Last Day on Oahu

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Forecast for today:  10% chance of rain.  I guess that means something different here - it rained all morning.  Our raincoats were sitting nice and dry back at the condo.  Good thing we had indoor activities planned for the morning.

We got another day pass with the bus, and started at the Bishop Museum, which had a lot of Hawaiian natural and cultural history, and science.

We had the place to ourselves, until the big school group arrived.

This is us in infrared:

After we left the Bishop Museum, we were curious to see the statue of King Kamehameha because they always show a shot of it in Hawaii 5-0.  We thought it was in front of Iolani Palace, but it turns out the statue is across the road.  King Kamehameha is the monarch who founded the kingdom of Hawaii in 1810.  The monarchy was overthrown in 1893 by rich businessmen who resisted the restoration of the powers of the monarchy. 

So what is this building, then?  We checked it out, and it is Aliiolani Hale, home to the Hawaii State Supreme Court.  We looked for the Hawaii 5-0 headquarters, but it must be in a different section of the building ha ha.

While we were here, we thought we would tour Iolani Palace, but there was an hour wait to get in, blech. 

After lunch at the condo, the sun came out and we had extra time, so we hopped a bus to Ala Moana Center, a lovely shopping center with very high end ritzy shops with bored looking salespeople.  Well, we weren't going in there!  

We asked if there was a pond with fish.  The Information Center guy said we wouldn't see any fish.  We did see these fish:

And then we found out that there were fish in the pond.  In fact, this papa fish was almost 3 feet long!

From the mall we walked to Kewalo Basin Harbor. We see this harbor a lot during shots of Hawaii 5-0.

imagecredit:https://www.bizjournals.com/pacific/news/2015/11/04/hawaii-agency-delays-decision-on-redevelopment-of.html

We showed up right on time for our parasail booking, and were told it was cancelled due to the windy conditions.  

That gave us 2 hours to kill.  Anton said "Shave Ice", so we made it a mission to find some.  Shave Ice is a dessert made by shaving a block of ice, then adding flavoured syrups:

Then we had a 2 hour Sunset Catamaran Dinner Cruise, which left from the same harbor.

The dinner cruise was very casual and it rained half the time, so we split our time between being outside to combat Anton's queasiness, and inside to get out of the rain.  And yes, we had our raincoats with us this time!  The weather did make for some dramatic shots:

Let's just say we won't be in a hurry to do another catamaran tour for awhile!

All of Oahu Tour

Monday, February 17, 2020

Before we left, we bought Go Oahu cards which include free entry to a bunch of stuff. Today we did the All of Oahu in a Day Tour. They picked us up at a nearby hotel at 7:30 am, and returned us at 5:30 pm.

This was an easy bus tour, not much walking required.  Funny how several shopping stops were thrown in as well ha ha.

Here were some of our stops today:

• Hanauma Bay, which has the best snorkeling on the island

• Halona Blow Hole

• Nu'uanu Pali Lookout (ancient battle site).  It was so windy up here that we had trouble breathing!

• A Macedamia Nut Farm.  Yum, lots of free samples!

• North Shore beaches

• Dole Plantation where we enjoyed Dole Whip, yummy.

One family was 20 mins late getting back to the bus, and the driver went in and looked everywhere for them.  Finally, we just left without them, but one older lady was quite upset at this.  We just think that if you are told a certain time, you should be there.

Back at the condo, Cheesecake Factory leftovers for supper!

Pearl Harbor

Sunday, February 16, 2020

Pearl Harbor is a small harbour nestled up against Pearl City (population 48,000) on Oahu. It took us one hour to get there by bus.  Day pass:  $5.50 each.

imagecredit:https://visitpearlharbor.org/about-pearl-harbor-oahu/hawaii-map-about-pearl-harbor/

It's famous as the focus of the surprise attack by the Japanese Imperial Navy against the then neutral American Naval fleet that was stationed there. The Japanese hoped to cripple the American fleet enough to stop them from interfering with other Japanese activity in the Pacific and demoralize the Americans enough to prevent further actions against the Japanese.

imagecredit:https://www.wired.com/2007/12/dayintech-1207/

The attack happened on December 7, 1941, and was successful in sinking or damaging 8 battleships along with a host of smaller ships and hundreds of aircraft. Aproximately 3,600 people were killed or wounded, including about 100 civilians.

imagecredit:https://www.britannica.com/event/Pearl-Harbor-attack

While the damage to the American fleet was heavy, the biggest targets – America's three aircraft carriers - were not in the harbour at the time. And instead of incapacitating and demoralizing the Americans, it galvanized them into action, with President Roosevelt calling for a declaration of war on the Japanese the next day.

imagecredit:https://pearlharbor.org/category/pearl-harbor-history/

Today Pearl Harbor is a historical sited visited by over a million people each year. There are four main attractions: the USS Bowfin attack submarine, the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, the USS Missouri, and the remains of the sunken battleship, USS Arizona.

USS Arizona Memorial: This memorial straddles the sunken hull of the battleship Arizona. The battleship was hit 4 times and then sank. Robert Ripley, of Ripley's Believe It or Not! fame visited the site in 1942 and began petitioning for a memorial in 1948. The current structure was built in 1961, after a benefit by Elvis Presley raised $50,000 towards the cause.

imagecredit:https://www.cnn.com/2019/12/07/us/pearl-harbor-uss-arizona-lauren-bruner-trnd/index.html

The sunken Arizona hull is an active US Military cemetery: of the 1177 sailors who were killed, more than 900 could not be recovered. Survivors of the Arizona attack have been given the option of being laid to rest with their crewmates. Over 30 survivors have chosen to do this. In fact, the last interment occurred just this past December, on the anniversary of the attack. Lauren Bruner was the second-last sailor to escape the ship, and lived to be 98 years old. He chose to be buried with the ship because more people visit the Arizona than visit cemeteries. 

imagecredit:https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pearl-harbor-veteran-s-interment-be-last-sunken-arizona-n1096911

After Lauren Bruner, there are still 3 survivors, but they have already decided they will be laid to rest with family members.  And in fact, make it only 2 survivors, because Donald Stratton, 97, just passed away yesterday, leaving only 2 more survivors left.

The day before the attacks, the Arizona took on a full load of fuel, 1.5 milion gallons. Much of that fed the explosion and fires that followed the attack. However, over 500,000 gallons of fuel are still leaking out of the wreckage, at a rate of 9 quarts of oil each day. Government agencies are loathe to do anything about the leak because of the historical significance of the site. Can you say “environmental disaster”???

imagecredit:https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/7i8fh2/uss_arizona/

USS Missouri: Also called “Big Mo,” it was the last battleship commissioned by the US. It was commissioned in 1944 and was active until 1991. Japanese representatives signed the peace treaty on its deck.

Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum: The museum contains aircraft and artifacts mostly relating to the attack, including hangar damage from the attack and Japanese aircraft that crashed.

USS Bowfin: The Bowfin submarine was launched December 7, 1942, exactly one year to the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It went on 9 patrols during the war and sank 44 vessels totaling almost 180,000 tons. It came to Pearl Harbor in 1981 for public display.

We had never seen one of these before, or even heard of them, but this is called a Kaiten - a one man Japanese suicide torpedo.

Since the Aloha Stadium was just a short stop away by bus, we took a break from history and checked out the Aloha Swap Meet.  It is a giant market that winds its way all the way around the stadium.

We took a crowded bus back to Waikiki and walked through some of the "hotels" here that are the size of resorts.

Supper at the Cheesecake Factory again, oh so yummy!

Waikiki

Saturday, February 15, 2020

The ship has landed! We docked back in Honolulu at 7 am and they wanted us off the ship right quick! We decided to take our time, enjoy our last breakfast, and take our own luggage off the ship.

As we were getting off the ship, we ran into Dan and Julianne, who we have been running into all week since the Meet and Mingle.  We had the same plans for the day, so they ordered a Lyft and off the 4 of us went.

We have rented a condo here, but could not check in until after 3 pm. So the first thing we had to do was get the Lyft driver to take us to the condo office (not the same address as the condo!) where they could store our luggage for the day. That means we had to think carefully about what we might want to bring along for the rest of the day!

We decided to start our day with the infamous hike up Diamond Head Crater. You'll recognize it if you watch Hawaii 5-0 or Magnum PI.

imagecredit:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-oJNcS5EWS8

This is a volcanic crater. It is named Diamond Head because British crews in the 1820's found crystals which they thought were diamonds. Nope, just calcite.

It cost us $1 each and took about 2 hours. The trail is 1.3 km one way and climbs 560 feet (171 m) in elevation. 

After Diamond Head, our friends ordered another Lyft and we all walked along the famous Waikiki Beach for awhile. 

The beaches and the beach walks are super crowded, but there's a fun vibe. Not much shade to be had at all. Lots of surfers.

This is the statue of Duke Kahanamoku, who made surfing popular:

imagecredit:https://waikikitrolley.com/index.php/duke-kahanamoku-statue/

Dan and Julianne had to leave around 1 pm to catch their flight (Bye Bye cruise ship friends!), and the 2 of us had a fabulous lunch at The Cheesecake Factory.  Yum yum!

After lunch, the 2 of us found a spot on the beach and enjoyed crowd watching.  We took turns going into the water because we weren't too keen on leaving our things unattended.

We walked back to pick up our luggage and find our condo. It's much louder here, lots of traffic. 

Frankie seems to know people everywhere, and Dayna invited us to her place for supper tonight.  Frankie taught Dayna's 2 kids ages ago.

Kauai Day 2

Friday, February 14, 2020

This morning our toilet set a new record:  4 hours before it flushed!

Today we were still on Kauai and we had the morning free, so we treated ourselves to a helicopter ride over the island.  They picked us up at the ship which made it super easy (not with the helicopter - with a shuttle!).  They said business has been down since the crash here in December and then Kobe Bryant's crash.  Our pilot's name was Brody and what better name to inspire confidence than that??  Plus he has military training.  So yes, we survived.  Sorry, Coleen, you don't get to keep Jasper!

There were 4 of us passengers, so Anton and I got the whole back to ourselves, tons of room and good views.  Some of the pictures have glare from the windows on them.

Kauai is probably the lushest island, so beautiful.  Brody said the island is all one mountain, with only 10% above water.  

This is Manawaiopuna Falls, also known as Jurassic Falls (from the opening scene of the movie).

Frankie's favourite part was Waimea Canyon, the “Grand Canyon of the Pacific”.

Anton's favourite part was flying along the NaPali Coast. This coast is famous for its waterfalls, secluded beaches, cliffs, caves, and terraces.

In the afternoon, we finally had time to enjoy our large balcony.  It was nice to read and relax.

The ship left Kauai at 2 pm and slowly passed by the 17 mile (27 km) famous NaPali Coast, which looks very different by ship than by helicopter. 

Time to pack, we leave the ship in the morning!