Evan wake up tracker – 2:50 am
I had an alarm set early because we had our first important team meeting via a zoom call for Lydia, who just found out yesterday that she made Santos, the Roswell travel soccer team. Noelle was supposed to sleep in, but she got up to listen as well. After the call, she went back to sleep, and I stayed up to catch up on the blog. As I got closer to sunrise, I made a cup of coffee and moved my editing to the lanai (patio) for a better view.
The rest of the family woke up around 6:00 am and we started packing up. We (I) had a goal to leave by 7:30am to try to get to Pearl Harbor by 8:00 before it started to get too crowded, but we had…complications….
Victoria’s eyes yesterday were very bloodshot, which we thought was due to getting sand in her eyes, but this morning she had a ton of discharge, and think she definitely has pink eye. Wonderful… now we need to find both a doctor to get a prescription, and prescription for eye drops, while also avoiding Victoria spreading it to the whole family. Deep breaths project planner Evan, you can do this… Noelle was also having some indigestion / digestive distress, which combined with a load of unfolded laundry and our suitcases that were strewn about everywhere meant we were going to be a little slower to get packed up than I had planned in the schedule. We did our best and were out the door at 8:15 (including returning the parking pass throwing the trash out) – not bad.
I could feel the family was a little stressed out, so tried to shut down my natural urge to feel rushed and looked for a place to grab breakfast. Everything is a little less stressful on a full stomach. We found a great place – Sweet E’s – on the way there. It had no parking initially, but someone started to leave right as I was about to drive away, which I interpreted as sign that we must eat there. We talked for a bit with a family from Rome, Georgia before getting seated to order. I got a delicious breakfast burrito with Polynesian sausage in it, Lydia had French toast stuffed with blueberries and cream cheese, and Victoria had a boring American breakfast with eggs/bacon/sausage. We cleaned our plates completely and headed out.
We arrived at Pearl Harbor ~9am. It’s free entry in, but you have to pay $7 for parking through a QR code sign. As we put the lotion on the skin in the parking lot, a lady warned me that no bags are allowed (after she walked all the way back to put hers away), so we just grabbed the water bottles out – thanks for the warning lady!
The Pearl Harbor National Memorial is made up of several different sections – the main attraction is the Arizona memorial (which is run by the National Park service), which has a theater with a short movie and a boat ride out to the actual memorial which is a structure built over the U.S.S. Arizona that is one of the ships that was destroyed and still sunk under the water. On the main campus, there is a walk of remembrance that describes the attack on Pearl Harbor, as well as monuments to the thousands of people and ships that were lost in the attack. There are also 3 other museums that are run independently (not by the National Park service) – the Battleship Missouri Memorial, Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum, and the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum (which have additional costs if you’d like to see them).
They also had one section where you could wear virtual reality headsets to learn more about different topics. We paid for one that was a 15 minute VR experience showing what it may have looked like to see the Japanese kamikaze planes attacking the harbor. I thought it was a good way to help visualize to the family what happened here 80 years ago to pull the U.S. into WWII.
After that, we walked by the ticket area to the Arizona memorial. It was a somber mood all around being there at Pearl Harbor, but my heart was a little sadder because we weren’t going to be able to see the memorial because I missed the reservations. However, as I was walking by the ticket area, I overheard someone else asking what to do if they didn’t have tickets, and it turns out there is a standby line! We walked over to the standby line, and there were only 20 people in it. We waited in line for 10 minutes, then they waved us through to get on the ship to go to the memorial.
The ship to get there feels like a military transport with a roof on it, but open to the outside. You drive by a few other large military ships and in 5 minutes arrive at the memorial itself and unload at the memorial.
The atmosphere at the memorial itself is very somber / sobering. You are standing above the graves of hundreds of sailors that woke up the morning of December 7, 1941 thinking that day was going to be a normal day until the attack began and the Arizona was destroyed. A kamikaze dive bomber’s armor piercing bomb hit the deck of the Arizona, penetrated into the ship’s forward magazine, causing a devastating explosion. 1,177 officers and crewman died that day on the Arizona that day. There was a whole massive wall in the memorial that listed all of the men that died, and another that showed all of the survivors that choose to have their remains placed with their fallen brothers in the Arizona after they passed away many years later.
Oil continues to leak out of the Arizona – you can see it slowly leaking out in small oil slicks on top of the water. It could still continue leaking out for 500 years according to the ranger there.
Today is a memorial day weekend and this memorial is a reminder that we only have the ability to take vacations like our family is on now because of the brave men and women that fought and sometimes gave their lives to defend this country and the freedoms that it grants. Thank you for your service to country to all those that served in the armed forces. This memorial will ensure your bravery will never be forgotten.
The next boat arrived a short time later. After it unloaded, we loaded up and headed back to the main land. We took the walk of remembrance, which gave the series of events that happened, including the list of the boats that were damaged or destroyed. Most of the ships that had bad damage were actually repaired and returned to service. Some of the ships that sunk upright were refloated so they could be repaired and returned to service to fight battles later in the war.
We left after that with a new perspective on life and how lucky we are to be able to take a trip like this. As usual, the family had built up an appetite and we decided just to do a quick drive through run in McDonalds. It’s amazing how McDonalds is the same everywhere you go.
Next is the hunt for pink eye drops. We first tried a CVS (called Long Drugs on the island) which had a minute clinic inside. The clinic desk was unmanned, but they had a kiosk to take appointments. We filled out the long form only to find out that there were no appointments available today or tomorrow…wonderful. How important are your eyes to you Victoria?
The pharmacist inside suggested Queen’s Island Urgent Care across the street. We tried that one instead. Noelle convinced me to go check in and see how long the wait would be, although I’d guess all our options on a memorial day weekend sunday are all going to be bad. I opened the door and there were 10 people waiting inside, all with masks and I did not have a mask… Well this could go from bad to worse – let’s see how long I can hold my breath… I filled out the forms and checked Victoria in. I asked for a mask since it said they were required, but the receptionist said you don’t need them anymore. I just pulled my shirt over my mouth. Luckily I wore my N95 shirt today.
After about hour of waiting, we were seen and the doc confirmed our suspicions that it look like bacterial pink eye and called in the prescription to the CVS that was on the way to the North Shore. Let’s get this vacation back on track.
We drove north, passing the Dole pineapple plantation and fields of pineapples as far as the eyes can see. After one wrong missed turn on a round-about, we arrived in Hale’iwa, a cute little surf town that had our prescription it. I walked inside to grab it and… they let me know they were all out and the delivery for more didn’t come for 2 days. First time I’ve ever had a drug store run out of drugs. They transferred our prescription over to the CVS that was in the town before the Dole plantation. Plan is to drop the family off at the Airbnb that’s fairly close and I would drive back to get it.
But first, let’s eat away our frustrations with some of Hawaii’s famous shaved ice. There were signs for shaved ice everywhere, but I let google reviews be our guide which pointed us to Matsumoto Shaved Ice. As we were driving up, we saw 30 people in a long line outside and knew this must be good. The line moved really fast – it was an impressive assembly line with clear glass windows so you could see the manufacturing process. I got the “Matsumoto’s “combination (Lemon, Blue pineapple, coconut) and added condensed milk and azuki beans (Japanese red beans boiled in sugar). We sat outside to eat – delicious. I ate (and drank through the provided straw) every last drop of mine. Highly recommend Matsumoto’s if you’re ever on Oahu.
We continued down the coast-side road towards our Airbnb. We all were enjoying the vibe here on the north shore much more than the big city of Honolulu. Everything switched by the beautiful hawaiian green, the roads switched by to 2 lane, and you felt like you were in paradise again. Every half mile or so, there’d be a section where cars were parked on both sides of the road in the dirt and all manner of surfers were either loading or unloading. The beaches and surf looked great, although not the monster waves we were expecting (winter time is when the waves get monstrous – it’s fairly calm late June/July), but that didn’t seem to dissuade the local surfers. We stopped at one spot to check it out for a bit then continued down the road.
This Airbnb had a little bit of mystery around it. The whole situation around this one was a little weird because they’ve passed laws recently to start limiting which areas can do short-term rentals for their homes. The provider of our place had me sign a 30 day lease (of which you paid for the days that you stay for that 30 days) to abide by the regulation. Hopefully the feds don’t kick the door in.
The directions didn’t take us to the right location, but we found it after one turn around. The place was beautiful – it was one of two newly built tiny houses that the owner in their one-acre back yard. They lived in a one section of the main house and rent out the 2 tiny houses and other half of the duplex. Nice little setup. Inside the house was very nice as you’ll see below – I think this one will be our favorite stay.
The rental also included access to the farm on the backyard! They had mature fruit trees, a vegetable garden, and a chicken coop with chickens running around everywhere. The owner came out to grab some of the eggs with his two kids. We talked with him for a bit – he’s owned the place since 2020 and been living there for the last 6 months. He gave us some eggs, oranges, and papayas that he just pulled off the trees / chickens. I put sliced up an oranges, put a slice in a longboard island lager that I bought at the CVS and watched the kids run around with the chickens from the deck.
The owner helped teach the girls how to pickup and hold the chickens properly, and Victoria spent the rest of the afternoon playing mom to a herd of young chickens, trying to defend them from the larger more aggressive chickens that were bullying them. She’s asked us several times if we can take the chickens home with us. I don’t think they will fit in our luggage.
I left the farmer’s to their work and started the 45 minute drive back to the CVS for the prescription. The road actually got backed up with traffic from all the surfer’s leaving for the day, but I was very much at peace with the world driving along the beach and north shore countryside.
I made it to the CVS at 6:03pm and walked to the back to find the steel metal barrier that they put down when the pharos closes for the day…. they closed at 6. Son of a pig. I stood there incredulous for a couple minutes and could hear the pharmacists behind the metal closing up. They noticed me and mentioned it was closed. I used my saddest dad voice – “Please, I need medicine for my sick daughter – we leave the island soon and she needs it badly”. I thought I stood no chance in hell when they were talking quietly for a minute. Can you believe they raised the gate, grabbed the prescription, and gave it to me? Hawaiians are just built differently than us mainlanders. I thanked them profusely and left with the eye drops. You get to keep your eyes Victoria!
45 minutes later, I made it back to the airbnb, grabbed the family and drove back to historic Hale’iwa for some dinner at “Teddy’s Bigger Burgers“. Burgers were good, atmosphere was better with some live music behind us. Loving everything about North Shore, Oahu
