As they rode their bikes (although to Harold sometimes it felt as if the bike was riding itself and he was just a passenger) through Mo'ili'ili and into the Manoa Valley, Harold was in awe of the landscape. In his day, he had seen plenty of restored landscapes that looked like this - the botanical gardens and arboretums - but this wasn't walled off sections of the land - it was everywhere. Houses and buildings were easily blended into the environment in a way that enhanced the beauty of nature and made the people an integral part of it - rather than a blight on it.

He was astounded at the amount of work that must have taken place to dismantle the roads, the parking lots, the buildings, the entire structures of his civilization. If there was one thing that Harold was coming to realize it was that his civilization was defined by cars and roads and parking lots. The absence of them here made room for so much that he hadn't even realized he missed.

Harold's body felt amazingly energized and he wasn't sure if that was a result of having eaten and drank only additive free foods since his arrival, an overall exuberance at being in the midst of such wonder, or maybe his body had simply gotten a very good rest over the hundreds of years between when he went to bed and when he awoke. Perhaps it was a combination or none of those reasons. He only knew that he was not tired despite engaging in more exercise and intellectual astonishment than at any time in decades.

The institute was not at all what he had expected. Harold had been picturing a kind of Star Trek city of the future - like the Star Fleet Academy - and while there were certainly some elements of that in what he saw as they rode into the Manoa Valley - it was a completely different experience. No big shining white monument buildings or glistening silver organic structures. Everything was green.

At least at first, that was how it seemed to Harold. There were buildings that pushed the limits of what he had seen so far, though he didn't think they were more than seven or eight floors. The paths diverged in dozens of directions and while there were no signs, Klee and Brian seemed to know exactly which paths to take to get where they were going. Harold would easily have gotten lost.

Harold couldn't count the buildings, mainly because they were many and among them were giant trees of diverse species. He recognized some of them - Monkeypod, Acacia Koa, Albizia, Mango, Eucalyptus - but there were many that looked unfamiliar to him. Harold wondered if there was still a serious concern about introducing foreign species and invasive species wiping out indigenous plants. In particular Harold was struck by giant evergreens that shot up between the buildings. In his time, only the Cook Island and Norfolk Pines had been able to thrive in Hawaii's climate - these looked very much like Sequoia and Giant Redwoods - but they were of a size that he doubted they could be. He hadn't been gone long enough for a thousand year old tree to grow and he certainly would have noticed them in his time.

The buildings were all covered with foliage - some of it ivy, pothos, or other climbing plants he was familiar with - but much of it seemed to be made up of crop plants which were being grown in a vertical environment. A latticework of material held soil in place which allowed the plants to root and grow. Windows in the buildings seemed to be rare in comparison to the buildings of his day. The overall effect of all of this was that Harold didn't feel like he was on the campus of UH so much as he felt like he was coming into some ancient Mayan ruin deep in the heart of the rainforest.

There were clearings and open areas as well as intensive agricultural zones mixed in. People worked in the wetland agricultural fields - the taro patches or lo'i - and others tended to other things. There were largish groups of people numbering between five and twenty who sat in outdoor areas where they seemed to be attending classes or lectures. Harold wanted to stop and hear what the courses were about but he would have time for personal explorations later. Right now, they were expected for lunch and Harold felt that he owed his time to Ku Mohammad Mo'okumuhika Satori i-Sabah, the knife-maker who had gifted him that beautiful knife - and Brian's uncle. In truth, it was no sacrifice for Harold to meet with Uncle Ku because he had many questions and he suspected that Ku would be even more capable of answering them than Brian had been.

There was an air of knowledge and learning about this place - but it was not like the university campus' of his day. Missing was the 'institutional' feel - the almost arrogant aura that connected universities and schools to government and industry. This did not feel like a place where workers were trained. It did not feel like a place where boxes were checked off and grades were handed out. This actually felt like a place where curiosity was met with knowledge. This felt like a place of learning. Harold chuckled to himself as he realized that it was the least institutional 'Institute' he had ever encountered.

They came to a central bike parking area. Harold noticed that some bikes had their seats turned to the left.

"Does that mean something?" Harold asked Klee, pointing to the bike seats.

"Yes," she told him. "It means that the person who rode that bike wants to reserve it so they can use the same bike later. People sometimes get attached to a particular bike but mostly it's because if classes end for the day and they are staying late, they want to ensure that they have a bike to ride home."

"Everyone will respect that?" Harold asked. Harold thought of all the times in his life when he had seen people upset because someone ate their yogurt from the company fridge or other instances when individuals had put themselves first above everyone else. He could easily imagine a student seeing just one bike left -with a turned seat - and deciding to take it regardless of the turned seat.

"There are always going to be inconsiderate people," Klee said, "but for the most part, no one wants to be known as that person. We're not perfect, but our society has tried to use the art of gentle social engineering rather than surveillance and enforcement."

They were walking while they spoke and getting closer to one of the larger buildings Harold had seen thus far. Large carved wooden doors were wide open and people moved in and out in groups of two and three. This place felt very academic - there was art hanging on the walls and even though Harold had not seen windows on the outside - natural light flooded through entire interior.

"This is Uncle Ku's building," Brian told him. "I hope you're ready for some stair stepping, he's on the seventh floor."

"You don't use elevators?" Harold was actually fine with going up seven flights of steps - though he couldn't remember the last time he had done so.

"The elevators are just for freight or those who can't use the steps," Brian said. "One of the keys to a long and healthy life is using your body instead of a machine."

Brian said it with the ring of someone throwing off a well known maxim. "What are the other keys?" Harold asked on a hunch.

"Oh, there's a bunch of them," Klee jumped in. "Let's see "Fix what you can, adapt to the rest. That's one of my favorites." They had reached the stairs now.

"Fifteen plants for every animal protein," Brian threw out.

"Breathing is better than fighting," Klee said. Harold liked that one a lot.

"Helping others is really helping yourself." Brian was taking the stairs one at a time but he seemed to be holding himself back from taking larger strides. Harold was glad. He was also glad that the two of them were doing the talking.

"Appeal to your enemy's better nature..." Klee held the pregnant pause at the end waiting for Brian to finish it.

"...eradicate them if they don't have one." Brian finished it. It was a far more grim adage than the ones before. Harold looked to see if they were pulling his leg, but they weren't.

They had moved on to more positive vibe hippy ideals again. "Well begun is half done," Brian said.

"Don't wait for someone to bring you flowers, plant a garden and take someone flowers!" Klee shouted. They were having fun. The echo of their voices in the stairwell was triumphant.

"Why you do, not what you do!" This was Brian again. Harold liked this one a lot too. There was a lot of wisdom packed in each of these.

"Pain is the precursor to growth," Klee said. Harold stopped paying attention after the third floor. He was in pain - but he tried to tell himself this was the precursor to growth. Climbing the steps was all he could pay attention to. He had wondered if his body had become more fit in the transition from then to now but the climb up the stairs told him that he had more work to do. The relative ease which Klee and Brian had as they went up versus the growing sense of exhaustion he felt told him everything he needed to know. At the fifth floor he stopped to have a rest.

"We're almost there, Harold," Klee told him with the exuberance of youth "Come on, you can do it."

"I just need a moment," he huffed out. Then, his masculine pride came out, wanting to impress this gorgeous young woman - he pushed on when he really wanted to lie down on the floor in a bit of a puddle..

Finally, they reached the seventh floor. Harold was gratified that the two youngsters showed some signs of being out of breath when he caught up to them. They were all still smiling - even Harold.