Thursday, August 06, 2009

6am

6:oo.
A.M.
That's what time you have to get up in August when you want to get on the first tour at the USS Arizona Memorial.
Well, technically we were up a little earlier than that, and we were out of the house by 6.
Early.
Well, at least for me.
The first tour wasn't until 7:45, so we still had over an hour to wait, but the weather was really nice, the crowds were really minimal, and Dave was able to stay home with the kids, so I didn't have to drag them out to the visit the Memorial for the third time. They are really good about it, but it's really not super kid friendly or something children should have to enjoy three times in a summer.
They sit through the video presentation. They enjoy the boat ride. And they are very reverent on the memorial, while looking over the edges to see the sunken ship.
How much can you ask?
I love the memorial.
I love the video. I love the boat ride. I love the reverence that {most} people show on the memorial. I love seeing the sunken ship.
I just love history and humanity.

And I can't think of a graceful segue to this next portion of our day, so....
The Aloha Stadium Swap Meet is in the Pearl Harbor vicinity, so we had to stop by.
And, I had to take a picture of it.
We go to the swap meet kind of a lot.
And whenever we go to the swap meet, we always go to Lin's Market. Sometimes we go just for Lin's Market. Most often for the honey roasted macadamia nuts and li hing powder, but Dave also likes tsunami popcorn (I'm sorry. I can't explain it. It has some other stuff in it besides popcorn and it's sprinkled with li hing powder. That's all I've got.). They have all kinds of random snacks and treats (and a good variety of Asian candy).
Other things we've been known to purchase at the swap meet: sunglasses, cheap t-shirts, ukuleles, key chains, kukui nut necklaces, etc, etc, etc.
Dave's brother calls it the junk meet.
Although they have several vendors offering local fruits, we have never tried them. But Andrew wanted to try a couple today, so I took pictures.
Drinking the juice straight from a coconut?
Nasty.
Eating the meat right out of the coconut?
Nasty.
Fresh pineapple with li hing powder?
Delicious!!! (actually we eat this one at home all the time)!
We went home and rested during the afternoon and then headed down to Waikiki for dinner. I didn't take any pictures, because we actually didn't get out of the car on the main strip. We just drove by it, and then went to dinner. If you don't stay in Waikiki, at least check it out. It's part of the Oahu experience.
And I've never seen a beach more crowded.
And that's it for today (except for Dave's birthday, but I'll write about that in another post). I'm tired.
Good night.

1 comment:

Heatherlyn said...

When we were in Puerto Rico my kids broke open coconuts and drank out the milk and I tried the meat. It's really got a nutty taste to it. No wonder they call them coconuts. I didn't think it was so bad. But compared to fresh pineapple? There are few things better than the pineapple!

I have obviously never been to the Memorial but it is one of the places I'd like to see in my lifetime.