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Blog by Greta:

Day 0: The first day of the trip is all about getting there!

We left the house around 9 am, and headed up to Big Lake to Mike's brother's house to drop off Brock. I got to see Mike's new yellow Mustang for the first time (it's in storage up there), then we headed off to the airport.

A quick meal @ Chili's in MSP, and we got our our Alaska Airlines plane for a 4 hour flight to Seattle. That's the first time we flew with them, and the service was great. It was a little bumpy during the flight, but not too bad.

After a 2 hour layover, it was on Delta for a 6 hour flight to Honolulu. LOTS of turbulence nearly the whole way - to the point they kept the flight attendants strapped in most of the time. It wasn't HORRIBLE, but it felt like driving on a bumpy road FOR SIX HOURS. I guess it's typical for this time of year, but it was nice to land. Until the pilot mentioned the earthquake in Japan, and a tsunami heading this way.

But we got off the plane, and our friend Marian picked us up at the airport, and let us know we may have to evacuate! Back to her house we went, and found out we were just a block outside of the evacuation zone. Marian packed up just in case, we left our bags in the car, and we all watched footage of Japan and tried to decide whether to stay or not. I gave up and went to bed around 1 am Hawaii time, and Mike followed soon after. Marian stayed up nearly all night, but we didn't have to leave!

Day 1: Our first full day in Hawaii! After finding out we did NOT float away on the wave, we watched some more news about Japan - pretty aweful images from there.

Marian made breakfast, and after making sure it was still there, we headed off to see Pearl Harbor. We got tickets for the 2:20 USS Arizona Memorial, and then walked around the park area there for a while, reading the memorial signs and enjoying the weather. No snow!

It was only around noon, so we left for a bit, and headed to "world's busiest" Costco to pick up some Hawaiian beer, and Wasabi Doritos (YUM!). A quick snack and back to Pearl Harbor, where we checked out one of the museum areas, and then got to start our tour. It began with an interesting but sobering 20 minute video about the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Then we got on a boat, and went to the Arizona Memorial. Marian has tried to get on the boat 7 different times, and has always had it cancelled or run out of time. Apparently, the 8th time is the charm! We toured the Memorial, which is anchored over the sunken USS Arizona. It's amazing that oil STILL is leaking from the ship at a regular basis. You could stand there and watch it bubble up in blobs and then disapate. Flags were flying @ half mast as the leader of the US National Parks system had just died. The USS Arizona is taken care of as part of the US Parks system, although it's on a Navy base, and the guys handling the boat are Navy. It was also interesting to see the USS Abraham Lincoln docked in port - amazing to see just how giantic an aircraft carrier really is.

Then we headed to "La Mariana" - the last tiki bar on Ohau located on a marina. It's a favorite of Marian's , and we were all glad to find out it was still there after the wave hit. BUT we discovered that all the docks at the marina were destroyed and we saw a number of sunken or highly damaged sailboats nearby. It's a fun place, and we had a few "Fruity" drinks and tried Ahi Poke (a mix of raw tuna with spices, oil & seaweed) and Lumpi (shrimp spring rolls Mike actually knew as a Dutch food).

Then back to Marian's in Kailua to watch a bit of TV (we're "helping" her watch the Season 1 & 2 of "Rescue Me") before hitting the hay for the night.

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Last updated: Fri, Mar 18, 2011.
Copyright © Mike vanMeeteren, 2011.