Hawaii Five-O and University of Hawaii in One Day!

The last few days have been busy! This is a quick blog about our Thursday in Hawaii. As you may know, I am a huge Hawaii Five-O fan. And on our adventures on Friday, one of the tour guides really knows (and I think this was who he said) Taylor Wily, who plays Kamekona, the big guy with the Shrimp truck who usually serves up the comic relief.

So one of the things on my must see list was to find and get a picture of the King Kamehameha Statue that sits in front of Five-O headquarters--actually the building behind the statue is the Hawaii State Supreme Court.

 

Glad to see that I wasn't the only one taking pictures!

After this quick stop, we were on our way to the University of Hawaii to meet up with my colleagues in the Extension Pesticide Program. We first met up with Charlie Nagamine in his office and then Barry Brennan (who is now retired but still has an office) met us at the student center after lunch. It was interesting to hear about their program. Charlie had just come back from a training on another island. Two of the people in attendance are in charge of the grounds on top of one of the tallest mountains in Hawaii. This land is now being leased out to many foreign countries who are interested in various types of research--satellites for one I think. However, everything going up the mountain must be pest-free because invasive species can be devastating on the local ecosystem.

After lunch, Barry and Charlie gave us a walking tour and provided some history of the campus, and even tried to get George and the kids into to a gym to play basketball. However, although Barry had his Faculty ID, only those with ID could play. We did talk to the kid checking IDs and he told us about a park down the road with a basketball court, so the kids did get some shooting in later in the afternoon. 

The University was started with 9 people, 8 of which from Cornell University. The University was badly flooded a while ago, including the ground floor of the library ruining many old books and maps. The campus has some really pretty spots, courtyards that you wouldn't know were there unless someone knew they were there to show you. Lucky for us! However, some gardens on campus were used for weddings and pictures a while ago, but then I guess they were having too many (I think it was free) so they stopped that. Here are a few pictures from the University.

Garden where the weddings were held, absolutely beautiful!

Barry, Sharon, and Charlie