Pearl Harbor

Yesterday, Wednesday, we did our duty and went to Pearl Harbor to see the USS Arizona Memorial. It is the white structure in the picture below. The battleship USS Missouri is moored near it...on the left. The Memorial structure is built above the sunken remains of the USS Arizona where about 1100 men died during the surprise attack in December, 1941. About 900 of them are still entombed there.


This is a photograph of the ship which sits in about 40ft of water on the bottom:There is still oil leaking out of the engine room almost 60 years later:

The battleship Missouri is now a museum which one can tour. This ship was retired in 1992 after service in the Gulf War.


Today we played golf again. And tomorrow we have nothing planned. A ay of rest.

North Shore and Makaha Valley Golf

On Monday we took a drive to the North Shore past the Dole Pineapple Plantation to the famous beaches where the big surfing waves hit when there are storms in the Gulf of Alaska.
The surf was quiet and the beaches were beautiful on this day. An example:
Today we played golf again. This time at a course about 30 minutes north of our resort on the western coast of Oahu. The Makaha Valley has 2 courses set in a beautiful valley surrounded on 3 sides by lush mountains and the Pacific ocean on the 4th side.

A panoramic view of the ocean from the tee of a par 3 hole (click to enlarge):


A view of one of the lush mountains as Debby tees off:
Mark & Debby on a green with a sample of the beautiful views:


The three of us:

And we finished off the day with a Luau at the hotel.

Ko Olina, Oahu, Hawaii

I have a 2 bedroom timeshare week at the Marriott Ko Olina Beach Club this week. I traded my Newport Coast timeshare unit for this one.My brother and his wife from Orlando, Florida have joined me here. This place is on the relatively isolated western shore of Oahu about 25 miles west of the tourist chaos of Honolulu. But a non-stop 5 1/2 hour flight from San Diego.

Ko Olina is the start of a resort community with 2 hotels, a marina, golf course, some houses and condos and 4 man-made crescent shaped lagoons that allow sheltered swimming. But just 30 minute drive to the big city. The picture above shows the lagoon at our place.

Yesterday we played golf at the golf course across from the resort in the 20mph constant tradewinds here. The course was very nice.


This is them on the 12th tee with the Beach Club tower in the background.

This is Mark & Debby in their golf cart:

This is Debby teeing off. She actually hit this ball on the green and sank the 6-foot putt for a BIRDY!

Tomorrow we will be lazy and spend time at the beach, pool, gym or possibly drive to another part of the island.

2007

This my first post in 3 months. I have been busy, but haven't taken my camera. But I am going to Hawaii on Saturday for a week so I wanted to get you all warmed up.
So far since I returned from South East Asia, I went to Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, skied at my timeshare at Snowbird Utah, visited my brother and his wife near Orlando. I've got some other timeshare stays planned so far this year in Palm Springs (twice)and Hawaii again; and I have about 3-4 other timeshare weeks available.
I've also got a trip to Moscow and St Petersburg Russia planned for late May on a river cruise boat.

The picture is from my trip in 2003 Hiking in the Dolomites in Italy.