Hawaii con't (3/77)

Second week in Hawaii, meetings are done and we are waiting on the visas. We rent a car, and see the sights. Pearl Harbor, Waikiki, Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay, Dole Plantation, Beaches, beaches and more... Long write up below the photos.

Meeting with Mongolians in La'ie Aloha Canter

Lunch at the Farm, lots of fun food getting grown.

Hanging with the cast at the PCC, great singings and dancers.

Yes we got over to Easter Island.

Drove over to Pearl Harbor, wonderful museums and displays.

Panorama of Pearl Harbor

Walking in the warm Hawaiian sun.

 USS Arizona monument

Montage Time

I

One of the many type of Bayan trees along the beach.

Royal Hawaii Hotel, it is nicer than the TVA.

Many cool and rusty VWs around the island

Gum tree bark near the Dole plantation

We really liked the Hawaiian flag. It was a nod to the other Royal Family in the UK.

Hanauma Bay, aquatic preserve and snorkeling heaven.

Saturday montage.

Hanauma Bay

Honolulu from Diamond Head peak.

Standing atop a WWII installation on Diamond Head.

Aloha shirts at Goodwill

VW Thing at Hard Rock Honolulu, yes, I bought pins.

With Tiki outside PCC

Our two weeks home

Pot O Gold at the end of the rainbow.

Sidewalk to the Pipe Master competition

Missed the competition, several times, but enjoyed the ambiance.

Typical older Hawaiian home.

Friday Morning I walked around to find a way to extend the room, since we were only booked to Monday and we were departing Tuesday. I also wanted to find the mailroom since Mom had sent the family newsletter. When I checked for mail, we had something from Brian, but not mom. They sent me to the warehouse district where FedEx drops everything. I needed to be sure we could get the Passports when they came. I expected there to be a rush and panic trying to get things together for our exit. I did find the right warehouse and they did have moms newsletter. I also went several places to find the right place to drop the room keys on our way out.

At 9:30 Kathy Anderson picked us up to go to Honolulu to get a rental car. Firefly had the lowest rate, turns out they are the Hertz budget arm. They had to upgrade us two classes since they did not have the go cart we had reserved. It was a Ford Focus, bit of a dog, but good enough for us.

We drove straight to Pearl Harbor. Thank goodness for iPhones and Google maps. Easy parking and nice weather, we were given free tickets to the Arizona Memorial, including a film and a boat ride over. We had an hour prior to the film, so we walked around the site. Katy was not as familiar with WWII, so there was lots of new information. I was intrigued by the manned torpedo designed by the Japanese.

The Kamikaze idea is so repugnant to westerners, and yet a man who tosses himself on a grenade to save his buddies is commendable. In all wars, men rushed over the top of the trenches, knowing that they would be shot. So why does one man steering his plane or torpedo seem so wrong?

There were two museums that displayed what led up to the war and the actual war. It was well presented. Good use of artifact to tell the story. The Maritime Museum in Swansea has great artifacts but the worst story telling ability. We exited to the boat.

Nice ride over to the memorial. I was very impressed by the two navy pilots who drove the boats, nice docking. The memorial sits above the Arizona, we can see just a bit of the boat above the surface and quite a bit below. It would have been nice to have a memorial that was well above the boat for batter viewing. It does not take much elevation above the water line to be able to see below the water line. The memorial was nice. It showed several sailors who had survived, had also been buried on the ship after their demise.

We walked around a bit more after the boat ride, Katy found a four pack of nice pins, so, that was a highlight for me.

We drove over to Waikiki, found free parking on the far side of the Zoo. Great park, amazing huge Banyans, one was really well formed with root trunks thick around the main trunk, as we got closer we smelled that this tree was getting lots of rich nitrogen infusion by locals. Perhaps more than it needed.

We walked along the Beach path, a very civilized place indeed. Beach to the left, shops across the street to the right. Soon there were shops both sides. We happened upon Honolulu Cookie Company. We bought three tins, one for the James another for the Andersons and one for... well, we still have it in UB, perhaps it is for us?

We walked through The Royal Hawaiian Hotel. Katy had fond memories of it. As a child she had seen many folks win a week there on game shows. It is a grand old Hotel very nice, beautiful courtyard nice detail. It is pink with green awnings and trim. The painting would be kitsch anywhere else, but it was nice here and seemed very appropriate. There were a row of rockers looking out to the courtyard with a warm breeze; I could have been happily ensconced there with a book for a long time.

We walked through the Royal Hawaiian mall and Katy found a pair of sandals she really wanted, so Merry Christmas. We ate at a Vietnamese place, good but more than I would have hoped, but, Hawaii. We went to Exodus, Gods and Kings on the way home. What a confused film, it seemed to switch from scriptural to this stuff just happened, yeah, God is not needed for this story. Too much money spent and a confused message in the end. Many of the individual scenes were great, but the movie lacked coherence.

Saturday we drove around the island. we stopped at several beaches and walked along the shore, never gets old. We drove by the Bonsai Pipeline during the Billabong Triple Crown. No parking and we really did not yet know how the contest proceeds, so we drove on to get Shave Ice at Masimoto's in Haleiwa. Nice little town easy parking (can you tell that is important to me?) The Shave Ica was not as good as some we have had in Provo, yes better than many, but there in one company, in Provo, that shaves it so that it tastes like ice cream, amazing. We walked around the stores and had a nice time.

We drove on to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. It was a big gift shop surrounded by pineapple fields, there were some good educational expos. We were told about how to judge a good pineapple from the outside, useful. We were told about how the pineapple came to be farmed in Hawaii by James Dole and how he dominated the industry for decades. We bought a nice little pin, so not a waste of time. We bought a pineapple smoothie, not as good as the ones at PCC, but nice and refreshing.

Sunday, Church at 8:00 to 11:00, it is a student ward and Sacrament meeting begins with almost no one, then the room fills slowly and the service ends almost full. Lots of mixed race couples, the goal is to have 50% international students. We were encouraged to find good students in Mongolia.

After church we walked home and had a bite of lunch, we stopped by the Korean BBQ place last night and bought a plate of thin sliced beef fried in batter, lots of rice and vegetables and rice also. It was tasty, even the next day. We decided to walk on Hukilau beach. Katy wanted to drive since her new sandals were hurting her feet. We drove over only to discover that the beach parking lot was closed and locked, so we drove down to the next beach. It was a short drive in through low trees, then a walk out to the beach. Most of the beaches seem to have a really nice bathroom facility with showers. There were 5 kite surfers. The beach had a promontory which became an island at high tide the sand bar that connected them was just below the surface and was getting waves from both sides. From the promontory the beach stretched south east in one sweep all the way to the temple garden access. 

We walked the lenght of the beach. We chatted with fishermen who were casting out quite a way and letting the lead weight carry the lure to the sea bed. Using squid for bait they had a few bits. we were there for one struggle, the fish had gotten the line caught in the coral and broken free. It still had the hook imbedded, but it was free to be catch another day.

At Hukilau beach we walked up to take a photo by the sign. There one of the James boys had erected a sign to show that this was the beach where the LDS had held several Hukilaus to raise funds for a new church building. The old one had been lost to fire. They would put on a feast and a show, several claim this was the origin of the PCC. The song "We are going to a hukilau" was written about this event. I grew up knowing this song and never really wondered about it.

We got down to the beach near the Temple Garden and there was a naked Barbie in the bushes, we posted a photo with Genesis 3:10. We walked back to the car, the sand is quite rough and really exfoliated our feet nicely. It caused our feet to toughen and become shiny all over the soles.

Monday we began by driving out to Diamond Head Crater to hike to the top. The park opens early for those who want to hike to the top and photograph the sunrise. There were bus loads of Japanese tourists coming down as we were going up. The trail was steep but not as steep as the Y-trail. It was well paved in parts and quite rough in other areas. The ground was "tuff" compacted volcano dust from many eruptions. It had hard and soft spots so the trail was uneven.

Toward the top the trail split into a tunnel and stairs or the open air route. Katy opted for the open air.

we drove out to watch the Pipeline surf competition. The third event in the Triple Crown of Surfing. The surf was not right so no competition, we walked around and got a feel for the place. There were shirts for sale and we bought some for the kids for Christmas. Katy also wanted to buy one for John, the man Zoe is dating.

We drove down further down the road to the Dole Plantation and ordered 6 pineapples to be sent home. 1 for each of the kids and 3 for Brian and Faith. Zoe said she would deliver them. We took photos of many of the food trucks, they are everywhere. Slowly rusting away, doesn't look like many of them actually move under their own power. 

We continued to drive for just a little bit to the Sacred Birth Stones. This was a place where most of the Royal Hawaiian Children were born. The stone were large and smooth and someone though this would be a good place for the woman to, sit, lay and give birth. A group of Japanese tourist were there at the same time as we were. From a sheer picture count, they won.

We ate in Haleiwa near Matsumoto's Shave Ice. We had a huge Burger. Taller than it was wide, hard to eat, especially when it was cut in two. We got large fries and could not finish them all. It was too cool inside so we ate on the porch.

We continued down to another town, stopped at a Goodwill store, they had great Aloha shirts, we texted with the kids and sent them loads of photos of the shirts to see if there was ne they wanted. Griffin opted for a nice silk shirt, Anders got a more colorful cotton one. They had a great chair with Hawaiian print fabric cushions and rattan frame. Katy also wanted a small ceramic Genie, we did not buy either of these items.

Tuesday we had a slow morning and then drove to Honolulu to swap the car. We had reserved it thinking that we would depart Tuesday. Keeping the same car on the same contract would cost us double per day. We were to do the swap at 11:00 and we were fine on time except we needed gas we fussed around looking for a station that no longer existed, finally we drove 10 minutes and filled the tank. As I expected, they let us keep the same car, so the fill up was unnecessary. But since we could not be certain of this outcome we had to fill the tank.

We drove over to Waikiki, parked near the Zoo and then walked in to town. We fetched my watch which seems to be working well. Katy wished she had dropped hers. The watches are about 5 years old, we bought them because they have a 24 hour markings and they also have the Indi-glow feature. Press the stem and they light up, very handy at night. A few years ago I started showering with it and wearing it in the steam room. It has been a good and almost constant companion, glad it has a new battery, hope it lasts a few more years.

We got some smoothies Acai and Mango, very nice, but pricy, Hawaii is not a cheap place to visit.

We walked around and popped into the Apple store, my phone case had broken and needed to be replaced. I also needed a new screen protector. The cases at Apple were not quite robust enough, so we went to another store right near by and bought another Otter Box. It came with a screen protector which they put on for me. Happy.

We walked down the main road in Waikiki, nice shops, great weather. At the Hard Rock Cafe we popped in and bought some pins. We texted with Randy Christiansen and asked if he needed a Honolulu pin, he did and we got him a nice one. We purchased pins together in many Hard Rock Cafes throughout Europe on the Mediterranean cruise we went on with them. 

We had a great "linner," at a Japanese Restaurant, we saw several students from BYUH in the line at lunch time, the lines there have been huge each time we past by, by 3:00 there was no line but the seating was still crowded. We got a noodle soup and lots of tempura. Each piece of tempura was sold separately. The soup was only $4.50. It was very good, lots of nice sauces. 

We stopped at a vintage shop on the way out of Honolulu they had a large selection of things we had seen elsewhere, but at a higher price, but it was fun to look.

Wednesday we awoke early and drove down to Hanauma Bay. The dive station told us to get there before 7:00 and we would get free parking and park entry. We missed the 7:00 cut off, we did get free parking but had to pay to get into the park. ($7.50 x 2). From the parking lot is it a steep walk down the hill to the beach, nice asphalt road, which has a little tram, RT for $2.50. We rented the basic snorkel package for $20 ea and took off for the beach. The water was really warm, yet it was still hard for me to get in. I just don't like getting wet. We tried to find a sandy place to wade in, so we did not need to walk on the coral. 

Once in, the snorkel took some getting used to. I would freak out when I would put my face in and breath, it felt so unnatural, which is because it was completely unnatural. Katy was able to stay down first, I took a bit longer and had several abortive attempts. Once I spotted a fish swim by I wanted to stay down, I focused on the fish and my breathing slowed. Then I could start swimming. Breathing through the snorkel makes it very easy to swim slowly across the reef. It was so fun to watch the fish. The coral reef made me feel like I was flying over mountains. Sometimes there was just an inch or so clearance between me and the coral tops. We saw so many different types of fish. mostly bright colored, some more sand color. We saw some long thin ones that may have been eels. Saw box fish and puffer fish, angel fish and schools and scads of others. It was fun. It was a bit hard to keep track of Katy, we were constantly being carried by the waves and tide different directions.

We did not stay that long in the water, I do not take to the water like a fish. It was fun, but I am not hooked.

Back at the BYUH, I picked up the passports and dropped off cookies for the Andersons and the James. They had been great hosts. I was also able to talk to Corbin Thomander. He is currently managing the book store, it is his last week. He turned the place around from losing $300k a year to making $100k in the last year. He made several requests to continue the improvements but got no response until he tendered his resignation. Unfortunate they were not able to keep him on. He has a small surfboard repair business as well as a vacation rental home that will keep him busy. He also wants to go over to Provo and get some tech partners for a app project he wants to do.

Katy washed clothes in the large communal laundromat near the housing office. Once I was home we walked on the beach again, we started at the Temple garden and walked out to the point and back, lots more stuff on the beach this time around. Lots of small floats about 6 inches long, most likely from a fishing net.

The sand is loose, even where it is wet, your foot plunges in deep every step, it is unlike any other beach I've been to. Running on this beach would be such a workout. We went over to the fish taco vendor and paid way too much for a taco meal. The pineapple drink pushed the price substantially. It was similar to the drink we bought at the PCC. It was interesting to see it in the light. There must be a machine to drill out the center of the pineapple and then use the extracted fruit in the smoothie. The removal was clearly by a mechanical device it was scored like a rock core that had been drilled out.

We went and saw the Hobbit that evening. It was so over the top it seemed a bit ridiculous. Example; the Dwarves are being rushed by the Orcs. They establish a shield wall, good move. Then just as the Orcs arrive, a group of dwarves hurtle the wall and take on the Orcs. Who thought that was a good idea, it was not in the book, it is not a winning strategy I have read about, just dumb.

Thursday we drove out to see the Pipeline competition, the web said it was on, but it was not, the waves just were not cooperating. Friday after we left they would complete the tournament with a young Brazilian taking first place. We walked on the beach; I found some nice pocket stones. One was a largish volcanic stone, which had been smoothed by the beach, a second was a bit of white coral also smoothed. The third had been rounded, but was still visibly branch coral. These and many pins will be my keepsakes from the islands.

We went home and finished packing, drove around and dropped off the apartment key and took off for the airport. Some Elders walked by as we were stowing our stuff in the car. They were very nice and helped to carry several of the heavy bags to the car and help to fill the car. We fit two bags in the trunk and four in the rear seat, way too much stuff. We drove back across the island, filled the tank with gas, it surprised me how little gas we used over the weeks here, small island. 

I dropped Katy at the terminal then returned the car and took the rental shuttle back to the airport. It was hard to herd all the bags into the airport. We had to shuffle some of the contents to make the weight work, but they cut us some slack on a few bags which were overweight.