Honolulu

Our hotel
We had a long eight hour flight that left Dallas at 11am and got us to Honolulu at a little after 2 in the afternoon. Hawaii is five hours behind Waco. We got our rental car and checked into the Marriott Waikiki. We took a walk on the beach and bought some cookies from the Hawaiian cookie company. The pineapple cookies were particularly good. We went to dinner at D K Steakhouse,it was phenomenal! The steaks were great and they had a cayenne rosemary butter that was great on the bread. Our room had a balcony and we had a partial ocean view. We were on the twelfth floor and had a pretty good view.
The next morning we got up early and headed to the USS Arizona memorial in Pearl Harbor. We got their about 6:30 and it opened at 7:00am. There were a couple of tour groups in front of us, but we got on the first shuttle boat to the memorial. We heard that if you come back later in the day the wait can be up to two hours. The visitors center is built on reclaimed soil so we were actually standing where the bay was in 1941. They had to rebuild, because the old building was sinking into the bay. They were still constructing the museum, but the gift shop and ticket booths were complete. It was an awesome experience seeing the Japanese and American people come together to remember what had happened so very long ago. The drill Sergeant on the transport boat was very serious and a Japanese couple sitting next to us did not understand when he told us to stay seated and they proceeded to take a picture and he promptly told them to sit their butts in the seat and grabbed them and sat them down. Since this basically was a cemetary they requested that we not use our cell phones. Apparently some woman did not pay attention and he grabbed her and was chewing her out about the cell phone and would not let her go onto the memorial. The size of the ship was amazing to me and the tears of oil that still seap from it were incredible. It is amazing that people are still interred into the ship after their death. Some of the survivors wanted to be placed in the ship with their shipmates that didnt survive after their death and the Navy accomodates them. From there we headed to the Dole Plantation for some pineapple. They had the most amazing trees in the parking lot called rainbow trees. They almost looked painted and had all the colors of the rainbow on their trunks. We drove around the rest of the island and ended up at Queen Emma's summer Palace. While looking for the Palace we ended up at the Aloha Council of the Boy Scouts of America. We stopped and got Greerson a shirt and a patch. At the Palace Daryl got the opportunity to play the piano. It was made around 1800 in London and was purchased in Boston and brought back to the islands. It was in amazing condition. We walked on the beach again that evening and ate a Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner.