This is Pulolu valley. There's an apostrophe somewhere in that name, but I can't remember where it goes. Anyway, it's this gorgeous section up in the northeastern part of the island. You drive up and park where the road ends and look down at this beautiful black sand beach. We took a trail down to the bottom where we shot some more pics.
The sand was very strange. It is black sand from the lava, but it is really fine and soft, almost squishy to walk on. And it sticks to everything! The beach was great though. We just hung out for a little while and made the hike back up.
Some random guy took our pic!
We had a luau that night and the next morning headed out for Oahu. We stayed at a famous little hotel on Waikiki beach called the Moana Surfrider. It had just been redone and was a nice place to stay. I must say though, that by this point I was tired and ready to get back home to my little girl. Plus, it was Memorial Day weekend and Waikiki was absolutely packed! It was hard to have fun at the beach because everywhere you stepped you were in danger of crushing a child or people sunbathing. Above is a shot of Waikiki's coastline from right in the middle. You can see Diamond Head in the background.
This is our hotel. It was a very pretty hotel in the middle of some very ugly ones!
Our last day in Hawaii we took off to Pearl Harbor. We didn't realize that there was a time that they stopped selling tickets to the actual memorial, and we got there too late. So, we couldn't take the shuttle out to the monument so we walked around the grounds and looked at the museum and still had a good time. The above shot is just a carrier that is docked at the harbor. It is still an active harbor and I don't think this ship had any significance to the attack...I just thought it was cool looking.
This is a submarine that was launched after the attack. You could go out on the sub and walk around inside. It was pretty cool.
It was Memorial Day weekend so I thought it was fitting that I take a shot of a Marine looking at a replica of the USS Arizona. It is the most famous of boats that was sunk the day of the attack. I believe that there were 1700 lives lost on that boat alone and over 1,000 of them are still at the bottom of the ocean. There are two smoke stacks that stick up out of the water. The actual Memorial is built over the USS Arizona as a bridge without actually touching it. I thought that was neat.
The toilet inside the sub! It was so cramped. I would never have survived being on one of these. I am definitely too claustrophobic.
Bunks. There were four rows of bunks. One against each wall and two in the middle. They slept three deep. No way!
Their kitchen. They still had it set up with dishes and everything. Crazy.
This was where they loaded the torpedoes. I must admit that it was a bit creepy being down there thinking about all the action that took place on this sub.
This was just crazy. The Japanese had built a one man suicide torpedo. If you look in the middle, there is a little window where you can look into the "cockpit." One person could steer the torpedo and ram it into boats and subs. There were only two torpedoes that actually detonated on us. Each one was "driven" by one of the two men who invented this atrocity.
This little flower was on a small tree at Pearl Harbor. I just thought it was pretty!!
So, that concludes our trip. We came home later that day and flew all night. I didn't get any sleep because the man across the aisle decided to read all night. He kept his light on ALL NIGHT!! I hope it was a good book!!
Hope you all are enjoying your summer!
Valerie
Hope you all are enjoying your summer!
Valerie
1 comment:
It certainly seems as though you and Jason had a wonderful time! Jamie and I haven't been to Hawaii, but we would love to. Hope you find a little relaxation time somewhere this summer ~
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