Hiking, Heroes and a lack of Fishies

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Saturday I had every intention of spending the entire day on the beach with a book and my I-Pod until I got a text message from Shayne with the offer of hiking Diamond Head crater. Not exactly a relaxing morning on the beach but he promised he would take me to one after. We hiked the hour and a half roundtrip hike which for me was more of a positive because of the workout not so much the view. The view was spectacular but luckily Hawaii is full of spectacular views so this one I just added to the list. We made our way to a small beach and laid around all afternoon reading and eating and sleeping and snorkling and swimming. Yay!! At one point I saw a man walking out of the water with a surfboard..I asked him how the waves were and he said great followed by “Merry Christmas” He then dropped his surfboard beside us. He just GAVE us a surfboard. I took it to Darek later that day as a Thank you for showing me a great time in Hawaii present.

Sunday December 7th, 2008 was one of the top five greatest days in my 27 years. I woke up at 4 am got picked up by Shayne and headed to Pearl Harbour. We waited in line and then boarded a boat to the site of where a memorial service for all those lives that were lost on December 7th, 1941. I met and shook hands with people that survived that day and went on the serve our country and fight in World War Two. I heard an airman from the Doolittle raid on Tokyo speak about his 15 hour one way plane ride to retaliate for the Pearl Harbour attack. Those men knew they didn't have enough gas to get back yet they boarded their planes anyway. I stood above the Arizona, a tomb for so many people. I listened to the senator of Hawaii give a passioned speech about our world at war then and our world at war now. I cried during the moment of silence at 7:55 am when the attack began 67 years ago. It was a day of reflecting on the history that made this country what it is today..that made this world what it is today. I was humbled.

Today I spent the day fishing with Darek and his friends on the “Pretty Woman,” A yacht one of his friends is the captain of. We never caught anything but just being on a boat out on the water all day was exactly what this trip is all about. I enjoyed laughing with all of his friends and especially enjoyed feeling like I was really really rich for a day on a fancy yacht.
These last few days..as all the other days have been...were kickass. :-)

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Photos

Deliciousness
My banana chocolate Oreo goodness dessert

The service
we pulled up to this view before the service at around 6am

Salute
A survivor putting a wreath for one of the battleships damaged or sunk during the attack

A survivor
One of the last living Arizona survivors

Wreaths
There were loads in the memorial given in respect on Pearl Harbour day from countries and organizations

The USS Missouri
This was taken from the memorial. You can see the oil still seeping out from the USS Arizona

Comments

[Abby]

I am glad you had such a good couple of days, and the memorial went well. Thats so great you got to meet some of the survivors. love you!