May 2, Aloha Hawai'i!

This morning at 7:30 p.m., we disembarked from the Ovation of the Seas for the last time.

Using a taxi, we headed to the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center, to visit the museum since we were in Honolulu, before our flight to Lihue, Kauai. We got a chance to see the film about the events that led up to the tragedy of December 7, 1941. It was a series of errors and bad judgement calls, which resulted in most of the American Navy’s Pacific fleet and airplanes being destroyed. The Japanese commander, Yamamoto, was a genius who designed an incredible plan of multiple layers of air and underwater attacks; these were able to work because the majority of our ships were lined up, side by side in long lines in the harbor and our airplanes were lined up wing tip to wing tip on three different airfields. The Army and Navy commanders where arrogant enough to think that no one would attack the Pacific Fleet at our headquarters. To add insult to injury, a Navy lieutenant in charge of monitoring island’s radar system: when he was told by his men that they saw several airplanes on the screen, he said to ignore those planes, as they were likely another squadron of airplanes that were expected that day from the US. If we had more time, we could have spent more time there -- not only the Visitor's Center, but the other museums, including the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum and the Arizona Memorial.

These were facts that neither of us had ever heard. The visit was really moving. Here are a series of photos of the exhibits from our visit.

After we finished our visit, we took an Uber to the airport. We had three suitcases and two carry-on bags, so we were lugging things through the airport. Fortunately, we did not have to wait too long in line to check our bags. They were all 50 pounds or over and we had to pay the heavy luggage penalty. Doug thought that the limit was 70 pounds and it was only 50 pounds. The ticket agent felt sorry for us and didn’t charge us a fee. What a blessing!

Our flight to Kaua’i was really nice, and it lasted only 40 minutes.

(Approaching our landing at the Lihue [lee-Hoo-ay] Airfield)

When we arrived at the airport, we obtained our rental car and drove to the Lanikai resort. We got to the resort and learned that our unit was on the second floor! We had to carry all of those heavy suitcases upstairs. By the time we finished unloading everything, we were both whipped. After we rested a little while, Patrise went to get groceries and buy something for us to eat for dinner. The resort is at a lovely location right on the water and the landscaping is beautifully maintained. Here is a photo of the view from our balcony. (Video is even better, because you can hear the powerful waves washing onto the shore.)

(Our balcony overlooks a beautiful pool with the ocean just fifty yards beyond.)

The only concern about this unit is the fact that it does not have central air conditioning throughout the unit, only window units in the two bedrooms. Needless to say, Patrise is not too happy about having to suffer through heat and humidity. The unit has a ceiling fan in every room, and the windows allow air to flow through the unit even if it is not cool air. We turned the air conditioning units on as high as they go, in order to chill the bedrooms down low enough to allow us to sleep at night. It worked, so we both had a comfortable night’s sleep. Tomorrow, we plan to see more of Kaua’i.