I Am Really Going To Go To Hawaii!

This interesting tree with the weird leaves is a breadfruit tree.


I am making a shared album of all of our pictures and videos, @Holly Saunders , and I can add you to the shared people since you have an iPhone. If you would like to see the pictures we are taking (way too many to post all of them here), just pm me your email and i will add you to the share group.

 

We are going on a bus tour today, and see more of Honolulu this afternoon. This city is an interesting mix of new and modern, and then there will be little old houses or apartments that were probably built in the 1930’s . You would have thought that the property would have been sold and something else built there, because it is worth more if they sell it than try to live there or rent the old place out.

Here is a picture of the big banyon tree that is on one of the pathways near the hotel. It keeps coming up sideways for some reason. Have to get going now, but will try to fix the picture tonight.

 

One of the things that most interests me about Hawaii is the combination of new and modern buildings, and then little old houses or apartments that were probably built in the 1930’s , or maybe earlier.
They are side by side as you drive through Honolulu, and I wondered why the property had not been sold and something new built there.
Out in Alabama, because of all of the new homes, farmers sell their cotton fields, and it all becomes housing developments, or older commercial buildings are torn down and replaced with something else newer.
But apparently, the cost of buying property here is so high, that even if you sell your home and get a good price, then you can’t buy another one because of housing costs; so people just keep living in pokey little houses, right in the middle of the city.
(With chickens, no less ! )

When you look on google earth at the satellite view of the island, you can see what looks like grey lines going up the mountainsides, and when you zoom in on it, you can see that it is house upon house, with no space in between, and most of these are older homes.
Then, there are huge tower apartments here and there, which are where people are living that want a modern apartment, and both the older homes and the newer ones are almost together.
When we went up to the Punchbowl Cemetery, I was able to get a picture that sort of shows the older homes nestled together on the hillside, and then the towers down in the valley.
But, if you use a map program, you can literally see this kind of development all around the whole edges of the island.

 

Here is a screenshot from my maps programs, and you can see all the little “fingers” going up the side of the mountains. All of those are just packed tight with clusters of houses, and no space in between, when you zoom in and can actually see the houses there, and it is the same all of the way around the shores of the island when you browse with the map program.
The little green circle-looking area on the left just above the “lulu” on the map os where the Punchbowl Cemetery and memorial is located, and you can see that it looks like a huge bowl.
Diamond Head is on the right edge of the picture. We can see that from the hotel window, and are hoping to be able to drive up closer to it, or take the trolley near there.

 

We have not actually been doing any shopping, but there are shops all over that we saw when we were driving around and when we took the trolley tour.
Just here at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, it is like a shopping mall, and all sorts of name brand stores, fresh pearls, and other jewelry.
The Hawaiian clothing is beautiful and l love the colorful and comfortable looking outfits that I have seen in the windows.
Food prices seem high to me, but the places are nice restaurants, and some with an ocean view, and lots of outside eating.
Cheeseburger and fries are about $15, just as an example, and a salad is about the same price.

It is interesting to watch people here, because everyone is dressed however they want to, but no one looks scruffy, like we see back in Alabama.
I felt really safe everywhere we walked.
There are ladies in long pretty dresses, and the next person might be wearing a bikini down the street. Some people are dressed up, and others look super casual, and everyone just seems to blend in together, no matter what they are wearing.

 

Here are more shopping pictures, just for you, @Holly Saunders . One is a little stand selling jewelry here at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, and the other one is the Louis Vuitton shop, one of a bunch of the high-end shops around here.
There are all kinds of places to get souvenirs and that kind of shopping, too.
Tomorrow morning, we leave, and am glad that I was able to be here, and glad that I have so many good pictures to look at and remember my vacation here.
The native Hawaiians are all just the friendliest people, and I love hearing them when they say something in Hawaiian, it almost sounds musical, even when it is just wishing you “Aloha” , there is a lilt to the word when they say it.