Honolulu

I woke up Wednesday morning to an announcement of our arrival in Honolulu. There was nowhere near the mad rush to leave the ship as when we docked in Hilo, probably because everyone was still recovering from packed days of travel. I was in no hurry myself because I had a trip organized through Semester at Sea that would take up the morning, a mini-coach tour that would highlight some of Oahu’s attractions, so I enjoyed a leisurely breakfast outside in the perfect weather. It was strange to leave one port and wake up the next morning in a completely new one. I could definitely tell that I was in a different, busier place. For one thing, I think the port in Hilo only had three piers, whereas we were docked at pier 11 in Honolulu.

 

Cousin Shannon showed us around for the car tour. He requested that we call him cousin because in Hawai’i everyone is considered family. He was very talkative, and chatted continuously. We drove a loop that visited the Nu’uanu lookout, then went up to Kailua beach, around to the Halona Blow Hole and Hanauma Bay, up to Diamond Head, and lastly up a winding road to Mt. Tablous, which offered a fantastic panorama of Honolulu and the ocean. My favorite place was probably Hanauma Bay because we could see the reef through the clear blue water. Unfortunately we could not stop to snorkel ourselves, but I did manage to take lots of pictures! At the Diamond Head stop we could see surfers enjoying the waves. I did not make it up to the North Shore of the island, where the famous huge waves are, but I still marveled at the surfers at Diamond Head beach.

 

Another cool thing was the difference between the leeward and windward coasts on the island. The windward coast receives the majority of the island’s precipitation while the leeward coast is much drier. The coasts are separated by a range of incredibly steep mountains. The mountains were shrouded in clouds which made them seem very mystical and mysterious, whereas both sides of the island were warm and sunny. Cousin Shannon explained that the volcanic activity on the big island caused clouds on all of the other islands, which I thought was pretty wild. Our last stop was the King Kamehameha I statue which was plated in gold. King Kamehameha I was the first person to unite the islands under one rule, and seemed to be an omnipresent force in both Hilo and Honolulu.

 

After the tour I ate lunch on the ship and then headed to Waikiki Beach, arguably Hawai’i’s most iconic beach. It is dotted with resorts, including the Royal Hawai’ian which is pink! The beach was pretty crowded when we got there around three, even though it wasn’t particularly warm. We saw several fellow SASers, including some of the faculty and their families. Several people made sand creations, including a hammerhead shark and an Aloha Castle. The street immediately adjacent to the beach had a wide array of shops stretching several blocks, including an International Marketplace which offered a lot of stall shopping amongst trees with loud parrots.

 

Eight of us ate dinner at Duke’s, which was right on the beach and recommended by Cousin Shannon. There was a bit of a wait for a table, but it couldn’t have been better because we got to watch the sunset from the beach. It was absolutely spectacular and lit up the sky with orange and gold. Not too long after the sunset we sat down to eat, and I had some scrumptious fish tacos and waffle fries. It was one of those meals where after the food was served the table was completely silent.

 

We wandered around the shops again after dinner, which had come alive with the nightfall. Painted mimes came to life with tips, street musicians played steel drums, and artists painted portraits. I also saw someone dressed as Elmo wearing a Hawaiian lei. We happened upon a spray painter street artist, who had a music and light show to go along with his spray painting of two pictures. At first everything seemed random and haphazard, but when he finally lifted up the final work, it was AMAZING. One of the pictures was of dolphins in the ocean with mountains and a beautiful sunset, and the other was of a huge sun, two hills connected by a footbridge, and trees with purple leaves, which apparently exist somewhere on the island.

 

The next morning, my friend Courtney and I left the ship early to visit Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona monument. We took a bus directly there, and waited less than thirty minutes for our tour, which was great because we heard that sometimes the wait was for several hours. The tour began with a movie that told the story of the attack and had some unbelievable footage of the event. It was amazing to me how the Japanese were able to use the element of surprise as their greatest weapon. We then got on a boat to go the memorial, which was a simple white structure that was erected over the sunken ship. You could still see certain parts of the USS Arizona that were either above the water or slightly below it. On the far end of the monument there were the names of the more than 1,000 men who died in the attack. It was a very sobering experience, and made me want to see Hiroshima, to try and see both sides of the coin, so to speak.

 

After Pearl Harbor, we took a bus to a mall to accomplish some final errands, including solving camera issues and exchanging some American money for Japanese and Chinese currency. The bus ride was quite the trip – we sat next to some school-aged kids who were skipping school to go to the mall (I let them know that this was a bad idea). They were quite talkative and animated, although not necessarily trustworthy, as they told conflicting stories at different stages of the trip.

 

Courtney and I walked back to the ship from the mall, stopping for some delicious frozen yogurt on the way. As we pulled out of Honolulu, we bid a final farewell to the United States, at least until May.