I had my first adventure riding The Bus in Honolulu Saturday. I spent most of the day in our room catching up on my blog diary and researching bus routes so I could meet Harry at the Aloha Stadium at the end of the day. That is about 20 minutes drive from Schofield Barracks where he is working and meeting him there let us get on our way much more quickly to the Windward side. He didn't say why he wanted to go to the windward side, but I was eager to see more of the island and didn't mind the mystery. I assumed he was longing for some of the grilled steak he can get at the Times Market over there. They grill it outdoors with a local seasoned salt and slice it thin, then serve it with your choice of a variety of sides.
The bus I chose actually came early, or maybe it was an earlier run of the same route, I'm not sure. I was a little anxious about how to know when to get off, but told the driver and then tracked it on Google maps on my phone and had no problem. The problem that I did have was that I assumed I would be catching the next bus to get me from there to the stadium at that same stop. That wasn't the case, and the bus wasn't listed at that stop, which was a transfer station stop. I had no idea where stop number 45 was or how to find it. I had a little extra time because of the earlier bus, so I just walked down the street looking for other stops. I eventually found one that had bus 11 listed, but it wasn't stop 45 and I had no idea when 11 would come. So I waited an anxious 15 minutes and decided the first bus that came that showed service to the Arizona memorial I would get on and hope for the best. Then one came showing that and Aloha Stadium, so I got on. It was crowded and stopped frequently. I got a good look at the ethnic diversity of Hawaii in the riders and the neighborhoods we went through. It was interesting and fun. We passed a Costco and the prison also. I got to the stadium just at 4:30 and had caught the first bus at 3:17.
When I got off at the stadium I expected to have a 15 minute walk around to an entrance, but was able to go straight in after half a block walk and crossing the street. The swap meet closed at three and it was 4:30, so it was almost deserted. I found a place to sit and waited another half hour for Harry.
Once we got on our way, I was amazed at how quickly we were surrounded by lush green jungle covered hillsides. Once you get into the wetter zone, the landscape is totally different. We had a beautiful drive through the tall, craggy mountains with their coverings of deep green. We passed the Time market and went on along the coast. Then Harry pointed out a wood carvers business. We passed it, then he turned around and parked there, saying he needed to pick something up.
It turned out he had commissioned two carved walking sticks from this carver. The carver's name is Maile Niu and he is fairly well known. I was first struck by this massive carving of various sea life intertwined.
Here is another impressive large sculpture
While the walking sticks were being brought out, my brother Wayne called, which was a happy surprise. I had to call him back though, because I needed to see the walking sticks. They were works of art! Mine had a dolphin on the top and Harry's had a whale.
Mr. Niu (or I could say Brother, as he is also LDS as we are) carved his signature into each of our staffs while we watched and chatted with him and some other folks that were there.
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| Tiki Masks |
After leaving the woodcarver, we headed back to the Times Market for steak. They were out, so we got some teriyaki steak instead, with macaroni salad and sodas. It was really good. There is a 10 plex cinema in that same shopping center, so we went to see 'Mockingjay', which Harry had seen already, but I hadn't. It had me on the edge of my seat in spots and almost ready to try to jump up and do something to help defeat 'the Capitol' and President Snow. All in all it was a nice Saturday afternoon and evening for us. Harry was glad to be able to stay up a little and not have to get up at 5-or anytime earlier than he wanted to...the next day.
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