#57 Home at Last.

Thanks for going with us on our trip.  Next launch is April 2013.  See you then.

 

Dec 5 – San Diego, California.  Disembarkation starts at 8:15am and we are scheduled for 8:45.  In USA ports this is often delayed by various inspections, screenings and other security, health or customs proceedings.  Since I’m sure that the ship has reported the novo outbreak there might be even more delays today.  So we’re up at 6:30am and headed to breakfast just in case things are on schedule.

 

Well, I’m not sure how it happened but disembarkation started on time and we were off the ship before 9am and on our way the auto rental location.  Customs apparently was not that interested in our ship and everyone I saw was waived through.  We didn’t have to go through Immigration as we had already done that in Honolulu.

 

We usually take the train but I had a thought.  Because we have a lot of luggage we have to take a taxi to the station, the train to Santa Ana, our station does not handle checked baggage, and then a taxi back home.  I looked up rental cars in San Diego for a one-way rental to John Wayne and it was a lot less expensive than the train and two taxis.  We got our car, drove to Irvine, unloaded the luggage, returned the car to John Wayne and were on our way to lunch at 11:30am.  The first train that had checked luggage to Santa Ana was at Noon so we’d still have been in the station in San Diego at that time.  Easiest trip from ship to home or vice versa we’ve ever had.

 

Now the unpacking and laundry begins.  It’s good to be back in the USA.

 

At Sea 11-30 to 12-4

I’m not sure what I was thinking when I labeled the last two emails 12-2 and 12-3, they were actually 11-28 and 11-29.  Duh.  Oh well, I was somewhat depressed to be getting off the ship.

 

6273  The Welcome Dance.  This dance is usually performed by a woman but in the past a man dressed in the same type costume would do it because there were no Indonesian females on the crew.  For several years now they have added women and they can do their traditional parts in the show.

6284  The Saman Dance.  You can see by the smiling faces that they are having a great time performing for us.  Most of the members are Lido wait staff, some are from the dining room.

6926  The cast of the Kecak Dance.  King Rama is wearing the green and gold wrap and Queen Sinta is to his right.  The white monkey is wearing the white mask and the rest of the cast are his army.

The last picture is and angklung.  On the right is a single angklung.  On the left is a picture of a rack that can hold an octave of angklungs that a single musician can play.

 

Nov 30 – Dec 4, At Sea.  The last 5 days at sea is a pretty good idea.  No pressure to pack quickly, time to rest up and get used to the last time zone changes.  The ship did these last two changes two days in a row at 2pm.  So we were on California time by December 1.  Nice.  When you’re at sea ship’s time can be whatever they say it is, it’s only in port that they need to be accurate.  The final proof of that was when we had the extra day.  We actually crossed the dateline the day before.

 

Unfortunately, our luck did not hold.  We’ve had some cases of the norovirus, very common on land, but in close quarters like a ship you have to try to nip it in the bud.  It’s a very common virus and not really dangerous.  When we get it on land we just think we ate something that didn’t agree with us or call it the 24 hour flu.  Problem with it is that it’s very easy to spread and you are contagious both before and after the symptoms are present.  In a public setting like a cruise ship that’s a problem.

 

We’ve been on the special dining system since the 2^nd.  The food on the buffet is all served to you.  Tableware is not put on the table but handed to you individually wrapped in a napkin.  No salt, pepper or other condiments on the tables or anywhere you can reach them.  You just ask the staff for what you want and they hand it to you.  In the dining room they don’t put the bread basket on the table but come around with the basket and ask what you would like.  Same for the butter.  There’s a steward at the door to the dining room and Lido with Purell and you can’t go in without using it.  They always have the dispensers but some of the jerks on the ship refuse to use it.  Now they have to or they don’t get in.

 

The library was closed on the 3^rd to prevent the spread of the virus by handling books and magazines.  We are reminded every day to wash our hands often and use the Purell dispensers.  Diana and I are using our own hand sanitizer, Surgicept, that I buy from Supreme Medical in Louisiana.  It not only sanitizes your hands but it’s also persistent.  That is, it remains on your skin and continues to kill any new bugs you encounter for up to 4 hours.  I can’t say that it’s the reason we didn’t catch it but I’m not willing to find out.  I really won’t travel without it.  It’s much thinner than Purell so it takes less to cover hour hands completely.  It has emollients in it that keep your skin from drying out and it dries on your hands so much faster and does not leave a weird feeling.  It has no added fragrance but I find the smell pleasant.  Can you tell I love it.  It’s approved for use as a surgical scrub without water so it really works.

 

We had the Indonesian Crew Show on Dec 1 before all the protective protocols were put in place.  It was much more ethnic that the Filipino show although they did have more modern music than they ever had before. 

 

Of course they still did the major dances that they always do.  They always have a Welcome Dance of some kind.  It’s not to welcome we mere mortals to the dance but to welcome the gods.  Most Indonesian folk dances are based on Balinese stories and most people from Bali are Hindus.  I’m not sure what the Islamic parts of the islands do for folk dances, maybe some are the same.  Muslims would not have a welcome dance for the gods because they are monotheistic.

 

The Saman Dance is performed by dancers kneeling in a line facing the audience.  They use their hands, arms, heads and torsos to perform synchronized movements that are a joy to watch.  Sometimes they wear white gloves and a portion of the dance will be performed with the house lights out and the stage lit with black light.  The white gloves glow and seem to be floating unaided in complex patterns.

 

The Saman performers had two very new members that they wisely put at the same end of the line.  The movements are relatively rapid and if you are out of sync you could get a pretty hard slap.  It’s always a big hit, pun definitely intended. 

 

The next act was a departure for the Indonesians, a modern US act.  An assistant waiter from the Pinnacle Grill performed as an Elvis impersonator.  He did a credible job but added a great deal of humor to the performance.  The crowd was laughing and cheering in equal measure.  It was a unique and pleasing performance.

 

The next act was more in the tradition of HAL Indonesian shows, although it’s the first time I’ve seen this particular dance.  In the Caci Dance a man in native dress with a whip came on the stage and after dancing for a short time started whipping his arms and legs as part of the dance.  The red welts on his body proved that this was not an act but some sort of traditional dance that usually involves two men with whips and shields that fight each other.  I guess this man is one of the few Manggarai people on the ship so in essence he’s fighting himself.  This dance is a rite of passage for young men and is performed at many celebrations, weddings, etc.  After the dance is over the two men show the women and young men in attendance the welts of the current fight as well as any scars from previous fights.  Having these marks is a sign of masculinity among this tribe.

 

The next performer sang a ballad from current popular Indonesian music.  From its mournful tone and the pained expression on his face I can only assume that it’s a love song.  Apparently both Filipino and Indonesian ballads are like country music in the USA, most of them are about love gone wrong.

 

The Kecak Dance tells the story of the Ramayana (Rama’s Journey), an ancient Sanskrit epic.  In the story the Hindu sage Valmiki, a monkey like humanoid, helps King Rama (an avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu) fight the demon-like King Ravana who has kidnapped Rama’s wife Sinta.  It’s a great story and the crew obviously has fun doing it.  In the version they did this evening Valmiki uses CPR to try to revive his army who have been placed under a spell by Ravana.  In the end he uses two flip-flops as defibrillator paddles to shock them awake.  This was definitely not in the original Sanskrit story.

 

The finale of an Indonesian crew show is always the angklung orchestra.  The angklung is a bamboo instrument that has tubes of bamboo that are suspended in a wooden frame.  When the frame is struck or shaken it strikes the tubes and produces a note.  Each frame usually has two tubes, which are tuned to the same note one octave apart.  Like a bell choir, each person has one or two angklungs and plays it when that note is needed.  It’s a very pleasant sound, I enjoy these performances.  They always play at least one American patriotic song like America the Beautiful.

 

Just in case you’ve never heard and angklung, here’s a YouTube clip.  The song is Do-Re-Me from The Sound of Music.  The orchestra is made up of former street children from Jakarta, Indonesia who are now residents of Yayasan KDM.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VouiV21yF9s

 

It was a late night but a great evening of entertainment.

 

Of course the most depressing part of cruising has to be done during this period, packing to leave the ship.  Very sad.

 

#55 Cont'd More Pictures

6153  The turtle on the island.  When he slipped into the water I thought I’d seen the last of him.

6181  But No!!  There he is creeping, crawling actually, up on me.

6223  Lava plume in the caldera of Kilauea Volcano.  You can see three places with molten lava, but the longer one in the center is shooting out about 30 feet at the longest point.

3227  This small island of trees and grass has a small stretch of road running through it.  Must be a high spot because the lava has totally surrounded it.

3230  Another narrow strip of land cut in half down the middle by lava.  Wonder where that road used to go.

6258  In a less volcanic part of the island there are waterfalls and rivers.  It’s been dry.  Imagine what these falls and streams would look like if it had been raining lately.

#55 Hilo, Hawaii, Hawaii 12/3 Lava, hot and cold.

I guess you all spotted my error in the title of my #54  Lahaina is on Maui, not Hilo which isn’t even an island.  Yikes!!

6106  The Boiling Pots.  It’s hard to see in the picture but that white area extending down and out from the falls is a mass of small bubbles that rise to the surface.

6115  The entrance to Kaumana Caves lava tube.  This is the area where the tubes top has collapsed.

6127  Looking back toward the entrance to the tube.  You can see the smooth floor of the tube at this point.  Well, it’s not all smooth but it does have smooth parts.

6128  This is the point where the tube under the main tube has collapsed leaving the resulting rocks strewn across the path.  You can see the girl at the left standing on a subsequent flow that came down the already empty tube.  That’s what produced the smooth parts of the floor.

6135  Please excuse this poorly shot picture that required extensive rotation to get the stairs in proper perspective.  It’s actually not rotated far enough.  You can tell because the stair treads are not yet parallel to the bottom of the frame.  But the further I rotated the less of the picture left in the frame.  Let’s just say that the stairs were steep.

 

Nov 29 - Hilo, Hawaii, Hawaii.  Today, once again, Diana and I are on separate tours.  She’s going on another helicopter flight and I’m going to see some of the islands lesser visited sites, local surf beaches, the ‘boiling pots’ and the Kaumana Caves, actually a lava tube.

 

Our tour will be in a van as there are only 7 of us going.  Our driver/guide looks the part of the ex-hippie, moved to the islands in the ‘80s sort.  He’s tall and thin but we would soon learn that he’s a student of Hawaiian culture and the local folklore.

 

On the way out of town we took a little tour of Hilo.  We drove through the park on a road lined with Banyan trees.  Apparently in the past it was common for a celebrity passing through Hilo to plant a Banyan tree along this parkway.  We saw trees planted by Emilia Earhart, George Herman ‘Babe’ Ruth and Leo Carrillo (Pancho on the Cisco Kid) and others I don’t remember. 

 

Our first stop was on the grounds of an old sugar mill.  Some of the infrastructure was still intact.  The old railroad bridge, the aqueduct that brought sugar cane to the plant like logs were floated down a river.  The railroad was a neat operation.  The cars of cane would park on the bridge and a crane would scoop the cane up and drop it onto ha hopper to be processed.  Most of the buildings have been demolished but the foundations and footings are still there.  They had a beautiful location right on the bay just outside Hilo.  The main building has been converted into office space and is still in use.

 

We drove up from the sea level mill on a winding blacktop road that was only just wide enough for two cars to pass.  It rose up through rain forest, with vines, ferns, various flowering plants and trees.  On one side we could look down on the ocean on the other up at the forest.  We stopped several times to view surfers in the water and near bridges to look at the streams underneath.  A very pleasant start to the tour.

 

Our guide told us about local customs and some of the history of Hilo, big sugar mill center at one time.  The road we were on was built in the 1800s to give access to the sugar mill.

 

We’re stopping at Rainbow Falls but we are not going to the parking lot for the viewing platform.  Instead we are going to park uphill from the falls and approach it through a banyan tree forest dotted with mango trees.  The path down the hill was easy to negotiate.  Every now and then there were natural lava rock stairs.  You had to pay attention to these because each stair was a different height and some had sizable gaps in the stones.  They have installed railings at the trickier parts.  The falls themselves were just a trickle.  They’re just coming out of dry season and the last part of it has been particularly dry.

 

From Rainbow Falls we drove to a small site just in the hills above Hilo.  We were the only people in the parking lot.  The overlook is above the Wailuku River where it cascades over old lava rocks and through several pools known as the ‘Boiling Pots’.  The water isn’t hot but the speed with which in enters the pool creates bubbles that make it look like the water is boiling.  Since it’s pretty dry the volume and speed of the water is reduced but the bubbling effect was still visible right were the cascade entered the pool.  It was a very peaceful and beautiful view.  If there’d been more water it would have been spectacular.

 

Our guide laid out a snack for us on one of the picnic tables.  Drinks and nuts, macadamia of course.  While we munched he gave us additional insight to the traditional Hawaiian religion and culture including a little history of the Kingdom of Hawaii and its conversion to statehood.

 

Once we returned to the van we discovered that our guide had place a large flashlight on each of our seats.  We’re headed from the Boiling Pots to the Kaumana Caves.  They’re not really caves at all but lava tubes.  Lava tubes are formed when a large volume of molted lava makes its way downhill.  The outside of the lava flow cool and forms a hard crust while the still molten center keeps flowing.  When the flow is very large and deep, like when it’s concentrated by flowing down a valley this can create a lava tube of impressive size.

 

We are entering a section of the tube where the ceiling has collapsed providing access to the tube itself.  The first sign we encountered said, “Kaumana Caves, Dept. of Parks and Recreation, County of Hawaii”.  The second sign said, “Danger Keep Out”.  Nothing like a warning sign to perk up your situational awareness.  I’m always on Status Yellow anyway so mine didn’t bump up much.

 

Years ago someone had built a very steep and narrow set of small concrete stairs down into the collapsed tube.  I don’t think anyone would have built them this way in the last 40 years.  Once down the stairs you had to walk on an uneven and narrow path through the undergrowth to reach the entrance to the cave.  Once you’re in the tube itself there are no improvements so you are on your own to scramble across the broken lava to reach the smooth bottom of the tube’s smooth bottom.  This easy part is soon disrupted when you find that you are actually in a large tube that contains a smaller tube.  As it has crumbled the bottom becomes very uneven and rough. 

 

Everyone on the tour seems capable of getting across the obstacles.  This is one tour where the Shorex staff’s description of the trip’s conditions was accurate and intimidating. 

 

There are some inscribed into the smooth parts of the floor.  The oldest one I saw was from 1925.  Most of the early inscriptions were Japanese names but spelled with English characters.  We didn’t go to deeply into the cave as the floor became very uneven and strewn with large rocks that would have necessitated some rock scrambling skills that many of us don’t have or are no longer willing to risk.  I had heard some people saying they were leaving their hats in the van because they were not going to be in the sun.  Advice is often not taken well by older people so I kept my trap shut.  I’ll just say that I’m glad I had mine because, as I suspected, it’s constantly raining inside the tube.  At the ceiling you could see the roots of banyan trees coming down from the top.  These provide a great water course and the droplets were coming down pretty heavily. 

 

Going out was easier than coming in because you were facing the light source and as you ascend you naturally lean into the slope.  Going down your natural stance leans away from the slope decreasing your ability to recover from small slips on the wet uneven surface.

 

Our next stop was at a black sand beach known mostly to local surfers and, much to our surprise, sea turtles.  A large one was sunning him or herself on the lava rocks just off the shore and another smaller one was in the water.

 

After reaching the entrance to the area we parked and I walked back to get some photos of the turtles.  The one sunning himself posed for quite a while but then slipped off the rocks into the water.  I thought we were bothering him so he was moving on.  Exactly the opposite was true.  In about 5 minutes he surfaced directly down the lava rock from where I was standing.  It took about five of the larger waves to boost him far enough out of the water where he felt he could start crawling.  He was coming straight up the beach towards us.  Two of my fellow travelers had joined me in that area. 

 

Sea turtles are a protected species here, and almost everywhere else, and you’re not supposed to approach too near them.  As I stood there the turtle was approaching me.  Again, as when I was in the water with one, I didn’t know if it was my responsibility to retreat.  He crawled up fairly close before I figured I’d move further up from the water. 

 

I walked over to the beach area and found that there were people on the black sand, some families with children as well as adults.  In the area adjacent to the beach two snorkelers were spear fishing.

 

It was a nice relaxing day of touring to some spots where we were the only tourists. 

 

Diana had a great helicopter tour today.  She sat in the front of the helicopter between the pilot and a man from Canada.  She had a great view through the windshield and also to both sides.

 

They flew over the Kilauea Volcano and she got some great pictures.  This volcano has been continuously erupting since 1983, making it one of the most active geological environments on earth.  She got some great shots of a lava plume in the caldera, some inundated roads and isolated spots that the lava missed on its migration to the sea.  Really nice.

 

We were going to try to meet again on the pier but we’re docked in the container port and there wasn’t any place to wait comfortably.  We met back on the ship and had lunch there.  After lunch Diana and three other ladies went back downtown to Wal-Mart to see what they had in the way of Hawaiian clothing.  She found that they had some nice clothes and some made it back to the ship.

 

We both had a good day.  Now we just have five days at sea and we’re back in San Diego.  Easy duty.

 

#54 Cont'd More Pictures

6031 The Haleakala observatories and the road up to them.  The observatories sit right on the rim of the caldera.

6032  The cloud sea bumping up against Haleakala.  Looks like surf on the ocean.

6034  The Haleakala caldera looking from the cloud see inland.

6038  The Maui coastline on the wet side.

#54 Lahaina, Hilo, Hawaii 12/2 Diving and Flying

5986  This is snuba gear.  They have two different color hoses in case you get tangled up it’s easier to get straight.

5992  The dry side of Maui.  It’s just green on the top of the hills from this side.  The other side is greet all the way to the sea.  Notice the island cloud pile on top.

6008  The Atlantis submarine and it’s shuttle boat.  They have a very cute sub-tender that on the other side of the sub.  It looks like a cartoon tug boat.

6014  Diana and the Cool Cat’s burger and shake.  Yum!

 

 

 

Nov 28 - Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii.  Second day in Hawaii.  Diana and I are taking separate tours today.  She loves the helicopter tours and I love the water so she’s going flying and I’m going underwater.  Each of us is doing something the other won’t do.  If Diana want’s to accompany me in the water we go snorkeling.  When she’s otherwise occupied I go diving, this time SNUBA.  I know that SCUBA is Self-Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus (invented by Jacques Cousteau and Joe Gagnon), I don’t know what the SN stands in for in SNUBA.  Well, I think I figured it out, (I’m writing this the next morning.) it’s a combination of the words ‘SNorkel’ and scUBA, a portmanteau.  Don’t know why I didn’t see that earlier.  Duh!  That means that when writing snuba it’s not necessary to capitalize it, it’s not an acronym.  Anyway SCUBA wasn’t offered on the tours, probably because of the age of the people on the ship, very few certified divers aboard, but they did offer snuba.  With the snuba system you have on a regular diving mask and have a SCUBA style mouthpiece with regulator in your mouth.  The regulator is hooked to a long hose that leads to a raft with your air tank that floats on the surface.  Because the hose length is kept under the minimum depth at which you need to be a certified diver you can use it without a license.  You just wear a mask, snorkel and weight belt, put in the mouthpiece and you’re good to go. 

 

Our dive boat, Trilogy, was a sailing catamaran but a much smaller, sleeker one than the one in Hamilton.  It has a forward retractable stairway between the pontoons at the back and stairs built into both aft pontoons.  The snorkelers are going in up forward and the snuba people, all six of us, are going in aft. 

 

While sailing out we were accompanied by a large pod of porpoises that raced with and passed our boat.  We also saw two Hawaiian humpback whales.  They’re smaller than their cousins and don’t really migrate too far from this location.

 

Each snuba raft has two hoses, one yellow, one blue, with regulators attached.  These hoses are about 15 feet long so you’re good to about one half an atmosphere of air pressure at that depth.  (Boyle’s Law - Air, being compressible is reduced in volume by half for every atmosphere of air pressure increase.  Air pressure increases approximately one atmosphere (the pressure at sea level) for each 33 feet you descend into the sea.  That means that the air in your inner ear shrinks by half at 33 feet and you have to get more air in to ‘pop your ears’.  Although if you wait that long to do it they estuation tube may be jammed.  It also means that your full tank of air is now half empty for a scuba diver but for snuba the tank is on the surface and there’s no further compressing of the air.)  You might have to clear your ears 2-4 times going up or down to 15 feet.  I like to clear early and often, it’s easier on you then letting the pressure build up and then doing it.  Less painful and you don’t have to waste time going slightly back up to clear them if they get stuck.  There’s no heavy equipment to wear although with the advent of buoyancy compensation vests wearing the SCUBA tank has become much more comfortable.  Snuba has a small harness constructed like a Sam Browne belt to keep the mouthpiece from getting away from you but that’s it.

 

The freedom of being underwater and able to stay under is extraordinary.  When properly compensated, you can float effortlessly across the reef feeling very fishlike but instead of using an air bladder to control your buoyancy you use your lungs.  Breathe deeply and you ascend.  Expel a larger amount of air than usual and you go down.  The reef here is very healthy indeed, lots of coral types and an abundance of fish.  Parrotfish, wrasses, dory, triggers, angels, needle and assorted types I can’t name.  No clown fish, I guess Nemo is lost again.  I didn’t encounter any large schools only a few groups of 15 or less but the solitary fish  and pairs were everywhere.  I scoured the sandy areas between the groups of coral to see if I could spot any skates or rays hiding in the sand.  You can usually see their beady little eyes sticking up slightly but no luck.  I did come upon two sea turtles.  One came out of an overhang in the coral right in front of me.  They’re protected and you’re not supposed to approach them but he approached me as he headed for the surface to breathe.  I watched him go past me to the surface where he paused to take two breaths and then glided back past me down to his hiding place.  I did go down to the bottom to look under the ledge but he was so far back inside that I couldn’t see him.

 

The water was clear, warm, no surge, tiny waves and very little current.  Altogether a great day in the water.  On the way back to Lahaina I asked the captain where I could get a good lunch, maybe a burger or something like that.  He told me that Cool Cat’s had the best burger in town and maybe on the island.  I agreed to meet Diana on the pier in a shady spot after our tours.  Rather than tender back to the ship for lunch and waste time in the process we’d eat downtown so she’d have more time to look around.

 

We were a bit late coming back as they had given us extra time in the water since the conditions were so good.  Diana was sitting on a wall at the pier under some trees talking to what turned out to be a group of Canadians.  I said hi and we headed off to look for Cool Cat’s.  I knew it was upstairs over some shops across from Banyan Park.  Banyan Park is a half block park covered by a single banyan tree.  It’s huge!  With that sort of landmark I figured I couldn’t miss it and sure enough I couldn’t.  Cool Cat’s was another thing altogether.  They had one small round sign hanging right behind some Christmas decorations when approaching it from the direction we came.  After we passed Banyan Park I knew we had gone too far so I turned around and sure enough, there was the sign.

 

You figure in Hawaii a place called Cool Cat’s would be casual.  It was downright Jimmy Buffet casual.  Surfing memorabilia on the walls, steel kitchen chairs around steel legged red plastic top tables.  Looked something like a Ruby’s run by someone who is perpetually stoned.  The seating area is mostly a second floor balcony with no windows just the short fence type rail and pillars to hold up the roof.  Since it’s almost always 80 here and we’re on the dry side of the island I guess it doesn’t rain much and it’s always warm, who needs windows.

 

I had been told that the milk shakes were excellent here as well and when I saw them on the table next to us they sure looked good.  They had a burger topped with a grilled Ortega chili in addition to the onion, lettuce, tomato and cheese.  That sounded good so we both ordered one.  I got a plain chocolate shake and Diana ordered a Chunky Monkey shake which apparently features some banana mixed in. 

 

The burgers were excellent.  You had to take the dill pickle slices out and eat them separately as the strong dill flavor overpowered the taste of the Ortega chili.  It was a large chili seeded and opened up.  It covered the entire burger in one piece.  It was delicious.  The shake was excellent as reported.  It was served in an old fashioned malted glass like a ‘40s drug store and they left the steel tumbler it was mixed in.  What I didn’t realize was that there was enough in that tumbler to fill the glass two more times.  It was thick, creamy and a chocolate delight.  Diana reported that here banana chocolate shake was also very good. 

 

While we ate Diana filled me in on her helicopter ride.  She was stuck in the back middle seat again.  Somehow she always seems to get that seat and it’s not a good one for seeing or taking pictures.  She did manage to get a few really nice shots in the area of the observatories atop Haleakala and the road going to them. 

 

After lunch we walked up Front Street to do some shopping.  Or rather Diana shopped and I waited.  It wasn’t such hard duty here.  Plenty to see and people to watch.  Every so often the peace and quiet of this touristy beach town was disturbed by a very loud Harley-Davidson going slowly by.  A shop a block down the street rents them and apparently every renter has to inaugurate his trip by going down Front Street coasting and revving the engine.  One guy went around the block 4 times.  I think he was in over his head and didn’t really want to try to drive anywhere that he had to do more than 8 miles per hour.  They were pretty bikes and fun to look at and had they been just driving past it wouldn’t have been very bad at all.  I guess it’s the inner outlaw biker coming out.

 

When we got back to the ship I had a pleasant surprise waiting for me.  I never enter the ship’s photography contests because, frankly, most people wouldn’t recognize a technically or artistically excellent photo if it was the only shot available.  I know this based on the winners of previous contests I’ve seen aboard ship.  The passengers vote on the winner and will almost always take a corny humor shot over a well composed and technically perfect shot.  Well, if you remember the picture I sent of the White Bellied Sea Eagle…  I was so pleased with that shot that I submitted it and it won.  I guess I have to eat my comments about the passengers taste in pictures or admit that my photo is terrible.  I can’t have it both ways.

 

Trip’s getting very short now.  Soon it’s back to the ‘real’ world.

 

#53 Cont'd 11-27 - Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, Cont'd.

5838  Ken, see anything in this picture you recognize?  Besides me, that is!  I’m about to ruin a SUV driving soldier’s whole day.  Actually, even with a minimum charge at that elevation the 155mm Howitzer I’m standing by would overshoot that SUV by about a mile.

5839  Remodeled Enlisted Barracks at Schofield Barracks with the original façade still intact.

5903  The Hollywood hula demonstration, lots of glitz and glitter.

5921  The boy in the center was the hit of the show and he was actually pretty good.  By the time he’s as old as the other male dancers he’ll be great if he sticks with it.  The men were excellent and let’s be honest, it’s hard not to find pretty, dark skinned girls doing any sort of Polynesian dances attractive.

#53 Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii Continued. The Rest of the Attack

5754  Richardson Hall, the famed Pineapple Pentagon of WWII.  Built in one month, it’s still in use today as the Pacific Command’s HQ.

5796  The Operations Control Center Wheeler Field.  Also still in use today.

5803  WWII hangers on Wheeler Field, modified but still in use today.

5812  This relief map of Oahu shows the path through the valley from the north end taken by the attacking Japanese aircraft.  It took them directly over Schofield Barracks, the main Army Garrison on the island.  Since Wheeler Field is right there too it was hit at the same time and then on to Pearl Harbor almost in a straight line.  Small wonder that all the non-political military men of the time were dead set against Pearl as the base for the Pacific Fleet.  But good old FDR, that pinhead, overrode their recommendations and in fact fired a few of them to get a ‘yes’ man in position to agree with what he wanted.  You’d think Lyndon Johnson would have learned from this but “NO” he had to do the same thing in Viet Nam.  Idiots!!  Actually in FDR’s case I believe it’s worse than idiocy.  I believe he hung the fleet out a bait for Japan to get us into the war, something he wanted but the Congress and public did not.  In Johnson’s case I think it was just a matter of ego larger than brain.

 

Nov 27 – Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii, Cont’d. 

 

Our next destination was Fort Shafter.  First stop the Fort Shafter Military Club for lunch.  It was a small but very tasty buffet in the café attached to the club.  The two long tables on the patio were filled with soldiers in their camo uniforms with a few spouses mixed in.  One man had a medal pinned on his fatigues; this is not the uniform on which to wear medals, so something was up.  He also had a large flower lei around his neck.  From the conversation I heard around the table, he was retiring from active duty and this was his farewell lunch with his co-workers.

 

After lunch we visited Quarters 5, residence of General Walter C. Short, Commander of the U.S. Army Pacific in 1941, my dad’s ultimate commander while he was in the South Pacific from 1942 to 1945.  His house is in the center of Palm Circle, a small rectangular park lined with palm trees.  At the end of Palm Circle is a large open grass field.  Large enough to hold military parades, lined with large officer’s homes.  We were not allowed to photograph the officer’s homes for security reasons. 

 

Across the street from Quarters 5 is building T-100.  During WWII this was, and still is, the headquarters of the US Army Pacific Command, known by all as the ‘Pineapple Pentagon’.  The official name now is Richardson Hall, in honor of the general who served in it during WWII.  Under his direction it was built in one month, mid-May to mid-June, 1944.  In the foyer of the building they have hung the battle streamers of the Pacific Command.  My dad’s battle streamer for the Northern Solomons was there.  I found one just like it in his closet when we cleaned out his home.  The battle streamers are done in the colors of the service medal for that war.  There are a lot of streamers in the yellow, red and green of the Vietnam Service Medal.  None of them mine; I was in the Air Force.

 

From there we followed the route taken by the Japanese planes to Wheeler Field, Headquarters of the Army Air Corps Fighter Command.  14 pilots from Wheeler were in the air or managed to get in the air during the attack.  Many died trying to get to their aircraft.

 

Our next stop was at the historic Schofield Army Barracks, the largest Army Base outside the Continental U.S. and home to the 25th Infantry Tropic Lightning Division.  Established in 1909 it celebrated its 100^th anniversary just 3 years ago.  The Tropic Lightning’s insignia is a Hawaiian taro leaf with a lightning bolt down the center. 

 

Some of the original barracks from the 1940s are still in use.  The insides have been upgraded but the façades remain.  The barracks have always had large windows and balconies to allow the men to take advantage of the breezes.  The Tropic Lightning Museum is in the old post library building.  It was constructed in 1915 using rock from a nearby farm that was being prepared for the construction of an expansion of the base.  The rocks they found were transported to the stockade where the prisoners reduced them to useable size and up went the building.  It was initially stocked with 10,000 books donated by personal friends and professional associates of General Carter, who ordered it built.  In 1922 the posts Educational and Recreational Fund was established and took over the financing of both library staff and books a function is still performs today.  In 1939 it was dedicated to the general as Carter Hall and when a larger building was needed to house the library it was vacated until it was converted to the Division’s museum.

 

Today the museum has displays from the major conflicts in which the Division has participated.  The most interesting ones to me were WWII and Vietnam.  Each of them displayed the uniforms of a typical jungle fighter of the era as well as the common weapons they carried.  For WWII it was the M1 Garand.  Variants of the Springfield bolt actions continued to be the weapon of choice for snipers.  The Viet Nam display had the M14, the standard long arm at the beginning of the war and the M16 the standard weapon from then to now.  The model they had on display was close to the first version issued but was not in the early green plastic.  It did have the triangular forestock and the centerline charging handle.  All three of these features would later be altered for one reason or another.  They also had some displays about the attack on Pearl Harbor.  Since both Wheeler and Schofield were also heavily hit the name is somewhat misleading. 

 

In a separate room they had displays of a more current style.  One particular display explained and showed various types of FOBs (Forward Operating Base).  The boards showed FOBs in Iraq and Afghanistan.  FOBs are located in remote areas to give the troops assigned to that area a secure place to live and get relief from the stresses of everyday patrols and missions.  This type was called a Country Home.  They could also be located in the center of a city, usually in a fortified former palace or government building so the troops could be ready to react to any problems in town.  These were called City Homes.

 

The museum is one of the oldest buildings on the post and is unique in that it’s the only one built from basically unaltered local materials.  For example, it’s the only building with lava rock as its sole exterior wall surface.  They have various pieces of military equipment on the grounds of the museum, including an M2A3E8 Medium Tank from the Korean War - a US Howitzer, Light, Towed, 105mm, M102 (Don’t you just love military designations?.  No?  How’s this?  Tack, Thumb, Round, Cushioned Head, Steel, all that to say thumb tack) used first in Viet Nam in 1966 - and the piece de resistance a 155mm M114A2 Howitzer.  This gun, first built in 1942 was introduced into Viet Nam (No I’m not schizophrenic.  When I wrote about the Vietnam Service Medal’s colors I used ‘Vietnam’ because that’s the way the US military spells it so it’s a proper name.  When I write about Viet Nam, the country, I use the preferred spelling in that country) A really close friend of mine lost a good deal of his hearing to this particular gun.  Sometimes there’s just no time for the niceties like hearing protection when your goal is to save your or some other GI’s butt. 

 

From Schofield we drove to the Punchbowl National Memorial.  Like all military cemeteries it’s a solemn place but somehow they are always pretty.  35,000 Americans are buried here who proudly served their country.  As the Pearl Harbor Survivors patch says, “All gave some, some gave all.”  It would be nice if the majority of our citizens really understood and appreciated the sacrifices made on their behalf.  We stopped for photos at the main monument and the grave of Ernie Pyle, the famous WWII combat reporter.  If you’ve never read his biography, you should.

 

It was a great tour.  So much history to get in touch with.  I enjoyed it a lot.

 

Back on the ship we are having a Hawaiian Luau on the Lido deck for dinner.  They even had a roasted pig, a first for me on a HAL deck BBQ. 

 

At 9:30 we had a Polynesian Cultural group come aboard and give us a show.  They performed traditional dances from Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji and New Zealand.  They included one dance from the ‘golden’ age of Hawaiian hula, the 20s-30s.  This was a, to borrow a phrase, ‘glammed up’ or Hollywood version of the traditional dance done in equally ‘glammed up’ or Hollywood costumes, lots of glittery streamers for the grass skirt, etc.  It was nice to get a reprise of the dances we’ve seen over the last month or so.  They were very skilled dancers but the hit of the show was a boy about 8 or 9 who participated in many of the dances.  He was obviously having a good time and the audience of mostly grandmother and father types loved him.

 

A nice day back in the USA.

 

#52 Con'td More Pictures

5721  The object in the water near the bottom of the picture is Gun Turret 2 and the white ball is the buoy marking the bow of the Arizona.  Of course the monster in grey on the left is the USS Missouri.

5726  Diana and I on the Arizona Memorial.

5730  Inside the memorial.  You can see the view hole with the railing around it and the curtain shaped wall dividing the Shrine Room from the rest of the space.

5738  The Arizona Memorial as we were leaving.  The flag was fluttering in just the right direction.

#52 At Sea 11-26 & Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii 11-27 Remember Pearl Harbor!

5668  Diana and I with Delton E. Walling, a survivor of the Arizona.  The guide said that there are only 21 of them still alive and most of them will be here for the 50^th anniversary of the Arizona Memorial Opening on Dec 7^th of this year.  His wife is there to take the pictures.

5704  The USS Arizona Memorial and the USS Missouri.  The design cut into the right end of the memorial building is the Tree of Life and the little round, white dot in the water just below the mooring stand is the marker for the stern of the Arizona.

5710  The base of Gun Turret Three with the stern marker just above the right side of the turret base.  The concrete dock is not original it was added after the sinking to moor rescue and recovery boats at the site.

5714  This is the Shrine Room wall listing the names of those killed on the Arizona during and as the result of the attack.  The little wall in the lower left is the memorial for those who have died since and opted for interment aboard the Arizona.  That’s the Tree of Life allowing in some light.

 

 

Nov 26 – At Sea.  This is the last day aboard for some who are disembarking in Honolulu and out last day at sea before three stops in Hawaii.  A very relaxing day for us.  I didn’t go to the show because there’s a pearl vendor on board and Diana wants me to learn how to string pearls.  The technique was easy to learn and I was quickly in business.  Anyone have pearls they want restrung?  I’m your man.

 

Nov 27 - Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii.  We are docked directly below the historic Aloha Tower in Honolulu.  I remember being here in 1991 when we had to jump off the ship early and find a place to buy a new electric shaver.  Mine had given up on the way over.  We found a drug store that had some good shavers and I bought the Remington shaver I used until about 2 years ago hygiene.

 

Today we are taking a tour called the Pearl Harbor VIP Military Base Experience.  It’s a small tour on a van that gets you onto some of the existing military bases that played a role in the attack on December 7, 1941.  We were here and visited the Arizona Memorial on its 50 year anniversary in 1991.  This time they’re celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the opening of the Arizona Memorial.

 

Our pre-dawn sail in was very picturesque but not really photogenic.  Too dark to get more than Diamond Head’s silhouette.  Inside the terminal they had the same mural I photographed Diana with 21 years ago, a line of hula dancers sending a ship off at the port.  They’re all ’20-‘30s themed pictures either about cruising or island welcomes.  This year we took pictures with two different murals, Diana with the band on the pier and me waiting in line with other arriving passengers to get leied. 

 

Our guide is dressed in a military style uniform and also drives the van.  Our first stop is at the aforementioned Arizona Memorial.  Since they are having ceremonies to commemorate the first half century of the memorial, almost all the Pearl Harbor Survivors are in town for the celebration.  We met two, Delton Walling, USN (he gave us an autographed one page biography of his experience) and another man from the USA (that’s US Army) whose name I’ll have to look up.  The memorial has been completely revamped in the last 21 years.  It includes three memorials, the Arizona, the Utah and the Oklahoma.  There are two museums, one covers the raid itself named ‘Attack’, the other gives you the events leading up to the war named ‘Road to War’.  Neither of these was here last time.  The ship’s bell from the Arizona is on display in a different location than last time.  Underneath it there’s a small replica so that the blind can touch it and experience what everyone else can see.

 

On the waterfront there’s a Pearl Harbor overlook as well as a memorial to submariners.  A little further down the USS Bowfin is docked as a museum ship adjacent to the Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park.  Also new since we’ve been here there’s the Battleship Missouri Memorial.  Just up from the Arizona Memorial the Mighty Mo has been docked as a floating museum out on Ford Island.  The island is also home to the Pacific Aviation Museum, the USS Utah Memorial and USS Oklahoma Memorial and Chief Petty Officer’s Bungalows.  It would be very easy to spend a whole day here if you wanted to do justice to all the exhibits and memorials.

 

We’re just stopping to visit the Arizona Memorial.  The tickets to the memorial are sold on a first-come-first-served basis so we have a little over an hour to wait for our 10:15AM boat.  I visited both of the museums but spent more time in ‘Attack’.  They had some maps, dioramas and artifacts from the attack that were very interesting.  One was the wreckage of the purpose built Japanese shallow water torpedoes that were so effective in decimating battleship row.  We were very fortunate that our aircraft carriers were out at sea on maneuvers during the attack.  The day of the battleship was ending and they were made obsolete by air power.  We had almost none and Japan had all of theirs and yet we annihilated their battleships in fairly short order with aircraft from our surviving carriers. 

 

At the far end of O’ahu Court is a sign that hung from a storefront in the 30s-40, The Crossroads of the Pacific.  Near that is a copy of the design cut into the far end side walls of the Arizona Memorial Structure called ‘The Tree of Life”.

 

There’s a tourist from Chicago running around the grounds with a hilarious T-shirt.  In in the colors of the Chicago Bears and it says, “Da Bears Still Stink”.  It hilarious because a few years ago when the Bears started to tease their fans by actually winning a few games they started calling the “Da Bears” too mimic the Chicago accent.  This was supposed to be a new start going back to the previously very successful franchise.  The shirt is saying at ‘Da Bears’ are not any different from the Bears.  Dallas had the same thing.  ‘Dem ‘Boys’ was the phrase as in “How ‘bout ‘dem Boys?”  Unfortunately the same thing happened to Dem Boys that happened to Da Bears.  I mean with all the money they spent on first round picks and free agents and all they have to show for it is one playoff game won in 16 years.  Yikes!!  Until Jerry, the owner, gets a clue and fires Jerry, the General Manager, it’s going to be more of the same. 

 

We boarded the launch to the memorial at 10:35, right on time.  At 10:15 we were ushered into a theater to see a movie about the attack, the sinking of the Arizona and the building of the memorial.  Complete with reminders for the clueless that this is a solemn place.  Hundreds of the men killed are still on the Arizona and all the survivors have the option to be interred with their shipmates.  The message is ‘act accordingly’.  A message totally lost on the truly clueless and thoughtless. 

 

The ride on the Navy shuttle boat is very pleasant and you quickly arrive at the memorial.  They announce that you are not to take pictures while disembarking from the boat or entering the memorial.  After you are aboard the memorial you can take all the pictures you want.  People weren’t exiting the launch for more than 20 seconds before he had to repeat over the loudspeaker “No Photos, your camera will be confiscated if you take any more photos!”  I’m telling you I despair for the human race, at least the way we are growing them in the USA.  I’m here to tell you Europe is worse by a big distance. 

 

The memorial is just as impressive the second time you see it.  You enter the memorial from the shuttle boat dock and go up two sets of stairs to get to the center section with the large viewing cutouts.  At the other end of the space there’s a partial wall, shaped like draped curtains, with an opening at the center.  Just in front of this wall is a large viewing well cut into the floor.  It forces you to go around it on one side or the other to enter the room at the other end beyond the curtain portal, the Shrine Room.  Inside the shrine room, on the far wall is a list of all the crewmen of the Arizona who died in the attack on December 7 and are either interred in the ship or buried elsewhere, both Navy and Marines.  The ship’s captain and the battleship group commander, a rear admiral, are both there.  Lots of Ensigns, a few Lieutenants, Junior Grade, one Lieutenant, 2 Captains (the rank, but one was the ships’ commanding officer) and the one Rear Admiral.  Hundreds of enlisted men of all types, engineers, firemen (the coal shoveling type), gunners, mess workers, musicians (the ship had a 60 piece orchestra) and sailors.  Not to mention a large contingent of Marines, almost 100.  Cut into the side walls are the Tree of Life sculptures, one on each side.  They allow a subdued light into the room.

 

On a short, 18-inch high by 4-foot long wall about six feet in front of the shrine wall they have a roll of those who survived the attack but have since died and opted to be buried with their shipmates aboard the Arizona.  Part of the wall was obscured by a large wreath but the dates of interment from 1982 to 2004 were visible.  Someone said that there are only 21 still alive so we met 10% of them today.

 

The easiest part of the Arizona to see is the base of gun turret three.  It’s about 30 feet from the memorial building to the north east and as it was a fairly low tide, about 4 feet of it was above the water.  To the left of the base and a little closer to the memorial is the hatch that is leaking oil to this day.  The multicolor oil scum is very visible on the water’s surface.  About 150 feet past the base is a buoy that marks the stern of the ship.  A little less than 400 feet to the south west is the buoy that marks the bow of the ship.  Since the memorial building is about 45 feet wide that accounts for just about the entire 608 feet of the Arizona’s length.

 

Between the memorial and the bow buoy the tide was low enough that you could see part of the top of gun turret 2.  I’d never seen that before.  Off in that same direction is where the USS Missouri is docked.  It’s significantly larger than the old Arizona as it’s almost 50% longer and 30% wider.  (These are estimates.  I would have confirmed my observations on the internet if it weren’t so expensive on the ship.  Can anyone tell me how far I’m off?  All too soon our time aboard the memorial was over and it was time to board the shuttle for the trip back to the center.