Pearl Harbor.

Part three of our trip to Hawaii posts.  Click for part 1, Welcome to Maui, part 2, the Road to Hana or part 4, Sunrise to Sunset on Maui.

Day Five, August 14:  We visited Maui.  Pearl Harbor is part of Oahu.  We were so close and knew it would likely be a while until we could come back, so we booked a day trip to visit all the big Pearl Harbor locations.  This one will probably be mostly photos and captions in an attempt to not give you all a giant history lesson.  I thought I knew a fair bit about WWII, but this really opened my eyes and showed me how little I knew.  I came back with lots of questions and a desire to read up on some of this.  Trevor has been watching WWII, specifically Pacific WWII, documentaries on Netflix, too.

Anyway, we headed to the Kapalua Airport just 5 miles from our hotel.  The flight was about 25 minutesto Honolulu, Oahu.  Too bad we didn't plan this for earlier in the trip or we could have picked up our luggage while there.  As soon as we got off the plane, our tour bus was waiting to take us on our Pearl Harbor journey.

We started at the USS Arizona Visitor Center where we had a good view of just about everything we'd be seeing that day.  We walked around, looked at written information about what happened, memorials, and quickly snagged some postcards and a shot glass for my collection.

Our first big stop was the USS Arizona Memorial which started with a video about the attacks on December 7, 1941 and events shortly thereafter.  This is where our involvement in WWII began.  I always thought this was the big Pearl Harbor must-see; don't get me wrong it was surreal to be there, but there's so much more to it.  Read on... 

 The actual Arizona is still below the monument.  This photo was taken from the Arizona Memorial and that white buoy in the distance shows where the end of the ship is on that end.

 

The Arizona is still leaking oil and they say there's enough that it should continue to leak for at least 20 more years.

Next we grabbed some lunch and went to the USS Bowfin memorial.  This was a submarine that was first launched one year after the attacks on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1942.  By the sounds of it, she sure earned her nickname of "Pearl Harbor Avenger."  It included an audio tour of the inside/outside of the submarine (yes, we were the tourists with the headphones), but I rushed the inside part a bit because it was quite warm in there and I do not do heat well.  

Cool tourist headsets.

 No wonder I felt cramped in the heat dungeon.

 

We guessed this was the first class luxury suite.

After the submarine, we headed back to the bus and took a quick drive to Ford Island, which is in the middle of Pearl Harbor itself.  It's mostly a military installation with some naval facitilies and military housing.  The reason for our visit was to see the USS Missouri and the Pacific Aviation Museum.

As we were driving, we saw the airfield where Amelia Erhart first attempted to fly on her big journey.  She had some technical difficulties and never made it anywhere which is why that fact isn't really known, but now we know.  Our first stop on Ford Island was the USS Missouri, where WWII in the Pacific ended.  It is moored where the USS Oklahoma capsized during the attacks.  This is also the site of many filmings such as the recent movie Battleship and Cher's video for "If I Could Turn Back Time."

 The USS Missouri was put back into service during Desert Storm.  See that black painted shape?  That's Kuwait.

This marks where the documents (see above) were signed.

The Missouri's dental office.

We got cute tourist stickers, too.

View from the top.  Obviously.

And, finally, the Pacific Aviation Museum-in an actual hangar that was there in 1941.  Trevor could have spent the entire day there.  The first half of it was all WWII planes.  We watched another movie then one of the volunteers, a former C-130 pilot, gave us a guided tour.  He sure loved planes and history-we could have listened to him go on and on if we had the time.

 The pilot of this plane is wearing his dress white uniform.  Our guide told us that was accurate.  We often forget these attacks are surprises-the sailors had a formal event the night before and some were still "carrying on" when the attacks started.

 Map of the attacks.

The next part of the museum, also a hangar from 1941, was everything from post-WWII until present day.  The building itself is considered a historical site and therefore can not be changed in any way.  Because of that, it still has broken windows from bullets and blasts from the attacks on Pearl Harbor.

And that wrapped up our Pearl Harbor trip.  We headed back to the airport, got on our plane back to Maui, and had a quiet relaxing night after two long days of sight seeing.  Here's a nice view from the plane ride back.

 

-A

19 weeks

This was a big week for us! I'm a couple days late in posting but Trevor's been pretty busy on the computer and I keep forgetting to take the weekly photo.

Let's see...feeling really good! The throat mucous is still there but not as bad. I get winded and back pain fairly quickly these days. I'm still feeling kicks, actually saw one today. My appetite is improving. According to my records I'm up about 8 pounds right now which is okay but I've got some room to gain. We've made some progress in cleaning out baby's room and Trevor started putting together the dresser tonight. I'm back to walking regularly which feels great. I tried to walk at least a couple times a week when I was feeling crappy but now it's much easier.

And for the excitement of the week...we had the big ultrasound Friday. We weren't planning on funding out the sex, but Trevor changed his mind and I figured he could win this one. He said knowing the sex would help him picture/plan for baby better; he wanted to know if this is his son or daughter. Coming from my very medical and scientific husband who has always just used the word "fetus" until now, I couldn't say no. We didn't actually get confirmation at the ultrasound that everything is okay, the techs can't really tell you that, but it was pretty cool to see baby in there! Trevor got to see it all, she only turned the screen for me every so often. Side note: my instructions were to arrive with a very full bladder. I had to pee so badly I peed half an hour before my appointment and slammed more water to fill it back up. When they called my name and asked how I was doing I said, "good but I really have to pee!" Then she told me I didn't need a full bladder and the clinic should have known that, so I got to use the bathroom, phew! Baby was moving all over during the ultrasound so it took a little effort to get all the shots she needed. She told us she would tell us the sex as soon as she could tell but baby wasn't making it easy. She even showed us the 3D image - wasn't expecting that. Honestly I think it's a bit weird, but it was kind of cool to see a real face...and a cute little Gibbs nose (I was hoping for that). Anyway, the photos below are the 3D image, a thumb sucking shot, and, for those of you who are familiar, the "three lines" money shot showing IT'S A GIRL!

After the appointment we almost forgot we planned to do our registry, so we headed to Target. I had done some research online, talked to friends and come up with a pretty good list of what we needed. Luckily we've been blessed with some wonderful friends and family who have gotten us some things already, and some friends who have been thrilled to get rid of no longer needed baby items. Even having a lot of stuff already and a list and lots of experience with babies, registering was a bit of a headache. I know how easy it can be to go overboard with cute baby things or stuff you think you'll need but actually never use. Plus I'm not very girly, thus, so far baby girl is getting lots of gender neutral type things. Which is fine anyway because someday there will be a Baby Gibbs #2.

I think that covers the highlights of the week! That and I'm on my phone and sick of typing this out, time to relax!

[Edit: Baby Gibbs is now 1 and still a thumb sucker.  Cute how we can get to know them before they're even born!]

-A

The Road to Hana.

Part two of our trip to Hawaii posts.  Click for part 1, Welcome to Maui, part 3, Pearl Harbor  or part 4, Sunrise to Sunset on Maui.  I'm a bit staggered in posting these-Trevor has been hard at work on the computer doing school homework and Guard homework.

Day four, August 13:

We were out the door at 7:20am for a guided tour of the Road to Hana. The tour took us around the island of Maui and through all the difference landscapes.  We stopped for breakfast at The Dunes at Maui Lani golf course, can't beat the fresh pineapple around here. The pog (passion fruit, guava, orange juice) was delicious. We drove past the only sugar came factory in Hawaii and drove past sugar cane fields.

The hala trees have seed clusters that look like pineapples.

First we went through the rainforest part-lots of bamboo (not native to Hawaii), guava and other plants-lush green foliage everywhere! We passed the Garden of Eden arboretum where some scenes of Jurassic Park were filmed. Rainbow Eucalyptus is a cool tree, the trunk has multi colored streaks; it was brought here from Australia. 

We saw ginger plants (white, blue, red and yellow) they're floral not the edible kind (ginger root). They are very fragrant but there's a trick to release the scent, keep reading.  The road is very narrow and windy and the bridges are one lane so we had to wait if someone was on it coming towards us. There's a portion of the tour that rental car companies don't allow you to take your rental, one of the reasons we opted for the guided tour so we wouldn't miss any of it.  That and the driving would have been a little intense for Trevor! 

Our first big stop was Keanae Point, a peninsula with a jagged lava rock coastline.

This is also where we got some Auntie Sandy's banana bread. Our next big stop was Waianapanapa State Park home of a black sand beach and a lava tube (like a cave). 

 Shortly after that we saw bread fruit trees, the fruit can be prepared many different ways. We stopped for lunch at a tropical flower farm in Hana. Each of the women got a pink or red ginger flower. At first they don't smell, but once you give the flower part a good squeeze they are very fragrant. To me, they smelled a lot like fruity pebbles. Trevor said Trix.  You can keep squeezing them to bring back the scent.  We continued on to Haleakala National Park where we saw some Banyan trees (they branch out, reach the ground, plant new roots, and expand) and more of the coastline.

We stopped at Palapala Hoomau Congregational Church where Samuel Pryor Jr. and his wife are buried, as well as Charles Lindbergh.  Samuel Pryor apparently had apes that he treated as his children, brought them to church with him and they are buried next to him (photo below his grave marker), too.

 

We drove past some more coastline before getting into the dry area of Maui-quite the change in scenery.

There was more driving during this part, with occasional stops for photos.  It was a couple hour drive to our next destination, the Maui Winery.  The winery, the only winery on Maui, is part of Maui's Upcountry-the farming and agricultural part of Maui.

I did have some very small sips of wine here-I couldn't pass up trying pineapple wine.  Trevor, of course, got to have a much better taste than I.  To try to make up for it, I grabbed one of these at the general store across the street.

And that about did it for our Road to Hana tour.  There was more driving afterwards, but through some of the same scenery we had already seen in order to get us back to where we started.  I could have included about 100 more photos of awesome rainforesty views and overlooks of the ocean, but I wanted to be reasonable.  It was a very long day, but we saw so many awesome things, glad we did it!

-A

18 weeks

I'm a day late, but I wasted most of yesterday napping...and cleaning...and napping.

Life is good! Starting to get the hang of this pregnancy stuff I think. I'm finally starting to feel really good, the worst symptom I've had this week is constant mucous in my throat. I'm sleeping through the night most nights and only having occasional back pain. My frequent poor posture is probably just as much to blame as pregnancy.

We had a doctor's appointment on Monday. Most of these appointments are quick and easy, but as far as we can tell all is well. We got to hear baby's heartbeat (150-it's normal for it to go down as the baby grows). Remember how I said I've been feeling kicks (17 weeks post)? We heard them when the doctor was using the Doppler to listen to the heart beat. She commented that we've got an active baby since she had to keep moving the Doppler around to follow the heart beat. I'm pretty sure they tell everyone their baby is active, but it was all still fun.

Not only am I/we feeling kicks, there have been a couple times baby has shoved his/her butt (or something?) up against me and I can feel the pressure (like a balloon expanding or something) then if we touch from the outside it's really hard. Trevor even played a little game of tag or something with baby last night. Baby was kicking so I had Trevor feel. He pushed, baby pushed back, then again a couple more times.

I think that's all for this week! Maybe not. Who knows. My brain frequently fails me. Pregnancy brain is a real thing, people.

Oh, and the photo. I just took this at bedtime so of course I look a little bigger, but you get the point.

-A

Welcome to Maui.

For the most part, I journaled as we went during our trip, so much of this is written in present tense.  We have so many pictures and it was hard to pick "favorites" but I tried.  This is part one of many.  We took over 500 photos so it's hard to choose!

Day one, August 10:Flights from MSP to LAX (awful airport where we got cold food with terrible service) then LAX to OGG, Maui. We got to Maui about 9pm local time (5 hours behind MN) only to discover our luggage went to Honolulu. We filed a claim, got rental car, drove about an hour to Kahana where our hotel was.  I wish I could say we took a nice night walk on the beach or something, but it was bed time! 

Day two, August 11: 

 The view from our room at the Royal Kahana

 We got a smoothie (Ali) and coffee (Trevor) at the shop next to the hotel pool then walked around a bit until the hotel/Maui orientation and free breakfast. The concierge staff told us about places to see and things to do on the island. I didn't realize Maui is an island of Hawaii but it's also a county that includes a couple smaller islands too. Side note: I felt baby move during our orientation. Felt like little mini popcorn popping and I could see how women could dismiss it as gas but it felt different to me.  We went to get some groceries and necessities (things we needed from our checked luggage). Everything here is expensive because it's mostly shipped here. For example, a family size box of honey bunches of oats cereal was $8 and a loaf of generic wheat bread was $4. Since we still had no luggage, just one change of clothes and suits, we decided to walk the beach and hit the pool. 

Later I realized I forgot to apply sunscreen to the front of my legs but thankfully it wasn't too bad! We had lunch in our room then got more smoothies and went back to the pool. After a while we came back to the room, took a nap, then headed out for dinner. We ate at Honu Seafood & Pizza. Trevor got lobster pizza and a CoCoNut Porter (Maui Brewing Company) and I had a bacon cheeseburger and lemonade (I was so hungry I was starting to feel sick, nothing sounded good but I knew I had to eat!).

Day three, August 12: Our luggage finally came! We ate breakfast in our room, watched the Maui visitor channel for a while then headed out for a walk. We stopped at Hawaiian Village Coffee for a Kona blend and Strawberry-Banana-Mango smoothie. Both the coffee and smoothie were much better than the hotel's so we knew we'd be back. This is where I spotted the Oren Masserman CD and just had a feeling I would love the music (I later checked out his music and my instinct was right). We stopped for a little biology lesson a la Trevor along the walk.

I must admit we spent some time in the room watching Shark Week, but we're on vacation and we can do whatever we want, right? We got off our lazy butts, grabbed some smoothies from the coffee shop and walked up and down the beach as far as we could (there are areas of rock that break up the beach areas). By that time we figured out where we wanted to eat dinner and off we went. We decided on Kimo's since one of the hotel staff said they had wonderful prime rib...and they were right! We started with coconut shrimp and Cesar salads. 

 
Trevor had a Beach Blonde Ale (Maui Brewing Co again) and I had another lemonade. Not only was the food excellent, the view was spectacular! 

 
We stopped by the beach again then back to our room for more shark week-we had an early morning planned for the next day.

Once I get all the Hawaii posts done, I'll link them together at the end of each post.

Click here for Part 2, The Road to Hana, Part 3, Pearl Harbor or Part 4, Sunrise to Sunset on Maui.
-A