Hawaii Day 4

On every vacation you just have to have a DOH moment. Well today was that day for us. To begin, Mark locked the keys in the rental car. We thought we actually lost them so locking them in the car was at least better than losing them. We called the rental agency to ask if they had a spare key we could come and pick up. They DON'T. They asked us if we purchased the road side assistance and we HADEN'T. So are next option was to get a locksmith. Ten minutes and $50 dollars later we got our car keys back! That was an expensive DOH!

Our second DOH moment. We had planned to leave early in the morning to go to Pearl Harbor. We punched in the address and got in our car and started driving. As we were driving we both got a feeling that we were headed in the wrong direction. We pulled into a restricted Army base which was a definite answer that we were lost! We finally found the right address and learned that we had driven 30 miles in the completely wrong direction! It took us another 45 minutes to get to Pearl Harbor. We only had a limited amount of time to go and see it before we needed to be back for Solomon's Army promotion at noon. We pulled into the memorial site, paid $3 dollars to have our bag stored and went to get a ticket for the next showing. Well, guess what time the next show was for....yep NOON! We were so frustrated! We decided to get a later time for our show tickets so we could go to Solomon's promotion, eat, and just come back now that we knew how to get there. So we picked up our bag which we paid $3 dollars for having it stored for 10 minutes and left. The ironic thing about getting lost is that Pearl Harbor is actually only 5.4 miles away from Amanda and Solomon's house! Once we found that out, we just started laughing at ourselves. It is something that helped make this vacation just a little bit more memorable :)

It only took us 10 minutes to get back to the house so we grabbed a few things and headed up to the base with Amanda. We were able to watch Solomon get promoted. He has put in a lot of extra time and work to receive it so it was neat to be there and see him accept it. We are excited for him.

The Army provided a lunch so we sat and ate some pizza with Solomon and Amanda. After lunch, we got our car and headed back to Pearl Harbor. We made it just in time for our showing. We first watched a short documentary film of what happened on December 7. It was very sobering to think of all the lives lost that day and how vulnerable the U.S had been. We then boarded the ferry and rode over to the U.S Arizona Memorial. What a neat and sobering experience that was to be standing over the graves of hundreds of service men who lost their lives that dreadful day.  I'm glad that we were finally able to make it to see it.

After seeing Pearl Harbor, we decided to head up to Laie to play on the beach before doing a session at the Laie Temple. We played on a the same beach that Mark played on the last time he was there with his family. We were able to body board for bit and then decided to go for a walk on the beach. It was sure fun to just be together as a couple and enjoy the beauty that surrounded us.

We decided to head over to the local shaved ice store and grab us one to share. It was delicious!!! Let me just explain the pure goodness of this treat. In the bottom, they first put a scoop of vanilla ice cream with sweetened condensed milk drizzled over it. Then comes the mountain of shaved ice which is then soaked with 3 different kinds of flavors. It is then drizzled with more sweetened condensed milk. Finally, if that wasn't enough it is topped with whipped cream. Talk about a scrumptious sugar rush!!

It was getting time for us to clean up and meet up with Solomon and Amanda for dinner before the temple session. While waiting for them to get there, we went into a little grocery store and picked up a few souvenirs for the kids and family. The stores in Hawaii remind me a lot of the stores in Mexico. I wasn't expecting that.  We ate at a local restaurant called the Fish Tacos. It was Hawaii's version of Costa Vida. It was pretty good. We then headed to the temple. It was fun to be able to go inside and do a session with the Nairs'. What a beautiful and peaceful place to be! We just loved the temple grounds and to see it at night was just as beautiful. I am so glad that we were able to do a session while we were there.