Konichiwa Honolulu!

Hey everyone! So we finally made it to Kwajalein, and we are tired but so happy to be in our new home. We flew from Detroit to Dallas, then did an 8 hour flight from Dallas to Honolulu. We spent two and a half days in Honolulu then flew 5 hours to Majuro (the capital of the Marshall Islands), then another 1 hour flight to Kwajalein! Whew...I'm tired just recapping it all. Since we have done so much I'm gonna break up the blogs into a Hawaii blog and a Kwaj arrival blog.

We only had 2 and a half days to stay in Honolulu so we were determined to make the most of it! By the time we arrived in Honolulu we had been up for about 18 hours, and then had to deal with all of Sadie's quarantine paperwork at the airport before even getting to our hotel. In case anyone is thinking about shipping a dog internationally through Honolulu...don't. It was a huge pain, and when it came time to confirm that she was getting shipped to Kwajalein, the airline had her listed as going to HOUSTON in DECEMBER. No worries though, we finally got everything sorted out and I'm happy to report our dog made it safe and sound and didn't end up as someone's delicacy in Thailand, as were my fears.

We were also suprised at the number of Japanese tourists there. For being an American state we definitely felt like the minority. It definitely made people watching and walking anywhere interesting to say the least. There was all kinds of crazy outfits going on, and nobody walked on the right side of the street, so anytime you walked anywhere you had to dodge oncoming traffic or get knocked off the sidewalk. It made for interesting sightseeing, and we decided instead of saying Aloha to everyone you were better off saying Konichiwa!!

Anyway, we got to our hotel around 4 in the afternoon and desperately needed to eat, however, no restaurant was open in our hotel at the time (how is that possible?) so we ended up spending our first dinner in Honolulu at the famed local eatery...Panda Express. Depressing...yes. We did get to meet up with our friends Jon and Angela at their hotel for a free happy hour so all was not lost. We redeemed our second day by going to Waikiki Beach, then having the best dinner out at Roy's (Thanks Jones for the suggestions). Here are some pics of Waikiki and our dinner out.


Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head

More Waikiki Beach



Dinner at Roy's and our delicious drinks below

The next day we went and toured Pearl Harbor. That was the one stop I was determined to make while we were in Hawaii. We signed up for this all day tour because we heard it sells out quickly if you just show up the day of. Come to find out our tour left the hotel at 6am and spent the whole first half of the day picking up passengers from other hotels then driving around downtown Honolulu being shown historic sights, such as President Obama's elementary school and where our tour guide's daughter had her second marriage. It were these secret stops that were really hoping to see. Finally, we did get to Pearl Harbor, and the tour was very cool. We first rode over to Ford Island and saw the airstrip that Amelia Earhart crash landed on and were Josh Hartnett and Ben Affleck took off from in Pearl Harbor the movie :) Then we got to tour the USS Missouri. That's the battleship where the Japanese surrendered in WWII and where Tomahawk missiles were fired during the first Gulf War. I have to say, I was suprised by how big battleships are. I thought because I'd seen so many pictures that I knew what to expect, but the battleship was bigger and cooler than anything I could have imagined. The Missouri was stationed on what was "battleship row" and right behind where the USS Arizona sunk, so you could really imagine what all the ships looked like moored there at the time, and how horrifying it must have looked when they were sinking. We got to board the Missouri and stand on the deck where the treaty with Japan was signed. We sat on the bridge and saw lots of seriously big guns. Very, very cool. After the battleship we toured the Pearl Harbor museum that had live footage from the day of the bombing and a real Japanese torpedo discovered in the harbor after the bombing. Our last stop was supposed to be taking a boat out to the USS Arizona memorial, but the winds picked up and the navy closed the tour out of safety concerns. We were pretty disappointed we didn't get to go to the memorial, but we got lots of good pictures, and we plan on going back when we pass through Hawaii again. Here are lots of pictures from the USS Missouri and of the Pearl Harbor memorial.

 Me with some very large guns!

 View of the USS Arizona memorial from the deck of the Missouri

 Me checking out Pearl Harbor

 Deck where the peace treaty with the Japanese was signed

 Actual spot of the signing...

 View from the Bridge of the USS Missouri

 Johnathon on the Bridge

 Me in the control seat :)

 Our attempt at recreating the "Wars End Kiss" the matching outfits was an added bonus!

 The USS Missouri and the USS Arizona memorial

 The USS Bowfin submarine

I found the Marshall Islands on the map!

For some reason the computer wouldn't let me enlarge the photos so I will have to add the bigger versions to Facebook! Sorry mom :) Next up...our first Kwaj Blog!