Hawaii Day 7 - Bishop Museum and Hickam Beach

I thought I was ready to leave Hawaii. I'm not. Before giving a brief synopsis of my last day, I want to take a moment and reiterate how unbelievably grateful I am to Jill and Cliff for sending me to Hawaii and sacrificing their time, energy, sleep (and money!) to give me an unforgettable week. Jill stepped outside of her comfort zone to give me amazing outdoor experiences and Cliff forewent several activities to watch the minions while Jill and I explored. I hit the jackpot in the siblings category. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Hawaii Day 7

Jill, little man, and I spent my last morning in Hawaii at the Bishop Museum, the Hawaii state museum of cultural and natural history. From the website:

Bishop Museum was founded in 1889 by Charles Reed Bishop in honor of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last descendant of the royal Kamehameha family. The Museum was established to house the extensive collection of Hawaiian objects and royal family heirlooms of the Princess, and has expanded to include millions of objects, documents and photographs about Hawai‘i and other Pacific island cultures.

Mr. Bishop built the magnificent Polynesian and Hawaiian Halls on the grounds of the original Kamehameha Schools for Boys. The Museum and School shared the Kapālama campus until 1940 when a new larger school complex was opened nearby on Kapālama Heights.

Today, Bishop Museum is the largest museum in the state and the premier natural and cultural history institution in the Pacific, recognized throughout the world for its cultural collections, research projects, consulting services and public educational programs. It also has one of the largest natural history specimen collections in the world. Serving and representing the interests of Native Hawaiians is a primary purpose of the Museum. (Bishop Museum website)

In short, the museum was lovely and rich with interesting artifacts and information that gave a historical and cultural context for Hawaii's development. I loved learning about the nautical history of the islands as well as their spiritual belief system.

The political side of Hawaii's recent history (post-1898) is tragic. Basically, the USA annexed the islands a la the Galactic Empire. I'm proud of being an American and I'm grateful to live in this country, but folks living under the delusion that we are always "the good guys" need to check their facts. Even though Hawaii is a state, Jill has said on numerous occasions that she feels like a visitor/guest despite having lived there for 2 years. She recognizes that it's a privilege for her to be here, but the island does not belong to her.

We watched a short presentation in the planetarium and had lunch at the museum cafe (more poke--yum!). We ended our tour of the museum with a lava demonstration. One of the science educators heated rocks to 2000° F in a furnace and voila! I don't care how old you are--getting to see lava pour out of a cauldron was really cool!

We picked the girls up from school and took everyone out for ice cream. I indulged myself with one last shave ice and tried Jill's halo-halo, a popular Filipino dessert with ice cream, sweet red beans, a few different fruits, crunchy rice, shave ice, coconut gelatin, and the list goes on...

The final stop of my tour of Oahu was Hickam Beach (on Hickam Air Force Base), the closest beach to Jill's house. The weather was perfect and the water was blue and calm--a perfect sendoff. The kids ran around of a little while and we returned home to say our goodbyes.

I'm sitting aboard my flight now. 7 hours, 9 minutes to go. Until the next adventure...cheers!