Sojourn in the Sun, Part 9: Honolulu Walkabout 01/15
Seeing Honolulu as only foot traffic experiences it
OUR DAY BEGINS with breakfast and a transfer flight back to Oahu, for the final leg of our Islands tour. It's a short flight (the taxi ride to the Maui airport takes almost as long) and all goes well. We have to wait for the runway, though, as there are two inbound flights that have priority over our takeoff. Poised so that we can see down the runway through the windows of our plane, I'm surprised to see the second inbound flight descend gradually, float well down the runway without ever actually touching down, then abruptly rev the engines, raise their landing gear, and climb away into the sky.
A missed landing? Or a practice approach for a new pilot or recertification / annual FAA check ride for a seasoned veteran? If it was a botched landing there's no meteorological excuse for it: the weather's perfect. Perhaps a last-second technical problem? Hard to think what sort of problem might lead to a wave-off, though, when you're only 10 or 20 feed from alighting. Whatever the true cause I'll never find out, and I'll always wonder.
We take a taxi to our hotel in Waikiki, then assemble for a stretch of the legs through Honolulu. It's a mix of old (1800's through 1940's) city and gleaming new high rises where even small units sell for millions of dollars. Our route takes us past the oldest Catholic church in Hawai'i, the State Capitol building, the Aloha Tower, and a Shinto temple among other landmarks. As I saw on the Big Island and to a lesser extent on Maui, there are many unhoused street residents here as well.
We're warned on a couple occasions not to venture into Chinatown after dark and when we get there the reasons are obvious. Never especially up-market it's been hit very hard by the economic downturn resulting from COVID; there's trash and graffiti everywhere to go along with boarded-up, padlocked storefronts. Elsewhere, though, Honolulu has a different face to present to the world.
Old: we're puzzled by this. Is it a relic of streetcar days, or an early vestige of the tsunami warning system? For once, Google Lens is stumped and produces only highly dissimilar images of more modern tsunami / air raid sirens.
Old: Washington Place, a stately plantation-style home known for being the place Queen Lili'uokalani was arrested when the Kingdom of Hawai'i was overthrown in 1893. The overthrow was orchestrated by wealthy Caucasians, who had gradually assumed more and more influence and economic power and wanted the place to become a U.S. State.
Old(ish) the landmark Aloha Tower, built c. 1926. For a long while it was the tallest structure in the islands, and served as a landmark for incoming vessels.
Old: a building once used as a branch of the Yokohama Specie Bank. It was proclaimed "completely fireproof" when it opened because of its sand-filled copper windows. The terra-cotta ornamentation on the round-arched corner entrance and the frieze, with wreathed oculi, garlands, and swags, is of high quality. The medallion rising over the entrance bay depicts this Japanese bank's insignia.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bauhinia_variegata
1 year ago