Foster Botanical Garden

Visiting Foster Botanical Garden | Honolulu, HI | April 2019

Whenever we’re looking for an easy outing on the island that is filled with natural Hawaiian beauty, the botanical gardens are always on the top of our list. Most are free and give the opportunity to go for a leisurely walk, and aren’t as crowded or touristy as the easier hikes around the island. Each one is unique and we always find a new favorite tree or flower in bloom.

The past 2 months have consisted mostly of time apart — far too much time apart, in my opinion — but we’ve made the few days (or hours) that we’ve had together count. On one weekend we had but a few hours together before Curtis left for a week, so we decided to spend some time at one of the botanical gardens downtown that we hadn’t visited yet — Foster Botanical Garden.

Foster Botanical Garden is located near where the Pali Highway meets H1 in downtown Honolulu. It’s one of the only ones with a small admission fee, but has free parking (which is a big deal in Honolulu!) and was well worth the few hours we spent there. While its proximity to H1 means that you are always hearing traffic in the background, it is still a peaceful environment and a breath of fresh air from the busyness of the city surrounding it. Highlights of this botanical garden for us include the incredibly tall pine trees, the butterfly garden, and the herb garden.

While we were visiting, there were some exhibits we found interesting that were part of the Honolulu Biennial Foundation. They were created by artists with the theme To Make Wrong / Right / Now, with the purpose of bringing to light different issues or histories that this island has faced. Our favorite was the Huaka’i / A Wake — a giant double-hull canoe form constructed from invasive plants on the island, created by Leland Miyano.

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The past few months have provided new challenges for me, such as navigating the blogging world while abiding by the rules of Operational Security (OPSEC), and finding motivation to share anything when my Editor in Chief is MIA. Thanks for understanding, hopefully we’ll have some more fun things to share in the coming months. 🙂