I will be posting several entries to document our visit to my family in Hawaii. We left home on Sunday, February 7 and spent a little time with the Fussells and with the Pauls before we checked into the Holiday Inn Express. Both girls had offered to let us stay with them and to, somehow, get us to the airport and to pick us up when we returned but Tom and I agreeed that the Holiday Inn option was better. We are very pleased with that decision. The check-in clerk was super friendly, our room was nice, the wake-up call came on time, breakfast was good, the parking was free for the whole time, and the shuttle driver drove us though the small amount of snow that had fallen very carefully!
February 8
We had been dreading the flight from Denver to Honolulu but it passed very quickly. I read on my Kindle, knitted a little, and played games on my iPad. We were flying United and the food, while expensive, was better than I remembered.
Daddy, wearing a Wildcat state champs shirt, found us easily at the baggage claim and our visit began! That evening we (When I say "WE" during this narrative I will mean Tom, Daddy, and myself. If others are involved, I will mention them.) walked over to Ala Moana Center to eat supper at Zippy's.
February 9
Daddy had a dentist's appointment on Tuesday morning so Tom and I walked over to Ala Moana to begin the hunt for souvenirs. We ate lunch at Makai Market, an extreme food court! We took Daddy home a Subway sandwich but our (my?) rule is that we never eat something we can get in El Do while we are out of town.
That afternoon, we drove to Ford Island to the Pacific Aviation Museum.
Notice the hats Daddy and Tom are wearing. I had one too. Daddy was carrying them in the trunk of his car and pulled them out when we were about to enter the museum. These hats had the logo of the museum on them and Daddy had them because he had made three generous donations to the building fund. As he started to pay our entry fee, he was told to put that wallet away; the ticket taker felt that anyone who had supported the museum that well deserved free admission.
As we wandered around and Dad told stories about this battle and that island, I came to understand that my father is a true hero of World War II! I had suspected as much my entire life but, as so many heroes do, he had always behaved as if he had done nothing out of the ordinary. The tales we heard that afternoon, while no bragging was involved, made his heroism very clear!
I loved this poster. There are probably Uncle Sam signs in lots of military museums but I bet there aren't any others that say, "Mahalo for your kokua"! I know that MAHALO means thank you but I can only assume that KOKUA means cooperation.
The museum was very well done, with lots of maps on the floors. I gained a much better understanding of the War in the Pacific than I had ever had before.
This is the cause of my daddy's deafness. It is an engine of a B-25. These things had no mufflers and destroyed the ability of many pilots to hear sounds in certain decibel ranges.
