Hawaii At Long Last 1st Island

For Christmas, B gave me a trip to Hawaii.  I couldn't believe it.  More than fifty years ago, having completed college and now working,  a high school girlfriend and I were making plans to go but she ended up in the hospital.  There went her funds to go.  A few years later another friend and I were discussing it but she got engaged and married.  Sometime after that, after marriage and having four kids, B came home from work one Friday and said that he had to fly to Hawaii on Monday.  Didn't make it that time either.  So this was the fulfillment of a very long ago dream.

One of the places that I wanted to go was Pearl Harbor.

It was so peaceful and beautiful the day we were there it was hard to imagine what it was like that day, December 7, 1941.  There is still oil seeping from the Arizona and she is a true Memorial, not only to those entombed within her, but to all who lost their lives that day.

Besides the Arizona Memorial, there are museums that cover the history leading up to the attack, the military presence on Oahu, and the attack.  There are also stories that survivors have shared.  Amazingly, all but three of the ships that were sunk were raised from the sea, repaired, and fought in WWII.

All day I kept thinking of my Uncle Edgar who joined the marines, because of this day, trained in the Hawaiian Islands and then fought at Iwo Jima.

When Japan finally surrendered, it was on the battleship Missouri.  Fittingly, it is at Pearl Harbor and we were able to go on her.  This ship was being built when Pearl Harbor was attacked.  In service, it was even attacked by a Kamikaze pilot.  You can still see dents in the railing along the top deck made by the wing of the plane.  Interesting story is that the pilot's body and identification ended up on deck.  The captain of the Missouri thought that he should receive the burial of a soldier.  Not all agreed but you don't argue with the Captain.  So a Japanese flag was made from a table cloth and the pilot was buried at sea.  Many years later his family came and brought a picture of the pilot taken when he was a little boy, holding an airplane.  The picture is now on the Missouri.  There is a spot marked on the deck where the table was set for the signing of the peace treaty.  The treaty was an unconditional surrender, meaning they were subject to any and all decisions of the United States and the Japanese leaders expected the worst.  Perhaps it is because of the results of that day and the way that they were treated by the US that we have the relationship that we have with Japan to this day.

Her smaller guns have been removed from her decks.  So all that remains are the forward and aft guns.  She also served our country during the Korean War and Vietnam.  They can fire her big guns, if I remember right, twice in one minute.  I have forgotten the distance but basically three or four more rounds are on the way before the first hits.  No wonder she is called Mighty Moe.

Another thing I wanted to do was go snorkeling.  Hanauma Bay is a fantastic place to go.  It is an old  volcano that was flooded by sea water with one side collapsed.  The darker areas are rock and coral where you see most of the fish.  I could even stand up it was so shallow.  Of course, you don't stand on the coral or rocks.  We saw lots of different kinds and colors of fish some of which I think were Butterfly fish, Yellow Tangs, Painted Trigger fish, Lei Trigger fish, Hawaiian Sergeant, Bluestripe Snapper, some Parrot fish, and ones that I wasn't able to later identify.  It was great.  This area spoiled us for further snorkeling.  And we managed to not get sunburned.

 On Sunday we went to church at the Honolulu Tabernacle, the last tabernacle built by the church.  The picture of Christ is a mosaic.  The pieces around Christ really reflect the light thus giving a glow around him.

At the time that it was built, there was no air conditioning so the walls were lined with doors that could be opened for the breeze to blow through.  One side opens onto a court yard with a covering running around the outside.

It was dedicated about three months before the Pearl Harbor attack.  In the prayer it was asked for protection to the building from storms, bombings, etc.  At the time there was no idea or threat of a bombing attack.  It was the the tallest building on that part of the island when built but was not bombed in the attack. 

There are lots of interesting trees on the islands.  I didn't get a picture of the monkey pod trees but they are beautiful and huge with large long branches reaching out for a long ways forming a beautiful canopy.  There were some close to the hotel where we were staying.

There were also a lot of these trees, many larger than this one.

There are also lots of Banyan Trees. The tree produces areal roots that hang down, take root where they touch the ground, and then start growing making what looks like another trunk.  They can really spread.  Note B next to it.

the banyan tree produces aerial roots that hang down and take root wherever they touch the ground. These thick roots actually make the tree appear to have several trunks.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Growing a Banyan Tree https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/banyan/growing-a-banyan-tree.htm

the banyan tree produces aerial roots that hang down and take root wherever they touch the ground. These thick roots actually make the tree appear to have several trunks.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Growing a Banyan Tree https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/banyan/growing-a-banyan-tree.htm

the banyan tree produces aerial roots that hang down and take root wherever they touch the ground. These thick roots actually make the tree appear to have several trunks.

Read more at Gardening Know How: Growing a Banyan Tree https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/trees/banyan/growing-a-banyan-tree.htm

We stopped in at the northern end of Oahu to see some surfing.  The waves were bigger the day before while there was a competition.  We saw that on TV.  There were still some pretty good waves coming in.

After watching surfers for awhile we went to the Cultural center.  We took a guided tour and really got to see the programs put on by seven islands (Tahiti, Fiji, Hawaii, Tonga, New Zealand, Samoa, Rapa Nui or Easter Island) and about their culture, dance and music.  This was one of them.

Later in the afternoon, on the waterway through the park, each group was on a boat dancing.  Most all of the people working here are students at BYU Hawaii.  The school's scholarships are supported from the money raised by the admission tickets to the cultural center making it possible for youth from Tonga, Haiti, New Zealand, etc. to go to college.

Of course, they demonstrated how to get a coconut.  They could go up that tree like a monkey.  No wonder they have the chest muscles that they do.

This was the show given by New Zealand in their area.  The man in the red shirt was our group leader and he joined them as this is his country.  You can see that he is a very large and tall man, around 6'5''.  The other tall one in the group is his cousin.

The tour ended with a luau where we received orchard leis.  We had received nut leis early in the day.  We had tried poi earlier in the day and had some more at the luau.  It is really quite bland.  After eating we attended the play/program.  It was a long day but so worth doing.

Interestingly, there is no knowledge of who first came to the Hawaiian Islands.  Legend says that they came from afar by boat with supplies.  They first settled on one and then were driven out by the ocean to another which the fire god had prepared for them, etc.  I can't remember the order in which the islands were settled by their legend but now science is finding that the islands were formed in the order that the legend says they were.