We awoke at the crack of dawn this morning. It was our first time setting an alarm to get up in the morning since we've been here--I've been waking up automatically between 7:30 and 8:30. We woke up early so we could go to see Pearl Harbor before it grew too crowded. Upon arrival we first toured the two little museums they had. Out of all of the historical happenings in this world my knowledge of WWII is probably the strongest of anything but I still learned some new and interesting details. At 9:00 we boarded the little boat that drove us out to the USS Arizona Memorial. Being there was a solemn and sad experience, despite the lovliness of the weather and the rainbow arching over us. I stood looking over the railing at the coral-covered remnants of the ship and thought about the lives lost in the attack on Pearl Harbor. I also thought about all of the people that have died in various tradgedies around the world that don't get the same honor that Pearl Harbor's victims do. I felt sad for the victims of starvation, sex trafficking, and mass disease outbreaks. I mourned the native peoples around the world that have been killed or kicked off of their land by colonizing countries. I felt sad for the kids that were killed in Sandy Brook Elementary. I'm glad we visited the memorial despite all of the saddness.
After we were deposited back onto shore by our naval guides we decided to shift the tone of the day by going to the "swap meet." This so-called swap meet was in fact a ginormous group of tented awnings whose venders sold every Hawaiian knick-knack the heart could want. We perused them all and bought very little but it was definitely interesting to see.
The best part of the day for me was our snorkeling trip to Hanauma Bay. The mask and snorkel took a little bit to get used to but once I got the hang of things I cruised along quite nicely. The water was really shallow, at times too shallow. I kept feeling like I was going to beach myself on top of the coral. I cut my hand pretty badly on the coral within 5 minutes of getting in the water but the lifegaurd gave me a bandaid and I waded back into the water.
It was awesome being SO close to fish that I love. I could have reached out and touched some of them if I wanted (but of course I would never do something so rude). Nearly all of the fish were the same types as my tropical fishy friends from the aquarium so I was able to identify almost all of them in my head. We saw tons of tangs such as convict tangs, orange-shoulder tangs, lavender tangs, sailfin tangs, and orange-spine tangs, butterfly fish, wrasses, and a super cute wedge-tail triggerfish. I loved it. I was nerding out left and right and feeling really cool for knowing what types of fish I was seeing.
We made dinner at our beachy house and lounged around reading for the rest of the evening. We are hoping for some serious sunshine action tomorrow for a lazy, beachy day here at Ewa Beach.
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