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The Tuesday before New Years was a fun day.  It was a BEACH DAY!  The last time we went to the beach we weren't really prepared.  Mommy and Daddy wanted to go on a walk and we ended up playing a little in the water.  This was an official beach day where I got my swim trunks and we brought towels and put on the sunscreen so we could play in the sand.  It was so much fun!

It's more fun to see what we did rather than me tell it so enjoy this little picture show.  There are two versions of this movie.  One is a lower bandwidth for those on dialup and the other is a higher bandwidth for those on DSL, broadband or corporate LANs.  Select the one that works best for your internet speed.

The day after our great beach day was a tourist day.  Daddy loves history and Mommy finds military things interesting.  Even though she'd been there before, Mommy took Daddy and Uncle Chris and me to Pearl Harbor.  This place is so big.  They have really big boats, planes and lots of water, but you can't swim in this water.  It's only about a 10 minute drive to the Harbor from our hotel and did we have a full day!

We got up pretty early and tried to take off from our hotel to get our tickets to the Arizona Memorial.  I don't know how many of you have ever been there but there is a REALLY long line you have to wait in to get your tickets.  But the tickets only tell you when to come back and get back in line to get into to the ship.  Mommy thinks they are the original inventors of the fast pass (ala Disney). 

I tried to be a good boy.  Since it was early in the morning it was still somewhat cool and there wasn't any rain anywhere.  The line moved but it was a very long line and it took a lot of moving to get to the front. I got tired of Mommy and Daddy holding me so I convinced them to let me stand and walk around a little bit.  The people in front of us were really nice. I bothered them a little bit but they thought I was cute and didn't mind.  Hehe.  It took about 90 minutes (according to Daddy) to get through the line just to get our ticket to come back.  We were set to return at about noon which was a little bit away.  So while we waited we went to the other tourist thing we wanted to see: the USS Missouri. 

The USS Missouri was brought to Pearl Harbor in 1999 to be used as a historical museum.  They advertised all over the island.  Go here if you want to see a beautiful website containing lots of information and tour packages http://www.ussmissouri.com/ for the USS Missouri.  There are a few differences between the Missouri and the Arizona. 

1) the Arizona was sunk in WWII and rests there today and the Missouri is still above water and was brought to Pearl Habrbor in 1999
2) the Arizona is a tomb to 1102 soldiers and the Missouri is a living historical museum to thousands
3) tours to the Arizona are free thanks to state funding and the entire memorial for the Missouri is funding by a private organization which means that you have to pay for tours on the Missouri and they have a few different packages
4) you have to wait in a really really REALLY long line to get tickets to the Arizona and you have to wait about 5 minutes to pay for your tickets to the Missouri

After we bought our tickets to view the Missouri, we returned to the tour building for the Arizona because we didn't want to miss our tour time.  These two sites are within walking distance of each other.  We got into line and waited to go into a movie theatre.  By this time it was very humid and I was sweating a lot.  It's more humid at the Harbor than even at Waikiki which is weird because they're both on the water.  My hair started sticking to my forehead because it was so hot.  Uncle Chris thought it was funny so he took this picture of me.

Before going on the little boat that would take us to the Arizona, we viewed a film that showed us the history of the Arizona and all the men who died on her.  It was a very informative movie and the room was cool because of the air conditioning.  Since it was really dark in there and I was finally cooling down, I fell asleep on Mommy's lap before the film was over.  Uncle Chris thought that was cute and took this picture of me as we exited the cool dark film room and loaded onto the little boat. 

The little boat took us on the water in Pearl Harbor and to the white Memorial floating over the sunk remains of the battleship Arizona. It's a very short ride on a medium sized boat that takes you over the somewhat choppy waters of Pearl Harbor.  There are a few markers along the way to let you know where you're headed including this white marker which indicated where the Arizona was docked before she exploded during the raid on the Harbor.

Once there the entire boatload of people unloaded onto the ramp they attached to the memorial.

Walking up the ramp is a strange experience.  You can feel the sway of the water and see the oil that has continued to leak into the Harbor waters to this day.  Mommy became very silent as we walked around the memorial.  Remember, there are more than a thousand people who died on board this ship and this is their grave.  Mommy didn't talk much and didn't take many pictures.  She said it's a strange feeling making the memorial a picture spot where you would smile and take family vacation pictures.  Instead, she stood with me quietly reading the 1102 names engraved in marble wall that serves as their grave marker.  There is smaller section of the wall with names inscribed indicating the men who chose to be entombed on the memorial after their own deaths decades later.  This is a special honor reserved for those who were survivors of the original raid.  As you read the wall of names, you'll see many similar names.  There were 34 sets of brothers stationed on the Arizona, two of those sets were twins.  There was also a father-son pairing aboard the Arizona that that fateful morning.  These are the pictures that Mommy did take while visiting the memorial.  Like I said there weren't many pictures that she took because she wanted to pay respects to those who died.

The tour isn't very long.  It's just long enough for the boat to take the last tour back to land and bring in the next tour which is about 15 minutes or so.  The memorial isn't very big but it's an interesting and quieting experience.  It strides the width of the ship below.  Unlike the sandy beaches or green mountains the memorial floats quietly over the water and makes you feel like being quiet.  When the boat came back we boarded and returned to the dock.  Our tour was over and so was the Arizona experience. 

After the tour we decided to eat lunch and then go over to the Missouri.  Unlike the Arizona tour, we could tour the Missouri at anytime.   After lunch we continued our long day at the Harbor and took a little shuttle to the start of the Missouri tour.

The USS Missouri is a retired ship that used to fire humongous battle guns at the enemy.  This is us at the entrance to the dock. The ship behind is only half of the Missouri because it's SOOOO big.

Mommy and Daddy decided to buy a guided tour so someone who knew something about the ship's history could give us a personalized tour.  There was no one else on the tour but us so it was very personalized.  The tour guide was a former Navy sailor and was quiet a history buff on the history of the Missouri.

Let me start by telling you just how BIG this ship is.  It's enormous.  I'd never seen anything that big before.  It is bigger than 100 hundred of the planes that took us to Hawaii.

By the time we got to the Missouri it started getting hotter so the tour felt kind of long but at least it was interesting.  There were buttons to push everywhere!

The Missouri is a floating landmark so the tour guide nicely asked me to not push most of the buttons in the radio room a few other places.  I did my best but it was so tempting!  I don't want to give a history lesson here but the tour guide told us that the USS Missouri is participated in one of the biggest moments in history.  It was on the decks of the Missouri that General MacArthur met with the representatives of the Japanese Imperial government and Emperor to sign the Instruments of Surrender at Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945.  Mommy, Daddy, Uncle Chris and I walked the same path that MacArthur walked It was a very interesting fact to know that Gen. MacArthur made the Japanese representatives wait for him just as a show to say that he, as representative of the United States, would not wait for them but they would wait for him.  There is a big seal over the spot where MacArthur and many other international delegates met and signed the Instrument of Surrender.  This is what it looked like.

This seal was the last stop on our formal tour.  It was a very interesting tour and there was lots to see.  The tour guide said we could go back to different parts of the ship and see things again or climb to different decks that we didn't see since we were done.  We stuck around for a while and then we left the ship.  I was pretty tired by then.  At this point we left Pearl Harbor and drove back to our hotel to rest. 

This was a kick back day for us.  We went back to the Ala Moana mall to finish up some souvenir shopping.  Uncle Chris wanted to find a particular visor and was searching everywhere for it.  Again we were there for a good part of the day because the mall is so huge.  We did enjoy another great Kalua Pig lunch from a mall restaurant called Poi Boy.  YUM!

The next day was another beach day.  Mommy wanted to go to Hanauma Bay, the first place she first visited when she came to Hawaii when she was 11.  Now one thing about Hanauma Bay is that it gets very crowded very early.  If there isn't any parking, then you're out of luck and must find another beach haven.  We got out too late and were out of luck.  So we called Grandpa Tom to tell him that Hanauma Bay parking was closed.   He suggested we try the other place that they visited 2 or 3 years ago called Ko'Olina.  It's a long drive out to the far western side of O'ahu.  Not many tourists go here unless they're staying at one of the nice and newly built resorts. 

On our way to Ko'Olina we stopped by a few breathtaking picture spots.  On O'ahu is one of the worlds 3 recorded blowholes.  It is a natural rock formation.  When the waves hit it just right the water shoots up through the opening and looks like a whale's blowhole.  These are two pictures of our stops.  It may look like I am going to topple over the edge but Mommy let got of my hand for a 1/2 second and almost got it stuck in the picture.  I didn't move anyway...

We were anxious to get to the Ko'Olina resort area.  We wanted to play in the clean and calm waters of the Ko'Olina resort lagoons.  They have 4.  The only problem was that since the lagoons are also accessible to the public, parking fills up pretty fast.  We thought we were out of luck again until we discovered a 4th lagoon.  They had some spots left so we phoned Grandpa Tom and hoped they were close.

This place is so amazing.  Unlike Waikiki which is pretty flat and very crowded, Ko'Olina is not as crowded and past the giant boulders the water is crashing like at the North Shore in the winter time. This is a combination of 2 pictures that Mommy took.  The beach was too wide to take in one shot.  But you can see how pretty it was to visit.

See the pictures below and you'll see the boulders.  The second picture is Grandma Aurora with the giant waves crashing into the boulders.  I'm glad they had the wave break because they break up the huge waves that come crashing in so that the water is calm and easy for little kids like me.  The third picture is the waves before they come in on the boulders.  Now those waves would be way too big for me!

The sand at this beach area is white and looks almost vaccuumed (that's what Grandpa Tom said).  Mommy said that they built a very long sea shelf so that you can walk out a really long way before the sand gets too deep to walk and you have to swim.  Since Mommy was watching me, she stayed in the shallow water where I could splash around without getting lost in the water.  Once in a while the waves would come in but they'd hit the huge boulders and break up in to tiny swells.  Nothing too bad.

We were at Ko'Olina beach all day from noon until about 5 or 6 o'clock.   The water was so warm and clear and fun to play in.  There were other kids at the beach, too.  They had these great toys that floated in the water and I kept wanting to play with them. Unfortunately they weren't mine so I couldn't play with them so I dug in the sand instead.   

They did a great job desiging these lagoon beaches.

Waaaay above there are some trees for shade with the usual short Hawaiian beach grass so that  you get something soft to sit on and eat on if you want to take a break from the sun. 

They have bathrooms and beach showers to wash off after a long day in the water.  Mommy and Daddy really loved that. I loved playing in the water.  I splashed around and sort of swam around for a long time.  Then I'd get tired of floating around so I'd climb back onto the sand and dig.  Almost dug a hole deep enough to hide me!  After a while I got kind of cold so that my lips started shaking but I didn't want to leave the water.  At that point, Mommy pulled me out of the water and dried me off, changed me and sat me down out of the sunshine.  Grandma Aurora gave me some chicken and bread to eat.  It was so yummy after playing in the water!  I was hungry... Mommy thought I was done playing in the water because I was shivering from the cold.  But I surprised her. I started wandering around the sand, digging holes.  Then I decided to sit IN the water..again.  So, no more dry diaper, no more dry clothes.  But at this point she was tired from being in the sun and just laid down on the sand.  Daddy got to chase me around the beach for a while.

By the end of the day, we took so many pictures even while we were splashing around that there's too much to show here.  Mommy thought they'd be nice in a little video. If you'd like to see, click the play button below. Again the Low Bandwidth is for the slower connections like dialup.  The High Bandwidth is for faster connections like DSL, Broadband and T1 or T3 connections.  Enjoy!