ADA in Hawaii

Andy talked the Air Force into sending him to the dental convention in Hawaii, so I had to go with him. Once again Uncle Sam made our vacation very enjoyable! The first day we got there we went to the swap-meet at the football stadium. We got most of our souvenir shopping out of the way, so we could relax and enjoy ourselves.

Caution: This is an extremely long post!

Pearl Harbor: Thursday while Andy was at his classes I spent the morning site seeing. First I went to Pearl Harbor. There was a lot of construction at the visitor center, but the USS Arizona Memorial was very peaceful. It was a good reminder to me of the courage and sacrifice the men and women who have preserved our freedom continue to make.

This is looking our towards the USS Arizona Memorial.

This is the Bow fin sub. Tours are available, but do to the cramped space inside and my ever growing belly, I opted not to go.

These plaques represent all the subs lost during World War II. They give a brief description of the service the subs rendered and the way they were finally sent to their watery grave. They also list the names of those brave men who went down with their sub.

This is a replica of the USS Arizona before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

This is from the boat taking us to the memorial.

The wind was blowing pretty good that day, and I loved this view of the flag from the memorial.

This is looking down at the USS Arizona. She still holds the remains of most of her crew. There is a very reverent feeling as you look down into the water where the USS Arizona still rests.

This wall holds the names of those who died at Pearl Harbor.

This bench contains the names to the men who survived the attack. As they have passed away they have requested to have their remains laid to rest with their shipmates in the Arizona.

This is the USS Missouri as seen from the Arizona memorial. There are also tours available for the battle ship, but I didn't want to go alone. Some day I would love to tour one of these magnificent ships.

This is the last look at the memorial as we started our return on the boat.

Dole Plantation:

After seeing Pearl Harbor I had some time to kill before picking Andy up from his class and checking into our new hotel, so I decided to stop in at the Dole plantation.

The first time I ever saw a field of pineapple I didn't know what I was looking at. I thought they plants looked like pineapple tops, but I had never really thought much about how pineapples grew. Here are some interesting facts about pineapples. You may appreciate your pineapple much more the next time you eat one!

There are many different varieties of pineapple. I always thought there was just pineapple, but apparently it is kind of like apples and there are different varieties. Here are some samples of the different kinds.

They had several small patches of pineapple in this court yard showing different varieties. The grounds were very colorful and well kept!

After looking around the gift shop I went up the road and found a field.

The Polynesian Cultural Center:

After checking into our hotel and picking Andy up, we headed to the north side of the island to check out the cultural center. The drive was beautiful!

The mountains are very rugged and the mist only added to the majestic view!

I am not sure what this tree is called, but they send shoots down to the ground and it becomes part of the tree. This particular tree wasn't as big as some of them get. Some of the trees are massive!

The road took us right along the coast. I never tire of seeing the waves rolling in and watching them crash onto the shore.

We didn't get to the cultural center as early as we would have liked, but we did get to see a couple of shows. This one is at the Samoan village. They showed us how to make fire, peel and milk a coconut, and how to climb a tree. The tree climber posed for us on his way down. These guys were pretty entertaining. (Check out the video at the end!)

They have thatched roofs on their huts. We thought this one was pretty amazing.

The grounds are very beautiful. I would recommend visiting when you get a chance.

This is at the Luau. They carried the pig across the stage so we could see it before they served it up for us. There was also a show during dinner. The food was wonderful!

These are some of the entertainers. They come out and sang a traditional prayer song before we ate.

Us at dinner!

After dinner we joined the sister missionaries for a tour of the temple visitor center. It was too dark to see the grounds very well, but we have seen it before. It was fun to hear a little bit of the areas history and about some of the early saints in that area.

Outrigger on Waikiki:

After our first night in Hawaii we decided to check into a new hotel. The first one was tiny, the AC didn't work, the internet didn't work, and niether did the remote. We could also hear doors slamming most of the night. Needless to say we were anxious to find some where else to stay. The military hotel was full, but they helped us find a great deal at the Outrigger on Waikiki. This hotel was very nice, and we had a partial ocean view right on the beach.

This was in the lobby of the hotel.

Hanauma Bay:

We went snorkling Friday morning before Andy's class. The water was great. We saw several fish and an octopus. There was a puffer fish Andy chased around trying to get it to puff up, but it never did. I guess they are used to having people in such a close proximety. It took me a while to get used to the snorkle. I would breath threw the snorkle just fine until my face touched the water, and then I would panick. I have snorkled before, so I was a little bit surprised it took me so long to get the hang of it again.

This is looking down into the bay.

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This is the view from our room. I enjoyed watching people try to surf while we listened to conference in our room. We had to get up at 6 am to listen to conference. Since we were still mostly on California time it wasn't too much of a problem.

This is the convention center were the ADA met. It was about a mile from our hotel.

Punch Bowl:

This is a veterans memorial cemetary. We visited it on sunday following conference. Andy didn't have any classes, so we were able to spend the whole day together.

There are a LOT of names etched into the stones representing all those lost in action, or whose remains were not itentified, or who were lost at sea during the Korean War, the Vietman War and World War II.

All of the stone walls going up the hill had the names for persons from all branches of the military. It was humbling to see how many there were.

This plaque talks about the memorials.

At the top of the memorial there were several maps showing the battles that took place during the wars. They show and talk about the different battles and tacticks used by both sides.

They were quite amazing to look at. The blue arrows represent the U.S. and its allies and the red arrows were the Germans and Japanese.

More of the grounds.

This is a view of the city from the side of the punch bowl at the memorial cemetary. This is looking south towards Waikiki and Dimond Head Volcano.

Coconut Tree.

I have always loved Bird of Paradise. They seem exotic to me!

We saw several little critters resembling the weasle family. These two were eating out of a garbage can, but stopped to pose for us.

Local Scenary:

After we left the Punch Bowl we decided to drive up to a neighbor hood on a steep mountain side. The view was spectacular from up there, and we found a state park as well. It was fun to just enjoy the view.

Andy insisted we get this pose. He hates to admit it, but he is a romantic at heart!

This is some of what we saw as we drove around.

The vegetation was very dense is several places. It was a completely different feel than the Waikiki area.

The walls of bamboo were pretty amazing.

Another look at Diamond Head.

This one is from the state park over looking the city towards Waikiki. It is funny to me that most of the high rises are hotels and appartments. They are not office buildings.

We really enjoyed our time in Hawaii. We did miss the boys, but we are glad we got a chance to get away just the two of us before our little princess is born. The boys got to play with Aunt Bethany while we were gone and they had lots of fun. Several times when we called Bradley would talk to me for about 60 seconds and then say, "Mom, I can't talk. I have to go now!" Thanks so much Bethany and Tory for making our trip possible. A special thanks to Tory for letting us steal his wife during his birthday. Happy Birthday, by the way!

Hawaii Videos:

The tree climber.

This is at the Tonga Village.

Sept. 30-Oct. 5, 2009