Hawaii Day #7 - Pearl Harbor

After a terrible night sleep and a lot of begging, we ended up going to Pearl Harbor Saturday morning.  We had planned all week to go Saturday morning, but after Friday night's incident with my knee, John was pretty adamant about not going.  But after a lot of begging and walking around the room to show him I could do it, we went :D  (AND I'm happy to say that it didn't hurt at all!  I was just slow getting around).

We had ordered a shuttle to come pick us up and drop us off at Pearl Harbor.  We got that at 7am and got to Pearl Harbor around 7:30am.  They suggest being there as early as possible as they have a limited number of tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial (as it is free), so it is a first come first serve basis.  We were able to get 8:15am tickets and then also bought tickets to go on the USS Missouri (aka Mighty Mo).  We had a bit of time to kill, so we walked around a bit and looked at some of the things they had at the Visitor Center. Here are a few pictures from the visitor center...

Map on the ground when you first come in of what the Pacific looked like in 1941

Anchor from the USS Arizona, it weighs almost 20,000lbs!

USS Bowfin

Mk 45 Nuclear Torpedo

I think this is the MK14

Two Ballistic Missiles

The USS Arizona Memorial begins with a 20 minute video of real footage from the attacks on Pearl Harbor taken from Japanese fighter plane footage.  It helps to explain what happened leading up to the attack and on the day of the attack.  It was very moving and sad to watch.  Once the movie is over, we then go over to a boat which takes us out to the memorial.  Here are a few pictures from the boat ride over.

One of the moors which all the battleships were tied up to the day of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

The USS Arizona Memorial.

Once inside, there are two guides who give you a brief history on the boat that lays in the water and the monument built over top of it.  It turns out the man who built the monument was a Austrian-born American who had been detained for three months in a detainment camp after December 7, 1941 attack.  Despite this, he didn't feel any resentment towards the Americans, and later settled down in Hawaii.  He made it so that the lowest point was directly over the boat and the two higher ends represent the war in Europe and the war in the Pacific.

One of the turret sticking up out of the water

There is still oil seeping out of the boat more than 50 years later.

Shrine room with all the names of the men who lost their lives on the Arizona

Mighty Mo in the background.  Mo is in the location of where the  fighting stopped at Pearl,
while Arizona is resting where the fighting began.

After this, we went back to the Visitor Center and made our way over to the shuttle which takes us over to Ford Island to Mighty Mo.  We were detoured around the island a bit because there was a cancer run going on, so we got to see a bit of the old airfield and building.  We were told that some of the buildings still contain the bullet holes from the attack.  Here are some pictures from the drive..

Radar Station

Pearl Harbor Airplane Museum

The famous red and white control tower, seen in such movies as Pearl Harbor.
Apparently it's in need of repair so they are trying to raise money for that.

Once we got the the Missouri, we were given the option of the type of tour we wanted, we opted for the Ipod, although we sort of followed a group who were getting a guided tour.  There are only 5 levels you can go on the bridge, 3 above and one below.  We did all but the one below.  They saw to give yourself a good 2 hours for the tour, we had about 1 and a half and with me hobbling around, it made it a bit slower.  It was really cool though to see all the old guns, the rooms the officers slept, the officers mess, the drivers room, the tactical room and the captain's rooms (yes, the captain had multiple rooms).  It's surprising how many rooms there were on the boat.  You would have needed to know the ship really really well to get around because it was easy to get lost.  Here are a few pictures from the boat.

After we were done, we had to leave for our hotel so we could check out and then get to the airport.  Watch for the next post for all the details of our return!

Hawaii Day #6

Day 6 was another relaxing day, my last of the trip.  I spent the morning down by the pool reading and soaking in the sun, after another great breakfast with John from Jamba Juice on our balcony.  I left the pool to have lunch (leftovers from the previous night), finish up the last of our souvenir shopping.  Finally, it was time to come back and pack.  I wasn't really looking forward to this, seeing as it was Friday and we didn't fly out until Saturday at 7:30pm, but I figured if I wanted to get to spend time together with John doing things on the island, I should probably pack for us.  I had us all packed in about two hours and then headed back down to the pool to wait until John came back.

Once John got from work, we headed down to the beach and rented some boogie boards.  They were so much fun!! We wished we had rented them earlier in the trip.  We were able to go out further in the ocean because of them, and we found out that there was a major sandbar not that much further out than where we normally just swam too.  It explained why all the surfers looked like they were standing in the water, because they actually were standing out there!  So, once we go out there, we most just had a great time jumping over the waves and being pushed back to shore by the waves.  We got knocked off the boards a couple times, it took me a bit to understand how to use it so that I didn't get water all in my face or get knocked off.  It was probably the most fun thing we did on the trip.

After we were done, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for our fancy dinner at Ruth Chris.  Unfortunately we never made it as I ended up popping my knee out and could barely walk (it popped back in, it just was in a lot of pain).  We ended up ordering pizza and watching a movie as I couldn't make it out of the building. :(  Luckily, this didn't slow me down for too long...read the next blog for our final day and flight back!

Hawaii day #5

Today was another relaxing day. Went to Jamba Juice with John for breakfast, which we brought back to our room and are on our balcony. I love having a balcony, I wish we had one at home. I think I would use it more than our deck, I think it's because I like being up high.

My morning consisted of looking for and buying souvenirs for our family and going the beach. The waves were really good today, but I forgot my sunscreen so I didn't want to stay out too long. As it was I'm a little pink from the hour I did spend at the beach.

I went to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch as their Caesar salad is amazing! It's a little weird to eat at a restaurant alone, especially when the waiter seemed surprised I knew exactly what I wanted and didn't want to ask any questions.

The rest of the afternoon was relaxing in the shade and my room as I didn't want to get any more pink.

John worked a full day today, so we went for a later supper and did a bit more souvenir shopping. We went into the hot tub and pool at the hotel before getting some ice cream for dessert and then turning in for the night.

That's all for today!

Hawaii day #4

UPDATE: Pictures from the walk below.

Today was a little slower starting for me as my throat hurt and I have been up once in the night. Once I got up, I got a great breakfast at Jomba Juice and came back to our room to sit on the balcony to eat and do my devos. Then I spent the rest of the morning at the beach. Today was so hot I could just lay on the beach, I had to go in the water (which I don't like doing without John as I'm afraid of being swept way with the waves).

John got off early today, so we decided to go to Diamond Head, except we ended up walking to it and got lost and when we got on the city bus but it was already past Diamond Head so we just went for a tour of the East side of the island. Pictures from the walk below.

Once we got back, we went to the beach and then for dinner and are finishing our movie.

Cool tree outside the Zoo.

Diamond Head

Diamond Head Lighthouse.  Found out that it's named Diamond Head because
British sailors who came over mistook the calcite crystals in the mountain as diamonds.

Hawaii Day #3

Today will be a sorter post, as I have become sick!  I woke up this morning with a sore throat which has been persistant all day and I'm now ready for bed, even though it's 7:50pm.

Got up early this morning with John and went for breakfast before work with him.  After he left, I ended up going back to bed for a nap.  Once I got up, I left for the beach, with a couple detours to a couple stores along the way. 

I spent just over an hour at the beach.  It was cloudy at first, but then the sun came out and heated up right away.  Here are a couple pictures of Wakiki Beach, also known as South Beach.

 

 

I went back to the hotel for lunch and then headed down to the pool for an hour and a half. I can say that my tan is coming in nicely and I haven't gotten burnt yet!  (Ok well I was a little pink in some spots, but I'm putting sunscreen on like crazy!). 

Once John came back from work, we got ready and headed for the beach.  I bought some beach mats earlier in the day and John decided to put them in his backpack like a ninja...

We also ended up getting some water shoes as the rocks were cutting our feet when we were in the water.  Here we are rocking the shoes!

Here we are enjoying the beach :)

We ended the day going out to a rib place and now we're going to watch a movie before bed.

Hawaii day #2

*Due to writing this on my phone my photos are all at the end of the blog.  I'll try to move them when I get onto a computers next!)

Today was a relaxing first full day in Hawaii. We got up early as John had to go to work. We have breakfast at the hotel. It was pretty good.  After this John left for work with some other guys from Alcatel and I was on my own.

The first thing I did today was...laundry! That's right, wifely duties are always at the forefront. After a week here John had gone through almost all his clothes! So I spent the majority of my morning doing laundry. It wasn't too bad as the machines were outside. Most things here are or are open to the outside. So I was able to sit by the machines, enjoy the light breeze and read. By the end though I was getting antsy to leave.

After laundry I went out in search of a drink to have with lunch and ended up exploring some shops. There are so many shops here from the regular tourist ones to high end designer stores. I found a neat store display to show off their purses. I decide I wanted to find Jomba Juice as I love their smoothies, but got a little lost and ended up finding a nail place and got a pedicure and manicure. It was bliss. I got very bright Hawaiian colours (or at least the bottles were a Hawaiian company). I also got cute flowers on my toes.

After this I came back to the hotel, have lunch, then went down to the pool to read and relax.  The pool area it the nicest I've ever seen.

Finally, John came home and we went out for dinner and enjoyed a nice leisurely walk down one of the main streets and browsing through some of the stores.

That's it for today. It was a pretty relaxing day, after the laundry was done. I'm looking forward to more like them!

Hawaii Day #1

I made it safely to Hawaii today.  A day later than expected.  I was to arrive yesterday, but thanks to some fog in Ottawa, I was delayed a day.

My day started out well, was up and ready in lots of time. My wonderful friend Joanne drove me to the airport and I was in and waiting at the gate in lots of time.  As the morning moved on, there started to be a lot of questioning about whether the plane was going to be on time, as there was no one at the gate, but the screen said that the flight was on time.  Eventually the screen changed to say that our flight was boarding and then that it had taken off.  No one had come to the gate to let us know what what going on, so everyone was questioning even more what was going on.  Within about ten minutes everything started to up date and it showed the flight was late by over an hour.  Half an hour after the flight was suppose to have left, and after getting a United agent to make four phones calls, the United agent for our flight showed up.  Of course at this time I'm freaking out because with the delay it meant I was going to miss my connection to Hawaii.  Finally I talk to someone and she told me that there was another woman who was trying to get to Hawaii and that she had looked up flights for her and there were none so I could either take my chances or I could be rebooked for the next day.  I decided I would take my chances.  After talking with this other woman, Danyka, I decided to go back and find out if there were any earlier flights as it seemed she only looked for direct flights.  The earliest she could find was one out of Chicago which would get me to Hawaii at 2pm today.  I figured that wasn't too bad, so I went for it.  Danyka and I decided that we would try to make a run for it and maybe we would make it.  Well as we were getting off the plane, we watched our flight being pushed away from the gate.   So tragic.

We went to the United Customer Service desk once we got in the terminal and found out that the agent in Ottawa had rebooked us to a flight Houston at 5:55am and then to Hawaii at 9:41am making it to Hawaii at 1pm.  We tried to get something earlier, but we were told there was nothing. they gave us a number to call to get a discount on a hotel for the night, so we called and went to the  hotel.  Conveniently we were able to share a room, which split the cost.  We basically got some food, as we hadn't eaten since before we left Ottawa, and then kept ourselves up until about 9pm, in order to get up at 4am to catch the shuttle to make it to the airport for our 5:55am flight.

I'm happy to say everything today went smoothly.  We made it to the airport before security even opened, which meant we got through it no problem.  Went to the gate and left on time!  There were even agents at the gate there an hour before we left!  We made it to Houston on time, we got to our gate, got some breakfast (Jomba Juice!!) and snacks for the plane and then boarded our flight for Hawaii.  The flight was pretty empty, which was nice because I was able to switch seats and sit with Danyka.  This also made me very skeptical about the flights on Saturday being all full.  But after 8 long hours, we finally made it!!  After a quick pit stop at the bathroom to change into my summer clothes (because it was a beautiful 27 degrees, felt like 34) and a 20 minute taxi ride, I finally made it to the hotel and to John!!  Never been so happy to see him before!

After I got my stuff to the room, showering and changing, we left for the beach, which a little bit of a detour to some of the shops that John wanted to show me.  We spent an hour or so on the beach.  The waves were coming in, so it was a lot of fun to jump with them.  Unfortunately we didn't take any pictures at the beach, but I'm sure we will later.

Afterwards, we came back to the hotel to shower and change and then went to the Cheesecake Factory for supper.  I was very excited, because it's on the Big Bang Theory and I've never been.  The dinner was really good, and I have leftovers for supper.  We brought cheesecake to the hotel to eat later...it might be another night.  Then we just walked about and saw some of the beauty of Honolulu at night.  Take a look...

This is the tree that is inside the mall!

I'm off to bed now, it's been a long weekend and I don't think I'll do well with the jetlag.