upcoming Hawaii trip, I ran into a great information resource: Chris Raney of Yellow Productions and his YouTube videos on travel. A resident of Southern California, Chris does his videos with a small stuffed panda whom he calls Topher. (Hmmm: Chris + Topher = Christopher?) Occasionally, he is accompanied by his cute little daughter whom he carries on his back or pushes in a stroller.

I started by watching his video entitled “Cheap Eats Waikiki.” Although it was done several years ago, it was still fairly up-to-date. He has also done videos about his favorite Japanese convenience store on American soil (Lawson Station at the Sheraton Waikiki), things to know before visiting O’ahu, and several other topics—including, for validation purposes, some of his videos about Los Angeles, about which I know a thing or two. He passes the test: Chris knows what he is talking about.

You can see a list of Chris’s videos here.