Woke to threatening skies this morning but had our first look out the window at Diamond Head! It wouldn't start raining seriously until later in the afternoon, which included thunderstorms.
First stop this morning was an Uber ride to the First United Methodist church for its 10:00 service.Its the oldest UMC in the islands - proclaimed under a Royal Charter by King Kamehamehain 1855. The sanctuary dates to just after WWII and was actually designed by the same architect that designed the Arizona Memorial. They are doing some major repairs now since the coral sand in the cement doesn't react well with steel I beams and rebar. You can see where they've had to chip away the old cement before replacing it.
The service was a traditional Methodist affair, except that the opening was proclaimed with the sound of the conch shell! There is large cohort of Tongans here - they have their own service later. (Did you know that 85% of Tongans are Methodists?) The pastor was away but we enjoyed a message from visiting Rev. Mark Tidsworth who was in town for their Britt Lecture Series. He was given an traditional Tongan Lei - spectacular! It seemed like a typical largish Methodist church - huge sanctuary less than half full. Part of their problem is they're located in a less than desirable neighborhood - we saw many homeless people camped here and there.
We ordered an Uber for the ride back to the hotel. It hadn't started to rain yet so we walked down the block to head over to the Aquarium. Just as we crossed the street to the beach pathway, the rains came. We walked really fast but got soaked just the same! The Aquarium is affiliated with the Univ of Hawaii. Its nothing special but has some species of fish that we had never seen before. We were also there in time for the Koi Show.......big fish in big blue tubs.
Heading back out into the rain for the walk back, we stopped at The Beach BBQ for a quick bite of lunch. By the time we were done, it had stopped raining and we had a dry walk back to the hotel. A short time later, however, we were hit upon by "severe thunderstorm warnings......flash flood warning", and more.......
Since out hotel doesn't have a restaurant at the moment, we'd have to go back outside. By the time we were ready it had stopped raining. Now, the trouble was that most restaurants have outside seating and everything was wet. So, we ended up at Subway!
Gong to Bishop Museum in the morning.......now, back to watching Olympics!
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| Diamond Head from our room |
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| Traditional Tongan lei |
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| Tongan singers |
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| This also a lei...how is it made? |
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| Waikiki Beach in the rain |
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| Breakwater creates a great swimming area |
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| LuLu's is across the street on the second level |
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they have a long way to go! |
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