I've been looking forward to this day for almost a year. The day I told my sister-in-law I was planning to go to Hillsong, I also said I wanted her at the airport so I could return the favour of handing over my winter jacket (with a big smile) as I left for a warm place. She was a really good sport.
If anyone has trouble with jealousy, look at this picture and stop here. This one shows just how normal Hawaii actually is.
After over a month of cold in the Canadian Prairies, this was a very welcome site.
My first morning. I had to pass quite a bit of time before I actually got to see this sunrise on Waikiki Beach.
After spending a day at the Polynesian Cultural Center, I realized dance is a major part of their culture. This is a small representation of what I saw.
I rented a Moped (also called a Scooter in some places) and went for a drive around the island. It was quite a weird feeling driving along the freeways with a chainsaw motor on wheels. I was told it had a top speed of 40 mph so I assumed with my size it would be about 35mph. On level surfaces, that was true but most of the road was not level so I had a top speed anywhere between 25 and 45mph depending on how steep the hill was and whether I was driving up or down. Fortunately, most of the roads have a speed limit of 35mph. This was probably my best day as I was outside seeing the real island - which I would say is much better than the tourist locations!
This was just another rock sticking out of the ocean but it looked neat.
Before my trip, I asked some friends who have lived in Hawaii what I should do and they both said "Go to the Northern Beaches." In case anyone is planning a trip to Honolulu sometime, I agree with them. Waikiki Beach is the most popular beach on the island and apparently is the most well known beach in the world. If you like to watch every step to make sure you don't walk all over someone; if you like to be able to get canoe or sailboat rides or rent surfboards and get some lessons along with the other thousand people in the water; if you like to have 500 hotels and 3000 stores within walking distance; if you don't mind a beach where there's more rock than sand under the water and what sand there is is course and was imported from another state; then Waikiki is the man-made beach for you. However, if you would rather have a enough room to lay out your beach towel without folding up the edges and enough room in the water to swing your arms in a swimming motion; if you want nice sand that's easy on your feet and a surface under the water that you can safely walk on; if you don't mind giving up some of the shops and hotels within walking distance and are willing to carry your surfboard a couple hundred feet from the shop instead of 30 feet along the beach; then the place for you is somewhere outside Honolulu. This picture of Sandy Beach was taken in the middle of the day and is typical of the beaches outside of tourist central. When I did the trip around the island, I finally saw why Hawaii is considered a Paradise. The man-made beauty of the tourist areas does not compare to the God-made beauty of the rest of the island.
Here's one of the best places in the world for experienced surfers. "Pipeline" is where a lot of international surfing competitions are held. Warning: do not enter the water unless you are a very strong swimmer and understand the currents. When the waves got to shore, they were still big enough that someone could be standing on the sand completely out of the water and be completely covered by a wave coming in.
Now after I said Waikiki (great as it is) is nowhere near the best beach on the island, this sunset photo was taken there; so judge for yourselves whether this is a beautiful place.
What you see centered in this picture is the top of the USS Arizona. This ship was the site of the largest number of soldiers lost in a single act in US war history. It was sunk by an armour piercing bomb dropped from 10,000 feet. The bomb went through a couple layers of the ship and exploded inside - right next to the ship's supply of ammunition. about 150 feet of the ship was completely separated by the explosion and another piece weighing a couple thousand pounds was lifted far into the air and caused a second explosion when it landed back on the ship. It took about 2 seconds to kill almost 1,200 men (almost half of the total losses in Pearl Harbour) on the ship. In the background, you can see white markers that show the place where some the other ships were sunk. remarkably, most of the ships were actually recovered, fixed, and put back in service; some in less than a year.
On a monument for the USS Arizona was a list of people who died on the ship. I couldn't get the whole list on the picture. I did not get a lot of good pictures of Pearl Harbour, but it was great to be there. It is very sobering to see the place of such terrible destruction at the hands of men and to hear, from some of the people who lived through it, what it was like and what happened.
9 comments:
Awesome pics, Larry, makes me want to go back!! The last time I was there I was 6 weeks pregnant so I think I view it differently today in midlife crisis. Thanks for sending us your great pics and sharing your holiday. JP
Hey Larry,
I had great difficulty feeling sorry for your early morning flight out of Hawaii. For some reason Pam thinks Hawaii would be a good place to vacation ... any comments, opions, suggestions? Pam and I were truly blessed through our brief times together during your summer holidays.
Keep well,
Cameron
thank you for not being 'touristy'. i would much rather see the 'real' Hawaii anyday. safe travels, friend. SG
My honor to take your winter jacket! Hmmm...no more skiing and skating for you, how sad. No more big, beautiful snowflakes falling from the sky, no snowballs to throw. Snowmobiles - what's that? And the mornings, ahh - deep breath of fresh, crisp, winter morning air. The sound of crunching snow under your feet. Evergreen branches laiden with soft, white, snow. Sunsets reflecting off snow covered fields, shovelling vehicles out of the ditch...
...No icicles glistening in the bright winter sun. No more speeding down a hill on a crazy carpet, digging tunnels & caves out of snow, or building snowmen. No more walks in the evening with houses disappearing in the fog & darkness and sounds muffled by the snowy insulation until you're in your own little world. No deep blue skies and hoar-frost-covered trees. No "driving practice" on the church parking lot...Yep, I almost feel sorry for you.
But you do make Hawaii sound like a nice place to visit. And I hope you can endure your mid-30 temperatures better knowing we've got mid-30 temperatures on the other end of the thermometer.
no more wondering if your fingernails will fall off from getting to cold, no more having to wait for your car to warm for ten minutes so that you can actually put it in drive, no more getting into your car and wondering who put plywood on your seat and realizing it's just so cold that even cloth seats can freeze when it gets cold enough, no more having to stay home because there is two feet of snow on the road and the Government workers are on strike. There's more!!!
Enjoy your time there and come home when your ready.
Thanks for sharing all those pictures. About the house where you are living now... is that swimming pool in your yard? Looks like a lovely place.
The comments left by two people about the greater parts of winter are almost enough to make me miss it. Almost. There are some truly great parts to that season but there's something about not having to put on an extra 5 pounds worth of clothing every time you walk out the door and experiencing all the things listed in a recent post (like warming the car for 10 minutes, feeling like you're sitting on wood instead of a car seat...) that just is very appealing.
Karen, the pool is not on my yard but it's one for my community (which is all inside gates and fences to protect us from outsiders) and it take about one minute to walk there. It's great!
Really Larry. A few extra pounds on a person as tall & fit as you should hardly be noticable at all! And doesn't everyone love the cozy feeling of a nice thick sweater?
One thing I've learned is that the difficulties in life cause us to appreciate the blessings more. So in a sense, those difficulties become a blessing in disguise.
Case in point: Who could ever fully appreciate the hot days without having first experienced the cold days? I bet the person who has had to walk in a bone-chilling wind, or experience uncontrollable shivers or frozen car seats has a much greater capacity to truly appreciate the heat that makes you look like you've just come from the shower when in fact it's just your own sweat, or the warm breeze of a tropical island. Or the sitting-on-air experience of your lazy-boy recliner.
But go ahead and enjoy your Australian climate to the fullest. And remember me - sitting here with goosebumps on my arms as I write this.
(Boy, I sure am glad I have a cozy warm duck-down-filled blanket!)
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