Saturday, February 27, 2010

Tsunami Warning Lifted

The Tsunami warning has been lifted - the waves came but they were very very small - but on tv you could see the water pulling out to sea and then flowing back in quickly.

 
Water in the Ala Wai almost to the top - usually about a 4 foot drop.
  
People watching from their Hotel Lanais (sweet stalker zoom on the new camera)
 

Thank you for all of your concern - but this happy Hawaiian family stayed nice and dry today. I worked tonight, and it was PACKED because people were so excited to escape their hotel rooms after 4 hours of "upwards evacuation."

Aloha!

Tsunami Warning

As you have heard, Hawaii is expecting a tsunami to hit at 11:04 this morning, formed from the earthquake in Chile. We are NOT in a flood evacuation zone, and we are on the 9th floor, so we are safe. They have told all of the hotels IN the flood zone to move up above the 3rd floor - and we are 3 blocks plus away from them.

Oddly enough, the calm before the storm has brought a beautiful morning here in Waikiki....
 
Mauka (towards the mountains) Side
  
Makai (Towards the Ocean) Side 
  
 Rusty says he's not scared.


Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Again sorry for the abandoment... Where did we leave off? Bad sunburn... 

Tuesday, February 16, continued: That afternoon, when Tony and Russell finished work, the four of us went to "the wall" so Tony and Kyle could do some body-boarding. The wall is part of Waikiki Beach - The wall being part of the lagoon. I, of course, took my Valentine's Day gift, my new camera!
 
This is the pier - where Russell and I sat to watch the boys. Tony went to check out the waves.

 
Tony waxing up the board.
 
Tony jumping off the pier and into the water.
 
 
See "The Wall"?
 
Tony waiting on the waves
 
  
  
  
Tony & Kyle
 
Aloha Tony!
 
  
  
  
Happy with that last wave/picture
 
View of Diamondhead
 
Sunset
 

Wednesday, February 17: Kyle woke up bright and early and took a 9 hour bus tour of the island.  Here are some pictures of his adventures. I don't know too much about the locations of each - so Kyle if you read this and can fill me in, I will update!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
 
 
 
  
 Surf competition on the North Shore

Thursday, February 18: Kyle and I took the day to tour Pearl Harbor together. We arrived at 8:30am, after dropping Tony off for work, and getting breakfast. We went to get admission tickets for the USS Arizona memorial. Tickets are free, but they only allow a set number of people to board the boat and the memorial at a time. At 8:30am, the earliest available time was 11:00am. We took our tickets, and headed over to the ticket office to buy tickets for the other memorials and sites. We boarded a bus to the USS Missouri. 
  
Interesting fact: The USS Missouri can be seen in the movie Pearl Harbor, even though it was not finished being built when the attack on Pearl Harbor happened.

  
This doggy sat on the boat the whole time we were there!
  
  
  
   
"On April 11, 1945 USS Missouri is struck by a Japanese Zero during the Allied invasion of Okinawa. A fire is quickly extinguished with minimal damage resulting. Among the wreckage of the aircraft the body of the pilot is recovered. He is given a military burial the following day. "  President Roosevelt passed away on April 11, 1945, which is why the USS Missouri's Captain Callaghan insisted on a military burial of the Japanese pilot.

Can you see the Zero in the picture?

This is the only damage from the Japanese Zero.

 
  
  
View of the USS Arizona memorial from the USS Missouri.
 
Kyle intently listening to the tour guide.
 
  
"OVER THIS SPOT ON 2 SEPTEMBER 1945 THE INSTRUMENT OF FORMAL SURRENDER OF JAPAN TO THE ALLIED POWERS WAS SIGNED THUS BRINGING TO A CLOSE THE SECOND WORLD WAR"
 
  
During World War II, there were 4 beds per column, rather than the 3 seen here from Desert Storm.
 
  
  
In the Control Room.
 
  
After the USS Missouri, it was time for the USS Arizona Memorial - but unfortunately, we missed the bus we needed to get back, and missed our boat the memorial by just a few minutes. We got new tickets, for 2:40pm, and continued on our tour. We started at the Museum. 

 
Pages from the soldiers calendars, that they journaled on...
  
A model of the USS Bowfin submarine

The USS Bowfin's bell - notice the year "194"

"Since the bell was engraved prior to commissioning, Navy personnel could not give the engraver the final completion date. After  commissioning the final number was not added."
Also, most submarines don't have bells, because they want to be as quiet as possible, so the bell was not used!
 
Next, we headed onto the USS Bowfin.

 
 
  
  
LOTS of controls and knobs- all of which Kyle tried to flip or turn! 


The bunks
 
The head

  
  

After the Bowfin, we got back on the bus, and went to the Aviation Museum, where we ate lunch and learned about the aircraft used in World War II. We arrived back early for the USS Arizona, because we didn't want to miss our boat again!

 
  
The Flag Room - The Maryland flag represents the USS Maryland, which was at Pearl Harbor when it was attacked.
 
 
A map of where the  USS Arizona currently lies underneath of the memorial (shown in white). The pieces in pink are what can be seen through the water, only the bottom deck was left. 


  
  
The oil still coming up from the ships


  
The names of all those that passed away on the USS Arizona.
 
These are the names of those that have passed away since the bombing of Pearl Harbor, who have been cremated and buried in the ship with their fellow soldiers. A ceremony is held at the memorial, and then a diver goes down and buries the urn in the ship, where the water carries it further inside the ship.

That night, Tony and Kyle attempted to go surfing, but there were no waves, so they watched the sunset instead. 


 

After the sunset, we went to dinner at Hula Grill, where I work, for Kyle's last night out in Hawaii. It was a very yummy meal, and we sat on the lanai, overlooking the ocean. 

We had a great time with Kyle on his visit! I know he had a great time, escaping the snow! He changed his flight to leave on Friday rather than Saturday, because once he landed he had to drive another 4 hours from Norfulk to home, and he wanted a day to rest before returning to work. 

Today, we received our team medal for participating in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Walk '09. Thank you again for everyone who donated for the cure!

 
 
Tony and I are doing great... I am working a lot, and I finally had the night off tonight! I made stuffed shells for Tony and Russell, after their first softball game at work. Back to work tomorrow through Saturday.

Sorry no pics of me Dad! I will have some for the next post! 

xoxo & Aloha!
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