Hawaii!

 So I made it to my 39th state and, boy, was it a sight for sore eyes. The sun was out the whole time! Believe it or not, I think it actually takes more preparation to go out in the sun then in the cold. Having to put sunscreen on and hats and bring a change of clothes for when you are done swimming, etc. However, it was totally worth it... seeing palm trees again and getting some nice Vitamin D was a wonderful thing.

When I arrived on Wednesday evening (5/18) I thought I had landed in Fort Lauderdale. Then, I saw mountains in the distance and was reminded that the beaches and temperature are about the only thing Florida and Hawaii have in common.

Thursday, Jessica and I went to Pearl Harbor to see the Arizona Memorial and the museum. It has always been a dream of mine to visit Pearl Harbor and it was almost surreal to be walking around on the very spot this early in my travels. Even though I have this goal of seeing all 50 states (so I was definitely going to make it there eventually), I have always felt like Hawaii was this distant land that I would have a hard time working into my plans. I guess I was wrong about that.
It was so fascinating to learn more about the attack on Pearl Harbor. Although, it was one of the worse attacks in our nations history; it was also one of the best planned and well executed attacks of that time. The Japanese had thought of everything, and they did it all in complete secrecy. There were videos of people who witnessed the attack first hand. They were very moving. There were also some videos of the Japanese fighter pilots who participated. At first I couldn't believe it, but I guess you have to realize that they were following orders just like our soldiers would have if the roles were reversed. Going to the Memorial sight which was built over the sunken USS Arizona battleship was an interesting experience.

I thought I would get out there and be able to contemplate the whole event and the fact that the ship is the grave of over 900 soldiers whose bodies are still inside; but instead there was a huge crowd of people all talking and trying to get pictures and since we had to take a ferry out to it, and we had to leave with our ferry, we did not get unlimited time. Nonetheless, it was a totally worth while experience!

Friday, we went on a hike up to the top of Diamond Head Crater. From the top was a beautiful view of Waikiki. Then, we spent the rest of the day at the beach.

Saturday, we, again, went to the beach...what did you expect? We always went to different beaches, though. Sometimes, more then one in a day. In the evening, we went to a Luau. It was funny how corny and touristy it was, but you gotta do it when your in Hawaii, right? All the performers and workers called us "cousin" the whole time, and the food was just so-so. The dancing was fun to watch... especially the guy with batons of fire that he would twirl at top speeds!

On our last day there, we went to a cove where there was a beautiful reef. We went snorkeling and saw a billon differnt kinds of fish AND a green sea tutrtle, which are an endangered species!! It was a rare sighting. Really awesome. It was one of the most pleasant snorkeling experiences I have had. No baracuda... :-)

Jess and I caught the red eye back to Washington and I got in on Monday morning at 6 am... I went to work two hours later at 8. As you could probably guess... I was a bit tired that night.

I have recovered now and this last weekend we went to a music festival on the eastern side of WA. I will have to save that story for my next post. Maybe I will get two posts in this week.