Final Trip Report to Hawaii or How I finally made to Robin’s Nest

And we come to the close of our Hawaiian adventure. This is my last post on this wondrous trip. In addition to the adventures I have previously mentioned we did just a lot of regular exploring around the hotel and going to see some of the sights from our favorite TV shows (Lost for the Bride and Magnum PI for me). It even worked out better when the site we visited was featured on both shows.

Our stay in Honolulu was at the Hilton Hawaiian village. The place is effing huge. It was not overly crowded when we were there, but it was still too many people for my taste. To put it in to perspective, it was like staying a very large hotel in Vegas with out the casinos. The room was very nice and we had a wonderful view of the tower next to us. Luckily, being on the 25^th floor allows you to see a long way and watch the surfers on Waikiki. This freaking hotel even had penguins. These are black-footed penguins  native to South Africa.  The Bride even had her picture taken with the Fire Guy.  I think he lit more than just the tiki torches.

The primary reason we spent anytime in Honolulu was to be able to visit the Arizona Memorial. For those of you without a historical reference, the Arizona was the “Ground Zero” for World War II. In addition to being a Memorial, the still submerged ship, is also a tomb for over 1000 of the sailors who were unable to escape the bowels of this great battleship when the Japanese attacked. It was a very humbling experience for both of us. The  Navy does a first rate job with the transportation from the visitors center to the actual memorial. Kudos boys (and girls).

Finally we did a long drive around the perimeter of the island. The  one place I wanted to visit was Robin’s Nest of Magnum PI fame. Those of you familiar with the show may be shocked to learn that the lay out of the property in the series is much different than reality.  However, I did make it my 1980s Mecca.  In addition we visited the Temple of the Gods.  The funny part was that the Bride did not know what place I was talking about.  She was very happy to see that this was a location from Lost

 

 

This has been a rather busy week back in the Nation’s Capital.  I have been able to get in about 3000 yard of swimming, a track workout, and tomorrow is a nice run with the Running Buddy.  On Tuesday we were invited to a screening of Bedford, The Town the Left Behind.  This was held by Senator Mark Warner at the New Capitol Visitors Center.  It was very humbling to watch the movie and see what the member of the community and of the the unit form Bedford, VA went through.