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Our Hawaii Adventure

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Sunday, July 13th 2003:

Sunday found us visiting the Waikiki Baptist Church (hopefully this link will work again soon!). The congregation meets in the midst of an apartment complex and is very prepared for visitors. We were met at the stairs by Bill Clements. Bill was very kind and helped us find seating beside another Kentucky couple, Bill and Brenda Thompson of Paducah.

We soon found out that we were not the only visitors there that day. About half of the congregation stood up when asked to identify themselves as newcomers. We sat in front of a couple from Ireland and behind a family from Oklahoma. There was also a girl from Japan and a woman from El Salvador in attendance, as well as quite a few people from California and Texas.

One interesting aspect of the worship service was that each singer, speaker, or leader in prayer was greeted with a plumeria lei by one of the members, an elderly man named George. Before the service, while he was greeting visitors, George asked us if we knew how to sing a hymn in Chinese - he said we could pick one out and he would show us how. Stephanie picked a hymn and George proceeded to take the hymnal from her, and then hand it back upside down! This contributed to the friendly atmosphere of the church.

Stephanie especially enjoyed the music of Waikiki Baptist Church. The call to worship was a hula, but not the kind with dancers in grass skirts and leis. The girls performing "The Lord's Prayer" wore long white dresses and no flowers. The choral benediction was also a hula, but it was sung not danced. The choir also did an arrangement of "How Great Thou Art" that included a bass solo in Hawaiian. It was very moving.

Marilyn Miller lead both the congregational singing and the choir. For the special music time, she performed a song that sounded to Stephanie as if it could have been from our own Bluegrass State. "It Doesn't Matter Where You Come From, But It Counts Where You're Going (Are You Headed In The Right Direction?") had a definite twang to it.

Bill G. Duncan was listed as being the pastor of the Waikiki Baptist Church, but we heard Dr. O. W. Efurd who is serving as the President of the Hawaii Baptist Foundation. Dr. Efurd endeared himself to Stephanie by speaking from Jeremiah 29:11-14, which is her favorite passage. We liked the Waikiki Baptist Church so well that we decided to attend there next week as well.

After church, we decided to uphold our tradition of taking a Sunday afternoon nap. Upon waking, Stephanie wanted to visit the hotel pool. This plan did not last long as she kept getting in the way of a group of children playing "Marco Polo", so we decided to go to dinner instead.

Monday, July 14th 2003:

Monday was "Pearl Harbor Day" for the Sims family. We met Steve, our DUKW (pronounced duck) driver early yesterday morning and, after picking up several other passengers (including a rather boisterous sales group from AT&T) headed off to the Arizona Memorial.

Steve turned out to be an informative guide. He pointed out many recognizable downtown landmarks and had a story to go with each one. He told us, for example, that many of the big businesses in Hawaii today are owned or operated by the descendants of early missionaries to the islands. The first big Hawaiian export was sandalwood.

Steve warned us that because of security concerns we would not be allowed to take purses or any other bags into Pearl Harbor. Ken was allowed, however, to take his camera.

We had to wait about an hour and a half before our number was called for the educational film and tour of the Arizona Memorial, so we strolled around looking at the markers and maps placed along the path. We also browsed the Bookstore, where we picked up a few newspaper reproductions of December 7, 1941 announcing the attack.

The film shown before the launch to the Memorial contained footage taken at Pearl Harbor on the day war broke out. Both it and the commentary played during the short boat ride to the Memorial were heart wrenching. There were twenty three sets of brothers and one father and son pair killed on the USS Arizona, making the viewing of the list of names in the Shrine Room that much more emotional.

The architecture of the Memorial is significant. The center was designed to sag in the middle in order to symbolize the discouragement felt on December 7. However, the sides both curve upward, signaling a rise in action of the American people who so determined that the attack on Pearl Harbor would not defeat them that they shortly had their damaged ships again in operation. The Arizona was not one of those. She burned for three days, leaving 1,177 dead, many still entombed in the ocean.

We determined to return to Pearl Harbor and tour the USS Missouri (the site of the eventual surrrender of the Japanese) and the submarine Bowfin, known as "The Avenger of Pearl Harbor". More details on that trip will be coming soon.

After our tour of the Arizona Memorial, Steve took us out into the water in our Duck. We left the land at a boat ramp on Sand Island. We got a unique view of the cityscape from the water. Part of Sand Island is the property of the University of Hawaii - where three big programs there are marine studies, astronomy, and genetic research. Then he drove us through downtown Honolulu pointing out the glass fronted Convention Center with its statue of a traditional Polynesian in the courtyard and the church that Hawaiian Royalty attended during the age of the monarchy. Steve also showed us Tripler Army Medical Center that has served the military since World War II and told us the two different versions of why it was painted pink. The first is that someone believed that it would show up better if it was such an unusual color. The second version is that pink was the only color available at the time and, though it was intended that the hospital would be painted a more conventional color at a later date, by the time the war was over it was so identifiable with the building that it was allowed to stay as it was.

Upon returning to the hotel, we decided to walk down to the International Marketplace. We sampled "shaved ice" (pina colada flavored for Ken, cherry for Stephanie) and spent some time wandering around. For dinner, we tried out the "Top of Waikiki" restaurant. The "Top of Waikiki" is built to revolve, giving customers a unique view of Honolulu. We saw everything from Diamond Head to the very pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the first built in Honolulu. (The pink hotel and the pink military hospital have nothing to do with each other that we know of.)

After dinner we had some time to kill before the "Magic of Polynesia" show that we were attending, so we spend some more time walking around. We ended up running into Bill Thompson, the man with whom we had shared a church pew and comparing restaurant stories with him. We also visited a small store and Ken bought two brightly colored "aloha" shirts.

"The Magic of Polynesia" show ended up having pre-entertainment music, so Stephanie enjoyed singing along to some old favorites as performed by "Bruno", a young man heavily influenced by Michael Jackson, at least in the dance move department.

The show itself contained some impressive illusions. Stephanie's favorite involved Michael (the illusionist for the night) levitating one of his assistants and then appearing to transform her into white confetti and streamers while she was still in mid air. Michael's interaction with the audience was also entertaining. He had a few of us chuckling when he gave his volunteer a tee shirt as a thank you for being a good sport, put the shirt in a box and then managed to make the volunteer walk back to his seat with an empty container.

Tuesday July 15, 2003:

We ended up going back to the Harbor Pub for lunch today. Lori, the waitress that we had last time, again invited us to try their breakfast menu, so we may take her up on it before we leave.

After lunch, Stephanie headed to the Yamano Dayspa in the hotel for a salt scrub and a massage. Sueko, her therapist, spoke little English and Stephanie speaks no Japanese, so the afternoon was spent mostly in relaxing silence.

Dinnertime found us again at the Ala Moana Shopping center. After eating, we headed to a ubiquitous ABC Store to pick up a bus pass. We may just ride around tomorrow and see some of the island.

At sunrise, Ken turned on the radio. We were amused to hear the voice of Delilah, a radio hostess of a love song program. We first encountered her show in Seattle on our honeymoon and, when we can pick up a signal, will listen to Delilah in the car on trips back and forth to Somerset. It's interesting to hear a little piece of home out here on the island.

Thanks for taking this adventure with us. Stay tuned for further developments!

Pictures from July 13-15, 2003