Land Ho - It's Hawaii

Evidence suggests that Polynesians first populated Honolulu as early as 1100 A.D.  It is located over two thousand long, wet miles west of San Diego. The city has a little over 900,000 residents. Honolulu means “sheltered bay”.   It is 5 hours behind East Coast time – 6 hours during daylight saving time (which they wisely don’t bother to observe.) This may explain my “ship Lag” or whatever you call “jag lag” at sea.  I just know I have viewed more sunrises lately than is typical for me. We used to come here with the kids, but this is Jim’s first visit to Hawaii. We went to see Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.  This, of course, is the memorial to the crew aboard the USS Arizona who lost their lives during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December of 1941.  I believe about 1000 crew members are still entombed in the sunken ship.  If you haven’t been here or seen pictures, it is sort of a bridge-like structure that you get to by boat. From this building, sitting over the water, you can view the remains of the ship under you. It sits in rather shallow water with parts of the ship above water. There are museums that are also part of the memorial, with pictures and memorabilia related to the attack on Pearl Harbor. Interestingly enough, Pearl Harbor has as many visitors from Japan as it does from the US.  There is always a long wait to view the memorial. We arrived at 9:30 in the morning and the first available tour was at 12:30 pm. We had rented a car and since we had 3 hours, we headed across the island. We wanted to go to North Shore and see the “pipeline” - impressive waves and picture post card beaches. We watched some slightly crazy surfers paddle out about a quarter mile and surf the waves. No, I didn’t attempt to “hang ten”, but I did stick my toe in the water.   As for Hawaii itself, it is the only US state that grows coffee and it produces about 320,000 tons of pineapple each year. While some of the island’s beaches are just as picturesque as what you see in any travel brochure – Honolulu itself is just a city with crowded beaches.  I’ll throw in this tidbit for Hannah. The state fish of Hawaii is the humuhumunukunukuapua. (I just wanted Courtney to have to try to pronounce it for her.) The Hawaiian alphabet consists of only twelve letters. The five vowels are A,E, I, O,U. And the seven consonants are H,K,L,M,N,P,W. No wonder they have to repeat them so often just to name a fish! ( All Hawaiian words end in a vowel).  After a full day of touring, we returned the car and struck out in search of the great wi fi connection – thus did Jim have his first “Hooters” experience.