Bishop Museum: From Whales to Volcanoes

The Bishop Museum is the largest museum in Hawaii. The natural history collection is one of the largest in the world, and the largest on the Pacific Rim. The museum's main purpose is to represent native Hawaiian interests.

It was raining, and we were a bit drippy. I hadn't brought an umbrella. The collections are housed in different halls, or buildings. This building is the Hawaiian hall. We were standing near the ticket counter, waiting for the rain to let up just a little before dashing for the building.Once we made it into the Hawaiian hall, I pulled my camera out to snap a picture of my boys. A man held the door open, and offered to take a picture of the three of us. His picture didn't actually take. I thanked him, and stuffed my camera away. He asked if my boys needed to go to the bathroom. Without taking a breath, I looked him straight in the eye and said NO. Then he nervously rambled, telling he he had eight grandchildren of his own. All of this happened within less than two minutes of meeting him. Ew. The boys and I entered the museum without looking back.
Please, if you ever run into me at a public restroom, and see me take my sons to the ladies room, don't question my decision. Son1 inspected and stared at the ancient tiki carvings. They were several feet tall. He was interested in their emotions and facial features.



Ku, the god of war and prosperity, is the most recognized tiki. This Ku is made from breadfruit.
I would love to own this painting. I see my own boys in the painitng.
One entire room featured kahili. These are feather poles carried by attendants to announce the presence of the "ali'i," or chiefs. Each set of feather poles is named something associated with their chief. The room was dead silent, and my kids were so respectful. Then my cell phone rang. It was Hubby. Suddenly I became that person with the ringing cell phone that gets glares. We exited this room, out of respect for the Silence of the Feathers (I made that up), and viewed the remaining Polynesian exhibits.
Outside, we followed the path to the Castle Memorial Building. Along the way we passed this tree. The leaves were naturally bent in half, and two feet of roots criss crossed and poked up from the ground. This is the Hala tree, or the screwpine. The leaves grow in a spiral off the branches, like a screw.

We entered the Castle Memorial building, and arrived at the whale exhibit. The whale exhibit was the main reason we came to the museum. Son1 is fascinated by larger ocean mamals and sharks. (Tomorrow I am writing a short post on why to read non-fiction to your kids.)

Each whale in the exhibit was controlled bu a computer in each animal's base. The movements are controlled by compressed air. Some cylinders moved the eyes, some moved the flippers, and the mouths. The exhibit was loud! The animals made life like sounds and sounded whale heart beats. It was dark inside, and initially a little scary for Son1. He loved it after the fact.

Son1 loved these cross sections of whales teeth. I have tried to explain baleen teeth to him, but he didn't really understand baleen teeth until he saw this exhibit.

We finished our time with the whales, and headed for the Science Adventure Center. The center is three stories tall, and centers around three levels of a ginormous volcano. The whole exhibit is nearly 17,000 square feet. That's just a little bigger than most Costcos!
There were so many exhibits! I'll share just a few. Below the volcano, which was a mock up of Lo'ihi, an underwater volcano, Son1 steered a remote submarine. This was his favorite. He watched the remote submarine on the screen, and manipulated it with his hand.
On the main volcano level, Son1 used different forces in a tank to simulate a mini tsunami. We also walked through the center of the volcano, and Son1 slid down the slide. In this exhibit, it was totally pitch black with black lights, and flourescent Hawaiian scenes made from paper maiche. Exotic animal sounds played in the tunnel. Son1 was a little apprehensive, but Son2 was completely fascinated.
On the third level was the rain forest. We dressed up in animal costumes. I slipped my costume on, and noticed immediately one of my kids was missing from the tree top exhibit. I whipped around and found him on the ramp a few yards away. He was enamored by....

...the monstrous erupting volcano.


The three of us stood and watched the lava erupt from the top of the volcano vent over and over. Two of us were in costume. A nice man offered to take our picture. I let him. He had his wife with him, and he didn't dare ask if he could take my children to the bathroom. After going through my pictures, guess what I realized? I dressed up like a red vented bulbul, the bird I found in my yard eating the worms! Son1 is a coqui frog. They arrived in Hawaii recently, in the 1990s.