Pearl Harbor, briefly visited
After a filling breakfast made in our kitchen we were off to Pearl Harbor. We didn’t have too much time because Michael and I had an appointment with the timeshare people so they could try to convince us to buy what it is that they were trying to sell this time. When we got to Pearl Harbor, after a brief incorrect turn – thanks Siri, we started walking around reading the signs. I admit to being choked up many times as I read of soldiers going out on December 6th for a night of entertainment not knowing that it could, and for many of them, would be their last night on Earth. I also read of how many were getting ready for church before the bombing took their lives. Mike was off to get us tickets to go to the Arizona Memorial. But when he returned we realized that we would not be able to make it to the memorial and back in time for the sales pitch. So we decided to come back on July 4th.
Waikiki and the Submarine
During our meeting, the kids were off to play in the sand and swim at the pools. I’m sure they had more fun than we did. 🙂 When we returned, it was off to Waikiki for a submarine ride. We had some extra time to walk around in Waikiki before our ride. We found a shop with fabulous cookies, the Honolulu Cookie Company. Let’s just say that their marketing department did a great job when they placed many different cookie samples in the window. We pigged out on samples and then filled a box with each of us choosing our 5 favorites. We also wandered by a shop where they were letting you choose and open your own oyster to get a pearl for “Only $14.99” what a bargain right? Mike encouraged Amanda to try it. She got a gorgeous silver pearl with her pick. As you may imagine, that enticed the rest of us to want to do the same thing. Michael has determined that they are the best at getting you to buy something. As now not only do we have pearls, but we have settings. We did manage to say “no” to the chains they were selling. This technique must work really well as later we saw many places doing the same thing.
We walked out the pier to board the boat that would take us to the submarine from Atlantis Adventures. It was about a 10 minute ride from the boat to the submarine. During that time we got to see a nice view of that part of the island. We exited the boat and got into the Atlantis XIV submarine. It’s the world’s largest hi-tech passenger submarine, and holds 64 passengers. We were able to see fish, sharks and a couple of turtles. We also saw a plane wreck that has become a reef for the wildlife as well as some other manmade reefs. Diving down as deep as 104 feet we watched the leaching of the color as we went further and further down. Everything looked blue and even the colors of our shirts, and my nail polish, changed.
Since we were in Waikiki, the boys (all 3 of them), wanted to go and take the long hike up Diamond Head Crater. Following Siri’s directions, (will we ever learn), I dropped the boys off so they could “walk” to their destination. Amanda and I took out our phone cameras and proceeded to take photographs of the surfers way down at the bottom of the hill. We also started snacking on our cookies – we were hungry. My phone rang and it was the boys. Apparently it was a lot longer walk than Siri lead them to believe. Amanda and I drove off to pick them up and take them to the actual destination. By the time we got there it was after the last time they would let hikers go up the crater. So we turned around and went on a search for food.
Michael had seen an ad for the “best” hamburgers in Honolulu so we googled to see if we could find something nearby. We found a place called Teddy’s Bigger Burgers. Let’s just say, I’m not surprised that so many people gave them good reviews. The juice from our burgers dripped everywhere and the flavor of the burgers was amazing. I had an avocado bacon burger, I swear they had at least a half an avocado in there. Michael a volcano burger and though I have no idea what was in it, I wasn’t about to taste it. Alex and Christopher had Hawaiian Style burgers and Amanda had an original burger. We shared shakes and fries and we were stuffed by the time we left. I have to say that I’m a little happy that they don’t have Teddy’s Bigger Burgers here, they would be a hard temptation to avoid.
A relaxing evening poolside ended our busy day.