Sailing the Seven Seas…almost

Yesterday I was overcome by a bout of temporary insanity, deciding to join the navy and spend a life of indulgence in high tech machines and crisp white uniforms. I was on the Pearl Harbour tour and in geek heaven.

After awaking at the groggy time of 5:30am I was picked up by my tour bus as the sun crept over the mountains. The USS Arizona at Pearl Harbour is the second most visited US ‘attraction’ after the White House, hence the early morning queuing. The trip down to Pearl Harbour passed quickly thanks to our ever informative guide who was a fountain of information. It was very surreal to see the actual surroundings of places I’d studied throughout university. To get a kind of feel for how monumental this attack was, the emotions at the time somewhat compare to those of when 9/11 occurred, it was that unexpected. There are several ships lying on the floor of the sea, marked by pontoons floating on the surface. The memorial floats about the hull of the ship, which lies below and floats by on the surface from the depths. It’s known as the ‘tears of the Arizona’. I was hesitant that the whole adventure may be a declaration of American patriotism and war but overall it’s respectable and informative.

Following the Pearl Harbour memorial we headed over to the USS Missouri, which I was super excited about. The ship had been in 3 wars (World War II, Korea, Desert Storm) and was the location of the signing of the treaty that ended World War II when it was in Tokyo. It is MASSIVE. Once again, a great tour with tons of signage explaining all the intricacies of the ships’s history, equipment and day to day activities. I took a ton of photos for my dad because his geekness gene was most definitely passed onto me. My poor future children will one day endure family holidays where howling cries for ice-cream fall on the deaf ears of a mother engrossed in a display of decaying pottery, discovered in an ancient archaeological dig from the depths of the Amazon.

I met up with Aki and the fam at Ala Moana Beach Park in the afternoon. There I met up with Raymond and his extended family too. Raymond and Aki are old friends and last time I was in Hawaii I visited their house for a birthday bbq. Our bbq ran on ‘aloha time’ as Ryoko liked to call it. Started at 2pm and ate until 7pm. Whatta afternoon! I took some photos of our eating endeavours and will post them when I get back home in a couple of days.

A hu hou kakou (Until we meet again…)

Amnesty