Hawaii - Waikiki & Blue Angels

Saturday! We boarded the bus and headed for Waikiki. With our Medicare card, the bus was only $2! Plus we got a transfer good for 3 hours!

We took the bus to Waikiki to the Hale Koa - Mighty Warrior. It is a first class hotel that is open to members of the military.

We hoped to buy tickets to their Thursday Luau in November when we return, but they could not sell that far in advance!

So we wandered the grounds and out on to Waikiki Beach - Diamond Head in the background!

All kinds of water toys are available for rental including a tricycle for the water

Beautiful fauna and flora abounds

We relied heavily on the bus system - great deal - $1 with a Medicare Card

We took the bus to the Windward shore and an air show on Marine Corps Base Hawaii 

The airshow included a demonstration by the Air Force of the short field capabilities of the C-17

And the Red Bull jumpers

But the star of the show was an air show by the Blue Angels

 Tomorrow: Mass at Holy Family and board Carnival MS Spirit!  Aloha!

Pearl Harbor - Friday Sep 28

We left our hotel (Best Western Plaza - right outside the airport) and decided to walk to the Navy Exchange. (The hotel breakfast was a little pricey and we figured there would be a food court at the exchange)
The Exchange is about a mile from the hotel and the weather was perfect!
Indeed, we found a McDonald's and had a nice breakfast for about $5! (Gotta love that senior coffee!)
We did not know there was a free shuttle bus to Naval Station, so we hiked the additional mile +.
We walked through the Naval Station (noticing the bus stops for the free NEX Bus!) and came out the other end near the Valor in the Pacific Memorial (formerly the USS Arizona Memorial).
We had been here years ago and WOW! they have expanded it greatly with the addition of a submarine, USS Missouri, USS Oklahoma Memorial, etc.
We obtained our free tickets to USS Arizona Memorial and spent a while strolling about, reading plaques, etc.
Finally, after a 17 minute video with some fantastic clips of the actual attack, we rode the shuttle boat to Arizona. 
I got excited when I saw a name on the list with the rate "CTC" but knew there was a disconnect - you see I was a CTC but it stood for Cryptologic Tecnician Chief - and I knew the CT rate was not formed until the 50's. The Park Ranger looked it up and sure enough, it was Chief Turret Captain - apparently in charge of one of the 16" gun mounts.  Enough gab - some photos!

Just inside the gate Naval Station Pearl Harbor

A short 1/2 mile walk through the base brought us to the Memorial - expanded and renamed

USS Arizona was the only battleship sunk but not raised. Most of the guns and other useful equipment was removed for use in the war. The simple but beautiful memorial spans the ship and is soberingly beautiful.

#3 Main Battery turret barbette protrudes from the harbor waters - testimony to the ship beneath. 

The far wall lists those who died aboard Arizona Dec 7, 1941

USS Missouri is moored just forward of Arizona

On the Memorial - you can see the Mighty Mo over Theresa's shoulder

We pause on the ramp to the boat dock to catch a photo

A plaque in Misouri's deck commemorates the spot where the Japanese surrendered ending WW-II

Crew's Mess

Crew's berthing - the curved bulkhead to the right is actually the outer surface of the after 16" gun barbette which goes down 5 decks from the mount.  These barbettes were heavily armored all the way down. These ships were made to take punishment!

In CEC Combat Engagement Center (when I was on active duty this would have been calle CIC - Combat Information Center)

TheCIWS - Close In Weapons System - call SeaWhiz by the crew, is unique in that it's radar not only tracks the "bogey" (target) but it tracks it's own bullet stream and causes them to converge. It is  a deadly effective system aimed at downing cruise missiles that have slipped through all other defenses.

Theresa tries out the Skipper's Chair on the flying bridge.  The bulkhead to the right is an armored shield for the combat bridge.

This is the helm inside the armored bridge

When I say armor, I don't mean a few inches - here you can see how thick the armor is at the entrance!  They even  had crank mechanisms to raise armored glass flaps in front of the view ports

USS Arizona Memorial just forward of Missouri

We had to reprise "the Times Square kiss" made famous by a Life Magazine photographer! Unfortunately, we did it in one take! Theresa's caution "Don't drop me!" Always the romantic!

 

 

Tomorrow: Waikiki Beach & Marine Base Hawaii for the Blue Angels air show!

Our Australian Adventure

About a year ago, our friends Bill & Peggy asked us if we wanted to go to Australia with them and two other friends of theirs. Sure! we replied!
For a long time, it was going to come and we did lots of planning - but now its here! We're off on a new adventure!
The "phases" are as follows:
1) Fly to Honolulu for a long weekend;
2) Catch Carnival Cruise Line MS Spirit as she is repositioned from Alaskan cruising to Australian cruising (with port calls in French Polynesia & Fiji);
3) After 16 days, Spirit docks in Sydney and we immediately fly to Cairns in Far North (equatorial) Queensland;
4) After 3 nights, we fly back to Sydney for 6 days;
5) Board Holland America Lines MS Oostersdam for a 14 day cruise to Tasmania and New Zealand;
6) Nov 6 Fly from Sydney to Oahu for a week on the beach at Bellows AFB rec area (on the "windward" shore just down the beach from Kaneoe Bay);
7) Nov 15, head home!

My first post will be on the trip out from Indy to Honolulu.
Our son Dave drove us to O'Hare and we checked in at American Airlines. The gal who checked us in was great and gave us fabulous seats!

Cute kids!

During the flight to LA, we had fantastic weather and a great view.

The weather cleared as we went west, especially as we crossed into Colorado - at least I think that's where this is!

If anyone knows for sure where this is other than maybe Colorado, please let me know!

Pretty sure this is Monument Valley, Utah

A pretty lake in the distance - maybe Lake Powell?

Love the way the clouds shadows on the earth look like pools!

The Colorado River at the base of the Grand Canyon

Pretty sure this is Lake Mead - couldn't see Hoover Dam or Las Vegas from our angle

And just that quick, we are in the LA basin with some hi roller resort & golf course - maybe the Pacific Palms resort?

The immense size of LA has to be seen to be believed!

 We flew to Los Angeles and grabbed a bite to eat at Starbuck's, boarded our plane for Honolulu and were dismayed when the pilot announced he was "downing" the plane for a faulty pitot tube. This is the device that measures air speed and is pretty critical (there was an Air France flight that went down when the pitot tube fed wrong information to the flight computer), so we were delayed while they brought out a new plane. The pilot reassured us this was not related to anything we'd read in the paper (pilot slowdown and being super picky on downing airplanes) but was a real safety issue. We left LAX about 4 hours late, but we did leave!
 

And, at last, we are in Hawaii!

 We called the hotel and they picked us up and we were in our room by 10PM Honolulu time = 4AM Indy time!

Tomorrow: Pearl Harbor!