My Hawaiian Experience

Hi everyone,

Having just returned I thought I would share some photos of the experience.  It was quite the adventure coming home.  Firstly my flight was delayed 3 hours in Honolulu.  That then put me into Dallas/ Fort Worth 20mins before my flight and therefore missed my connecting flight to Richmond VA.  So rather than waiting 4 hours for the next flight and getting in so late, I took a connecting flight to Chicago and then to Richmond, whilst hoping people were getting my messages for the arrangements of getting someone to come get me on time!  So I eventually got into Richmond, my lift, Coaches sister and mum were hit from behind entering the airport (Nobody hurt) and after all that, American Airlines, lost my bag..GREAT!  But the guy who helped me was fantastic.  And I eventually received my bags at 1110pm last night.  I had fallen asleep by 10pm and eventually when I woke up this morning, it was 1130am!!!!  WOW way to use my first day off effectively!!!!  I was so tired.  So that was 10 flights, 8 beds, 8 states and about 15 games in the 2.5 weeks I have been here!

Anyway I hope you enjoy the pics.

This one is me with the team at the Luau on Tuesday night.  The Luau was at Paradise Cove.

This pic was taken off the beach at Paradise Cove.

This was a pic taken of one of our team on the stage during the Luau trying to do the Hula.  Just for J of Sydney, a Hula girl can be seen in the bottom right hand corner.

This is a photo from my table during lunch on Tuesday afternoon.  The beach is the world famous Waikiki.

This is the first of my photos from Pearl Harbour.  The ship in this pic is of the mighty USS Missouri.  This is the ship on whose deck the Japanese signed their unconditional surrender to the allies at the end of WWII.  I did not tour the ship as we did not have enough time.

This mighty ship is the USS Abraham Lincoln.  She was heading out to sea as we were arriving and heading out to the USS Arizona memorial.

This bloke is a Brigadier General of the US Army.  He has written 5 expert books on the pacific war.  I bought the one with the most written on Australia, including where my grand father fought in the war.  He was nice enough to sign my book, thanking me for 18 year career to date.  He also pointed out that the picture of one of the Pearl Harbour survivors was in the book and he was actually at Pearl Harbour that day.  So I tracked him down and he signed the book under his name also.

This picture is taken from the USS Arizona memorial.  This is the 2nd gun turrant from the front of the ship.  The bouy you can see in the back ground represents the actual bow of the ship which is under water.  Of the 21 ships sunk in the harbour by the Japanese, all but 3 were repaired and raised from the ocean floor to return to duty during the war! Amazing.  However the Arizona was cut in half by a devastating explosion and unable to be repaired.  The forward ammunition magazine suffered a direct hit from a Japanese bomb and exploded instantly.  The explosion was so hot it mostly killed 1000 men instantly, it also fused the steel of entire forward section of the ship.  Very few men were found afterwards having been incinerated.  This included the entire ships band who the previous night had finished second in a competition.  The captain was so proud he allowed them to sleep in an extra hour.  Speaking of the captain, all that was found of him was his graduation ring.  The ship continues to seep oil everyday.  They say about a gallon a day and that there is approximately 5000 gallons still within the ship.  It will not be removed unless it becomes unsafe as the ship is considered a sacred site.  I have photos of oil actually sitting on top of the water coming out of the ship.  There were approximately 100 survivors from the Arizona.  Those men have the option to be entombed in the ship after they have been cremated.  What happens is that their urn is placed on a shelf within the hull of the ship and closed.  Many men are still entombed in the ship, never having been recovered.  There are 20 men still alive who survived the Arizona explosion.

This is a photo of the memorial as we approached it on the boat.

This is a photo out the back door window of the house I stayed in in Hawaii. :-)

By the way the Hawaiian's actually say Hawai'i (hawai - ee).

I hope you enjoyed the photos and little history lesson.

D