Hey guys,
This journey is winding down fast now. We have 4 days of classes, 3 days of exams, 3 days in Guatamala, 2 days of exams, 4 days at sea, then home. In that time frame I have to write 4 papers, 3 sun reports, and my log book. I also have to finish writing my MICE piece, take 2 final exams, and one small exam. This is going to be a hectic few weeks. It’s hard to keep track of time on this voyage. Once you lose track of the time, it is hard to get everything back on track. I’ll get it done though, I always do. But enough about school, let’s talk Hawaii.
Hawaii is an interesting place. Many of you have probably been there as it isn’t too exotic to us Americans. Thinking back, I didn’t do THAT much there. I hit the beach, which I hear is the thing to do there seeing as it’s a tropical island and all, and I saw Pearl Harbor. Sounds about right to me for a day and a half trip to Honolulu.
The first day started with me going to a mall so I could get a proper pair of swimming trunks. The ones I brought with me were really lame, so I got some nice board shorts. From the mall I was picked up by my friend Christian, his girlfriend Jen, and a group of their friends. We headed to a beach called Lanikai. Lanikai is a local’s beach, so no tourists were there. It was so much nicer then the tourist beaches. I actually enjoyed myself at the beach. I don’t usually enjoy my time at a beach, but I did here. The water was extremely clear, you could see the bottom, and a perfect temperature of about 70 degrees. We spent almost the whole time in the water. It was probably one of the most beautiful days out and the drive down Interstate H1 to get there was absolutely gorgeous. It was well worth the trip.
The second day I made my way with SAS to Pearl Harbor. We started by touring the USS Crommelin. It is a Navy Frigate. It is an active ship, so we are not allowed to take pictures of it. It was a semi modern ship. It had some really nice new equipment on it as well as stuff that looked like it had been there since 1930. Their computers looked like they were from 1900. It all must have worked just fine though or they wouldn’t be an active ship. We were given a tour by two of the members of the crew. We then made our way of to the Admiral’s private boathouse. It was the boathouse of CINCPACFLT, the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet. He had three boats in his boathouse, the biggest of which has been ridden on by multiple presidents. We were obviously given the smallest of them. We made our way out to see the submarine that took out the second most tonnage of vessels during WW2, The Arizona Memorial, and the USS Missouri. We also got to see a sub leaving port. Those things are scary when you see them from far.
After this tour I made it over to a tattoo shop where a few of my friends got tattoos to commemorate SAS. I didn’t get one, but the ones they got were really cool. Tattoos are really cool if they have a reason, if they have meaning. After that it was down to Waikiki Beach for the remaining few hours of my time in Hawaii.
Hawaii is a great vacation spot and it knows it. That is why it costs so damn much to get there and to be there. Everything was about 3 to 4 times as expensive as it is back home in Cincinnati. I enjoyed my time there and if you have time and money, go for it, it’s worth the trip.
Love,
Steven at Sea
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