This month we were very fortunate to tag along with some great friends on, what I call, a Grand Adventure. We went to three wonderful places, starting with Honolulu, Hawai'i.
When I think of Hawai'i, I think of my mother. It was one of her favorite places. My dad was stationed here in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In fact, my sister was born there.
That pink building is Tripler Army Hospital where my sister was born. It's painted the same pink as the Royal Hawaiian Hotel but I have no idea why.
I found it very interesting that there are only 13 letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. A, E, I, O, U, H, K, L, M, N, P, W and '. The apostrophe is called an okina and it's a kind of a stop or pause in the pronunciation of a word and it's considered a letter. We had some fun trying to pronounce some of the Hawaiian words.
It's a long flight from Dallas to Hawaii. Here we are at DFW at 5:30 in the morning waiting to board our flight. We've all been up since 3 am!
There are eight main islands that make up the state of Hawai'i: O'ahu, which is the island that we went to; Maui; Kaua'i; Lana'i, Moloka'i, the big island of Hawaii, Ni'ihau and Kaho'olawe. I'd never heard of the last two. I think O'ahu and Maui are the biggest tourist destinations. In 1989, when I came here with my family, we visited Kaua'i and it was a lot slower and more relaxed than O'ahu. Moloka'i used to house a leper colony that was run by Father Damien.
View of Diamondhead volcano walking along Waikiki Beach.
View of Honolulu at night from the balcony of our hotel. It's beautiful here. The temperature is warm during the day, about 70-ish and a little cool at night, aka perfect. Our hotel was about a block from the beach.
December 7, 1941, a day that will live in infamy! That was the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, of course. The Japanese pilots bombed the USS Arizona and detonated a magazine on the ship which caused an explosion. The ship sank in 9 minutes. 1,177 sailors and Marines that were aboard the ship were all killed.
The memorial is a floating bridge that sits across the width of the sunken ship. The flag is attached to the sunken mast of the ship. The memorial was erected in 1962.
The memorial has seven windows on each side and across the top, which represents the day it happened. It's effectively a military cemetery and very sobering. Two million people come here every year to pay their respects.
At the far end is a wall with the names of all the men aboard the USS Arizona that died that day. There were actually men that were stationed on that ship that survived. Some of them were ashore for school or special projects. Some of them just had shore leave. Survivors had the option when they passed away of having their ashes scattered over the ship, having the ashes interred in the hull of the ship by a Navy SEAL or being buried elsewhere. The last survivor passed away in 2024.
This is a gun turret of the USS Arizona that sits above the water. You can still see oil around it. "Black tears of the USS Arizona". There were tons of other exhibits at Pearl Harbor including a museum that we walked through, an submarine museum and two other ships that you can tour. You could spend the whole day there but our tour was only four hours and that included the drive there an back. It was very moving to be there and I was glad that it was open despite the government shutdown.
We took one day and rented a car and drove around the island to the North Shore. Our first stop was the National Cemetery of the Pacific aka The Punchbowl. The punchbowl itself is a volcanic crater that was created about 75,000 years ago. In 1949, it opened as a National Cemetery. Prior to opening, over 13,000 service members that died during WWII that were buried in temporary locations were interred here as their final resting place. This is the Honolulu memorial erected in 1964 to "honor the sacrifices of American Armed Forces in the Pacific during World War II and the Korean War."
At the punchbowl, you get some of the most amazing views of the island. This is a shot of downtown and Waikiki Beach.
If you turn in another direction, you get these beautiful views of the mountains.
Another stop on our tour of the island was at the Green World Coffee Farm where we stopped for refreshment. In the back of the store, they have this garden where they are growing coffee beans.
One thing that was surprising to me on this side of the island was the number of "free range" birds. This rooster has beautiful colors but he was just walking around like he owned the place.
I'd never seen coffee beans on the vine before. I'm not sure what the difference is between the red ones and the green ones. I would assume one of them is ripe for harvesting? The coffee here was good.
As we got near the top of the island, we stopped in a town called Haleiwa. It was a cute little village that had tons of shops and food trucks. We stopped at a food truck for lunch. The food was good but was not cheap. It was clearly a tourist town. The traffic was nuts!
As we drove around the island, we stopped at several beaches. The north shore is where all the big waves are. This beach is Chun's Reef Beach.
Here are some of the surfers out there at Chun's Reef Beach. The waves are usually higher than this but not so much today. The water is gorgeous and looks quite inviting.
Kawailoa Beach. It's beautiful. Personally, I'm not a fan of the beach because of all the sand but I'd have been quite happy on this beach.
Next we stopped at Waimea Valley where they had waterfalls to see. Unfortunately, the waterfalls were at a trickle due to lack of rain so there wasn't much to see...except this beautiful Papukea tree.
Sunset Beach is a very popular spot. The beaches here are amazing. No seaweed, no trash, just sand and surf!
This was Kawela Bay. Just gorgeous!
As we headed back to the hotel, we drove right around this mountain that just juts up from the sea.
Hawai'i was once it's own country. All the islands were unified under one leader...this guy. King Kamehameha I. He ruled the islands from 1795 to 1819. The statue was cast in 1880 in Paris and then was lost at sea when it was shipped here. The insurance company paid for another one. Oddly, the original statue was subsequently recovered. It is located on the big island of Hawaii. This one is the replacement statue.
This statue sits in front of the Ali'iolani Hale, which is where the Hawaii Supreme Court resides. The building was erected in 1874 and was originally built as a palace but quickly became the seat of government for the kingdom.
This is the Iolani Palace. It was built in 1882 by King David Kalakaua and it was the official residence of the monarch of Hawaii. Kalakaua was very advanced in technology for the time. The palace was the first building that was electrified in Hawaii. In fact, it had electricity before the white house. It was here that the last Queen of Hawaii was imprisoned when she was overthrown by American and European landowners. The state legislature used this building until a capitol building could be built.
Queen Lili'uokalani, the last monarch of Hawaii. She abdicated the throne in 1893 to avoid bloodshed of her people thinking the American Government would restore her to power. Sadly, that did not happen.
This is Washington Place which was built in 1842 by John Dominis. Prior to becoming queen, Lili'uokalani married John's son, John Owen Dominis and she lived here with her husband and in-laws. After her imprisonment, Queen Lili'uokalani lived here until her death in 1917. It then became the governor's mansion when Hawaii became the 50th state in 1959. In 2002, a new residence was built and now this place is a museum that you can tour.
Another item on our bucket list is State Capitols. This is Hawai'i's State Capitol building. It is very different from any other Capitol building that we've visited thus far. Built in 1969, it is surrounded by a reflecting pool that represents the Pacific Ocean. There are two cone shaped chambers that represent volcanoes. The columns around the building are shaped like palm trees and there are 8 columns in four rows at either side of the building that represent the 8 main islands. This view of the capitol is from the rim of the punchbowl.
The most interesting thing to me is that there is no dome. The atrium is open to the sky.
On our last day, we were going to visit U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii but...
...we were foiled by the government shutdown.
So instead, we went to the beach!
You can't go to Hawaii and not have a beach day. So we did. We hung out at Waikiki Beach and swam in the Pacific Ocean. It was rocky under the water.
Our last dinner in Hawaii.
We had a fantastic time but then, we were in Hawaii. How can you not have a good time there? But, we weren't done. Stay tuned for the next destination...Tokyo, Japan!
