Urban Honolulu

Traffic reflected in a downtown building in Honolulu, Hawaii
Traffic, which can be brutal, reflected in the glass front of a downtown building.

Yesterday I posted a small town response to this week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme of ‘Urban.’ See more responses here. It wasn’t until after that post went live that it occurred to me I could have used photos from my jaunt to Honolulu a few years back. It’s not the Big Island, but in Hawaii, Honolulu is by far the largest urban area.

When I got home, I had a look to see what photos I could use and came up with these images. The entire population of Hawi could fit comfortably into one of those skyscrapers.

The American Savings Bank Tower in Honolulu, Hawaii
The concrete face of the American Savings Bank Tower
A downtown building seen from the State Capitol Building in Honolulu, Hawaii
A downtown building from the State Capitol
A plane flies above downtown buildings in Honolulu, Hawaii
A plane flies above downtown buildings
The doorway of a downtown building in Honolulu, Hawaii
A doorway to one of the downtown office buildings
A person sits in the open air atrium of the State Capitol Building in Honolulu, Hawaii
A person sits in the open air atrium of the State Capitol Building
The Territorial Office Building with bike rack in front in Honolulu, Hawaii
The entrance to the Territorial Office Building
A railing in Honolulu, Hawaii
A railing in downtown Honolulu
The 1820 Mission Memorial building in Honolulu, Hawaii
The 1820 Mission Memorial building

Downtown Hawi

Downtown Hawi, Hawaii

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Urban.’ See more responses here.

North Kohala is mostly rural, so in this part of the world Hawi and Kapaau are the only urban centers and pretty small ones at that.

The top photo shows downtown Hawi on a moderately busy day. Some days, the traffic and crush of visitors can make it almost impassible. Downtown is mostly shops and restaurants, though there’s a small local grocery store and, of course, real estate agents.

One kind of store you don’t get in most downtowns is Hawi’s Aloha Man which features items made in Hawaii. There’s even a hammock just out of sight to the left of the store, in case walking the two blocks of downtown is too much for you!

Aloha Man store in Hawi, Hawaii

Signs: Gone fishin’ and divin’ and …

Signs at Honokohau Habor, Hawaii
A sign at Honokohau Habor, Hawaii

Honokohau Harbor, on the north end of Kailua Kona, is home to a good number of small boats, many of which are used for a variety of tour activities from deep sea fishing to whale watching, to snorkeling. Signs on shore advertise what tours are available on the different boats.

In addition, smaller boats are trailered in and out each day, and launched on one of the two boat ramps at the harbor.

Signs at Honokohau Habor, Hawaii

Trash, but not what it looks like

Piles of trash, part of a cleanup operation, on the Big Island, Hawaii

A while back, I posted here about some items dumped near the coast at Upolu. I was appalled by this until I realized that appearance of more junk was not related to more dumping, but rather to a cleanup operation uncovering areas of garbage that had long since been covered by vegetation.

This scene shows that, while there’s still work to be done, a large quantity of garbage has already been hauled away. Kudos to those responsible.