Aloha! September 29-30, 2010

Wednesday, September 29th

Our trip to Hawaii began with a long non-stop flight from Detroit to Honolulu. The flight was a little under nine hours. Sounds like a terribly long time, but believe it or not the airlines have adapted to the behaviors of those who fly. They offer so many choices for “entertainment” it is hard to believe. Our seats came equipped with 110V AC outlets for any kind of electronic device one could imagine. We brought along our laptop, which Dennis had loaded with a couple movies. No need to worry about a battery dying. I came prepared with a book to read, but there were others things from which I could choose. In front of each passenger’s seat was a small personal screen. You could watch a movie, listen to music (with headphones of course), hear a variety of economic and business talks and even play video games! Wonder what Charles Lindberg or Amelia Earhart would think. Not only did they provide ample entertainment, Delta fed us twice! We’ve flown so often to Florida and felt lucky to get a bag of peanuts and a glass of coffee or pop. This is incredible. Believe it or not, the time passed quickly. I watched two movies, read a bit and even caught a little shut eye.

We arrived in Honolulu at 3:30 PM. For those of you back home, it was 9:30 PM. It was already a long day, but if we were going to knock the jetlag, we were going to need to stay up until at least another six hours.

We picked up our rental car, hooked up our own trusty Garmin (it has traveled so many places with us!) and got acclimated to the surroundings. It was surprisingly humid but warm. While traveling on H-1, it began drizzling. We hopped off the “freeway” to at least drive by the state capitol building. Those of you that have followed our blogs, know that we never visit a location without photographing the state capital. Honolulu was not different. The weather wasn’t cooperating, but we drove around nonetheless so that we could easily come back another day.

We ended the evening with a light dinner, and failing to stay awake as planned! We were both sleeping by 7 PM.

Thursday, September 30th

We were both up by 6 AM (that is noon to those back home). We both felt pretty good. We found a McDonald’s a block away, right across the street from the famous Waikiki Beach! What a country! We ordered our favorite breakfast items and were treated to complimentary cups of fresh pineapple. Wow! Never had anything like that in Michigan. Hey, they could give away fresh cherries or sliced apples back home. I’ll have to write to McDonald’s and encourage this Hawaiian hospitality. lol

We were on the road to Pearl Harbor by 7:45 AM. The highways in Honolulu are not as developed as in the 48 states. They start as two lane highways and suddenly turn into surface streets. You have to be alert at all times. Streets are not as well marked as a tourist would like, but hey, we are in HAWAII! How many people are that lucky?

We got a bit lost, despite Garmin, but finally made it to the infamous spot where the US entered into war with Japan. Parking is limited, but we eventually found a parking spot. It was nothing like I had imagined. I thought it would be much more sophisticated and commercialized. It was very clean and organized. We headed to the visitors’ information spot where we would obtain tickets to see the USS Arizona Memorial. It is not unusual to visit Pearl Harbor and not be able to visit the memorial. It can only be accessed by ferry. The ferry ride is free and the tickets are passed out quickly during the day. The fellow at the rental car place told me that he and his wife had lived in Honolulu for over a year and still were not able to get there early enough in the day to obtain tickets. Our tour time was 9:45 so we would have some time to explore the area and look at other memorial plaques and monuments. We saw torpedoes, nuclear weapons, the anchor from the Arizona, the submarine Bowfin and other memorabilia. Out in the harbor, you can see the Arizona Memorial and close to it is the USS Missouri. For those of you knowledgeable about World War II, the USS Arizona was sunk on December 7, 1941. That started the war with Japan. The surrender by the Japanese was signed on the USS Missouri. So the two structures are referred to as “bookends”. One started the war and the other ended it.

The National Park Service guide also told us that survivors of the USS Arizona (some were able to escape and swim to shore) have the choice of being interred on the Arizona when they pass away. The guide explained that the survivors lived their lives always remembering their shipmates who didn’t survive. In death, some choose to rejoin their shipmates. Incredible. As we toured the Memorial, I searched the crowds for any men that might be World War II veterans. I don’t think I saw more than one or

two. As time passes, there are fewer and fewer left and of those, few are healthy enough to travel to this historical place. Within the memorial, there is a wall devoted to the names of the seamen that perished. It takes your breath away when you see it. The building is also constructed symbolically. It has 21 window type openings (open air) that represent a twenty-one-gun salute.

Once we returned to land, we opted to take a shuttle bus to view the USS Missouri. Access to the ship is limited, as it is moored on a naval base. You cannot drive a car onto the base. There is a bridge (completed in 1998) that goes to Ford Island, but as mentioned earlier cannot be accessed by the general public. The shuttle dropped us off near the Missouri, but we wanted to photograph the newly completed memorial to the USS Oklahoma. For years, the Oklahoma was more or less ignored. It had 429 Navy men that perished and it paled in comparison to the Arizona. Family and friends of the Oklahoma fought for years to have its place of honor. Finally, in 2007 it became a reality.

After snapping pics of the Oklahoma, we boarded the Missouri. The ship isn’t in the best shape and Dennis assured me that if the Navy was still in charge, it would be in much better shape. Now, that is a comment from an Army veteran! There were many, many spots on the wooden deck where repairs had been made. Those repairs were simply a piece of wood placed on top of the damage and screwed into the wooden deck. If you didn’t watch where you were walking, you could have stubbed your toes hundreds of times. Nevertheless, it was thrilling to stand on the spot were the Japanese surrender took place with General Mac Arthur.

We photographed the gun turrets and climbed every accessible ladder to capture different camera angles. Although we had been told that the Japanese visit Hawaii frequently, we were still shocked to see so many on the ship. Without exaggeration, at least half of the visitors appeared to be Japanese.

Once back at the Pearl Harbor area, we ate a light lunch and decided to head back to the hotel. We wanted to avoid the rush hour traffic we experienced yesterday. Again, we experienced some rain. After getting back to our room, we cleaned up a bit and headed to Waikiki Beach. We walked the famed Kalakaua Avenue. This street is a combination of Chicago’s Michigan Ave, Rodeo Drive and 5th Avenue. The difference however, is that you will see women dressed in couture wear and then you will spot one or two surfers walking barefoot with their surfboard in hand. We even saw a couple bicyclists riding along the street with the surfboards attached to their bikes. The beach is right behind this shopping street. Too cool.

We spotted an area near the beach where surfers had their boards locked and stored. There were hundreds of boards, all erect and all ready to go for a ride with their owner. The surfers were all ages. We saw them as young as six or seven and as old as Social Security recipients. It was so much fun watching them work the waves (or in some cases having the waves work them). It is easy to see how addictive it can be. I might also mention that none of them had an ounce of fat on them either. Lol

We did a lot of walking and finally headed back towards the hotel. We were going to try to hit the hay around 9 PM and try the early rising on Friday. Well, it is 10:30 PM and I am writing this blog. So much for planning.

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