“The Oozlefinch”

 For those of you that know us well you know when its says “free” we line up!  Some of the most interesting things are free and usually people stumble across them accidentally.  

We had walked by the US Army Museum of Hawaii many times (okay it’s the back way to Diary Queen in Waikiki). 

The building is located on the water and Battery Randolph was built as a first line of defense against an attack by sea.  It’s a low profile building that resembles a grass covered sand dune and is made of steel reinforced concrete 15 feet thick.

The museum galleries on the ground floor depict early Hawaiian warfare through the Vietnam War.  The second floor Gallery of Heroes leads to the Cobra helicopter and 7 inch gun from the battleship USS New Hampshire on the roof.

Les is pictured with “The Oozlefinch”, the fictional mascot of the Coast Artillery USA.  This bird flies backwards in order to keep the dust out of its eyes and is so bashful that when he sees someone he swallows himself!”

Anyway for more interesting information go to this link.  Exhibits — Hawaii Army Museum Society I Hawaii Museums and Military History

Baby monk seal - I have written about the endangered and rare Hawaiian Monk Seals previously but this was the first time that we were able to see a newborn in person.  The moment the mother seal came ashore to give birth the entire beach was shut down and guarded to prevent anyone touching or disturbing the pair.  The fine is $50,000 and possible jail time.  We went down to the area and snapped a picture but hard to see the baby from the photo. Recently on Maui a visitor from California was filmed purposefully throwing a large rock at a monk seal and he was arrested and is being prosecuted. 

Switching subjects (not a surprise to those that know me haha)

You remember the song lyrics by Carol King?  I feel the earth move under my feet….

…I had my feet up on the coffee table and my feet started shaking and as I looked to Les in his recliner he said “my ass is shaking” and we both knew that there was an Earthquake somewhere fairly close.  The quake was a 6.0 by the Captain Cook area of the big island of Hawaii.  Oahu felt it at 9:47 pm and it shook us for 7 seconds.  Just another experience!

Mid-June visit from Carline and Denis (Rhode Island) was super fun and it has been quite some time since we have laughed so hard!  The visit was so short we had to stuff in a lot of activities (and food) to a few days.  We spend the first full day at the Polynesian Cultural Center including their famous luau and evening show.  The next day after a sample of Malasadas (delicious Portuguese donuts) in the morning, we went on a docent led tour of the Queen Emma Summer Palace followed by a visit to the Nu’uanu Pali Lookout and before returning to the condo for dinner we spent a little time at the National Pacific Cemetery, also known as The Punchbowl due to it’s location inside a crater.  A quick swing to the backside of Diamond Head let us enjoy the unusually high surf for the area.  You may have to look closely to see surfers as our location was quite a bit higher than beach.  After our dinner we jumped back in the car and went to Kuhio Beach in Waikiki for a traditional Hula show.  It was fairly packed but we all enjoyed seeing it.

And then before we knew it the visit was almost over.  A quick ride up the street is the Halona Blowhole and Sandy Beach, both not to be missed spots.  Glad their flight didn’t depart until almost 9:00 pm because we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did get to do!

As I write this and relax to a Red Sox/Yankee game I see that there is a huge “bat like thing” just below the ceiling of the lanai…being curious as to what the heck this was we took a closer look and discovered that it was a Black Witch moth, not very rare in tropical areas but rarely seen in the northern US until “blown there” by a hurricane.  Anyway in Hawaiian folklore their visit to you signifies a deceased person stopping by to say a final goodbye and to let you know all is well.

Since our time in Paradise is coming to the end of our agreed upon stay we will be deciding in the coming weeks what our next adventure will be!  Stay tuned, stay well.  Aloha