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Hawaii, pt. 1
Tristyn and I are spending our spring break on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. We arrived late Friday night after 28 hours of traveling. Our hotel is on the western side of Waikiki (in Honolulu), near downtown. Yesterday, after a late start and a big brunch, we walked along the Waikiki beach, trying to find a "historic trail" mentioned in our guidebook that even the information desk had never heard of. We found the first of the bronze surf boards that mark the trail, but there was no indication of how to get to the next one. So we meandered around and found the Honolulu Zoo, and it being on our to-do list anyway, we spent the afternoon there. We got back in the evening and fell asleep for the night.
Today we set out early for Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona memorial. The audio tour goes through a museum, out by the water where the Pearl Harbor attack happened, then to a movie, and finally a shuttle boat to the memorial. The Arizona's ammunition stores took a direct hit and the huge destroyer sunk in nine minutes, with 1,177 sailors and marines aboard. Most of the ships damaged or sunk that day were (amazingly) repaired and returned to service in the Pacific war, but the Arizona and two others were unsalvageable, and the ship, buried in shallow waters with the hull visible only a few feet under the surface, remains a tomb for most of its crew. A few quarts of oil still seep out every day from the Arizona, an apt metaphor for the ship "weeping for its lost crew."
From Pearl Harbor, we took TheBus (that's what it's called) to Chinatown, where we followed another guided historical tour - this one with the directions thankfully written in the book - but it, too, was rather disappointing. After looping around the neighborhood, we took a bus back to the Ala Moana (ah-lah mo-ah-nah) shopping center, got lunch, and walked back to the hotel. We're resting now and will probably head to the beach to swim and watch the sunset.
The history of Hawaii is fascinating: in a nutshell, missionaries came in the early 19th century to replace the traditional culture with puritanical Christianity, in the process banning hula dancing and creating the Hawaiian alphabet of 12 Latin letters (ah, progress...); American cotton and fruit growers moved in and increased their clout over time until they were able to call in U.S. Marines to support a coup, deposing the queen and installing Sanford Dole (of pineapple fame) as governor in 1898; the islands were annexed, the navy (having earlier realized its strategic potential) increased its presence; the Japanese attacked; martial law; statehood in 1959. (One interesting anecdote: the Japanese and German populations were both detained during WW2, according to our guidebook; that's the only case of German [civilian] internment in the US during the war as far as I know.)
Some general observations. Honolulu is a big sprawling city, (called "Los Angeles West" by critics), so it has the charms of a tropical paradise as well as the drawbacks of an industrial tourist trap. It is the most isolated populated land mass in the world (or something like that), but its consumer goods, cars and industries are just like anywhere in the U.S., a testament, I suppose, to maritime transportation and the "flatness" of the world (oh how I hate that cliché). I did notice some Asian-model cars, however, and the population's ethnic/racial makeup is a real mishmash. As a strategic outpost it certainly makes sense, and outpost is probably a good way to think of Hawaii (from America's perspective), albeit not undeveloped like frontier outposts of old. Place and street names are mostly in Hawaiian; aloha (hello/goodbye) and mahalo (thank you) are used instead of the English. Tourism, a major industry here, is heavily dependent on air travel, and consequently dropped in the early-90s and post-9/11 recessions, but is now close to peak levels. The weather is perfect - 70s-80s now and most of the year, according to the guidebook - the humidity level is pleasant, the air is clear, the people are friendly.
I'm putting some photos here; the full trip album can be found here.
Update: see the full Hawaii trip log here, and the full trip album here.
Today we set out early for Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona memorial. The audio tour goes through a museum, out by the water where the Pearl Harbor attack happened, then to a movie, and finally a shuttle boat to the memorial. The Arizona's ammunition stores took a direct hit and the huge destroyer sunk in nine minutes, with 1,177 sailors and marines aboard. Most of the ships damaged or sunk that day were (amazingly) repaired and returned to service in the Pacific war, but the Arizona and two others were unsalvageable, and the ship, buried in shallow waters with the hull visible only a few feet under the surface, remains a tomb for most of its crew. A few quarts of oil still seep out every day from the Arizona, an apt metaphor for the ship "weeping for its lost crew."
From Pearl Harbor, we took TheBus (that's what it's called) to Chinatown, where we followed another guided historical tour - this one with the directions thankfully written in the book - but it, too, was rather disappointing. After looping around the neighborhood, we took a bus back to the Ala Moana (ah-lah mo-ah-nah) shopping center, got lunch, and walked back to the hotel. We're resting now and will probably head to the beach to swim and watch the sunset.
The history of Hawaii is fascinating: in a nutshell, missionaries came in the early 19th century to replace the traditional culture with puritanical Christianity, in the process banning hula dancing and creating the Hawaiian alphabet of 12 Latin letters (ah, progress...); American cotton and fruit growers moved in and increased their clout over time until they were able to call in U.S. Marines to support a coup, deposing the queen and installing Sanford Dole (of pineapple fame) as governor in 1898; the islands were annexed, the navy (having earlier realized its strategic potential) increased its presence; the Japanese attacked; martial law; statehood in 1959. (One interesting anecdote: the Japanese and German populations were both detained during WW2, according to our guidebook; that's the only case of German [civilian] internment in the US during the war as far as I know.)
Some general observations. Honolulu is a big sprawling city, (called "Los Angeles West" by critics), so it has the charms of a tropical paradise as well as the drawbacks of an industrial tourist trap. It is the most isolated populated land mass in the world (or something like that), but its consumer goods, cars and industries are just like anywhere in the U.S., a testament, I suppose, to maritime transportation and the "flatness" of the world (oh how I hate that cliché). I did notice some Asian-model cars, however, and the population's ethnic/racial makeup is a real mishmash. As a strategic outpost it certainly makes sense, and outpost is probably a good way to think of Hawaii (from America's perspective), albeit not undeveloped like frontier outposts of old. Place and street names are mostly in Hawaiian; aloha (hello/goodbye) and mahalo (thank you) are used instead of the English. Tourism, a major industry here, is heavily dependent on air travel, and consequently dropped in the early-90s and post-9/11 recessions, but is now close to peak levels. The weather is perfect - 70s-80s now and most of the year, according to the guidebook - the humidity level is pleasant, the air is clear, the people are friendly.
I'm putting some photos here; the full trip album can be found here.
Update: see the full Hawaii trip log here, and the full trip album here.