Blogs from Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, United States, North America - page 17

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North America » United States » Hawaii » Oahu » Honolulu December 10th 2010

Well it took about a week and a half for us to finally make the 1/4th mile journey to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial, but we finally did it. I'd see it every day as I drove across the Ford Island bridge, but standing on it was a completely different perspective and feeling. The tour starts with a 45-minute video of the "who, what, when, where, and why" of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a phenomenal video (I believe it was narrated by Stockard Channing which made it even better because her voice is great). It laid out a vast amount of information that gave me better understanding of the event. Even after all of the history classes I took and being a history teacher, I didn't know some of the information they gave us! ... read more
Arizona Memorial
Moor
Main Room

North America » United States » Hawaii » Oahu » Honolulu December 6th 2010

See!? It's been about four days since I last updated this thing. Some of it was due to being too busy, but there was a smidge of laziness in there. So, to appease the parental worrier out there..... The Polynesian Cultural Center was pretty fun; I give it an 8.5/10. It was an all day event that led us through most of the different Polynesian islands (Fiji, Tonga, New Zealand, Samoa, etc.). Each "island" had its own part of the center where the culture and traditions were explained and performed by individuals who were actually from the island (but may not have actually ever performed the tradition because the tradition may not really be performed as much anymore). For instance, in the "island" area of Samoa, a man showed the crowd how to crack a coconut, ... read more
Mountain
Tree climber
Dancers

North America » United States » Hawaii » Oahu » Honolulu December 3rd 2010

ALOHA! (Hello!) I don't think I'll ever have to set an alarm while I live here. Perhaps my body will never get used to the time change. I was awake by 6:30 this morning! What is this nonsense!? But do not fear, I didn't get out of bed until nearly 8:00am. Whew! Okay, so we are staying in the Navy Lodge located on Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. We're a stones throw from the USS Utah and the USS Arizona and Missouri. The majority of Ford is housing for Navy personnel but there are some other buildings at the far end of the island. I'd say the entire length of the island is about 2.5 miles; this makes for great running because there is a track-type route from our room to the other end of the ... read more
Air control tower
Island
Island

North America » United States » Hawaii » Oahu » Honolulu December 1st 2010

"Tourists always labor under a time constraint and are the unwitting vistims of cost efficiency; so they stay together, travel with a narrow compass, and tend to stay put once they have arrived. This is the result of both accident and design, it is a favor and it is also a conspiracy. Tourists are contained, partly for their own benefit, partly for the benefit of locals. By being kept in one place, there is no risk of their interrupting the flow of local life." - Paul Theroux on Waikiki As always when one prepares to leave, a wave of fond nostalgia appears to sweep away the negative aspects of the experience; leaving behind mostly warm, rose-colored memories. Such is the case as I plan my last weeks in Hawaii. I find myself caught up in ... read more
Diamond Head at dusk
Wow.
Sunset

North America » United States » Hawaii » Oahu » Honolulu December 1st 2010

As I still get used to the idea that I am not vacationing nor at an Army school, but rather LIVING on the beautiful island state of Hawaii, I can't help but think of the Family that is currently being blanketed in the cold and snow back in the Mitten. With the large time difference that will and has made it difficult to stay in phone contact with everyone, I figured that this is now my chance to actually have the stamina to keep up an online journal so I'm staying up-to-date with those in the Midwest or South (for all you Floridians that can't help but wonder what state is actually more beautiful...hehe!). I will try my hardest to be consistent with up-dating this, but as is the life of being in the Army, there ... read more

North America » United States » Hawaii » Oahu » Honolulu October 19th 2010

North America » United States » Hawaii » Oahu » Honolulu October 14th 2010

This is Dianne writing now. I decided to give Bruce a little break and take a turn with our blog. He has been working so hard lately as you can see. (photo) Our next stop was Honolulu, Oahu. We decided to pay for a hop on hop off trolley figuring this was the best way to see Honolulu since it was our first time here. That was a mistake. The traffic in this city was pretty bad. We wanted to stop at the famous Waikiki beach but that was also very crowded. What were we thinking .... we should have gone out of Honolulu to see some of the island but next time we know better. I am also sorry we missed Pearl Harbor. (pictures ) Next day we went to Kona (the biggest island in ... read more
Duke Statue
Aloha Tower
Honolulu at night

North America » United States » Hawaii » Oahu » Honolulu September 1st 2010

Once again, we have a mile high blog entry! We are high above the Tasman Sea on our way to Auckland. It’s a relatively short flight, only two and a half hours. For the first time in a long time, we experienced cold weather last night and this morning. We even had our fleeces and jeans on to come to the airport this morning! (PS - We are on to day 2 in New Zealand now when I am actually able to put this online!) Well, back to Hawai’i and picking up the story after our day seeing the natural sights of the south east coast of O’ahu on Wednesday. We had a double whammy of great activities planned for Thursday. First of all, we drove up the east coast towards Kualoa Ranch. This ranch is ... read more
Kaulua Ranch
Pearl Harbour bunker sign
Pearl Harbor Bunker

North America » United States » Hawaii » Oahu » Honolulu July 19th 2010

2 months in Hawaii for wedding preparations!... read more

North America » United States » Hawaii » Oahu » Honolulu May 18th 2010

We almost didn't make our flight out of Cairns; our shuttle driver first got caught doing an illegal U-turn, then after receiving a fine got pulled over a second time for not having license on his trailer. The police weren't allowing him to drive AT ALL with the trailer, but after a short debate they allowed him to quickly drop us off at the airport before taking it off the road. We thought that would be enough excitement for the day, but when we arrived at the airport we found out that our flight had been moved forward almost 3 hours, and was due to take off in 30 minutes! We were rushed through check-in, then told we could not push in at security, so stood in queues until about 2 minutes before our flight was ... read more
A view in the eyes of Dan
USS Arizona memorial
At the top of Diamond Head, view of Waikiki




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