In Hawaii, Looking For Bees, Finding A Few, And A Great Museum

This is part of a lobster that I found on the beach in Maui this week.  I didn't get to see the whole thing, but it's great to see different plants and animals than what I am used to. Though they aren't that different- prettier mostly- but still, doing pretty much the same thing, hopping about the parking lots begging for food, for example, but not a sparrow. Something fancier.  I ask a guy who's lived there 37 years- "what kind of bird is that? They're everywhere." and he looks at one and says he has no idea. I ask a 3 year resident, and he has no idea either. Its a pretty bird. Apparently nameless and unnoticed.

I am here for a family wedding- but have lots of time to travel around and look at things.

I would guess, that you have likely been here, or one of the other islands (all two of you who might read this). But I have never been before. In fact, it never really interested me.

If I was more of a beach person I guess it would- and though I like that part- I prefer museums, or walking in woods. I don't really like lying down in the sun or spending the day in the water. Which seems to be the main thing here.

However, a few experiences eclipsed lying on the beach- or even snorkeling, and one was visiting the Bailey Museum, an old girl's school- and about as perfect a fit for a vacationer like me as there can be. This is like recommending a movie- unlikely that you'd agree- but I was thrilled. I kept telling the guide- a big Hawaiian, soft spoken, knowledgeable young man: I love this place, this is WAY better than the beach, which he laughed politely at, at first, but not the third time (even when I said "No, REALLY").

And it can't just be "any old" museum- it has to hit a lot of cylinders all at the same time- not just one or two.

This one did. Smallish. Not fancy. No one there. Quirky, but not intentionally. And packed with history and interest and stories and layers and layers of characters and people, and not just something you can get your head around in an hour.


Edward Bailey came here in 1830 or so, a missionary, who's job it was to teach young Hawaiian girls how to be young Christian  Hawaiian girls so they could marry there concurrently trained boy brethren on the other side of Maui at the boy's school. He did not waver from the belief that this was a good thing to do- though the school only lasted 12 years. That's the distasteful part- at least for those that assume that the girls, or boys, had unhappy lives because of it. I have no idea, and apparently (says the museum) there are no remembrances from those students.

But Bailey was an architect, and builder, and from Amherst school (I went to there, sort of (Hampshire)), and a good landscape painter, and teacher. And he collected land snails in small vials with tiny writing. The museum has 20 of possible 100 paintings (in unknown locations, they are searching). And they have all his other stuff, more or less. Plus, the largest collection of pre-contact Hawaiian artifacts in Hawaii.

And its in a great building.

Bailey at the easel. I would have loved to have met him.

This is part of his house and school. All stone- somewhat rambling.

This is his paint box and palette. Tiny paint tubes from 1900.

A few of his land snails. Many now extinct.

A painting of Haleakala Crater- at about 10,000 feet. He apparently took his horse and paints up there. There are some tiny figures on the right. Mark Twain also went here about this time, where he spent the night and "alternately froze and boiled" in front of a fire.

The second thing that I enjoyed a lot- though it was brief- was tracking down a few apiaries and taking pictures.  I didn't see anyone- which I would have liked to do- but got to see how they did things, in part. The two I saw were rigbt on the road- and in very dry country.

The first apiary- right along the highway

They don't use pre-built boxes- they were all built from plywood-even OSB- whatever was handy. All the bottom boards were solid, and pretty much just sat in the dirt. 

The beekeeper wrote sharpie notes on his/her hives. There were lots of notes about queenless hives, like this. It doesn't appear that the queen ever was added?

I am not sure what these were about, but sometimes there were small nuc boxes set off from the apiary, or like this one, high up on a cliff. This one had a colony coming out of a crack in the rocks next to it, and was 10 feet off the ground. Maybe the beekeeper was hoping to catch swarms this way. 

Typical bees- looks like out bees, Italians,  plywood bottom board. Nothing to well kept up..

Bigger apiary- all of these were all in very dry country- I don't know what they were gathering.

This looks like it would be very hot work to work here. 

A chair for the beekeeper in the shade.

Another hive in a tree.

The grassland the hives faced....very dry, no obvious flowers anywhere.

In addition, I kept my eyes and ears open for bees- and saw them in lots of places. Even landing at the airport- first animal I saw was a bee.  I thought maybe if I looked around, I'd see some native types- but never did- just honeybees.

This is a honeybee on the top of Mount Haleakala- at 10,000 feet above sea level. There is supposed to be a yellow faced bee special to the mountain.- so I looked around, but only saw this one. There isn't much up there- so I am not sure what she was looking for.

Also- a lot on the beach on the north coast of West Maui- gathering water I think- where the tide water joined a stream- so partly salty, partly fresh.