Starting Over

I have taken so many photographs on this trip, that there was no way I could post the photographs as fast as I took them.  So I am starting over, and posting images from the trip, starting at the beginning.  This is the Arizona Memorial, in honor of the USS Arizona which was sunk by a Japanese bomb on December 7, 1941.  The bomb set off the power magazine, and the ship exploded suddenly.  It happened so quickly and the explosion was so powerful that the ship sank suddenly, and 1,177 Officers and crewmen died.  Many are still entombed in the hull.

So these are photographs of the outside and the inside of the memorial, which was constructed so that it spanned the sunken hull, without touching it.

This wall has inscribed on it the names of all those lost in the attack.

This is one of the supports for a huge gun turret on the ship, mounted on one of the decks of the battleship.  There were four of these turrets mounted on the ship.  After the sinking, parts of the Arizona were saved to use on other ships, and the gun turret with three huge guns was removed from this mount.

There is an opening in the floor of the memorial structure spanning the ship, and it gives a view of the hull.  Depending on the sea condition, sometimes you can see the sunken hull more easily.

It was a very sober and moving experience to visit the ship and the memorial.

Faithful Companion

We were leaving the beach where we saw the turtles, and I noticed this pink truck parked on the road.  Then I saw this beautiful dog.  Just sitting there, waiting for his owner.  Interesting that he is so well trained that he could be left there alone with the windows open.  Such a pretty dog.

On a Wing and a Prayer

We are home!  But you have not seen the end of my Hawaii posts, not by a long shot.  I have so many photographs to show you, it will last until the middle of October!  We left Maui yesterday in the morning and took a short flight to Honolulu, had a several hour layover, and then at 3 PM took off in an Airbus 330, which is a BIG airplane!  More than 300 passengers.  Long flights by air are so routine these days, that I had to think back to when four-engine propeller aircraft plied the skies over the pacific, carrying between 47 and 80 passengers, traveling at a speed of 300 MPH.  Our Airbus 330 did nearly twice that!  Our flight was direct from Honolulu to JFK which is wonderful - not having to change planes.  It was 9 hours and 30 minutes, and just about 5000 miles.  This first photo is of sunset over the Pacific ocean.

This ghostly photograph is about 45 minutes before sunrise, east of Scranton, Pennysylvania.  At first I thought I was seeing rivers, but then realized that it was fog in all the valleys in that area.  I love the ghostly effect, with the fog and the lights on in towns below.

Only a few minutes later, the plane banked, and the golden light of dawn illuminated just the underside of the fixtures under the wing which operate the flaps.

And then, on approach to JFK, I saw the not yet visible sun, illuminating the clouds on the horizon.  We couldn't see the ground,  but then descended through a cloud deck at 600 feet and made a perfect landing.  A magical flight! 

The Green Flash

Ho Hum, another Hawaiian Sunset, this time from the porch of the suite our friends Ken and Ronnie were staying in, in Maui.  They insisted we be there before sunset, so we were, and I brought a telephoto lens, and we were not disappointed.  The rays of light above the clouds, that seem to be radiating from the Sun are called "crepuscular rays" and they give a lovely effect during sunset.  But here is the special part.  When you watch a sunset over the water on a clear day, you can look for the "green flash" as the last bit of the Sun disappears below the horizon.  It is an effect that is caused by atmospheric refraction - where the atmosphere acts as a prism and divides the white light into color - and for some reason, green is the color we see as the sun slips below the horizon.  You need binoculars or a telephoto lens, so I was able to capture the effect.  Here is that photograph, below.

Tired

The most amazing thing today happened at the end of the day.  We stopped at a beach that we could see from the road as we passed, because we saw surfers in the water.  What we stumbled across was a group of people standing behind a rope line on the beach, looking at giant sea turtles!  They are called "Honu" and are Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles.  We saw a few on a beach with rocks on it, and then realized that the "rocks" were more turtles!  After swimming all day, they crawl up on the beach to sleep, believe it or not.  They feel safe here because it is a protected beach.  In the morning they will go back into the sea.  They swim underwater, and have to surface every three hours to breathe!  They can weigh nearly 200 pounds, and can live to be 80 years old.  They were an endangered species because they used to be killed for meat, and to use their shell for some purpose.  In the 1950's they were put on the endangered list, and since then they have been doing much better.

All the round "rocks" in the background are actually the shells of even more Honu sleeping on the beach.  As you can see from the close-up photo, they really do look beat!  And they are such magnificent creatures!  I have never been this close to one before, and seeing them makes me want to learn more about them.

Fishers

Today we went to a swimming beach that was lovely.  Then we went in search of a shrimp truck for lunch.  Someone asked the shrimp truck guy if there was anything interesting nearby, and he suggested staying on the road for a few miles, which would take us through the most recent lava flow on Maui, which was in 1790.  When we got to the end of the road, as we were turning around, we saw two young men who had been fishing carrying a styrofoam container with fish.  Liz asked if she could see the fish.  One of the young men immediately reached into the ice filled container and started bringing out their catch, and putting them on the cover of the container.  He knew the name of each of the fish as he  took them out!

One of the fish has poisonous spines on his dorsal fins and they mentioned that you would not want to come in contact with these, because it would hurt.  The fish is called an Ala'ihi.

So this is a portrait of the two fisherman and their companion.  I didn't ask their names or their relationships.  I did find out that they were catching fish for a going away party for a friend of theirs to be had this evening.  They were so generous with their time in explaining about their fishing and their fish.  It was such a wonderful Hawaiian thing to do!

Sunset on Maui

We left the big island of Hawaii this morning and arrived in Maui, the third and last island of our visit.  In the afternoon we drove north, along a coast road on the west side of the island.  Once again, amazing landscapes.  We stopped in the town of Lahania and wandered around the shops on the main drag.  At sunset we happened to be right by the harbor and I found this scene.  Then it was off down Front street again to look for a restaurant.  We found a wonderful fish place.  While eating dinner, I happened to see this couple, seated about two feet away from me.  We were eating in a dining room with open windows facing the bay, and tiki torches burning against the sunset sky, and a crescent moon setting.  And this couple were on their phones!  Once again, the glow of electronic screens trumps all.