Day 2: Honolulu

Day 2: Honolulu

Gordon Chandler bench

Weather: Warm to hot, low to high 80s (in the sun)

QOTD: Are we really the only two people here?

Up early (HI is 3 hours before Bay Area) and order decaf (French press style) and hot milk delivered to the room before 6am. By booking through AMEX we have a $100 credit to work off, so this feels "free." Leftover Arizmendi scone and brioche plus a few small soft biscotti that came with the coffee. 

View to south, Diamond Head

A large contingent of surfers are in the water at sunbreak

Dawdle around until it starts to be light out and walk along the boardwalk in front of the hotels. You can only go in one direction, there's no boardwalk or beach heading south towards Diamond Head. Turn around about a mile along the boardwalk and then THB does his 7 minute workout in the fitness center while DB talks to LB. 

Nicely appointed, with plenty of equipment efficiently placed

Second breakfast in the a la carte breakfast spot (the other, next door, is all buffet). DB has banana and macadamia nut pancakes, THB has yogurt and berries and a teaspoon of honey (does that make all THB's trouble go away? nope...), both have papaya with lime (excellent) and DB has another decaf  French press with hot milk that arrives well after the pancakes. Included in our room package.

THB makes a short trip to ABC store next to hotel to replace a missing charging cord (that works both his obsolete flip phone and a reasonably recent Kindle) that either is in some obscure part of the baggage or sitting in E-Ville. $10 for the replacment.

Pics in the front yard of the Spalding House:

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DB and a coveted Kaneko head

Jedd Garet

Robert Graham doors

John Buck

Detail view

First stop: the Honolulu Museum of Art/Spalding House (formerly the Honolulu Museum of Contemporary Art). We take an Uber, $16 for what seems a half hour climbing one of the hills above downtown. And, we have the place to ourselves for over an hour, one other couple showed up near the end of our visit.

Pics from the back yard:

Deborah Butterfield

John Buck

Tom Wesselmann under wraps

Mark Bulwinkle (has public work in E-ville)

Surface Gallery, Boz Schurr

And, the bonus is the art: it is one great collection! Great outdoor pieces (several by Deborah Butterfield and John Buck, married to each other, who have a house nearby), a relatively small collection in the main gallery and adjoining pavilion, extremely well displayed and plenty of time to read the helpful attributions.

Many pics from inside the museum: 

Work made by Hockney for an opera

Andres Serrano

Alan Rath

Christopher Reiner

Ben Sakoguchi

Dennis Oppenheim

Deborah Nehmad's conceptual art is very powerful

Robert Arneson (true! not a self-portrait)

Ava Federov and Janet Tran using HAA Library books

Jennifer Bartlett (A THB fave, especially her work in Naohsima)

A great George Segal

Uber back down the hill (neither the driver dropping us off or picking us up had been to this museum), for a short visit to the Hawaii State Art Museum; again the Museum is relatively empty as this time THB counts 5 other people walking through. 

Kloe Kang

Another Deborah Nehmad; graphite and something called pyrography

Daniel Pardini: takes pics of relatives and photo shops them together. This one is of a mother and daughter

More Kaneko

Oldrich Kulhanek: a composite of his "informer"

The collection is not near as good as Spalding House and the building is undergoing a lengthy construction project and thus the outdoor work is inaccessible. There is actually a bit of overlap, a few artists are in both museums.

A walk of less than a mile on the shady side of the street to The Pig and Lady, Vietnamese with a twist. 

We share an excellent eggplant and pork ragu dish with shrimp chips (might have been better over rice), a banh mi sandwich with roasted brisket (though it could've been pork shoulder) and a bowl of mild French dip jus, and a 16 oz lilikoi cider. We have no room for the unusual soft serve (either brown butter or apricot sorbet flavors). $55 with tax and tip.

If this dish was over rice, it would've made a meal for two

Roasted brisket banh me sandwich, with au jus for dipping and pickled veggies, another dish we split that by itself was a huge amount

Lilikoi cider: excellent with the meal

A woman at table next to us was celebrating her b'day and this soft serve served 6

art made with cannabis hidden in the print, by Lauren Trangmar. Many of the prints were fascinating, $75 each

Finally, another slow Uber back to the hotel. It's universal: the traffic is bad in every large city in the entire country (for sure the entire west coast).

Naps for DB and THB, then a drink by the pool that we had to sort of beg the drink/food place to deliver to us. This is a pretty common theme here at Halekulani, much of the staff is on autopilot. $38 and may be "free" since we haven't gone over our $100 "credit"

Dinner at a very ordinary pizza place on the third floor of a shopping mall on the main shopping street in Waikiki area. The street is crawling with tourists (literally crawling as the streets are so crowded). Unfinished pizza and two iced teas, $34 

Pics from here and there:

THB and DB saw a stop of the AVP in Manhattan Beach a few months ago

Every No Smoking sign in the country now being replaced (who got that contract?)

A spectacular tree in the backyard of Spalding House

Wedding at Halekulani on the patio across the garden/pool area from our room (we're level with the event, THB almost objected when the officiant asked if anybody knew any reasons why...)

Several catamarans are loading up in front of the hotel at 5:30 for the sunset cruises

Hmmmmm...does he sleep with his favorite doll, too?

We might have tried Steph's favorite ribs except this indoor food court was so unappetizing that neither of us could get up the courage to order them. 6 or 7 places, not a single one had anyone waiting to order their food (some people were sitting and eating)