February 2021 - Oahu
As soon as we learned that Hawaii was no longer requiring visitors to quarantine, we booked our flights! Here in part 1, we started the trip by hiking Diamond Head for some lovely views of the city. The next morning we went over to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona and USS Missouri, which were both empty first thing in the morning. Then we went out to the Kuoloa Ranch for an ATV ride through a popular filming area. It was fun but we got thoroughly filthy which was less fun. We ended the day with some beach time at Kahana Bay. See here for part 2 of this trip.
As soon as we learned that Hawaii was no longer requiring visitors to quarantine, we booked our flights! Here in part 1, we started the trip by hiking Diamond Head for some lovely views of the city. The next morning we went over to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona and USS Missouri, which were both empty first thing in the morning. Then we went out to the Kuoloa Ranch for an ATV ride through a popular filming area. It was fun but we got thoroughly filthy which was less fun. We ended the day with some beach time at Kahana Bay. See here for part 2 of this trip.
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| The great view from our hotel room on the 21st floor looking out to sea | Homemade kalua pork! So tasty! | |
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| Relaxing at the pool while the pork smokes | A delicious breakfast on the balcony | |
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| Honolulu, as seen from Diamond Head! | Scenic Waikiki beach | It's really cool to see the neighborhoods sprawl up the hillsides and into the valleys |
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| Overlooking the ocean from the rim | Looking down to the Diamond Head Light on the coast | |
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| Overlooking the Diamond Head crater - it's incredibly large! | Walking back across the floor of the crater | Our first bird sighting of the trip - a pair of Red-vented Bulbuls ready to celebrate Valentine's Day |
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| On our way up into Diamond Head was a whole flock of Common Waxbills | There are plenty of Cattle Egret around | A beautiful Red-whiskered Bulbul |
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| On the first boat out to the USS Arizona memorial | Markers for the other ships | |
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| Inside the memorial | The exposed gun turret | Looking down the opening in the floor at the deck of the ship |
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| Now home for tropical fish | ||
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| We were surprised to discover that the memorial smelled strongly of oil, which you could see leaking from the wreck nearly 80 years later | There's something beautiful in oil on water | |
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| The hulk of the ship below a slick of oil | The old air control tower | The USS Missouri not far |
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| Heading back to shore | The submarine | Looking back out at battleship row from the shore |
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| Heading up to the Missouri | What guns! | Below decks |
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| A lot of bunks! | The treaty deck, where WW2 ended | |
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| This is the place | Headed up to the bridge | |
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| Looking out over the bow | On the bridge | |
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| Pearl Harbor is so lovely! | There was a pair of sea turtles eating off the side of the boat | |
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| ATVing! | ||
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| Beautiful views out to sea | ||
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| Me at the wheel | A bit of Jurassic World set | |
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| Looking back at the control tower | Looking out to sea | |
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| Driving over to another valley | ||
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| More Jurassic World set | ||
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| I was so filthy from the dirt thrown up by the ATVs | A styrofoam fallen tree leftover from the filming | |
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| Some bones leftover from a Godzilla movie | A beautiful Red-crested Cardinal | |
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| Posing for us | Kahana Bay - so lovely! | Plenty of room on the beach |
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