Hawaii

The President's Day holiday plus Valentine's Day found me and Erin in Hawaii for a quick vacation at the half way point between American Samoa and California. I arrived earlier than her, so I took the City Bus into town for breakfast:

I jumped back on the bus and headed west to my favorite (non-Civil War-related) American historical site, Pearl Harbor:

I always enjoy taking the USS Arizona tour, so I grabbed a ticket and got on the boat - a nice twin-screw shore-boat style job run by the Navy. No pictures of the boat, unfortunately:

USS Arizona Memorial:

Artsy shot of the USS Arizona Memorial flag:

There were Pearl Harbor survivors signing books! Just looking at these guys gave me the goose-bumps:

USS Bowfin:

USS Bowfin motto. Hard:

I left Pearl Harbor, picked up the rental car, and went to Chinatown for lunch at Little Village Noodle House (1113 Smith Street). Headed over to Ala Moana for a quick swim, and a check of Point Panic (which definitely didn't look like this):


After that, I watched the sailors and paddlers in the harbor, went back to HNL to grab Erin, then across the island to the North Shore:

My friend's Joel and Iris were kind enough to let us stay at their place in Waialua while they were on the mainland. Over the week we went to the shops at the former sugar plantation (the highlight was the soap factory); hung out, shopped, and ate in Haleiwa; barbecued and jacuzzied at my friend Joey G's place in Pupukea; enjoyed dinner at the Outrigger Canoe Club with my Aunt and Uncle; and relaxed on the beaches of Ehukai, Pipeline, Waimea, and Waikiki.

Shrimp truck, Haleiwa:

Erin excited about said shrimp:

Ehukai shorebreak provided some fun bodysurfing barrels:

Weird Haleiwa graffiti. What's the scribes agenda? Homophobia? Pro-God? Anti-cellular technology?:

Haleiwa's famous bridge:

Enjoying Matsumoto's:

Windward side:

Makapu'u:

We also went shark diving, but I'll save that for the next post. To be continued...