Adventures with Liz

Everything Honolulu Has to Offer: Days 13, 14, and 15

This week has just been exhausting!

Friday we saw the submarines used by the Hawaii Underwater Research Laboratory (yes, their acronym is HURL), as well as the ship they are carried to sea on. Apparently these are world-class submersibles; only about a dozen exist and the U.S. is one of only three countries to have two. We learned all about the research they do. It was interesting, but I definitely don't think I'd want to go down in one...they're so small! Plus, there's no bathroom. And I had trouble handling a 103-foot dive to a coral reef on the Atlantis...these can go as deep as 2,000 meters to explore things like underwater volcanoes. Definitely not for me.


We had lunch at the University of Hawaii campus and made the all-important trip to the bookstore, where I of course spent way more money than I really needed to. But not all on me, so that makes it ok, right? We also made a quick stop at the Dole Plantation. There were no bananas though, which was really disappointing...I mean, saving the bananas is why I decided to be a biologist...I was really looking forward to talking to someone about the current genetic condition of the bananas and actually seeing all the banana clones, but no such luck. There were pineapples though, which actually grow on little bushes, not trees like I thought, and the best, most amazing pinapple ice cream ever. Next, we went snorkeling at Sharks Cove, where there are no sharks, thank goodness, just a lot of pretty fish. Finally, we had pizza and a lecture and got to see pictures from the HURL submarine dives. It was an incredibly full, exhausting day.


Yesterday we had a very early morning so we could go to Pearl Harbor. Talk about a rough morning. I was fine while we were looking around the store, museum, and main grounds. But then we went to watch this movie about what happened there, and of course, I immediately started crying. Then we took a little shuttle boat over to the actual memorial, which sits over the sunken USS Arizona like a bridge. It was probably one of the saddest, most haunting things I've ever experienced, seeing the few parts of the ship close to the surface and knowing that the more than 1,000 people who died on that ship were still below me. The wall of names started another flood of tears. It's so hard...you just look at those faces in the movie and those names on the wall and it's so easy to picture people you know. It could have been my grandfather; it's worse to think that some day it could be my boyfriend or his brother. I know it's horrible to think like that, but when you stand there, you can't help it. It really makes you think about life and how precious it is and how unfair it is that it is so often lost before it should be because we all can't just get along.

We went snorkeling that afternoon, but I wasn't really in the mood and the water was really rough, so snorkeling time was minimal and I mostly just hung out at the pretty beach we were at. We had a free evening, which always spells trouble, especially when the girls you're with refuse to let you sit in your room and cry because you missed the last call from your boyfriend doing army evalutaions at Fort Lewis and won't be able to talk to him at all for who knows how long and suggest a couple shots, lots of music, and silly behavior as a good alternative. Yeah, don't listen when that happens. You'll regret it in the morning.

Today was free, so after sleeping in way late to catch up from the lack of sleep this week and a greasy breakfast and lots of water to cure our hangovers, we spent several hours at the beach finally evening out our tans. Everyone else went to dinner and to see the new Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but I needed to do laundry and pack and I was exhausted, so I just stayed in. Plus, I told Michael I'd see it with him and my mom wants to see it with me. Twice in the theater is acceptable. Three times would be a little much.

Tomorrow it's off to Maui. The end of the trip is flying by. Keep leaving me comments!

posted by Liz @ 4:50 AM