Honolulu and Pearl Harbor

Good morning from Hawaii! Yesterday was a mostly cloudy, warm, humid day. We had our highlights of the city tour at 11:00. Our first stop was at Iolani Palace, and statue of King Kamehameha. I know the spelling is wrong on that. Spellcheck didn’t change it for me. It was just a photo stop for 10 minutes. Then we headed out to Pearl Harbor. They have a “no bag” policy. You can have a bag the size of a cell phone or a clear plastic bag to carry thing in. Our little purses were too big. Luckily I always carry a supply of Ziplock bags. So we shoved our things in a quart sized bag and we were good to go. From the visitors center you can see the Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri. The Missouri is facing the Arizona with its guns raised over the memorial, protecting it in perpetuity. We could have gotten in a standby line to go visit the Arizona but we probably wouldn’t have made it back in time for our bus. We watched the movie about the attack on Pearl Harbor. We split a sandwich in the snack bar, walked around some more, and hit the gift shop. When it was time to walk back to the bus, it was raining, of course. It rains every day here. Bunny had brought her hat so she was ok. I didn’t and got my head soaked.
‘We had time on our return to go to our room, rest up a bit, then head out for the Luau at 4:00. We felt like we were in LA. The traffic was slow and go most of the way to Paradise Cove where the outdoor luau was held. Luckily the rain held off in spite of the dark clouds overhead. The clouds parted just in time for a sunset picture. They had several activities and a gift shop. We got a $20 voucher and a free mai tai when we walked in. They were hoping we’d spend the voucher on booze. I went to the gift shop and got a nice wooden bowl and my second turtle, all for free! Dinner was served, a roast pig, chicken, fried and roasted, and a piece of fish. My plate came minus the fish. There was also a small container of poi. I tasted it-pretty bland. The show started as we were eating. It was a great show. The dancers did dances from all the Polynesian countries. They had a lot of costume changes. At the end the guys came out with the fire batons. It was amazing. Then we got back on the bus for our ride home. We were back by 9:30. It was a very good day on Oahu..

I forgot to mention the chicken. There are wild chickens everywhere in Hawaii. This one greeted us as we were walking to Pearl Harbor.