Pearl Harbour Hawaii (2008)

Transcription

1 Pearl Harbour Hawaii (2008) (This was the beginning of a work trip in 2008 our stop over was in Hawaii on the way to San Francisco so we visited Pearl Harbour). Day 1. Melb to Sydney.. Caught a cab to work and spoke with the Bangladesh Taxi Driver about cricket. He was impressed with the West Indies Cricket Team, and could rattle off the batting order of the 1980's team, from Viv Richards down to Michael Holding Met up with Scott at Balston St and we went into Port Melbourne. Returned to the O&M building and I reviewed 2 documents for the trip, however the mind wasn't particularly focused on the documents. We went to the Qantas Club in Melbourne and had a beer which was nice. Our flight was fairly uneventful apart from being in business class and I had 3 glasses of red, hmmm a nice Barossa Shiraz Grenache (I forget the winery) Lazy Dog, or similar winery. Business Class Seats The food we had a small steak sandwich and that was nice. At Sydney we checked through and went to the Qantas Club which and I had about 2 Bourbon and Cokes. Our flight was delayed as there was probs with one of the cabin doors hope the problem was in economy LOL (this is my first business class flight I might add normally Im in the back). We finally boarded the flight and are now at the time of writing in the air. Business class seats are large, full leather, electronic buttons on the left hand side, we had a dry champagne on the earlier flight and that was cool however don t think we ll do that again. 1

2 Sydney to Honolulu. Arrived in Honolulu and it was very hot. We got a hertz rent a car bus to the rent a car place adjacent the airport and wow how many cool cars you can hire. Mustangs, Shelby Mustangs, Corvettes and the like. We upgraded from a Mazda 6 to a Red convertible Mustang very nice and salubrious and the only way to travel around the island of Oahu. (I spose you could catch the bus Nup). We went straight to Pearl Harbour and visited the Pearl Harbour Museum. We hired the $5 headsets which had the famous Academy Award Winner Ernest Borgnine narrating. He was a WW2 Sailor himself. At various points of the walk through the museum and points on the cove of the port, you pressed the numbers on the headsets and it explained where you were at and what was significant etc. We watched a 15 min 'movie on Pearl Harbour which explained the pre-war hostilities and subsequently the invasion by the Japanese of the harbour. From there we visited the USS Arizona which was a brilliant but sobering experience hands were lost in that explosion and sinking alone an amazing place to stand above just to think how many were lost in one hit and being in the full brunt of the action that was battle-ship row. I went and walked over the USS Missouri which was moored just up from the Arizona. This ship was important in WW2 as it saw action in Okinawa and the islands of Japan. It was on this ship that the surrender documents were signed in Tokyo Bay Japan on 2 September I stood where the documents were signed. General Blamey represented Australia. The ship was very big and I got to see all over it, incl the Captains quarters, the guns, galley etc. Awesome stuff. This has started off a trip to remember as seeing Pearl Harbour, the Arizona was something I always wanted to do - Missouri was a bonus as I didn t know she was moored there. On the Arizona at Pearl Harbour 2

3 . I took pics of the oil leaking up from the ship, as they estimated there was 500,000 litres of oil still in the hold when it went down. They say that the oil are the tears of the dead sailors. We continued our journey with Scott driving, so I could get used to the road and how it all worked on the other side. We had subway for lunch as we made our way to Waikiki. We stopped at the Waikiki Beach and I had a refreshing swim in the ocean surf. Great way to cool off. The beach wasn t over packed just enough people enjoying it s beauty and the serenity ahhh the serenity. We then had a couple of beers at a bar near the beach again very nice after a few hours of travel. We went back and checked into our hotel, the Ohana East Hotel. Nice place and very comfortable about 4 star I imagine. We went for a swim in the hotel pool, it shared it s pool with the Outrigger Hotel which was again another refreshing thing to do. We both had a shower and shave and spruced up and headed out for the night. Our destination was Dukes of Waikiki a famous restaurant and bar. We had 45 mins to wait to get a table and we got a handheld beeper for when the table was ready. So we had a couple of Coronas while waiting. Out the front of Dukes Restaurant. It was difficult to get the barman s attention as there was so many people. When I did get the first drink I forgot about the tip, and he slammed down the tip jar in front of me, spose it is the way they do things. So I put 2 quarters (the change) in the tip jar. We dined and all American Katie was our waitress. We both had steaks with prawns - surf and turf really nice, I had Ketchup with mine and it was an awesome sauce. The A1 BBQ sauce had a different tang like HP sauce I wasn t that fond of it. We had several cocktails 2 Mai Tai s and 2 Lave Caves - both were very very easy to drink. On the main road opp Dukes we sat and watched the world go by, including the Hookers, drunks, Cops, street performers and the like it was interesting viewing. 3

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5 Where the war in the Pacific surrender was signed on Missouri. Im modelling the Mustang in Oahu. 5

6 The Arizona Memorial. Battleship Row Pearl Harbour On board the Missouri; standing above the side that was hit by a Japanese Kamikaze. 6

7 We visited Disneyland and stayed in Longbeach on the Queen Mary We checked out of the Gas Lamp Hotel and ventured north along the Pacific Coast HWY towards Los Angeles (LA). We stopped here and there to look at the sights and we came across a beach place called San Clemente. This was a unique beach that had a railway running along the back of the beach and the AMTRACK (American V Line train) went past whilst we were there. The day was overcast and not really swimming weather however the locals were taking full advantage of the day and were everywhere. They had marquis up they had BBQ's going, they were all over and it was packed. The carpark was packed and the beach was packed. It was a really nice place to stop and people watch. We had lunch in the harbour of San Clemente Beach in a nice restaurant with harbour views very nice. The Buick we hired The waitresses were young and didn t seem to know what they were doing, however they were polite. We drove to the Queen Mary which was a cruise ship built in 1936 during the Great Depression. Two companies built her Whitestar (which built the Titanic) and Cunard who are still around today and operate the QE2 and Queen Mary 2. This ship has importance in our family in that she was converted in 1940 to a Troop Carrier and dad sailed on her from Sydney to Singapore to join the fight against the Japanese. The Mary transported over 800,000 troops in her days as a troop carrier and served mainly in the Pacific including trips to Philippines, Africa, America and parts of Asia. She collided with a smaller ship during a voyage (note at full tilt she takes 10 miles to stop!) And unfortunately over 130 people in the other ship died as a result of the collision. One girl about 7 drowned in the first class pool and a boiler attendant was crushed by the water tight doors down in the depths of the ship. Our cabin room was quaint and had 2 single beds not a large room but certainly very nice and livable they tried to keep the atmosphere of what it would have been like in the days as a guest on the Cruise liner. 7

8 Scott and I in First Class Cool. We dined in Sir Winston s Restaurant on the first class level very nice meal a bit arty-farty and small but still very tasty. We had a bottle of Marlborough New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc which was crisp but overpriced at $60. I would envisage that wine to be in the area of $20 but hey we were in the first class section and paid first class prices for an imported wine. Bought Jamie a present in the First Class Gift shop I think she will like it. (See later discussion on 'Snow Dome Gate ). After a delicious dinner we went on the Ghost tour of the ship. We visited the first class pool where the little girl drowned and the Ghost Whisperer (Guide) we were with tried to contact her. Anyway there was no contact made on our night. We also tried to contact the guy killed in the water tight doors but no luck. We were shown around areas of the ship that were normally off limits to the public so all in all it was a great tour. Scott and I took the piss a little of the whole concept but all in all had a great time. Queen Mary and Scorpion Sub We spent 3 nights in Longbeach we toured the Scorpion Submarine which was moored next to the 8

9 Queen Mary. Gee it is small inside not much room for the guys to work in and claustrophobic wow would take a certain type of person to work down in a submarine particularly when there is war going on because if a sub takes a hit you cant jump overboard and have a slim chance to live you go down in a heavy piece of steel to the bottom of the ocean. Not my cup of tea. Disneyland on day 3 was packed. We went on a number of rides including: The Indiana Jones ride, Log ride (got very wet) Queen Mary Hotel Looney Tunes Ride, Alice in Wonderland, Seven Dwarfs ride, The famous Cups ride, & Pirates of the Caribbean It was so busy in there for a Monday, I hadn t seen a crowd like that before at an amusement park. I would hate to see what a weekend was like. I was tired after it, because that morning we did the tour of the Queen Mary which was an audio tour (with headphones) of the ship for 2 hours so we walked all up and down her. Then at 1200 lunchtime went to Disneyland got back to the Queen Mary after Disneyland at 10pm at night legs tired. A really huge day. 9

10 I drove to LA from Longbeach it was busy on the roads. First stop Santa Monica Pier. Stokesy had recommended Bubba Gumps Restaurant on the Pier at Santa Monica so we went there and had a nice feed. Wow it is busy on the pier and the beach. Adjacent to the beach was an Iraq war field of crosses representing a cross for each American death and the beach in that area was covered in them. There was a sign where it said that for Iraqi deaths the entire beach would be covered a somber exhibit. Next stop was Venice beach. We walked along and sat for a while and people watched it was very busy with people of all sorts shapes and sizes and personalities along the beach. Saw a display of 'Kapawearer' (sic) a Pacific type martial art kind of dance moves and martial arts blended together I have seen it only before in the movies. So good to see. Gene Kelly's House in LA We continued up and drove along Rodeo drive in Beverley Hills saw the famous shops and it looked expensive. We saw a Porsche and Lamborghini cars nearly stack into each other so that was interesting. Up further we visited Doris Days house and Gene Kelly (the famous dancers house) nice houses worth an absolute mint. Next stop was Hollywood Blvd we walked along there and stopped in at a gift shop and bought Jackie boy something of a local flavour. Walked along and saw a lot of the stars on the boulevard found Sylvester Stallone s Star and took a pic of it. Went back to the Queen Mary. That night had a few beers in the first class pub and met a bloke from Monterey nice fellow. The same bar the night before had an Elvis entertainer who was pretty good sang well but looked nothing like the King. He also did some Johnny Cash which was also quite good it got better as we had more beers. Had a couple of cocktails in the bar which were really tasty. We went out afterwards looking for a burger and a 6 pack of beer as the bar shut at 12 Longbeach at night looked to be a black dominated place I saw many instances of police frisking some young black men (probably for good reason) but there were black people milling about the streets everywhere. Not a great place to be I thought but we had priorities beer and burgers! Went to the 7/11 store one car in the carpark reversed into another two black men in both cars there was a bit of mouthing off, but nothing more I said to Scott wouldn t it be a bugger if they started shooting at each other I was ready to drive off in a hurry if I had to. Scott not keen to hang about me either. 10

11 Our room inside the Queen Mary 11

12 Did the ghost tour on the Queen Mary. Dinner (first class) in Sir Winstons on board the Queen Mary. 12