Hawai'i -- Hilton Humor... [Two]

 We did get some beach time...

I need to more fully tell the story of how we spent one our Hilton days with no hot water in our room, or no water at all! We never quite got a full explanation, & we did survive without showers, but that was a negative experience as we all, including the sales staff trying to convince us to sign onto a time share plan with Hilton Grand Vacations. We obviously know how to make our own travel plans. The nice people with that job had to acknowledge that for themselves. We don't have the usual 1 or 2 week vacation schedule, we don't have kids' entertainment to include, we don't play golf. We like to eat better [& usually later] than the few restaurants this place offered, with the exception of the last evenings' wine-pairing... when we were seated at group tables when we would have preferred to eat as a couple in that view with whales breaching in a brilliant sunset. These were generally speaking "not our people... not our thing".

We were happy to say Aloha to another sort of holiday!

We did find several sunny beach afternoons with our friend Zeke, who lives closer to Hilo... a fair bit of driving... he knows many more secluded spots to explore on his Island.

I was in the mood to read in the shade rather than swim with them. A fix of quiet... Ahh!

With much livelier shades of humor...

We stayed with friend John Holiday who lives looking down to the surf, most of a mile away...

His home has a sumptuous screened living room in a steep garden of citrus, with many orchids. A lovely pool with a huge avocado tree nearby. 

On our last visit it had been fun to help imagine the house as it would look after the remodel he was planning... using blue tape to mark where walls would move & new doorways would open. It was even more fun to walk through the finished project!

The lamp on my side of the bed danced me to dreamland.

On evening we wwere invited for cocktails to another frien, who had roomed with us at our last visit to the Fairie Gathering at Breitenbush. His home was delightfully quirky. with a tall wooden giraffe sculpture lifting into the two story stairway.

Its head surveying a palm tree chandelier in a jungle of decco beveled glass!

With a rich sunset as we imbibed on the deck beyond.

We met Zeke & Randy for a concert of young pianists with the Symphony... quite amazing talents!

Another wine pairing dinner gave us a second major food experience on which to fly home, quite happily!

Even as we arrived to weather which brought several inches of snow! Lovely in its short lived charm.

Hawai'i -- Hilton Humor... [One]

 

 This visit to the Big Island was some bit of impulse on Stephen's part, I believe... one of "those deals he couldn't resist." Yet it turned out to accomplish getting us out of our rainy, very cold winter weather, giving us some great meals [atop many of our favorite... poke!] & opportunity to see & visit our numerous friends who live there... plus our friend John's new special friend/partner, Ben. 

Ultimately... another great trip!

The deal was... a block of inexpensive nights at a Hilton Resort in exchange for a couple hours at the end being informed by a sales staff about the advantages of buying a membership in a time share plan. Notice our eyes rolling with sighs of bemusement... even as that amusement began five days before... this hotel had many parts which were rather Disney-esque. One story suggested one of designers was connected with Disney.

 Such might introduce the amusement to which I allude in this post's title...

I didn't think humorously so much about being lassoed into a reservation at a Hilton... after all, Otto (Stephen's father) left a pile of Hilton Honor Points to Helen (Stephen's mother) -- plus other family members to whom she made gifts of them...we all traveled for several trips.  Another of the blessings she shared!

This was a campus of various opportunities to play, from the bit of true beach into a series of coves, islands & smaller swimming & water play, like paddle boards & boats;  numerous buildings for dining, events & conventions strung along the coastal property. 

Of course, there was a golf course along the perimeter!

An unmanned train trundle-rumbled guests & luggage around, to & from the reception area & various registration desks... showing its age, as did much about this property. There was a meandering canal, originally connecting more distant parts of the resort by boat, but the guidance system for them became slippery enough with seaweed to keep them docked while we were there. 

With the architectural infrastructure of arched bridges & walkways making a stage set, I could better imagine gondolas for such work... This place was trying to cover everyone's bases.

 

There were innumerable Buddha sculptures sprinkled around & S grabbed a passerby to play with us, me suppressing giggles at our absurdity of mimicking a scene we witnessed some years ago at the World Heritage Site, Borobudur, on Java of a Japanese woman posing rather too piously with a zealous photographer: [see my post about that here]  https://grbarnett.blogspot.co some years agom/2017/01/indonesia-three-java-two-phoenix.htm

 

Such is the amusement to which I allude in this post's title 

But, we enjoyed walking from our room, in the farthest "Ocean Tower" building, via the long gently curving corridor, covered but open to the air.  It is a gallery housing the hotel's eclectic art collection. Many Asian objects & sculpture, some native Hawaiian pieces... with a sprinkling of European things loosely bridging these three cultural contexts for the Island.

All of which presented interest on several levels, intriguing one to dawdle at times or to pace more briskly when we were heading to the parking lot. We became quite familiar with its scope during our frequent passing... we enjoyet it inside many moods.

Hilton had been invited, before China opened, to come buy and make some precision copies of ancient work... the pieces we are seeing here. Some very impressive.

 

 

 

 Many pieces also were from Thailand, Burma & Indonesia...

 

  There were breaks in the passage which opened between buildings into highly designed gardens.

 

A token few were Polynesian... more local to Hawaii...

 

  

While similar media bridged back to SE Asia. I particularly enjoyed his wood relief carving...

While that could become intensely poly-chromatic!

The shadows from lattice shade in the afternoon light added its own art...

We joined in an chef's dinner with a particular vintner's offering wine. Kudos to that ending  of our Hilton stay... Almost. More coming in a next post: [https://draft.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/19601980/1324984333291729424]