Days 2 and 3: Honolulu, Hawaii

Days 2 - 3 (7/10/02 - 7/11/02): Honolulu

We got up and the group went down to Perry's Smorgy, a place where it was all you can eat breakfast. After that Mike got us on a bus then took us down to Pearl Harbor. He was Samoan, I believe. He told us why all the natives called each other cousin (They all had the same uncle, Uncle Sam). We seen the memorial and then took a tour of Honolulu with another bus driver. He told us some interesting things about Honolulu.

1.      Most people work two jobs so that they can afford to live there.
2.      A fellow named Bishop married a great (or so) granddaughter of King Kamehameha and 

       basically inherited the islands. He is very rich and has invested in the school system here.
3.      If you can prove that you’re at least 50% Hawaiian, you can get a $1/year land lease for a house.
4.      All of Honolulu uses water from a drilled Aquifer that is very good water.

We stopped at the statue of King Kamehameha, a good looking statue that was downtown. The story goes that he became king by forcibly beating the other tribes into following him. Another story goes that the English persuaded Kamehameha to become king so that they only had to deal with one person instead of a bunch of tribes.

Stella Wilcox and Linda Graham at the statue of King Kamahamaha

While we were getting pictures, there was a truck that had been packing up the set from a Bruce Willis movie that was just shot. We found out it was called "Tears of the Sun." I guess it's an army flick. 

Next we returned to see the memorial of the USS Arizona. We saw a short film about the situation leading up to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I thought the film was done fairly and talked reasonably about why Japan bombed the U.S. 

The USS Arizona in Pearl Harbor

After the film, we boarded a boat that took us to the memorial. While we were on it, we saw the "Tears" of the Arizona, which were drops of oil that were released from the ship. It's estimated that the ship loses about a quart a day. It was very quiet and calm as we observed the memorial and the Arizona below. Some of the people there were greatly affected. 

We got back from the memorial and spent a couple of hours at the hotel in preparation of the luau. 

The students went shopping in the International Village when they could barter the prices. Finally the bus picked us up at 4:00 to take us to Paradise Cavern, the site of the luau. We got there in time to get Complimentary Mai Tais (virgin for the students) and participate in such activities as:

·         Spear throwing
·         Lei making
·         Crown making
·         Fishing with nets
·         Showers of flowers
·         Demonstration of the pig/boar removal from the pit for the luau

At 7:00 the meal started. There was chicken, poi, rice, pork, salad, and other luau traditions. While we ate, there were performers like dancers, flame stick twirlers, and music. The whole thing was very "touristy".

Abby showing off her hula skills

Abby and Jessica showing off her hula skills

We arrived back at the hotel around 10:30. Tamara took the kids shopping some more until they were ready for bed. They certainly enjoyed there last full night in Hawaii.

Day 3 (7/11/02): Honolulu

We got up extra early so that we could go snorkeling at the bay. We got there early enough and was given a lesson on how to snorkel and what to watch out for. We took another bus to the park entrance and proceeded to pay our $3.00. We went to the far end of the park, where there were less people. Then we got on our stuff and tried to get to the areas that had fish in them. We had to go over some sharp coral to get there. It was quite painful. Once we got there we snorkeled and saw some fish and marveled at the coral network that the fish went through. We had our fill of snorkeling and got some ice cream before going back to the hotel.

We had two hospitality rooms to keep all of our stuff until we went to the airport. The group spent the rest of the afternoon looking around and doing some more shopping. In the evening some of the students had their hair done in braids and some of the others went to the Hard Rock Cafe. The time change to Australia and the International Date Line were topics of conversation. It was determined that there was a 20 hour time change from Hawaii to Sydney. The flight is only about 10 hours. Around 9:00 we got on the bus and went to the airport. Some of the kids slept waiting for our 1:00 am flight that would take us to Sydney.