After a birthday brunch at Eggs ‘n Things (and, after much anticipation, it turned out to be just OK) and after her massage at the Park Hyatt, the birthday girl was treated to dinner at PF Changs, which was really very, very good. Right from entering, and winding up the gloomy, arty stairs, the decor set the ambience. The service was professional with just the right amount of attention, the drinks first class (the Old Fashioned with smoked whisky was first class)…..and the food…..just BELLISSIMO!! Yum Yum😘😋
I think the accepted term is that we “pigged out” and if it is not, then that is just what we did! Finished off with a “Great Wall” slab ….yes slab of chocolate cake, like, the size of a small handbag…..as well as a plate of banana fritters. (That “like” I put in there was for Maurits). I’m not really a cake person but it was also very, very good. And then we collected our goods & chattels and “waddled” back home😂.
And, being sufficiently “lubricated”, and, with our inhibitions lowered, we took selfies and chatted to locals along the way about their scooter riding, surfboard riding very clever little Jack Russell. A successful celebratory evening we all agreed!
After yet another leisurely start (is it still breakfast at 10.00am?) we headed off for our visit to Pearl Harbour which we have seen before but Mike and Wendy haven’t…..which was my excuse for going again. Sometimes going back to places can produce disappointment but this place, like Cape Canaveral and the Canberra War Memorial I could never tire of. Maybe its just me.
Serendipitously, as we were waiting in the lobby for members of the party to make use of the “powder room”, the daily feeding of the fish in the huge aquarium happened to occur. Beautiful, graceful and quite unexpected in the lobby of a hotel.
Not everyone is interested in WW2 history but if nothing else, a visit to Pearl Harbour highlights some of the clear strengths of America. They don’t forget - they do museums and parades really well - and, they are still the world’s biggest Superpower. The extent of the military in Hawaii is staggering and their air and naval presence on this fortress of an island…….intimidating.
There were crowds, but not outrageous…except to go on the tender boat out to the Arizona Memorial. We have been there before and it is moving, but I just couldn’t get tickets. I tried from Australia, I tried from Hawaii but just no luck so when we saw that the “standby” line was about a hundred metres long we decided that the model in the museum would have to do. Besides, it was raining lightly and would not have been the best conditions to be there.You can see it though, from the bridge over to Ford Island on the way to see the battleship Missouri, which is what we did, sans Erin and Wendy B who elected to stay in the museum area.
It is a mighty impressive “piece of kit” that Missouri and we spent a good couple of hours exploring its many features. 1940’s engineering still relevant in the gulf war and serving in Korea, Vietnam and WW2. The navigation Deck was quite amazing with the huge turrets fore and aft and the wheelhouse enclosed in a bunker of steel, feet thick. No place for anyone not comfortable in small, tight spaces.
She was a major player in the history of WW2 and it was on her deck where the Japanese surrender was signed in 1945. But the most fascinating aspects are how the 2000 strong crew lived and worked when she served. Without putting too fine a point on it, the officers had pretty OK digs….the enlisted sailors…not so much. Their bunks, called “coffin lockers”, were just like that, banks of units like filing cabinets stashed in every nook and cranny of the ship.
They are very proud of their history, the Americans, and it shows in the way they revere that terrible blow to their military and country in 1942 through such a museum as Pearl Harbour.
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