Hawaii

This week I am relaxing in Hawaii. Wow. It is really hot here and some of my pictures show it. Like this one. We went to the USS Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri battle ship on Tuesday. We had to navigate the construction going on because they are rebuilding the visitor's center. So we went to get our tickets to see the memorial and walked to the present visitor's center. While there we saw a really interesting movie about what happened at Pearl Harbor. We are staying on the north side of the island where the radar station is that picked up the 350 planes and they reported it but the guy they reported it to didn't believe that the Japanese were attacking until it was too late. We can see that radar station from our hotel.

Kerry and I like to listen to the narrative so that is what we were doing when we took this picture. In the background you can see the memorial and the battleship behind it. We had to wait a little bit to get on the boat to go out to the memorial. We were told that there are 900 people buried there still and that it is a grave. Most of the boats were raised from the harbor during the war except for two. The USS Arizona was one of them. It was too damaged to raise, but the guns were reused on another boat. That is why there is a hole where the guns were.

We took some pictures of the memorial while we were there. This is one of the important things on my list to do while we were in Hawaii. I have wanted to visit this memorial for years. My grandfather Derrick was a journalist and his job was to sit at the teletype when he worked for the Associated Press in 1941. On December 7, 1941 he was sitting at the teletype when the news came from Hawaii that Pearl Harbor had been bombed. He sent the news to the rest of the United States. He was featured on one of the news blurbs they used to show at the beginning of the movies at that time. I thought that was cool.

Here I am standing in the deck of the USS Missouri. This battleship is an important American icon because it is where WWII ended. The narrative explained that FDR chose this boat because it was christened by his daughter and he actually had lunch on this boat. He was also was a Senator from Missouri and was born in Missouri. There is actually a plaque where the treaty was signed and a reproduction of the treaty.

Here is a copy of the treaty. And a picture of the place where WWII ended. Okay. So I'm a history enthusiast and really enjoy looking at historical things.

The ship is also a museum. One interesting thing they showed was that the ship was subject to many kamikazi attacks. Usually the planes were shot down before they hit the boat. But one plane succeeded in hitting the ship and the pilot was killed. When they were examining the plane they found out that the Japanese were using the Firestone tires that the US had sold to them to build their planes. Another interesting thing that was brought out during our visit to the memorials is that Japan attacked Pearl Harbor to disable the US Navy so they would not prevent Japan from taking over the Pacific area and Southeast Asia. They were mad because the US refused to sell them oil.

I had to try being the captain on the ship so here I am in the captain's chair.

After we visited these famous landmarks we had to visit another one that Kerry wanted to do. He loves Jimmy Buffet and so we had to have a cheeseburger at the "Cheeseburger in Paradise" restaurant in Waikiki beach. Going to the beach was an interesting experience and Kerry and I have decided that we love where we are staying better. There are a lot of hotels and people that are on the beach and much less on the north side of the island.

Yesterday we spent our time going to the Bishop Museum. Mrs. Bishop was actually an Hawaiian Princess who wanted to showcase her culture. We took a tour about the botany of Hawaii and then saw a volcano demonstration. We had a quiet relaxing time in the planetarium (We both fell asleep). Afterwards we went to the Aquarium off Waikiki Beach that is run by the University of Hawaii. Then we were off to Chinatown where I got my lei.

I really think Hawaii is a cool place. I especially love all the flowers. So yesterday Kerry took me to Chinatown and bought me a lei. I always imagined that when I got off the plane in Hawaii that I would be greeted with a lei around my neck and someone kissing me. Well that is what Kerry did when he bought me the lei. He put it around my neck and gave me a big smack on the lips.

Today we went to a ranch on the eastern part of the island where many movies were filmed. First of all I was able to get Kerry on a horse and we took a ride through the jungle. My horse was named Dog. Kerry had the biggest horse which was sweating bullets the whole time. I rode behind him and Dog would slow down a lot. Kerry's horse did not like the horse that our guide was riding and so she had to yell at him because he was making a fuss. Here I am standing in front of the famous tree where the kids hide in Jurassic Park when the dinosaurs were after them.

When we got back I went snorkeling in the bay in front of our room. It was really cool to see all the beautiful tropical fish on the reef and to see the sealife so close.