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31 May 2011

Day 3 - Pearl Harbor

Monday we decided would be the day we would visit Pearl Harbor.

Since we didn't rent a car we rode TheBus. It was less than $10 each way for all four of us. And it took us an hour and a half each way, but it allowed us to just sit back, relax, and see the sites and not worry about traffic.

I don't know if it is the tourists or the residents, but drivers in Honolulu (not sure about the rest of Oahu) were freakin looney! We saw quite a few accidents, more near accidents, many red lights being ran, pedistrians nearly getting hit. There was once we started across the street (with the signal at a crosswalk) and then Robert grabbed me and pulled me back a step as a red car came zooming right in front of me. The car ran the red light, and not just a little. It had been red for quite a bit and he was going fast.

Anyways, back to Pearl Harbor. There are quite a few photos so with minimal words...

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Learning about the torpedos.  I've been getting a lot of "looks" and comments when people find/found out we pulled the kids out of school for a week to go to Hawaii.  So yes, we did.  The school year is almost over, they both do really well in school, I had their teachers hold their homework (which they have already made up today after school), and they learned a lot some of which they learned at Pearl Harbor.
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Very large anchor.
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Going up into the command center of a submarine
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Oohh, what do these switches do?
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Daddy getting in on the fun.
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Meanwhile I'm fascinated by the flowers in Hawaii. I LOVED these trees with these flowers!
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Ooh, big gun!
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Happy hubby. No Robert, you can't have one of your own.
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Carus manning the other gun.
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Adam's turn.
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The type of gun it was and the stats on it.

144/365 - Family photo courtesy of a bench and the camera's self timer.
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Carus with one of those flowers in her hair.  (What kind of tree/flower where these?)
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Retired submarine that you can go aboard and check out (for like $30 per person for a guided tour, we did not do the tour).
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Another gun, actually I think this one is a missile launcher.
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Miniature of the U.S.S. Arizona.  In this little museum there was a video about what happened December 7, 1941 and after watching it Carus asked (with tears in her eyes) "Why did they attack us?" The video didn't really explain and my explanations weren't enough to satisfy her. Thankfully the video they showed before the ferry ride out to the sunken ship explained it further and answered her questions. 
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Adam on the ferry ride out to the U.S.S. Arizona.
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Carus on the ferry out to the U.S.S. Arizona.
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U.S.S. Missouri. We also did not visit this one - but we should have. Excuse to go back, right?
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Sunken ship
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Sunken ship
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"To the Memory of the Gallant Men Here Entombed and Their Shipmates Who Gave Their Lives in Action December 7, 1941 on the U.S.S. Arizona."
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Wall of names.
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Adam and Carus in front of the wall of names.
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Ferry ride back.
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Our Navy drivers.
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The other ferry.
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Pearl Harbor - Just can't find the right word to describe our visit. I'm so glad we went, so glad we taught our kids about such a monumental moment in our country's history...

30 May 2011

Day 2

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Sunrise breakfast on the lanai.

143/365 - Rainbow over the beach.
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I have a coworker, Rhonda, who lives on Oahu and she came into Honolulu to pick us up for a little mini tour and to have dinner at her house. We had only spoke through email, instant messaging, and on the phone for work and hadn't had to meet face to face before - it was nice to put a face to the text. She took us around to a couple beaches, one looked like it had a surfing competition going on. It was so crowded we didn't get out, but we watched a few surfers ride and watched a lot crash and then moved on.

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She showed us Honomanu bay.

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Snorkelers on Honomanu bay. I love my zoom lens!

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And the kids went swimming in Rhonda's pool.

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Not a great picture of me...but see, I was there too!

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Jumping in.

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Splash!

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Carus's mini jump, she doesn't jump big.

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Adam looks like a turtle.

After that I put the camera away and talked with Rhonda, her husband and her kids. They are all so nice and funny and pretty much all around awesome. They made steak, swordfish, chicken, potatoes, and salad for dinner and it was all soooo good. It was the first time we had swordfish and we all liked it so it was decided to add it onto our menu rotation.

Rhonda took us back to Honolulu after dinner and since it was pretty late we headed to bed.

Next up - the trip to Pearl Harbor.

29 May 2011

First day in Hawaii

I took about 1000 photos during our week in Hawaii! Not all of them are good or shareable but there are a lot that are so I will try to do one day a post, or whatever...

Here's day 1 in Hawaii:

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At PDX (Portland International Airport) to catch our flight to Hawaii!

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On the plane...

5-1/2 hours later...

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Adam and Carus in the taxi IN Hawaii.

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Heh, found it amusing. Follow that "party"!

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Well, Aloha to you too!

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Our hotel tower.

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Waterfall in the hotel lobby....

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....with a koi fish pond. (I want one!)

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Our hotel room. (not pictured is the little kitchen and bathroom)
When we arrived, they asked if it was our first time visiting and when we said yes they offered us a room upgrade at a discount. I'm glad we did because we got an amazing view with the upgrade, but wouldn't have done it for just the room which was really outdated and the beds were VERY uncomfortable.

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View from the lanai.

142/365 - Pointing out things
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More of the view from the lanai (eastern view).

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Lanai view of Diamondhead.

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View from kitchen window of Waikiki beach (might possibly be Kuhio beach, but I think it is Waikiki beach).

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Look at all the surfers!

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Eastern lanai view just after sunset before it gets completely dark...

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and Diamondhead...

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and Waikiki beach...

After we got checked into the hotel, we emptied out one of the backpacks and found a Safeway to stock up on groceries in the hopes of saving some money instead of eating out the whole time. Safeway was about 1-3/4 miles from the hotel and because we started out going the wrong direction before we pulled out the GPS on Robert's cell phone and took a wrong turn on the way back, we ended up walking probably close to 5 miles. We got stuff for breakfast and for lunches with the thoughts of just eating out for dinner. And we walked because we decided not to rent a car, for two reasons: 1) save money for the cost of renting, the cost of gas, and the cost of parking (which is outrageous) and 2) so Robert could actually relax on vacation instead of trying to figure out where he is, where he is going, and traffic stresses. It worked out great! We got to see a lot, got a lot of walking in (which is good for you), and didn't have to pay for parking ($20 in most places).

After shopping we headed down to the pool to cool off. We left Oregon with temps in the 60s and during our entire stay in Hawaii, the temps were in the 80s all day with highs around 87-88 degrees.

Aloha until...tomorrow maybe?

All these pics, and more, are in my Flickr photostream.

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