The Lawther Life: Day 3 – An Aloha Anniversary

Day 3- Pearl Harbor & Waikiki.

One of the main reasons we stayed on Oahu was so that we could go to Pearl Harbor. My hubby is a HUGE history buff and this was at the top of both our lists. Waikiki, not really. I’ve been and it’s nice, but it doesn’t give you the feeling of relaxation… gives you a feeling of go, go, go… we get enough of that in Texas.

So we started the day early. All the guide books say that you have to get to Pearl Harbor early. It’s always jammed packed with people and it’s free, big deal in the most expensive travel destination EVER. We got there after a gorgeous drive (about an hour, but I swear I would love to make it every day) got really lucky with a parking spot and entered the monument.

We were immediately greeted by a really long line. We got there at 8am!! What time did these people get up? After a few minutes, and my wonderful people skills, we were told, yes that is the line to get on the boat to go to the Arizona. The shorter line is to go to the Battle Ship Missouri, the Air Force Museum & the Bowfin Submarine (that all cost money). And yes, if we wanted to go to the Arizona we had to get in that line to get a time to come back to catch the boat…. WAIT A MINUTE.

We just drove an hour from our gorgeous, green, turquoise, secluded hotel to basically a big city by the water and had no intention on hanging out there all day. Waikiki is great for most people, but my husband doesn’t really like, well, people. I call him a “hermit”, he calls it “ being selective”….

Whatever, we get in the line, what’s the worst that could happen? We decide to split up, Kev takes the “smaller” line to see how much it costs to see the other planes, boats & subs, while I wait in the really long line. Outside in the gorgeous overcast…. and it starts to rain. I have nothing to cover my head with because you aren’t allowed to have bags in the monument area.

?????

I don’t know, but I knew that a head of time, so I left my little travel purse safely double locked in the jeep. Anyway, it only rained for a minute or so, but I was starting to feel like the fates were against us. Surely people would get out of line to get out of the rain?? No such luck. Kev came back to stand in line with me because he had already purchased our tickets to the other things. Finally we were at the front of the line and we got our time stamped tickets:

1:00pm

So, since I have such a sensible hubby, he suggests that we go to the battleship and the air force museum to kill time. It was 9am…. Yes, we waited in line for an hour. I was a little worried about the all the people behind us because they stop going over to the Arizona at like 4pm… we got there at 8am… wonder what would of happened if we had gotten there at 10am…

So we went to find the bus to take us to the USS Missouri.

The Arizona Memorial from the dock of the USS Missouri:

We picked up our audio tour, have I mentioned how big they are on audio tours? These audio tours were iPods. Yes, iPods. Who could say no to an iPod touch!

Where they signed the treaty to end the war. Who signed it? uhhh, the countries in the War, duh.

We got to go inside! So cool!

mess hall:

Library:

Bunks:

They stored everything under their mattress. I wouldn’t have survived. I am worse than the Princess and the Pea:

Kev in the Officer’s Lounge":

to go down even lower in the ship… too bad it was blocked off:

I thought this was hilarious, look closely, it’s called the “Old Fart Cart” :)

On to the Air Force Museum. Kev had been talking about it since before we ever got on the plane to Hawaii. He kept telling me to conserve the camera because he wanted to take so many pictures there. I, uh, didn’t listen. I thought I would just erase pictures if we needed more space.

DSCN0587

Well, Kev was like a kid in a candy store. Took the camera from me and started snapping pictures:

and then… my camera died. I felt HORRIBLE! It’s a new camera and I didn’t charge it the night before. All the cameras I have had in the past have all used AA batteries. I didn’t even think about it. Kev tried to play it off, but I could tell he was disappointed. But I think he was more disappointed in the museum itself. It only had a few planes in it. We were both bummed and HUNGRY! We didn’t eat breakfast in an effort to get to Pearl Harbor early and it was now close to 10:30am. So I think we were both being pretty dramatic due to hunger… that and we are both dramatic people. So dramatic it didn’t occur to either of us to use our camera phones….

So we ate to kill time and caught the bus back to the main area. We were still pretty early for our boat, but we still had the submarine to see. All I can say is Thank God for the Bowfin. Watching Kevin tour a submarine was hilarious. With his long legs and my short ones, the port holes were comical to say the least. We opted out of the audio tour, to which the woman looked at us like we were crazy, “You don’t want the audio tour? Really, Well at least take a pamphlet.” The people behind us didn’t want an audio tour either and the woman was starting to look offended. I mean it’s a submarine, you can’t get lost.

While we were waiting in line, it dawned on me that I could use my phone to take pictures:

As Kev made his way through the “port hole” the lady behind me said, “They really didn’t make this thing with him in mind…”

and thank God he was there to help me through… My legs weren’t long enough and I had to do a little hop shift. There were about 6 of these total. So funny.

This is a model of the submarine:

They took our picture before we got on the Bowfin and printed it on a replica of the newspaper from the day after Pearl Harbor was attacked. I thought it was really cool so we bought it. The Headline reads: “Oahu Under Attack” with a picture of Kev’s and my smiling faces underneath.

After the Bowfin tour and museum, and a 30 minute video that they only start when asked about it… yah, I asked about it… before we knew it, it was noon. We were done killing time. Don’t get me wrong, we were having a great time…. minus the Air force Museum. But we were supposed to get there 30 minutes early anyway to be briefed on how to behave. So we went extra early. And watched as others boarded the boat, politely waiting our turn. It started raining so we got under the tent on the right side. The wind was better blocked over there…. and we waited. We talked, well I talked to the people around us, a little girl named Alyssa was crying…. she was adorable. :) She needed her diaper changed and her Mom was flustered because she couldn’t have a diaper bag due to the NO BAGS law. She said, “What do they think I am going to with my diaper bag?” Her husband said, “hide a gun?”

Finally it was our turn, and wouldn’t ya know it, they lined everyone up on the left side of the tent, I have never seen a line form that fast. Reminded me of Father of the Bride… and Kev and I found ourselves at the very back of that line. We looked at each other and started chuckling. Such is life… No big, the boat was big enough and we were finally on our way to the USS Arizona Memorial. It was so peaceful.

They had a hole cut out where you could look down at the ship. Someone looked down and their sunglasses and now part of the memorial:

All in all, it was a great morning. Finally making to the Memorial put all the little annoyances of every day life in perspective. These men died for my freedom, so what if I had to wait a few hours in the rain to get there.

Kev decided to brave Waikiki for a little longer as we headed to find the Aquarium. Kev and I are really predictable on vacations. If there is an Air force museum, or an aquarium, we are gonna find it.

Well, we found the Waikiki Aquarium, right on Waikiki Beach. But a parking spot, that we could not find… After a few (15 minutes) of driving around we found one, about a 1o minute walk away. No big. So we start our trek and I have a huge moment of De’ja vu.

The only other time I have ever been to Hawaii was when I was 15 years old. I made the NCA All-American Cheerleading team and was invited to cheer the Aloha Bowl Half-time on Christmas Day. My family came with me. I made some great memories. We stayed at one of the hotels on Waikiki with all the other cheerleaders. After the Aloha Bowl, my parents took my brother and me to Maui. We stayed at the Four Seasons. My Mom didn’t want me to get all the way to Hawaii and think it was all one big city. I LOVE MY PARENTS!! oh, wow, I am off track… well, the de’ja vu was because every morning, all the cheerleaders, like 500 of us, would meet in the lobby and walk to a near by park to practice for our performance…

Kev and I just happened to be walking through that park: (LOVE IT WHEN THINGS COME FULL CIRCLE)

The Aquarium wasn’t really anything spectacular. I really thought it would be, it’s Hawaii!! But we found out later the big one was called the Sea Life Marina or something like that… anyway, we picked up the audio tour (done offending people today) and walked around.

After about 15 minutes we saw the whole thing. Good thing it only cost $5 to get in. That should have been our clue. Nothing is cheap in Hawaii.

We drove back to the hotel. We had dinner to celebrate our Anniversary at the Hotel’s 5 star Restaurant “21 North”. It was the best meal I have ever had. We had wine paired with each course… It was amazing.

This picture is from the resorts website. My little camera was dead and my big one didn’t go with my outfit: