Day 3: Pearl Harbor

*It's rotating some of my pictures again, sorry*

An even earlier start today; it's barely 5:30 when we stumble out of bed and into the car.

Pearl Harbor is supposedly approximately 45 minutes from Waikiki, but I hadn't taken into account us staying near the west end so we pull into the parking lot twenty minutes after 6. Oops!

There's only one family in line in front of us, so we end up with tickets for the 8am tour. With an hour to kill we decide to purchase the audio tour, which turns out to be a great idea! It's narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis as well as historians and survivors of the attack.

We're 4833 miles from home!

The USS Arizona Memorial is a long white structure placed directly over the sunken ship.

You can still see parts of the ship above and below water.

Even after all these years oil still rises to the surface, at about 2 gallons a day. About 500,000 gallons remain trapped inside.

The weather over the mountains is quite ominous.

The memorial at the end has the names of all the people who died on the USS Arizona that day.

When the next shuttle boat arrives we decide to head back; it's getting crowded!

In addition to the Arizona there are several other points of interest, like the USS Bowfin and the Missouri, but after 3,5 hours of solemn history it's time to change things up a bit.

It's a short drive to the Aloha Stadium where the Swap Meet is a held; a large open air market where local vendors sell everything from touristy trinkets to toe nail clippers.

I remember telling Sandy that "I'm not really in the mood to buy anything," but of course by the time we're walking back to the car I've bought a new dress, a authentic Hawaiian license plate, a fridge magnet and a miniature hand carved surfboard featuring a map of the Hawaiian islands. Yeah, so much for that!

Body bags! Hahaha

All we had for breakfast was some yoghurt and a bar, so we end up picking up a piece of Hawaiian bread stuffed with meat and cheese and a container with freshly cut fruit. Wow! Both amazing value for the money, especially the fruit ... I'd heard fresh fruit was expensive but we paid only $6 something for a large bowl filled with everything from banana to coconut, to passion fruit and guava.

We make a quick stop (not counting the torturously slow elevator) at the hotel, then drive to Punchbowl, National Cemetery of the Pacific.

The main statue

It's a very peaceful place with beautiful trees lining the street to the memorial.

As an extra bonus the view from the Memorial Walk is fantastic!

Quick picture of the car before I forget we have to trade it in

We didn't make any plans for today, but because the sky is so clear we decide to tackle Tantalus Drive/ Round Top ... a beautiful twisting and turning road 1600 feet up the mountain.

But first a new crazy caution sign: Watch out, see-saw!

The plants here are so different, at times it looks like a tropical jungle complete with vines and bamboo forests.

Along the way we stop at Pu'u something or other Wayside Park. The view here is even more amazing than from Punchbowl! It's so high up and you can see all the way to the airport on one side and the mountains on the other.

The drive down Round Top is 10x easier and shorter than Tantulus Road ... we're both a little dazed when we suddenly find ourselves back in the hustle of Waikiki.

We'd talked about going to Chinatown for dinner, but suddenly I just MUST go snorkeling so even though Waikiki is terrible for snorkeling we walk back over to the Hilton.

The water isn't very clear and there's no coral to speak of, so of course the fish are also lacking, but I do spot one really cute one that I will call "the hamster fish" for now.

After a while I give up and join Sandy on the beach. They're playing live music again at the bar, yay! So relaxing! The sun is getting low so we decide to wait it out, but brrrrr I feel so cold and I just can't seem to warm up.

As soon as the sun goes down we start heading back to the hotel. I guess thinking about going to Chinatown earlier has made up my mind that I want Chinese for dinner, but other than the China Buffet there's not really a place we know of.

Luckily the man at the information stand knows of a place; the Fook Yu restaurant. Amazingly both of us manage not to burst out laughing hahaha.

As tempting as it is to eat at a place with a name like that, the reviews on Tripadvisor are a little iffy so we go to the Ala Moana Mall food court. There are so many options it's hard to choose .... especially as some are written in Chinese only lol.

In the end we decide on the Hibachi-SAN grill, where Sandy gets garlic shrimp with rice and I find terriyaki chicken and steak (was supposed to be shrimp, but oh well) in my container. We also have one ball of Moshi ice cream each. Hmmm now that's good! I got a bar of guava moshi at one of the other places as well so it'll be interesting to try that tomorrow. It's soft and squishy and feels like something that's not meant for human consumption, but we shall see.

Of course, our last night in Waikiki would not be complete without another visit to our beloved ABC Store (found out today it's actually a ABC Suprette) to pick up breakfast for tomorrow. Also got a new drink called Allure; aloe, mangosteen and mango juice with little fruit bits. Different, but good!

And yes, I do have a camera with me, but unfortunately I just haven't had the time. Hopefully I can work on it tomorrow while we're waiting for our flight. Have to get up at 5:30 again (ugh) so we can make the 0830 flight to Hilo.

Night!