Last Day in Hawaii - Pearl Harbor

DAY 10

 

My last day in Hawai'i!  The one major thing I haven't done yet on O'ahu is visit Pearl Harbor!

 

We arrived at 9:30 and picked up some free tickets to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial.  The earliest time available was 2:30!  (I guess that's why the guidebooks say get here early!)

 

In the meantime, there are several museums to tour, informational stations to educate on WWII, gift shops to browse, and snack bars to taste treats!

 

Tarynn and I also visited Hiroshima together, so I was ready to learn some of the details that led up to the atomic bomb.

 

U.S.S. Bowfin, a submarine/museum you can board for a small fee

 

Boats in the harbor



Check out the rain across the harbor! 

This a classic shower in Hawaii we experienced nearly every day!

Giant anchor from the actual U.S.S. Arizona battleship

Picture of the U.S.S. Arizona in 1941. 

See the 4 anchors at the front of the ship?  This gives you an idea just how big a battleship is!

We learned that many ships were damaged and sunk in Pearl Harbor during the Japanese air raid, but all other vessels were raised after the attack and repaired. 

U.S.S. Arizona was hit by a Japanese torpedo on the ammunition deck, which caused it to blow up!  The fire burned for 3 days in the harbor.  They simply couldn't put it out.  The wrecked ship was left to rest in the same place it sunk.  That's also why there are so many deaths associated to this ship (due to the explosion).  On most of the other vessels, soldiers had the chance to evacuate the damaged ship or even jump into the harbor.  (Other soldiers on land came by in small boats for a rescue effort.)

Replica of the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial.  We are waiting to board a boat and go visit it. 

The white building hovers over the sunken battleship.

On our way to the memorial

Remains from Gun Turret #3



"Black tear drops"

Drops of oil from the sunken U.S.S. Arizona that float to the water's surface.

These drops keep coming up constantly.  All day, every day...

I am completely blown away that even after 70 years since this ship has gone down, there are still remnants of oil that come up to the surface!

 

It floats up like a black ink drop, and when it hits the surface it spreads outward creating a rainbow discoloration. 

View from the memorial. 

The gold building with the green roof is the Aloha Stadium

(where we went to the swap meet earlier this week!)

Inside the memorial room. 

Wall contains all of the names of the fallen service men on the U.S.S. Arizona.

The white rectangle is the memorial building with a diagram of its position over the ship.

Pearl Harbor was a great, educational place to visit. 

It's humbling to learn about World War II and how it affected so many people around the world.

 

So many interesting facts! Such as:

 * 30% of the Hawaiian population was of Japanese descent.  All Japanese folks were rounded up after the attack on Pearl Harbor and sent to "camps" in California.  This means businesses, restaurants, etc. were closed, and many did not return to Hawaii even after the war was over.

 

** The Japanese attack planes were spotted by U.S. military radar on the north shore of the island, but it was not reported since the U.S. was also expecting a new fleet of jets to arrive from California that day.

 

*** All Hawaii residents were required to carry a gas mask with them every where they went after the U.S. entered the war!  There were old photos of kids carrying their books in one hand and their giant gas masks in the other on the way to school.

 

**** Eventually so many men went off to war, that Hawaii did not have enough adults to run the businesses or schools.  Children would report to school, and then they would be taken to the pineapple fields to work all day!  And the children said they couldn't goof off or run away because the teachers who were still around were grading them on their manual labor!

 

After all of the seriousness of war and destruction, I needed one more helping of shave ice.  This time we tried "Ice Garden".

Tarynn got condensed milk, azuki beans, and tapioca balls.  I got rainbow flavor.

It was a "dessert before dinner type of day"!  But we eventually we got hungry enough for dinner.  Still on our list of places to visit was "Genki Sushi"!

It's one of those cool places where everyone sits at the counter, and food passes by on a conveyor belt.  If anything looks yummy, you grab it and eat it!!

 

Go directly to the blog if you want to check out this cool video of all of the sushi going by on the belt.

KG spots one she wants: Fried Shrimp Roll!

Tarynn has many plates to snack on!

 

At the end of the meal, the waitress takes your empty plates and charges you based on the color of the ring around the rim!  Such a simple idea!

I seriously loved this place!  It's a great opportunity to try many types of sushi.  Green bean tempura roll was my favorite!

 

That's where my trip ends...

Time to pack up the souvenirs and hop on the red-eye back to the mainland!

 

Tarynn ~ Thanks so much for my big adventure!  Miss you already :)



Hawaii Day 9 - Kayaking

DAY 9

We go kayaking in Kailua!  

Before we can begin, we must rent the kayaks and transport them to the beach.  Tarynn's friend, Tyler, is our guide on today's adventure, and thankfully he has a truck and some muscles to assist us!

 

Two funny things happen as we were unloading and taking the kayaks down to the water:

1. A car stops and asks me for directions (I must have looked like a local?!) to which I respond flatly "I'm not from around here...". 

Somehow, Tyler and Tarynn find my response to be pretty entertaining!

2. As we make our way to the beach, a lady runs towards us and shouts angrily at me and Tarynn: "DON'T DRAG THOSE!!  You'll put a hole in the bottom." to which I respond snottily "They have wheels...".

You would have thought this lady was the kayak police, but then again if she was so familiar with kayaks she also should have known we had the kind that were designed to be dragged by one end while the other end rolled along the ground. 

 

We finally make it to the water and start paddling. 

Oh yeah, keep in mind that my kayaking experience is limited to the smooth freshwater of Michigan, where you paddle once and then glide along peacefully.  I am not used to this wavy, rough ride of the ocean.  Tarynn and Tyler tell me it is a calm day on the ocean, but I am not seeing this "calmness"!

 

Each time I think I might want to take a rest and stop paddling, I realize that the waves are pushing me back to shore, and then I just have to paddle even more to make up for it. 

 

So where the heck are we headed? 

Mokulua Island, which is pictured in the background of the photo below.  It's pretty far away, and we are in the middle of the ocean.  I finally needed a rest...

 Take note that Tyler is on his paddleboard, and he did this entire trip standing up!!  I would have fallen over within the first 60 seconds!!

 

Here's the same photo opp, only Tarynn and I are showing off the beach we just left. 

It's a good distance...



2 pretty paddlers

Once we got to the island, I was exhausted. 

But there was no rest period lounging around on the sand. 

We decided to climb over some black craggy rocks to get to a secret cove on the other side of the island!

 

We are rewarded with our secret cove!  Tarynn is snorkeling!

 

 I swam to the other side for a great photo!



This makes me look like a real outdoors woman!

(Check out the type of rock behind me that we were climbing over to get here.)

Soon it was time to leave since the tide was coming in, and we didn't want to get trapped on this side of the island! 

 I took a quick dip on the beach side of the island and fretted about our tough kayak trip back. 

(See the land behind me, that's where we are headed... It's far.)

Tarynn and Tyler assured me that kayaking back to O'ahu was much easier than leaving it since you are going with the waves this time.  It was still quite a work out for me.  My shoulders felt knotted and my arms burned from all that exercise!

 

All of that activity really helped me work up on appetite!! 

After the kayaks were cleaned and returned, we had earned ourselves some "Fat Boy" for lunch!

I love that restaurant name and would have eaten pretty much anything at that point, but to my surprise, they had one of my Japanese favorites: chicken katsu. 

 

I slathered my chicken with the barbeque-style sauce in those little cups, and it brought back plenty of taste bud memories!

Tomorrow's the last day of my Hawaii trip, so I thought I'd share a few extra special Hawaiian tidbits before we reach the end.

 

I learned plenty of new words on this trip!  So many things in Hawaiian that I was clueless about before I got there, and even some new nuggets of information on the basics.  For example, did you know:

"Aloha" means 'hello', 'goodbye', and 'love'?

"Mahalo" means 'thank you' and 'until we meet again'?

So many meanings... it can get confusing!

 

But my favorite is "humuhumunukunukuapua'a", which means 'state fish of Hawaii'. 

(See below for the explanation!)

I practiced all week and finally have it down.  It's officially the longest word I know since it is 16 syllables!!

And finally since toilets were one of my favorite blog topics in Japan, they deserve some recognition here!

The signs for toilets all over Hawaii are simply adorable! 

Women are usually wearing a muumuu dress and lei.

Men are wearing aloha shirts and kukui beads!! 

(Never have I been so amused with bathroom signs!)

 

Tune in tomorrow when I wrap up the 10th day of my trip!

Hawaii Day 8 - Bicycle Bar Crawl

DAY 8

 

My only day to sleep in!  We awoke with no alarms and just had to make sure we checked out of the hotel by the appropriate time.

 

For the rest of the morning, we went in search of souvenirs by shopping on the Waikiki strip and the Aloha Stadium Swap Meet! 

Aloha Stadium (where the University of Hawaii football team plays) hosts this giant event each weekend and is like a flea market.  Lots of typical stuff, like t-shirts, watches, or aloha wear! 

Tarynn and I each snagged some good deals! 

(Well, okay, it was mostly me doing all of the buying!)

 

Part of lunch was this small handheld "manapua" pictured below.  Manapua is a steamed dumpling filled with yumminess and can be found at many places around Honolulu (including 7-11).  I had several varieties during my stay including spicy kimchee, sweet potato, and this one is pizza!

The real action for Day 8, was the anticipation for Paradise Pedal's Bicycle Bar Crawl!

We discovered this place through Groupon, and I love any reason to visit several bars at a time!

Here is the front of our 12-person bike.

 

There is no engine or power on this machine besides our foot pedals.  We went out in traffic with all of the other cars on the road.  The group had to work hard to get it moving, and then come to a complete stop at traffic signals.

 

View from the back. 

Kerri and Tarynn select their seats and hydrate before the ride begins!!

 

We pedal and away, and the first bar was "REAL a gastropub".  They specialized in what appeared to be bacon-garnished drinks!  "Beer cocktails" were served with a hunk of crispy bacon and lime on a toothpick.  If you ordered their version of the Bloody Mary, you even got a slice of bacon as a stirrer, instead of celery!  Some drinks even had bacon crumbled on top!  What an amazing coincidence that I love bacon!!

 

Back on the bike we had to pedal to the second bar, which was a Korean karaoke bar named... 

That's right... Café Duck Butt!

 

We got the special drink, watermelon soju. 

It's served in a half watermelon, and at $31 each it is best shared by the entire table!

 This is how you finish it off!

 

Then we moved on to Korean beer instead.  It was served in 1.6 liter bottle for a steal at $7 each.

Two bars down and that giant bicycle was getting tougher to move. 

Or maybe we were getting lazier...

 

Our driver steers the rig, gives us speed up/slow down directions based on traffic, and works the brake. 

Here we are all pedaling hard!

Third and final stop was Hibiscus Bar, where we sampled some pineapple upside down cake shots, and I found a cool Heineken bar sign!  I love the outline of all of the Hawaiian islands!

 

The bars are done, we've had our fun, and now we had to head back to the bicycle parking place at the marina. 

This was such a silly time.  Cars slowed down to take our picture; pedestrians shouted encouraging things to us!!  We also loved meeting all of the folks riding around with us.  There was a good mix of tourists and locals.  Next time you see a giant bike, hop on and make some new friends!!

 

Silly photo booth action at the end of the night!

(Just another thing to remind us of Japan... we spent some yen on these while living in Nagoya!)

Hawaii Day 7 - Parasailing

DAY 7

 

Let's go parasailing!  Here we are in the boat getting ready to go!

I find this worker's shirt endlessly funny...

"In Most States Getting This High Is A Felony."

Clipped in and ready to go! 

I don't remember being scared, but my face looks a little skeptical in this picture!  LOL

Up, up, and away!

500 feet above the Pacific Ocean!

KG and Tarynn enjoying the ride and views of Honolulu

Bird's eye view from the sky!  With Diamond Head in the background!!

Flying high

View of Waikiki

 

The water in this photo looks so close, but I promise it's not!!

After our adventure over the ocean, we decided to stick with the water theme, and hang out on Waikiki Beach for the afternoon.



 Relaxing, swimming, and searching for some shade!

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped by with a photo opportunity with Duke Kahanamoku.  He's a Waikiki surfing legend and Olympic swimmer.  Folks drape leis over the statue each day to honor him.

I didn't know this at the time, but there is a webcam watching the statue at all times, allowing visitors from around the world to wave to their friends.  Check it out here!

For a fancy dinner, we made reservations at the Oceanarium,

which features a scrumptious buffet and a 3-story aquarium in the dining room.

 

The food was quite a spread.  (We fasted all afternoon to make sure we were extra hungry!) 

I enjoyed the tempura, pasta bar, and prime rib. 

Tarynn's favorite was the dessert bar, with over 20 choices, including her first chocolate fountain!

 

While eating a diver comes out to do a quick show with the sting ray and the over 400 fish! 

Then comes the mermaid!! 

Hence, why we needed reservations... People go crazy for this mermaid show. 

It was pretty awesome. 

 

It never occurred to me how she might breath underwater, but every 30 seconds or so, she would swim to the side out of view and take a hit from the oxygen tank!

After dinner we went bowling with Tarynn's friends. 

I didn't take any photos, because um... most KG fans have seen me bowl before!!