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 On Sunday, we visited the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor. Almost half of 2,500 people that died during the attack were on the Arizona that morning. The crew is still entombed in the ship below the memorial. To this day, 59 years later, the ship still leaks diesel fuel that floats on top of the water. It was fitting that the clouds and occasional sprinkle set the mood for our visit. If you ever visit the memorial, bring flowers or a lei to toss upon the water to show your respect. Here is a video clip of the USS Arizona exploding as an armor piercing bomb ignites the front ammunition storage hold. It's 1.8MB and will take approximately 8.5 minutes on a 28.8K modem.
On a happier note, the landscape had rugged mountains and lush vegetation. Here is a banana tree that we saw driving around the island. It reminds me how warm it was with low to moderate humidity. It wasn't at all like the hot and humid summers we have in Virginia. It was pleasant and really made it easy to relax. Before dinner one evening, we wanted to see the sun set at the beach by our hotel. At first, I was miffed that the two surfers walked in front of my picture, but then I saw how good it looked through the lens. Click! 
 We took a glider ride one morning on the northern shore. We really wanted a helicopter ride over a volcano and water fall, but that was on Maui and not Oahu. We "settled" for a glider ride which ended up being one of the two high lights of the trip, besides seeing family and friends. We each sat in the back seat of separate gliders and watched each other fly along the coast. We never flew the glider. Only the pilots did that. The left picture shows Betsi in her yellow glider below me. The picture on the right is during our rapid descent for a smooth landing. The above "pictures" are frames from the home video taken with the new digital camcorder. I love this Sony camcorder! To learn more about making home movies on your computer, see the Home Video section on this web site. 
 We spent one morning going on a catamaran and snorkeling tour. We joined a Japanese tour group and were the only English speaking guests on the boat. It was fun. We sailed to a reef 15 minutes down the coast. Some sail. :-( Since we were the first ones in the water, were were able to take a picture of a sea turtle leaving the area. After 20 minutes, it was time to head back. We would have enjoyed an extra 20 minutes. I think Betsi and I "had it good" during our honeymoon. We sailed all day on a 8 person catamaran to two different snorkeling spots that took hours to reach. For lunch, we had filet mignon or salmon steaks and enjoyed all of the mixed fruit drinks we could handle. We tried to book a tour like that in Hawaii, but the first available opening was 5 days away. If you want to enjoy a full day of sailing and snorkeling, book the reservation before you leave home. On a side note, I'm guessing that half of the tourists are Japanese, so may restaurants, gift shops and tours were also in Japanese. We enjoyed getting a flavor of Japan without having to go there. We weren't brave enough to try real sushi even though Jeff enjoys fake sushi (nothing raw).  After a hard day at the beach, we enjoyed Matsumoto's shave ice. It's soft serve vanilla ice cream topped with a snow cone. Boy, they weren't kidding about a LARGE shaved ice. Matsumoto had a line 30 people long out the door to his gift shop to get one of these. It tastes like what you would expect. Not to be left out of the internet age, you can learn more at http://www.matsumotoshaveice.com/ That cracks me up. There are dozens of other sites for Hawaii. Just use your favorite search engine to find maps, travel info, tours, places to go, etc.
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