The Adventures of Sunsette -- Texas Travels, Part II— Apr. 12

[Alliecat]

"Mahalo for reading, everybody!  Mum's even more behind on photos again, especially in light of recent developments which we'll get to... but we're back to share some more of our adventures as she has time to pick photos to post."

I did not know there was a marine mammal research lab near the beach in Waikiki! Perhaps the facilities were gone by the time I moved there. When did you... I mean, when did Mum live in Hawaii?

"The Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Lab was well disguised, behind a blah board wall.  It was mostly fishing boats in the harbour then and not as many touristy enterprises (boy, has that changed!) so not many people would've come by.  You would've seen the top of the 'tower' and hear people yelling and blowing whistles during training sessions, but otherwise you'd never know what was there.  They were VERY ...um, 'cautious' about letting anyone through the door.  Probably because they were trying not to get noticed by anti-captivity people who think dolphins don't belong in little cement tanks.  (Imagine that!)  After the death of the last dolphin in 2004 it was shut down.
"Yep, the Tripadvisor reviews of the International Marketplace are very mixed, and all the bad ones say pretty much the same thing; they were sad to see the change because it's not Hawaiian kine shopping.
"We heard about the idea to ban Airbnbs.  Maybe someone should ask whether hotels should be allowed to charge That Much!
"Oooh, we hope they don't get the aquarium too.  It's nice where it is, at the park."

"Well, we're on our way again.  That was really too short.  We're at Honolulu Airport again."








"Mum shed a tear, and promised she would return..."







"We flew over Lanai and Molokai."









"Hello, Haleakala!"



"This is Byron. He lives at the Lahaina Airbnb.  He wishes his mom was home more often, and that she remembered to fill his bowl before she went out.  He was so sweet and came right to mum when we arrived.  Crossing our fingers that he had no dietary restrictions, we gave him some leftover chicken kebabs because he was so hungry.  I think he appreciated them."



"Our first sunset on Maui was gorgeous."






"Mum's sand souvenir from Lahaina."



"The women at the next table gave us stink-eye.  What, you have to be a certain size to eat here??"

"The Hawaiians have 200 words for rain.  Mum used a few more when a day of pouring rain spoiled our plans.  We were going to go to the new Maui Ocean Center but we'd have had to stand in the rain for an hour just to get in because every other tourist on Maui had the same idea.  So we just went holoholo up the road instead."



"Mum loves 'Iao Valley.  She was here on her last visit to Maui, but it was too wet and misty to see much this time.  It was the site of a famous battle in 1790 where King Kamehameha defeated his last enemy to take control of all the islands.  It was said the bodies blocked the stream, hence the name Kepaniwai, 'damming of the waters'.  Today it's a beautiful peaceful green place."



"Kepaniwai Gardens is lovely, but it was too wet for many photos."



"Haitai is a 'mythical, omniscient unicorn-lion believed to uphold justice and repel evils'.  This replica of a Korean statue was placed here in recognition of the centennial of Korean immigration.  
"We wanted a picture sitting on him, but, did I mention it was wet...?"



"But mum, we wanna hike!!"



"And this is Maui traffic.  It was like this, all day, ALL the way.  Stop and go, about 35mph at best.  Mum wonders how you'd ever know how much time you needed to get anywhere if you lived here."