Travel Tales: Hawaii 2004, Part Four

Our adventures in Hawaii continued the next day with a trip to the aquarium. Apparantly Kara and I can't get enough of the animals! (Actually, we had tried to go the aquarium the day before but couldn't find it, ending up at the zoo instead!) Lindsay was back with us again, and with her help, we made it there. We spent a nice afternoon walking around looking at the fish (among other things we found Nemo) - at one point Kara got to hold some of sea creatures during a demonstration. When we got to the seals tank we were all concerned that one of them was dead because it was floating straight up and it's body was not moving - but it turned out it just slept that way!

That night, on our way home from dinner, we were standing on a corner waiting to cross the street when a car full of boys poked their heads out and tried to take pictures of us. "Cheese! Say cheese!" the one holding the camera called.

"This is just one of those times you wish you had Sabrina [the Teenage Witch]-like powers," I said to Kara and Lindsay.

Lindsay answered, "Yeah, so you can just make their car fill with cheese."

"Actually, I was thinking along the lines of Velveeta," I said. "And it wouldn't fill the car, but coat it in a protective bubble."

"Yeah, so they would have to eat their way out," Kara added.

Yeah... I really don't know what sparks these things, but when you get us started, we'll just keep going!

The next day, Lindsay headed back to school and Kara and I decided to exprience some US history. We headed to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona Memorial. It turned out to be a day full of waiting around. When you visit Pearl Harbor, only a certain amount of people can head onto the memorial at any given time, and so we had to take a number and wait for our group to be called. As we waited, we engaged in one of our favorite activities: people watching!

Aside from Kona, our tour guide from the other day who just happened to be at the memorial with another tour that day, we also saw the Appleton North Band, which included a member with two hooks for hands. Neither of us could figure out just what instrument he played! We also "met" Amber, the stuffed dolphin doll owned by the girl sitting behind us. Unfortunately, his owner wasn't so careful with him. After the lei Amber was wearing around one of her fins fell apart, the little girl said, "Mommy, I accidentally broke it!"

We finally got onto the memorial site after watching a short historical film about the event. To get to the memorial, which is a bridge/building built over the wreckage of the USS Arizona (which actually sticks out of the water), you have to take a boat over. Once there, you can look down onto the ship from the bridge and view the room of names of people who died that day. It was all very interesting to see, but it was a little bit eerie that the ship still sticks out of water that was too shallow to swallow it up completely.

Once we were done at Pearl Harbor, we waited for the shuttle to take us back to Pearl Harbor. Finding out we would have to wait an hour for one to arrive, we settled down in some lawn chairs to wait. After a few minutes, Kara asked, "If you had a code name, what would it be?" I don't remember what either of our answers were, but apparantly the conversation was entertaining enough to occupy us until the shuttle came, and then it was off to lunch in Waikiki.

Later in the afternoon we met up with Lindsay and headed to dinner (chain restaurant of choice that night: T.G.I.Friday's).

Coming Soon: Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay and the Luau!