Why Not Hawaii?: One oh fo suweee (cont'd)

Ok, so let me start off by explaining the title of this and the last post... one oh fo suweee is actually the radio station 104.3 but the dj on Fridays has this interesting accent and says 104.3 in such speed and with his accent it comes out "one oh fo suweeee". :) Lois, Carlos, Jules and I all joked about this non-stop. I don't know, I guess you just had to be there to get it :)

So lets see, we left off on the last post on Sunday beach picnic at Nanakuli Beach in the Waianae part of town. On Monday Lois, Jules and I headed off to the North Shore at 7 am in the morn. Yes, its an hour drive so we had to get a head start. Our destination? Kualoa Ranch on the north east coast of the island. :)

We had planned to do the half day excursion which included 2 tours and a lunch buffet. For our two tours we decided on the movie tour which entailed us being bussed through a small portion of the ranch and areas of land being pointed out as the movie tour. Example: "See that hill over there?" "Well that hill was in the movie Jurassic Park" "See that mountain over there, that was the background in this ___ movie" "see that dirt road, that was in 50 First Dates". Honestly, the tour was not all that spectacular - they shouldn't be selling it as a movie tour.. but I can't complain too much, the scenery was gorgeous. :)

This is the Jurassic Park Hill where the professor and 2 kids are walking and suddenly a herd starts running towards them and they hide behind a huge log/tree trunk off to the left of here.

Interesting note - this is Godzilla's foot and apparently originally 8 ft deep. Every morn the ranchers would have to rescue the cows that had fallen in over night. :/

This pic does not do justice to these gorgeous mountains.

Chinaman's Hat on the left and turtle island in the center - its called turtle island due to the shape. Do you see it?

Myself, Julie and Lois enjoying the ocean breeze and being out on the beautiful water. Lovely day indeed.

The Pond was more than merky - it was the worst water I've seen on the entire island, luckily it was just a man-made fishing pond and was separated from the ocean which was back to beautiful teal waters.

After the Ocean adventure, we were taken back to the ranch where we enjoyed a quick buffet lunch and then we were off to Shark's Cove to snorkel! :) We had heard so much about this place we couldn't wait to go.

Wow, what a pleasant surprise and what a tourist hotspot! :) The pic below is courtesy of another blogger as we girls did NOT take our cell/cameras out to the beach for fear of them being stolen. Gorgeous, isn't it? Now imagine 200+ snorkelers in this same area.. yes, the place was SWARMING with people but it wasn't bad at all.. the 3 of us certainly enjoyed our time. :)

After snorkeling we had certainly worked up an appetite. It was 630 now and we were hungry - we decided to try out the various shrimp trucks. Giovanni's is the most popular on the island, and where we headed first, unfortunately though we reached at 645 and they were closed for the day. Boo! :/ Luckily though, they referred us over to FUMI's Shrimp truck where we enjoyed coconut covered shrimp, tempura shrimp, lemon/garlic, and spicy shrimp. It was delish and satisfying. :)

The next morning was Lois' last day so we decided to visit Pearl Harbor. Oh dear.. if you plan to visit, definitely pack your handkerchief. Prior to visiting the Arizona memorial, you go to an auditorium to watch a 30 min video on the history of Pearl Harbor.. oh my goodness, I was a big ball of mess. Magarmuch ke asoon (meaning alligator tears), oye.. I got sooo emotional watching this video. *sigh* I am just in awe of the courage that people showed that day - nurses treating victims, fellow civilians and military men pulling their comrades out of the burning water - yes, burning water. *sigh* I am just beside myself. I don't understand why, why do a small number of people make decisions, bad decisions and hundreds of thousands of innocent people then have to pay for it. Not just at Pearl Harbor but all around the world - everywhere, war - why? Why for power/greed/ego. Ugh.. this all makes me very sad. :(

Anyhow.. the video made me very very sad but the memorial was peaceful and solemn.