Another (few) Day(s) in Paradise

We're moving! Haha, I know we've only been in our place a month but we're kind of sick of it. Mainly, the kitchen is way too tiny. I feel cramped pouring a bowl of cereal. And Jon doesn't like the lack of walls (because the front and back of our apartment is just windows with screens, no glass). So we found another apartment in this same complex, but it's a little smaller so it's a little cheaper. Even though it's smaller the kitchen is a lot bigger and it just feels nicer. Plus there are walls. So we'll be moving out of this apartment and in our new apartment sometime within the next week.

So, thanks to how much Hawaii loves us, our furniture and everything came earlier than expected. It got here on Friday so now we get to move it all ourselves to the new place. But at least we have a couch and tv and a table. It's pretty awesome.

This weekend was GORGEOUS so we took full advantage of it!

Friday: Our furniture got here so Jon took the day off. After the movers left we decided to finally make it to Diamond Head to hike up to the top. It was about 81 degrees or so and super sunny, so it was a tough hike. It's only .8 miles to the top, but it's practically straight up. There are walkways that wind back and forth up the side, then the awesome part comes...284 steps straight up to the top. It was exhausting, but so worth it. I could see so much of the island and I got really great pictures.

Half-way there!View of Honolulu from the top of Diamond Head.

Saturday: It was finally time to go to Pearl Harbor! This was the main thing that I wanted to do, since I love the movie! Lol, I know the movie is pretty far off of actual events and people hate the love story, but I'm a sap and I think it's great. So anyway, it felt really weird to actually be there. I don't know, it's hard to explain. I think the Arizona Memorial is rather ugly, but every time I see it I think of the Brady Bunch episode when they go to Hawaii. So we got there around 9:20 in the morning, but we had to wait until 10:45 before we could go to the memorial. When our number was called we went into a theater and watched a 20 minute video about the events leading up to and including the attack on Pearl Harbor. I guess it was legit footage because it looked old-timey, but I just can't figure out why there were cameras filming the Japanese army when they were just walking down the street in the 1940s. Or how we got a hold of that footage. Maybe that was what the paparazzi cared about back then when Lindsay Lohan didn't exist? Anyway, it was sad and I couldn't imagine being involved in anything like that.

After the video we got on the boat to take us to the memorial. We only got about 15 minutes on the actual memorial, but there's not a whole lot to do. There's a room with the flags of the states that had battleships docked at Pearl Harbor, the big giant center area, and a room that had all the names of the men who died on the Arizona on the wall. It's kind of weird because the memorial is really small compared to the size of the ship. It just sits vertically over this huge ship that's sitting on the bottom of the harbor. You can see parts of the smoke stacks coming out of the water and they have buoys that mark the start and end of the ship. It's just really weird...and sad. But if you ever go to Hawaii you absolutely MUST go see Pearl Harbor.

We didn't make it to the Bowfin submarine (which looks super cool because you can go in it) or the USS Missouri because they both cost money. Maybe another time.

USS Arizona MemorialParts of the ship visible from from the surface.The room with all the names. Sad :-(Notice the oil on the surface.

Saturday night we went up to Kailua for a work party of Jon's. It was at the house that he stayed at the first few nights he was here. It was a huge combo Birthday, Welcome Back, and Going Away party. It was fun. There was a Bouncy House. And a jousting thing. Jon won. I also took a picture of the tree below because it was a palm tree with coconuts and I thought of Raelynn. Dana, if you read this, please show her.

Sunday we braved going back to Waikiki. I had my camera and phone in a ziploc bag inside a bag inside a bag. And we practically had our stuff on a hotel lawn instead of the beach. We took our rafts out and it was lots of fun because the waves were pretty big. I can tell that the season is getting ready to shift here. There's basically 2 seasons and from November-April the North Shore has the huge waves and from April-November the South Shore has the huge waves. I still need to make it up to the North Shore.

I also got a job! It's just at Old Navy. Something to tide me over until I can find something else. It will be interesting to see if I can keep from buying stuff. Toodles!