NOVEMBER 16
OUR ALOHA ADVENTURE

PART ONE (DISASTEROUS START)

This like my daughters will have to be a several part Blog.

Day One
After dropping my dog Sandy off at my daughters, my sister & I checked into the Red Lion & all 3 of us,(my brother-in-law plus my sis & I headed over to a nearby restaurant. It had rained & the streets were wet & slick, & on the way back, I either slipped or tripped, but suddenly my cheek, met the hard sidewalk & my glasses were knocked cattywampus, & every part of what I was wearing ended up both wet & muddy,including, my canvas carry on. This definitly was not the way I wanted my adventure to begin.

My sweet sister took my wt muddy things to the laundry room & washed & dried them. The glasses could not be worn, but thankfully, I had prescription glasses which I had tinted for sunglasses along & had to wear these all during the trip.

The next morning, after checking in, we flew into beautiful Honolulu where the warm balming breezes were a welcome respite from the cold & rain, & where we were greeted by our representative from Happy Vacations & presented with a fragrent,purple & white floral leis. We were whisked away to our Hotel the New Otani & found our room on the 3rd floor with a balcony which overlooked the Beach & Ocean. The Sunsets were gorgeous, & the Hotel was one block from a bus stop, where we discovered that good old number 2 bus could take us into Wakkiki. We liked the fact that it wasn't right downtown but was a short bus ride into town.

The next day we had arranged to tour the Arizona & the Battleship Missouri, & were picked up at the Hotel which took us to the tour bus. Once there we took the audio tour of the Memorial. This was a very moving, & emotional experience as we were once again reminded of the terrible loss of life that had occured during the bombing & sinking of the many Battleships which had been lined up at Pearl Harbor, plus the additional civilians, including babies & small children. We read the names of one whole family. Many ships had more than one family member who died serving together & we read letters which were incased in glass. One especially brought me to tears as it was addressed to Dear Momma & Daddy, indicating a very young sailor.

We toured the battleship Missouri next where the papers were signed ending the war, & it is a fitting tribute that both are there side by side, where the war began & where it ended.

Stay tuned for more of our adventure