Wheatavore: Last day on Oahu -- March 23, 2016

A shop for "authentic, pre-owned designer handbags." [This photo wished to be at the top of the page, and I haven't been able to persuade it to stay further down.]

Last day in Hawaii -- We found some off-the-beaten track sights, visited with friends and relatives, and took one last trip to the beach.

We spotted this building that looked like a Japanese temple, but had a cross on it.

The sign that said that it was built in 1932 as a Christian church that looked like a Japanese castle to represent the belief of Japanese Christians in their God's protection.

We met Cliff and Mary DeVries for lunch at Sistina -- great company and excellent Italian food,

with copies of Sistine Chapel murals all around.

Another building with unusual architecture; both of these are a block away from shiny new apartment/hotel towers.

We spent the afternoon with nephew Paul White at the Zoo. At the Komodo Dragon habitat, we met one of the zoo-keepers who was about to give the dragon (named Doc, and 23 years old) some training in following orders given by medical or other personnel. I asked about her trays of small dead white mice, and she chatted with us (and a growing crowd) about how she was going to train him by getting him to touch his nose to an orange Frisbee on a stick; if he did he would get a treat (aka mouse). If not, he would be fed later. He gets about 1,500 grams of protein each week; today's mice represented about 10% of that quota. She talked for a while about how they bite, whether the bites are bad because of bacteria or venom (or both), how the zoo needed a reliable source of money to get its accreditation back (they more than meet all of the requirements for animal care but because they can't guarantee a steady enough income to suit the accreditation people, they lose their accreditation . . .thereby making it much harder to get accredited . . . one of those very sensible things about the way the world works), and more.

Here is Doc touching his nose to the Frisbee;

and eating his reward. We were lucky to get all of that information; not sure that it was scheduled.

Also at the zoo -- Galpagos tortoise eating lunch (several small birds came along to share);

Gharials (crocodilians) with wicked teeth

lazing in a pond with koi and turtles;

elephants the color of the Oahu red soil;

a reflected egret;

peacock in a tree,

and Paul and Jim waving their arms at it trying to persuade it to display its tail (unsuccessfully);

giraffes;

zebras;

a flamingo who started by making some peculiar honks and then danced across the enclosure displaying and honking -- mating behavior, we assumed, but it wasn't clear who the object of his affections was. Maybe he didn't know either.

A Buddhist statue in an herb and cactus garden;

the peacock again;

an exotic plant that looked as if it ought to be an animal;

a local Cardinal;

the flamingos in the pond at the front of the zoo who are much brighter orange than those at the back -- more shrimp, maybe?

Paul took us to the restaurant/bar at the top of the Ala Moana Hotel where he is staying before flying back to LA tomorrow (where he will get to see Peg Lazio and Tom and Joseph Lazio and Jen). The view of Waikiki from the 36th floor is different from those we've had before. The Ala Moana Marina, with a hazy horizon and a sailboat out on the water.