Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Hawaii...Day 6

As I sit and watch the absolute blizzard outside (um, it's May 18th, hello!) I am dreaming of being back in Hawaii!  Oh well, this will have to do...

Day 6 (Thursday, not that anyone is keeping track) is the day that Abi & John took a flight over to the Big Island to check out the volcanoes. Cory and I had a nice day bumming around and seeing some cool sights. After dropping Abi & John off at the airport bright & early, we headed over to Hanauma Bay.

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This time we had to pay, but it was well worth it! Almost immediately after we got into the water to start snorkeling, a HUGE eel swam out right past us. I saw it first, but Cory was busy looking at other fish, so when he turned around he screamed (well, as well as he could scream with a snorkel in his mouth!) as it snaked right past his hand.

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 Luckily, the camera was on and he was able to snap a quick, though murky, picture as it slithered away. Did I mention Cory HATES all snakes & snake-like creatures? It was a pretty exciting way to start off the day! A bit later, I came upon a Sea Turtle (Honu!) and though I tried desperately to get Cory's attention, he was too fixated on other fish to see the turtle. So, no picture, but I have my memories, right? We did get a lot of pictures of beautiful fish and some great videos as well.

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Awww, how cute are we? Um, pretty scary actually!

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ORANGE SHOULDER TANG

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SCHOOL OF THREADFIN BUTTERFLYS (the yellow & white ones) AND ASSORTED TANGS

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DUSSUMIERI TANG

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MOORISH IDOL (Shark Bait, whoo, ha, ha!)

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NASO TANG (one of my favorites)

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SARA FISH!
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TRUMPFISH
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MUSTARD TANG

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SPOTTED PUFFER FISH

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RINGTAIL AND CONVICT TANGS

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HUMUHUMUNUKUNUKUAPUA'A (Hawaii's state fish, AKA Picasso Trigger)

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ORNATE BUTTERFLY

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JUVENILE DRAGON WRASSE

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NEEDLEFISH

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CORY FISH!

When we had worn ourselves out snorkeling, we ate lunch at Hanauma. There were two darling little red cardinals that sat on our picnic table and "begged" for food. They were pretty cute until they started trying to take the entire bag of chips away! We were also quickly surrounded by assorted "Jungle Fowl" hoping to catch some crumbs as well.

After lunch, we took a short drive up the road to Halona Blowhole:

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It is a pretty cool place and the waves were crashing like crazy. As an added bonus, we got to watch a couple of whales playing around!

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They were pretty far out so these pictures are zoomed & cropped a lot. But, it was still really cool to see whales!

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We drove a bit farther up the road to Makapu'u Point. There is a cool lighthouse there, but we decided not to hike to it.  This is a view of Rabbit Island from Makapu'u Point.

Next, we took a scenic drive up to Pali Lookout.  I wish I had taken pictures of the drive. It was like driving through a jungle. The trees were dripping with moss and everything was so lush! When we got up to the lookout, there was a guy who looked like a bum, sitting in the parking lot. We thought, we better make sure our car is locked, just in case.  Actually, the guy turned out to be the parking "attendant" making sure that everyone paid the $3 to park at the lookout. Haha!
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The view was amazing. You could see nearly the whole island from up there! I think we headed back to the house after that to rest and relax until it was time to pick up Abi & John.  We stopped in Haliewa for some dinner at Pizza Bob's (I swear, half the businesses in Hawaii have the name Bob in the title) and then off to the airport.

It was a relaxing day with lots of beautiful things to see!

Friday, April 29, 2011

Hawaii...Day 5

TONS of pictures today!!
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We headed out to Pearl Harbor Wednesday morning. This is a picture of the USS Arizona memorial (the white building) from the shore.

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While we were waiting for our turn to go to the USS Arizona, we took a tour of the USS Bowfin Submarine. It was pretty neat to see all the old instruments and such.

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I also realized I could NEVER live on a submarine. I was almost getting claustrophobic just walking through! Can you imagine living & sleeping like this for months at a time?

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Missile Launchers

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Ready, Aim, Fire!!

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After the submarine tour, we headed into the sub museum to kill a little more time. This is a model of the USS Bowfin. (John, not included)

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I thought the flags were kind of cool.  Each sub had a flag like this one depicting how many enemy ships they had taken down.

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I can't believe they used to wear these diving suits! Luckily it wouldn't weigh as much underwater. 
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Next, we took a ferry out to the USS Arizona Memorial. The memorial is built right over the top of the sunken ship.

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You can still see the oil leaking out from the ship. They estimate that there are still 500,000 gallons of oil in the ship. It leaks at a rate of 2 gal. per day.

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It was a sobering feeling to see all the names of those who were killed on this ship. On the bottom left-hand corner there is a small memorial with names of survivors of Pearl Harbor who have chosen to be interred with their shipmates. The guide said that those who wish to be interred will be cremated, and then divers will take the urn down and deposit it through a small crack into the ship. Wow.

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Our last stop at Pearl Harbor was the USS Missouri. This ship was HUGE! I believe it was one of the last US battleships in operation.

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It was also where the documents were signed ending WWII

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On our way back home, we decided to take a detour to the Byodo In Temple grounds. It was such a gorgeous, serene place.

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The grounds were beautiful.

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Buddha. The temple is still used for worship.

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The koi ponds were amazing. The fish were GIGANTIC!

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It was a lovely day with a lot of neat sights to see.

Hawaii...Day 4

Tuesday started out with a lovely trip to the newly renovated Laie Temple.


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The view from the front of the temple is amazing. Do you see the ocean out there? Pretty awesome!
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These flowers on the temple grounds were beautiful & GIGANTIC!

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Next up, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center. Despite all the rave reviews we had heard from people, we were pretty underwhelmed by the whole thing. The Canoe Show was fun, but like Abi said, it did feel very much like "Polynesian Disneyland" (without the rides). If we were to go back to Oahu, I think we would skip the PCC and spend our time/money on more worthwhile activities.
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Canoe Show: Hawaii


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Tonga

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Tahiti

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Aotearoa (the Maori people of New Zealand)


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Samoa

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Fiji

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Hawaiian Royalty

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Here we are at the Luau trying not to laugh out loud at how ridiculously cheesy the whole thing was. The show was very "Vegas", the food was mediocre at best, but the leis were pretty...

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Pucker up!

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Double smooch!

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"Dum-Dum, give me gum-gum!!"

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Just like Disneyland or Lagoon, they insist on taking your picture when you enter the park & when you enter the luau. Rather than spend the $20 to purchase the printed picture, we asked a nice lady to take our picture with our own camera. True we don't have the lovely costumed park workers in the picture with us, but I think we will be alright!
After the luau we went to the night show, which was pretty good. It was a long day, and we were exhausted when we got home. We were grateful that we weren't staying in Honolulu, an hour away. Instead, the house we were in was about 10 minutes from the Temple and the PCC.