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!

Day 2: the North Shore

The sun is just peeking behind the mountains when the alarm goes off at 0630. After some snoozing, some more snoozing and a little reorganizing we walk to the Hilton to see the penguins.

They have 8 African blackfoot penguins sharing an encloser with little turtles. After watching them play for a while Lisa, one of their caregivers, comes to give a short presentation about the penguins. During the presentation she picks up one of the penguins and sets it on the ledge with her.

She tells us Icarus imprinted on people as a baby and that's why she doesn't act like a normal penguin; she won't bond with another penguin, but she enjoys being around people.

Then, something totally unexpected; we get to pet her! Sandy LOVES penguins so she is super excited

And for those of you wondering .... penguins are surprisingly soft!

Then it's feeding time and everyone crowds around to get some.

Next up, the turtles; Lisa hands out little pellets that we get to throw in the water for them, but the turtles being turtles are slow to get going so the fish end up with a belly full of turtle food as well.

One of the turtles scaling a waterfall ... that was actually quite impressive. I kept waiting for him to tumble down, but he made it to the top without incident.

It's still early so we take a quick peak at Waikiki Beach in the morning light -- much quieter now.
After our outrageously expensive dinner we choose a more economical option for breakfast; an all you can eat buffet for $7.95. It was ... eh ... pretty scary! But cheap haha. I wonder if there's some logic to this? Like, you get what you pay for?
Marina seen from the room (although heavily cropped - there are two big highrises flanking it)

Today we're exploring the North Shore. We follow H1 to H2, onto Kamehameha Hwy and the scenery is along the way is pretty amazing.

Welcome to Hale'iwa!

Thanks to Groupon I snugged a great deal on surfing lesson with North Shore Surfing Adventures, but it's early when we get there, so we decide to check out some of the nearby beaches. The sand is so coarse it looks like my feet are coated in sesame seed haha.

Finally it's time for my lesson and we meet up with my instructor Bobby. The lesson is held at Puena Point, where the waves are mellow and safe for beginners. The picture shows the channel where the waves don't break so no, they're not THAT little.

Fun fact of the day: apparently in surfing the rules of the road are pretty straightforward; the person on the wave has the right of way, so if you're paddling back to the line up and they run you over you owe them an apology (after you get released from the hospital they way Bobby says it lol).

We start by going over the basics on shore.

Fastening my leash. Can you tell how excited I am?!

The first two times I go straight into my same old bad habits, but with Bobby's advice I'm up riding waves every time after that. And what nice waves they have here! It's just me and one other girl so we get a lot of waves.

Down I go ...

Got a couple of really nice long rides in!

The only downside is that the further you ride it in, the longer you have to paddle back and when you're not used to it it's quit the work out. The fact that I can still type at all is kind of a mystery because on my last run I almost couldn't find the strength to lift my arms out of the water to paddle. What a workout! No wonder Bobby is ripped.

As an extra bonus a big sea turtle glides past within 5 feet of us as we're paddling back to shore. Wow!

On our way back we decide to have lunch at the place we met with Bobby; Jameson's-by-the-Sea, where we get to sit outside on the patio. I don't know if I can be considered an objective judge after just buring a bazillion calories in the water, but my bacon cheese burger is super yummy! Sandy's fish sandwich is tasty too.

Before we move on we snap a few pictures of Hale'iwa where the surfing vibe is ever present.

Stuffed to gills we drive north to Ehukani Beach park to watch the big wave surfers at work. These are not swimming beaches ... the current is strong and deadly.

Here's a small selection out of the nearly 100 pictures I took.

Wipe-out!

The boogie boarders (or spongers as they're called here) are getting some nice barrels!

Some of these waves are just unreal!

Watching them dissappear through the wave

Flying high!

Riding on top

Nice spray off the lip

On the way out we notice that they're putting up signs for a competion that will be held around the time we're back on Oahu. Hmmm ... to be continued?

We stop by Sunset Beach as well, but the waves aren't as impressive, plus they're breaking pretty far out.

Instead we start heading back and visit an area with tidepools that I noticed on the way in. I think the area is called Shark's Cove.

It's a little tricky to make your way down to the tidepools, but the view is gorgeous. After wading for just a few feet you start seeing little fishes. They're so cute!

Every once in a while rogue waves crash onto the rocks protecting the tide pools sending water spilling over the top in rivers of angry white water.

There's a rock shelf a little further out and when we walk closer we notice a tiny blow hole (slightly off-center to the right in the picture).
It's getting late so I talk Sandy into staying to watch the sunset and it is soooooooo beautiful! Pictures don't do it justice.

Back at the hotel we're waiting for the elevator when suddenly there's a loud bang followed by more rumble. Now, the other elevator malfuntioned yesterday and the maintaince man had said something like "It's probably something simple, but we don't want any cables to get cut, heh heh" ... so we experience a brief moment of panic. Then suddenly I remember that I'd read something about a weekly firework show at Hilton so we rush back into the room and sure enough, there's fireworks lighting up the sky!

We wait until the show has finished then we make a quick stop at our local ABC Store, kind of like a Hawaiian convenience/tourist store. I'm really growing fond of this store fast! Tried some yummy Hawaiian Maid passion fruit juice.


Mileage for today: 82.6