How appropriate that my last trip in 2017 was to Honolulu on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu, where I grew up! This was quite the year of travel which I'll recap in my final post tomorrow. But for now, enjoy this post and images from O'ahu, known as "The Gathering Place."

There aren't too many outings planned when we visit Honolulu. It's mostly to visit family, relax, visit with a friend, eat local favorites. A museum visit, a couple of runs, trip to the beach and a movie. Then it's back to the Mainland.

O'ahu Runs and Hike - Diamond Head, Kahala, Waikiki

I rather enjoy my runs near Diamond Head. Sometimes I'll head east through Kahala, others times west towards Waikiki along the Gold Coast. Because it stormed on Tuesday, the Waialae Beach Park near the Kahala Hotel flooded. What appears to be a reflective pond is actually the grassy picnic area covered by rainwater!

Running west, there are great ocean beach views, the Diamond Head Lighthouse and Makalei Beach Park where I routinely stop to yoga under the huge Hau tree. A cool seawall footpath that takes you around the Gold Coast area.

We hiked up Diamond Head one morning along with a couple thousand other hikers. It's a popular 2 hour round hike up a steep trail that rewards you with wonderful summit views.

Honolulu Museum of Art

There is always time to fit in a visit to the Honolulu Museum of Art, which has two sites, one on Beretania St. and the Spalding House site in Makiki. I only had time to visit the Beretania location which New York architect Bertram Goodhue designed and John Hara later expanded. Though I wasn't able to visit the Spalding House on this trip, I did stop by earlier in February 2017.

Photos below are from the various courtyards, mostly the Chinese Courtyard and the Mediterranean Courtyard.

The current special exhibition, Abstract Expressionism Looking East from the Far West through Jan. 21, 2018 presents major works by American masters such as Philip Guston, Willem de Kooning, Robert Motherwell, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, and Mark Rothko, alongside those by Asian-American artists such as Ruth Asawa, Saburo Hasegawa, Isamu Noguchi, and Hawai‘i art icons like Satoru Abe, Isami Doi, Tadashi Sato, and Tetsuo Ochikubo. Photos were not allowed at this exhibit. The art shown below are from other current exhibits.