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<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>Our first morning in Hawaii we grabbed a quick breakfast at Happy’s Cafe in the Hale Koa. \u00a0Then we headed to Pearl Harbor. \u00a0Last time we were here 13 years ago, we saw the Arizona, which is closed right now, but we wanted to see the Missouri, which began life in WWII and was decommissioned after Desert Storm. \u00a0We took the “heart of the Missouri” tour, which included a detailed, docent-led tour below decks.<\/p>\n After our tour, we ran into one of the normal guided tours and hear a very interesting talk about the signing of the Japanese surrender document. \u00a0For those not aware, the Missouri is where the famous picture of the Japanese surrender was taken in Tokyo bay.<\/p>\n We were flirting with rain all day. \u00a0We had planned to spend the afternoon on the beach at Waikiki, but with the rain, instead we chose to do some shopping for Hawaiian shirts at the Pearl Harbor Navy Exchange and wander around some of the shops in Waikiki. \u00a0We also enjoyed pina coladas at the Barefoot beachside bar (in the rain). \u00a0That evening, we took in a really good magic show in the Hale Koa Warriors Lounge. \u00a0Earlier that afternoon, Tom and I were in the lobby waiting for the girls, when the magician came up to us, saying “hey, I have this new trick I’d like to try out on you.” \u00a0He proceeded to perform an amazing card transformation slight-of-hand trick in Tom’s hand. \u00a0This clinched it for us. \u00a0We wanted to see the show.<\/p>\n The next day, our second full day, Candy had arranged for a guide to take us to a number of lesser-known things round Oahu. \u00a0Shane picked us up in the lobby of the hotel and drove us around the island.<\/p>\n We began the tour with a \u00a0three-mile hike to a secluded waterfall.<\/p>\n It was a nice hike. \u00a0We got rained on during the hike back, but we dried out quickly and moved on to lunch.<\/p>\n We had pre-arranged with Shane for lunches. \u00a0He drove us to a park across Kaneohe Bay from the Marine Corps base. \u00a0We were a couple hundred yards from a small island known as “Chinaman’s Hat.” \u00a0We ate a really nice lunch on a picnic table and then headed to our next stop.<\/p>\n Next we drove around the coast — after a stop at a Kona coffee and macadamia nut tourist trap (where we bought macadamia nuts!!) — to this interesting rock formation.<\/p>\n Ancient Hawaiian legends talk about two Hawaiian heroes \/ gods who defeated a giant lizard that was eating people. \u00a0This is supposedly the lizard’s head that was chopped off by one of the heroes.<\/p>\n We stopped at a roadside farmer’s market and picked up some fresh pineapple, mango, and mixed fruit. \u00a0Our guide wanted us to try two local fruits. \u00a0The first is Lychee, which looks like a strawberry, but has a very tough skin that must be peeled before eating. \u00a0They were very sweet and very good. \u00a0The second was called a mountain apple, that had a peach-like pit and tasted more like a sweet pear. \u00a0Both were really, really good.<\/p>\n Our next stop was 90 minutes of snorkeling around “Three Tables” beach were we swam with schools of fish and got very close to three sea turtles frolicking along the rocks. \u00a0We were probably one good kick away from being able to touch them!<\/p>\n Then we drove to Waimea Bay to do some “safe cliff jumping.”<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a>