Honolulu - June 7th

We docked just off Waikiki Beach and went out with our friends Drew and Tanya:

First stop was Diamond Head State Park.

We took the walking trail up to the 750 foot Diamond Head summit:

Where we could see Waikiki in the background down below

And the panoramic view was pretty cool.

 Next stop was Nuuanu Pali Lookout, site of the final battle of King Kamehameha's victory in Oahu, completing his conquest of all the Hawaiian Islands

We enjoyed another spectacular panarama...

... despite the very strong winds

After another poke seafood lunch (I could get used to this), we headed for Pearl Harbor to see the WWII museums and memorials.

 This is one of the Arizona's anchors, recovered from the bottom of Pearl Harbor about 200 feet from where the ship went down.

The Arizona Memorial itself is across Pearl Harbor just off Ford Island.

We really enjoyed the Pearl Harbor self-paced audio tour, which took about an hour.

Then it was back to Waikiki to see the statue of the legendary Duke Kahanamoku, possibly the greatest swimmer of all time. In 1911, Duke broke the world record for the 100 yard freestyle by 2.5 seconds in an outdoor ocean pool. The AAU wouldn’t recognize the record, saying the local timers had obviously screwed up. Duke then swam even faster to win the gold in the 100 free in the 1912 Olympics. He revolutionized the sport by employing mechanics borrowed from paddling a surfboard.

In addition to the above, Duke also excelled at beach volleyball; appeared in 32 Hollywood movies; was elected sheriff of Honolulu 13 times; and is the only person ever inducted into both the swimming and surfing halls of fame. Other than that he didn’t do much. When Hawaii becam a state, he was officially appointed "Ambassador of Aloha."

Given all that, there was no other option except to go to  Duke’s restaurant at the Outrigger Hotel on Waikiki for drinks and dinner. The drink of choice at Duke's is the "Lava Flow," pictured above.

 

And it was in fact quite an enjoyable place to have dinner.

Tomorrow: on to Maui and adventure rainforest - waterfall hiking with our guide Kanoelani. I am picturing that she looks like Laura Croft. It's Hawaii. Why not?