The other side of these mountains is Kualoa Ranch, where much of Jurassic Park, and several other movies, were filmed. There are tours available there now. The rides are very bumpy so we did not take a tour.Mokoli’i Island, also know as Chinaman Hat Island.Kualoa Beach, also a campground. I never was able to find out what made all these holes on the beach.Lāʻie Point State Wayside and Kukuihoolua Island.We don’t see these on the East Coast!Sunset Beach.Surfboards for rent at the Banzai PipelineWild chickens everywhere on all the islands. Here they were scavenging our lunches.Banzai Pipeline, considered the best surfing waves in the world.The waves were not very high this day.This was about the best pipeline I saw.Waimea Bay Beach.Laniakea Beach, also known as…Turtle Beach. Here are two Green Hawaiian Sea Turtles. They are protected by law. It is a crime to even get close to them or touch them.Dole Plantation. Tours and lots of overpriced souvenirs.And pineapple ice cream! Expensive, but it was delicious!Pineapple plantation.Close up of some very young pineapples. They are smaller than a baseball at this stage.Our second luau – at Paradise Cove.Sunset at Paradise Cove.Fire eater at the luau.
ʻIolani Palace, was the residence of King Kalākaua and his sister and successor, Queen Liliʻuokalani. It is the only royal residence in the US.Ali’iolani Hale, the Hawai’i State Supreme Court. This is shown on the TV series Hawai’i Five-0 as Five-0 task force headquarters.Statue of King Kamehmeha I. A duplicate of this statue is also in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol.Kawaiahao Church was the first Christian church in Hawaii, built between 1836 and 1842. It features a New England style architecture, and for its construction, about 14,000 slabs of coral rock were digged out by hand from offshore reefs on Oahu’s south shore. Divers had to dive 10 to 20 feet under water and with hand tools chisel out each coral block, which were then transported from the reef to the shore.
Hawai’i became our 50th state in 1959. So today the capitol is undergoing renovation, and the walls obstruct a good picture of the building. The capitol was built in 1969.The “foyer” is outdoors. This mosaic is entitled “Aquarius”, by Tadashi Sato, in 1969.Instead of a rotunda, the center of the capitol is open air. This is the view looking up from the mosaic “Aquarius.”The view from the front of the capitol, looking at the eternal flame monument.Statue of Father Damien, who tended the leper colony on the island of Moloka’i in the 1800s.Senate chamber.House of Representatives chamber.
USS Bowfin earlier in the morning, when the sky was clear and sunny.The USS Bowfin is part of the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum, and is open for tours.Various parts of the interior of the Bowfin.Gauges and valves.Bunks for the crew.On board entertainment.No problem for claustrophobia!The hatches are a little tight.Torpedo tubes.
This is a fairly new museum at Pearl Harbor. It is divided into two halves – one for World War II, the other for the years since. There are many many more displays than the ones I highlight here.This ring is a demonstration of the actual size of a submarine.Waterfront Memorial for our lost submarines. More than 4,000 submariners have lost their lives while serving in the US submarine force. Nine submarines were lost prior to World War II, 53 during World War II with 3,600 sailors lost, and four submarines lost since World War II. There is a memorial plaque for each of the lost submarines.The plaque honoring the USS Wahoo.Bell from the USS Wahoo.There is a nice memorial for the USS Wahoo in Wahoo, Nebraska. We visited that a few years ago. Pictures are elsewhere in this blog.The USS Bowfin is part of the museum, open for tours.USS Bowfin battle flag, showing its conquests.Advertising posters from World War II.Control panel from a Mark-80 Fire Control system, used in Cold War-era submarines.Maneuvering Room Control Panel for a nuclear powered submarine.Nose cone warhead from a Poseidon C-3 missile.This museum is pretty up to day with our submarine technology.This section is sponsored by the company I work for!My company builds these unmanned submarines!Forward stage from a Trident II D-5 missile.Several torpedoes on display.Bofors 40MM Quad Gun. This was the standard intermediate range gun on US Navy destroyers through the 1950s.
