Hawaii

Driving around the Island our last day.
On our morning walk. This is Waikiki, and our hotel is a few buildings to the right my head.
These crabs freaked me out! They're like huge spiders. The water looks far away, but it's only two feet down.
This is how we showered...just kidding. We went on a beautiful hike called Maunawili Falls. This is just below the falls, but it was beautiful. There's a video of Paul jumping off that small little cliff by the falls at the bottom of this post. People were jumping off the left cliff about 40 feet up. There was a sign by the water that said, Warning Health Hazard, This fresh water stream contains asldkfj;alskdjf;lskd (some bacteria). Do not swim if you have open wounds, yada yada. Some girl said her mom got it when she was pregnant and couldn't take the medication for it, so she was nasty sick for a long time. Cross my fingers there.

The trail was beautiful! It was also very muddy and we were covered in mud by the time we reached the falls.
There are these crazy hollow trees that don't know which way is up. Here's Paul riding one, and Paul got me trying to climb down in the next pic.

This is punchbowl. In order to be buried here you have to be a veteran or in the military. Lots of cool people are buried here including the first Hawaiian Astronaut.
This is the monument honoring the people who died in the USS Oklahoma. Each marble post has a name on it. It's inland a little ways on Ford Island close to the USS Missouri. The Oklahoma was docked where the Missiouri is today when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harber. The soldiers that were able to jump off swam burning to shore. Many died by the tree behind me. The Oklahoma was repaired and towed to mainland for scrapmetal eventually, but the in transit the cable broke and the ship sank deep into the ocean.
This is just one of the many cool rooms on the USS Missouri.
Looking off the very top.
Those are huge guns! The surrender deck is below us to the right, and the USS Arizona is straight ahead.
This is the surrender deck. I'm standing by a plaque on the floor that says something to the effect that Japanese surrendered by signing a paper on a table right here while the Missouri was in Tokyo Bay. The Missouri was built in 1943? in New York, sailed to California, and then was used in the Pacific for the end of WWII. It had these dents from a kamikaze airplane that hit the side, split in half, and fell to the water without doing any real damage. The upper half with the pilot hit the wall of the Missouri. Only the pilot died, and they had a special ceremony for him the next day. Cool story. This battleship was also used in the Vietnam and Desert Storm eras. It retired in the 90's and just barely was made into a museum.
This is where they launched torpedoes from. This whole room is covered in machinery like this.
This is the Japanese embassy that came aboard the Missouri to sign the surrender papers. Gen. Douglas McAurther is to the left beginning the ceremony.
Here are the papers.
Details...who signed, and when.
The cool plaque.
USS Missouri from the side.
This is on the USS Arizona memorial. The first room is full of flags.
Here is the plaque at the end of the memorial. It is completely full of names and is about 10 feet tall.
On the side of the memorial, the biggest part of the ship that is seen is this third turret. Oil is still leaking from a part of the ship just below us, and each end of the ship is marked by a bowie on my left and right. It looks like a small white dot in the picture.
Riding the ferry over to the USS Arizona Memorial. A little less than 100 men are still entombed there. Survivors that wish to be buried there, have a special ceremony and are cremated and put into the third turret. The Arizona was the only ship that was not recovered after the Pearl Harbor attack.
There were rainbows everywhere here. Here is the Arizona and the Missouri under a rainbow.

This is the USS Bowfin Submarine.
The USS Arizona's anchor.
Waterfalls! We hiked up to this beautiful one the day after the PCC. We saw papaya, banana, avacado trees, wild boar nests, and this really cool grass that branches out, but when you touch it it, it sucks in and looks like normal grass. Should've gotten a video of that one.
Isn't this picture funny! This guy took it right after we snorkeled Hanauma Bay, but it looks like I'm huge! Really, I'm only 8 weeks here (just found that out).
Gorgeous flowers.
Huge leaves!
The li ceremony at the Ali'i Luau at the PCC.


Mmmmm...
Luau...lots of yummy food.
There's a crazy looking tree that grew side ways over the river.
Canoe Pageant dancers. This was so cool!
Ohhhh....we love each other so much.
This is the Laie Temple right next to BYU-Hawaii and the PCC. It's been closed for the past 17 months for renovations.

Dole....Isn't pineapple so cool?

Out our hotel window. Parking garage!


We made it back! What a trip. It was so fun to actually be there and see all of the cool things on Oahu. The first day we were there Paul said, "Whoever makes doors here they are probably out of business because there aren't any doors!" Everything is straight outside.

It started out pretty rough with the plain ride. First off, my bag was 18 lbs over the 50 lb limit. Hmmm...must be all that Gosner's milk. I decided to take them out and put them in my carry on bag (little 8 oz boxes). I also grabbed my big bottle of sunscreen thinking I would use it when we got there. That made it the perfect weight so we went up to our gate. In the line I asked Paul, "Why is an airport a sitting duck for a terrorist? Why do terrorists come here?" Paul looked at me and said, "Don't even say that word. You'll get escorted away somewhere."