We loaded up the dune buggy for our first time out on the road, plugged in “Arizona Memorial” into the new Tom-Tom Navigator that Dave won as a door prize (nice prize!), and pulled out of the parking garage in Waikiki to the thrilling vvvvvroommm of the 1969 VW Beetle engine under the hood … er, in the trunk … of our bright yellow dune buggy!
Tom and Pam were in the front seat; Dave and Linda up-top in the back seat with their heads surrounded by roll-cage pipes.
The good news: didn’t stall it once on the way to Pearl Harbor!
The bad news: even though we said “no speeds over 40 MPH” on the navigator, it
OK, back to the good news: we got to Pearl Harbor in very good time, early enough to get tickets to the 7th boat across the harbor, at 9:15. Not bad, since if you get there in mid-morning, your tickets will be for mid-afternoon.
We walked through the museum, listening to an Ernest Borgnine-narrated audio tour, until our number was called, then watched a short film that described the events leading up to and following the attack … learned quite a bit from it.
Then, onto the boat for the trip out to the Memorial. It’s a concrete structur
e that spans the center part of the Arizona, which is sitting in 23 ft of mud and 40 ft of water.
The top of the side walls are only a couple of feet below the surface of the water.
There’s still, after 60 years, oil drops coming up from the fuel tanks. It was a very solemn, moving place to be.
Pam and Tom were on the next boat back to the visitor’s center, with 98% of the others who came on our tour. Dave and Linda were not. So, we amused ourselves at the museum, people-watching, snacking, and talking until they mosied their way across the harbor.
Before leaving, Dave and Linda had three of the remaining six survivors of the attack sign a book about Pe
arl Harbor.
In memory of those who served...

In memory of those who served...
Here is the story done in pictures and captions. Enjoy the slide show!
So, the Dole Plantation: true to our plan, we weren’t there for the maze, or the tour, or the train ride … just food. We had a nice lunch, browsed the pineapple varieties garden, enjoyed some pineapple ice cream and pineapple-upside-cake. Then we slid back into the buggy and headed further north.
Here is our slide show of our time at Dole Plantation.
Here is our slide show of our time at Dole Plantation.
The view of the ocean from the north was spectacular! We stopped at
several of the local beaches to get pix and enjoy the view. At one of them, Pam and Linda watched sea turtles just off shore, sticking their heads out of the water and swimming around the rocks. The ride was windy and bumpy, but quite a blast. Then reality set in: it’s 3:30, it’s getting very cool for open-air riding, an
d we’re about as far from Waikiki as you can be with who-knows-how-long a drive to get back. Oops … better head for “home”. No more stops.
A
n hour later, continuing around the loop, now on the east side of the island (in the shade), the temperature is dropping and the wind is whipping. We’re starting to worry about everyone being able to handle the temperatures and wind to get back. The Tom-Tom says just 12 miles to go, but over the hills … joy. Then, we go through a tunnel in the mountain and a
s we emerge on the other side, SUNLIGHT!! And warmth!! Yay! But then, it’s “ugh!” as we realize we’re in Friday rush-hour Honolulu traffic into the city. An hour later, we’d landed at our parking garage, shut down our lunar lander, had dinner at the Hula Grille, on a lanai at our hotel, and then crashed in b
ed, exhausted.
A
No comments:
Post a Comment