Thursday, October 23, 2008

Last moments in Honolulu before the big surprise!

Our last few days in Honolulu were extended a couple of days so that Kerry would be able to attend some meetings that came up after we made our travel plans. (Actually it was very good for those who were here slaving away on my kitchen to have the two extra days!) I had told Kerry I would just fly home on schedule and pick him up two days later, now I understand why he was so determined to have me stay longer. Anyway here are some of the last few things we did together.

Cheeseburger In Paradise is a fun "Burger Joint" right on Waikiki and we lucked out to be able to sit by the open window with a nice breeze.

At lunch time I rode the bus downtown and met him several days. Most of the time I made lunches and we just ate in Bishop Square at a table. I hadn't been to Aloha Tower yet so one day we went to Do Ho's for lunch and these pictures are of the Super Ferry coming into the harbor right in front of the dock we were at. It's funny the boat made me miss the ferries in Washington State and make me want to go up there to visit.

Our last Saturday there we went on a tour of the U.S.S. Missouri. It is a pretty amazing ship. It was kind of cool to walk through it. I tried to imagine my dad walking through a much smaller ship as he was being transfered to the Pacific theatre during World War II and how he would have had to hunch over just to walk through the ship or to sleep in those little bunks. For his size it would have been pretty uncomfortable.

Can you guess why I took this one?

These are for Dr. Dave. Thank goodness you aren't in the Navy Dave.

There were some sobering messages as we toured the ship including this one for lives lost. When you compare the cost of other wars it is hard to believe the difference in the numbers. Certainly the sacrifice isn't any less but I am grateful that we aren't fighting on the scale of other times, it certainly put a lot into perspective. The extreme cost of FREEDOM!


This is a replica of the Peace Treaty with Japan the glass made it hard to photograph.

The view of the Arizona Memorial from the top of the Missouri, or at least as high as they would let the tours go.

After we went on the tour we stopped to get a few groceries to last through the extension these birds were just sunning themselves in the parking lot, we thought it was fun to watch.

On the North Shore there were reports that some of the waves were coming in at 12-15 foot swells and so I wanted to go see them. We waited almost too long to drive over on Sunday afternoon because it was almost too dark to see them by the time we got there. But it was fun to watch them until we couldn't see because it was too dark. Every now and then we would see a surfer come paddling in when we knew darn good and well it was far too dangerous to be out there, they just wanted one more perfect wave.


Trying to be artistic with the camera!

After it was too dark to see the waves we decided to go on over and see the Laie Temple at night. It was such a beautiful evening to walk around the grounds. The flowers there are just like around any other temple they are gorgeous. The Plumeria even seems to smell better there than any other place on the Island as Kerry is showing us.



The moon was so bright that you could see the detail of the palm trees as you looked though them. This is my attempt to be artsy with these as well.

The temple was so beautiful it was so easy to just sit and look at it. What a nice ending to a nice day.



Sooooo, pretty. It's hard to believe it will be closed during the time we are there, if we go.

2 comments:

Jessica said...

Fun. I see now why you were frustrated when you thought you had lost this post. I am VERY glad that Dave is not a dentist for the armed forces. He got a lot of mail trying to recruit him and I am glad he didn't want to.

rosemarie said...

Looks so fun . Hawaii is so beautiful, I look froward to coming over to visit. Visiting Pearl Harbor etc. is a pretty somber experience, I remember it well and had similar thoughts to yours.

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