Pearl Harbour

Since we arrived here there has been a great deal of digging and construction going on in front of the condo. A couple of days ago they finally finished it up, filled in the holes, and poured fresh concrete over everything (shh, don't tell - we put our initials in the concrete). The result? The fountain is working again!

Yesterday we had planned to take a hike up to the top of Diamond Head. Well, maybe planned is too strong a word; we thought we might like to take a hike up there. In the morning we realized that we hadn't really planned it and had no food or liquids. Instead we decided to hele on over to the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbour.

We knew the bus we needed to catch, and the time it was scheduled to depart, so we got to the stop about 5 minutes early and waited. And waited. A half hour later, the next scheduled bus rolled up, right on time. So, either our time is way off from TheBus time, or the previous bus was waylaid, or something. The ride itself took a little over an hour. At least we had seats, an obvious benefit of boarding the bus at the first stop. Before we even got to the other side of Waikiki the bus was full and was no longer stopping for folks on the street.

It's been 27 years since my last trip out to the memorial and they've really built up quite a display. When I was in the Air Force at Hickam I came over to Pearl Harbour, stood in a short queue, and took a Navy skiff out to the Memorial. This time we went through a line to check Sue's backpack (you can bring a small camera and whatever fits in your pocket; no bags of any sort), then got our tickets (still free) for the introductory movie. We arrived around 11:30 and our movie time was 1:30. We wandered over to a public mess tent and got a reasonably-priced sandwich, fries, and drink. Then we killed some time wandering through the museum and the book store.

Finally our number came up and we were herded into the movie theatre (Moo!). The movie was well done, explaining the events that lead up to the attack, the Japanese reasons for it, the attack itself, and the aftermath. Does it really take 60 years before we're willing to discuss the reasons for being attacked? Will Aaron be an old man before anyone delves any deeper into 9/11 than "They hate our freedoms?" Well, better to not get political here, but it's very hard not to draw comparisons between the two attacks when standing at the memorial of one of them.

Following the movie we were ushered onto a Navy Skiff (larger than in my previous trip) and brought to the memorial. The memorial obviously hasn't changed. It really is well done, allowing each visitor their own interpretation rather than forcing the architect's viewpoint.

We endured a somewhat nicer bus ride back into town and stopped at the Royal Hawaiian's Mai Tai bar, where Led Ka`apana was playing. We had a beer and listened to the music for a while. Eventually Led had to take a break because a wedding was about to take place on the lawn a few feet away. If it had been my wedding, I would have asked him to point the speakers our way and play "Slack Key Lullabye". But that's just me.

Dinner? Ulua sauted in onion and ginger, with a coconut-lime syrup. Hey, we had to improvise but it came out pretty good. :-)