Old friends and great times!

Almost two weeks ago two of our best friends from high school came out to visit us for a week! Errol and Corey have known Alex since sophomore  year and I met them senior year and we have all been friends since!

While the boys were here we did a ton of sight seeing and we visited some of the tourist hot spots around the island. When we got back from the house after picking them up from the airport, the boys all had to go play with   Alex's gear (like kids in a candy store)! The next day we headed down to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona and to go through the museum. Now Alex and I have already seen this part of Pearl Harbor but we had no problem in seeing it again. This time I was able to make it through both the museum and the USS Arizona tour with crying...though I did have to bite my cheek to keep from balling again.

The next day we all decided to take a tip to the beach. Because it was a Friday we decided just to go to a beach on base so there would be less of a crowd. We had a great time playing in the warm ocean water. We couldn't go too far out because of the large waves and strong current on that beach but the boys managed to some how get plowed by waves over and over! Now I can't seem to get all of our events in order but one evening we had our friends John and another Corey come over to meet the guys and just hang out. We also wen to go see Horrible Bosses and it was a great movie! One evening we played Monopoly which lasted all night! I had to be banker because the boys all admitted they could not be trusted to not steal money!

(Note my amazingly painful sun burn which just got worse over the next two days)

The next day (two days after our last beach trip) we went down to Waikiki beach to go swimming. We could not swim at the beach on base due to rocks, the current, and the huge waves but down at Waikiki we were able to actually swim. After a refreshing dip in the ocean we headed off to Cheeseburger in Paradise for lunch. And let me tell you...the name says it all! I had the cheeseburger babies (three mini cheeseburgers) for my lunch while the boys all ate burgers the size of their plates. That night we once again played bored games (Clue, Uno, and Taboo).

The next day we hung around the house while I did laundry and baked bread. We played more Monopoly and the boys played video games. That evening we went bowling at the bowling alley here on base. Corey and Errol each won a game.

 Boys will be boys I guess.

The next day we hit the road!

We decided to go to the Dole plantation to do the worlds largest maze (Alex and I were unable to do the maze when we went for our anniversary due to weather). The world record time for completing the maze is five minutes...it took us 58 minutes. So as a treat for making it out in under an hour we had lunch at the pineapple grill. 

The next stop on our island adventure was to visit North Shore. The drive along North Shore really shows off the beauty of Oahu. We stopped off at many of the beaches along the way but we found quite a surprise at the second beach we stopped at....

There were giant sea turtles all over the beach. They were also playing in the surf, poking their heads up and then ducking back under the waves. They are such amazing and beautiful creatures! We were so excited to actually see one out in the "wild"! We stopped off at a couple more beaches to just take in how beautiful the island really is. That night we played yet another game of Monopoly as well as Clue.

We loved having Errol and Corey come out for a visit.We had an amazing week making wonderful memories that will last us a life time. We are so thankful for our wonderful friends who make the effort to come see us when we are unable to go home to see them. We can't wait to see Errol and Corey again when we go home next or if they come back for round two!

Boys will be boys! 

Pearl Harbor Museum and USS Arizona

About a month or so ago Alex and I decided to head down to Pearl Harbor to see the museum and the memorial. When we got down to base we found out that the Pearl Harbor museum and the USS Arizona memorial tours are free, so we will most likely go back. We started out by going through the Pearl Harbor museum. Now you can get the audio tour for I believe $5.00 but we decided to walk through on our own.

Walking through the museum reading all the displays really opened my eyes to what really happened that tragic day of December 7th, 1941.

As we walked through the museum I learned so much more about what led up to the attack on the island of Oahu. I learned about Japan's expansion into Asia and the Pacific.

We were able to read about how Admiral Yamamoto planed his attack on the USA to take out America's battleship row and severely damage the Pacific fleet.

The next part of the museum was the saddest, it depicted and explained the damage that was inflicted on Oahu.

The Japanese were able to cause so much damage because of a couple different reasons.The two that I remember the most are that nobody knew that they were coming. Their planes were detected by US forces but they thought the inbound planes were US planes returning to Pearl Harbor so no preparations were made for the incoming attack. Second, the Japanese had aerial torpedoes. 

We next went to the USS Arizona tour. The tour started off with a 30 minute movie telling the sad story of that tragic day. It took all my strength to not cry my eyes out. I will never be able to forget the pictures and the videos that were in that movie. After the movie was over we took a boat over to the USS Arizona memorial. 

When you first get to the memorial you walk into a flag room.

One side of the room has flags representing the ships that were bombed. 

The other side of the room has flags for the branches for service, the American flag, and the Hawaiian flag. As  you walk to the middle of the memorial it opens up on each side so you can look down into the water and see the USS Arizona...

The last room is called the Shrine Room. In this room, inscribed on the walls, are the names of everyone killed on the USS Arizona. A total of 1,177 marines and sailors died on the USS Arizona and only 105 bodies were removed, the rest will forever call the USS Arizona home.

I lost it in this room. I couldn't stop crying. It was such a humbling experience to read all the names of those who lost their lives. I will NEVER forget how I felt reading those names and standing in that room.

In the water were memorials for other ships that went down. There were more memorials for other ships that were hit that day but we were unable to see them. We finished up our trip that day with a walk through the reflection garden and a trip to the book store for some reading material. 

I just want to say that I am proud to be an American and extremely proud to be married to such an amazing marine. And I also want to say that those men who died that day are missed and they will never be forgotten.