The Country Club Bum

OC and I went to lunch Sunday and had lunch on the lanai of the Makaha Resort Golf Club. It has a lovely view with all the flowering trees in bloom, the emerald green manicured lawns and the azure sea beyond. I took my camera to capture the view, but company came and took much of my attention.

The company was uninvited. He slowly sidled up to the table and helped himself ...

He approached us with an innocent, "don't mind me" air.

He casually strolled closer, looking everywhere but at us.

He nonchalantly took a seat at our table.

Scooted up close.

Stepped on up to the plate ...

Gave it a thorough inspection.

Then admonished us. "Okay you two, perhaps you didn't get the memo. All guests are required to leave a bite or two for me!"

He tried valiantly to convince us that our callous disregard of his dietary wishes had put him in eminent peril. In other words, he insisted he was starving. He might have made better headway if he'd sucked in his gut.

By the way, the chocolate Lava Cake was yummy. I highly reccommend it.

Diversity, Part I

I love visiting the University of Hawaii at Manoa campus. Diversity abounds: the buildings, the languages, the people & their skin colors, and the plant life. Each step along every path brings something new and amazing.

For instance, this Coral Tree simply took my breath away. I stopped to photograph it, and a gentleman on campus stopped to query me. "What purpose is there in taking pictures of flowers?" He asked.



"Purpose?" I parroted and shrugged. "I just thought they were pretty."

"Pretty is not important." He flicked his hand like he was brushing away dust.

"But look at them," I pointed and said. "The shape --. The texture --. The amazing color --."



"Listen," he said. "If you want to see something truly amazing you need to study mathematics."

"But numbers aren't very photogenic." I replied.



He looked at me quizzically, shook his head and walked away. I was shaking my head as I watched him go.

Diversity.


Erythrina crista-galli, Fabaceae, common coral tree, origin, Brazil.

Zosterope japonicus japonicus, Zosteropidae, Mejiros or Japanese White Eye, named for the ring of white around it's eyes, is a song bird from Japan.

Diversity.

The University of Hawaii at Manoa

I went to the UH campus at Manoa as a tourist, so I can only tell you what I saw:

If chestnuts ....

Cultural Diversity: the campus is a mixing place. I saw a full palette of skin tones and heard a wide range of accents. In fact, I understand that the variety of language classes available on this campus exceeds all other public U.S. educational campuses. In addition, student apparel had more variety then most major department stores, and hair seemed to come in more colors then one finds in a crayon box.

. . . grow on Chestnut trees;

Architecture: like most campuses that have been around for awhile (UH@Manoa was founded in 1907) the buildings are a mix of old and new, but that is not the only difference in style. As is befitting such a diverse campus, the architecture of the buildings, plazas, gardens and statuary reflects the many cultures that converge here.

And olives . . .

Flora: there are no words that can describe the wonderful trees and plants growing on the Manoa campus. I ate a tangerine warm from the sun picked from a campus tree. I saw plants (including the Bird of Paradise above) with as great a diversity of nationality and color as the students. The heady fragrance of all the different blossoms had me running from one plant to another to sniff.

. . . grow on Olive Trees;

Fauna: birds and cats co-exist on the campus. Most of the birds are tame. Most of the cats are not. (The links provide eloquent descriptions of each.)

Then what grows on Money Trees?

Parking: there is none. Security guards man the entrances. They will be happy to sell you a $3.00 pass to the guest parking lot, but as a friend told me, "It is only a license to hunt, not the guarantee of a parking place." On the plus side, if you give up searching for a parking place in less then 15 minutes and leave the campus, they will give you your money back. However, if you should park even half-an-inch from a designated guest parking place, you will receive a $15.00 ticket. Btw, the guest parking lot will hold maybe 50 cars and it is FULL from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Ha! You wish! Not even in paradise.

Breakfast On The Lanai

We ate many of our meals at the Makaha Resort. I especially enjoyed breakfast on the lanai. My favorite breakfast consisted of fruit juice, Portuguese sausage, pancakes, warm coconut syrup -- and Brazilian Cardinals.

No, the cardinals weren't for eating, they were for feeding -- or at least that's what they wanted us to believe.

This one came right to the table and sat down with us. It hopped from the back of the chair, to the table, to the top of the teapot. It had it's eye on the Portuguese sausage, but settled for a bit of pancake eaten from my partner's hand.

The cardinal wasn't in the least bit shy about asking for seconds -- and thirds. And he was quite spunky about letting his preferences be known.

"Hey, big guy, you're a bit stingy there with that coconut syrup, aren't you?"