Aloha from Oahu

We apologize that there are no photos. Barre left the transfer cable at home. Photos will follow when we get home. We left North Adams Jan 12 staying at a motel in Albany and catching the plane early Thursday morning. The day we travelled to Albany we had a 22 inch snowstorm. Our first flight was delayed an hour, but this did not affect the flight from Chicago to Honolulu.

The first day we toured downtown Honolulu seeing some of the famous buildings of Honolulu. These included the Iolani Palace (only palace on U.S. soil), the Judiciary Building (new Hawaii
5-O police headquarters) We even saw them filming a segment of Hawaii 5-O to be aired in two weeks.

Saturday we headed up to the north shore of Oahu. We visited the Waimea Park and falls. This is a botanical garden that goes back into the base of the western mountains along the north shore. We then travelled up along the north shore and the famous surfing beaches. This was a beautiful day and the beaches were busy with sunbathers and surfers. The waves were about 10 ft. high. We stopped at the Banzai Pipeline and Sunset Beavh, two of the famous surfing beaches. We then headed around the northern tip of Oahu to the town of Laie and the Polynesian Cultural Center. The center represents the major Polynesian Island Cultures of the Pacific: Figi, Samoa, Maori (NewZealand), Tonga, Tahiti, and Hawaii. The park is set up as villages of these main island cultures. Here we learned about their music and dance. We went to the villages of Samoa (fire starting by rubbing two sticks together, opening a coconut, and climbing palm tree barefooted), Tahiti (dance, where visiters participated) and Tonga (visitor participation with beating of drums). That night we saw the major two hour production of song and dance of all the island cultures. The fire twirlers of Samoa were outstanding.

Today, Sunday we visited the National Cemetary of the Pacific (Punchbowl) where many of the military of WW II, Korean War, and the Vietnam War are buried. We then went to Pearl Harbor for the very emotional experience of visiting the Arizona War Memorial. There is a half-hour movie on the history of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This is followed by a trip out into the harbor to the War Memorial. Oil is still leaking from the Battleship Arizona. They predict that this will continue for another 50 years. The memorial in the harbor is over the sunken Arizonia, The list of over 2000 servicemen killed in the bombing attack on the Arizona are listed on the wall at one end of the Memorial. After visiting Pearl Harbor we again visited the North Shore to see the 15-30 ft predicted waves. The surf was extremely violent. The surf was high and a weather front was also moving through. We were told that waves could easily reach 50 ft or higher in the next few days. We will have to see what the north shore of Maui is like Tuesday or Wednesday. This evening it rained for the first time. Daytime temperatures have been in the high 70's to 80 degrees F.

Tomorrow we will visit the southeast corner of Oahu. More to come from Maui.

Barre & Marion