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Day 32 - Plus all the stuff I didn't blog about yesterday

  Robert has been such a wonderful tour guide around Oahu. By far the most exciting thing was getting a private tour of the USS Hawaii, the Virginia Class Fast Attack Submarine that Robert spends his time on with the US Navy.

Where do I start? First, no photos were allowed, but I found a pic on the interwebs for you, below. We started by crossing the brow and walking around on top of the sub, which as you can see in the picture, curves down toward the water. The surface is non-skid so traction was good.

Then we climbed down a hatch inside the sub. There were crew quarters named after each of the Hawaiian islands (Robert stays in Hawaii, fancy) and each had a door curtain with the name and a large depiction of the island embroidered. Most rooms had six bunks each but more than six crew would be assigned and they sleep and work in shifts. Downstairs there were a bunch of torpedoes and piles of mattresses, apparently when they have extra guests they put up racks in there and the guests bunk with the torpedoes.

At one point we came to a tall ladder climb which took me all the way up to "the bridge" located on the top of the sail. If you slipped on this ladder it would not be good. Safely back down inside we visited several levels and areas. There was the kitchen, other bunk rooms, a room with lots of workstations and monitors, and a conference room which doubles as a place where any emergency medical procedures (needing to lay someone on a table) could be performed.

Much of the sub is chock full of levers and knobs and all sorts of hydraulics and ducting. Every available bit  of space is used for something. Robert said they are all trained as firefighters as fire on the boat means disaster and spread must be prevented. Even if a fire is put out immediately, imagine all the damage to be done when every area contains critical pieces of functionality.

The USS Hawaii, you can see the sail (tall part that sticks up) and the bridge (railing up high). 


After the tour of the sub Robert took me to the Dole Plantation. We did the giant pineapple maze and the garden tour for free because, as we walked in, this guy walking out handed us his tickets.

Here are Robert and I with our free tickets. 


I was going to cheat on the maze using GPS and satellite map layer but it turned out Robert was already really good at navigating. 


I had Robert pretend to be lost just for the photo op.


After the maze we went on the garden tour, where we saw not only pineapple plants but also banana trees, coffee, cacao, birds of paradise and more.


We also saw a cute little gecko.


And a cat.


After all that we relaxed and watched movies from Robert's extensive collection. There is about 10TB of hard drive space (at least) pictured here.


Day 32, for reals

Today, we hiked. I love hiking and this was extra fun because we were hiking through the Hawaiian jungle to a waterfall. The views were lush and, at the peak, we had panoramas of the jagged Oahu terrain.

Robert on the trail.


Apple watch selfie. If you look carefully you can see here the rather pronounced reaction I am continuing to have from my vaccine. My left upper arm is red, swollen, and feels like it was stung by a bee. Good thing I have all this wonderful activity to distract me!


The Maunawili Falls was really neat. Another 15 feet above the top of this photo is a ledge where people would leap off and plummet into the pool.


A portrait of my tour guide. Thanks Robert!


Selfies.


More selfies.


After the hike we drove down to Waikiki and had lunch at Dukes overlooking the water. While waiting for the table we had beers down at the beach. Waikiki beach has a well-maintained sandy bottom making the water a perfect bright aqua color. Row after row of beginner surf break rolled in with about 5 surfers per wave. Crowded, but I still looked out longingly. Tomorrow Robert is going to take me to White Plains right here in Ewa Beach, where they offer surf rentals and lessons but only for active military. Lucky me, Robert said he will rent me a board.

Robert and I wait for our lunch table in style at Waikiki beach.

Comments

Val said…
Thanks for all the cute pictures of Robert! I miss him so much! ❤️