Punchbowl Cemetry

This is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and the Honolulu Memorial. It is located in the extinct Puowaina volcano crater. Puowaina means 'hill of sacrifice.' The punchbowl was the site of many 'alii (royal) burials' and the place where offenders of certain 'kapus' (taboos), were sacrificied.

776 of the casualities from Pearl Harbor are buried here. This cemetery is one of two resting places for the recovered remains of WWII dead whose next of kin did not request return of the remains to the mainland or requested that they be buried here. Also interred here are 178 Wake Island dead and 848 unidentified US Servicemen who died fighting in Korea. The Punchbowl is now filled to capacity with 33,255 gravesites.

The Honolulu Memorial was erected in 1964 to honor the sacrifices and achievements of American Armed forces in the Pacific during WWII and the Korean Conflict. In 1980, it was enlarged to include the missing of the Vietnam Conflict.

View from the Lanai

I take alot of pictures of the park and the sunsets from our lanai, but these two pictures show what it looks like if you look straight down. Alot of people actually live on their sailboats-there were Christmas lights on some of them when we first got here. Four restaurants are located on the first floor of our building-The Outback, The Red Lobster, Charterhouse, and a little bar & grill, (I can't remember the name of it but that is the only restaurants in our building where we have eaten, they have great pizza!)

Sunsets

These are from our lanai, aren't we so lucky-we can't believe it when we look out and there is that beautiful ocean. We have seen lots of whales, too. They are hard to catch with my camera. Cameron is a great spotter, all you hunters know what a good guide he is!

Trippler Army Hospital

I'm not sure if I think this is too pink or if it a beautiful building, it does totally stick out in all this green!

Ko'olina Lagoons

We've gone to the Lagoons 3 times now, what a fun place! They are pristine, the time share hotels/condo people take care of them, they are man made and perfectly gorgeous. Showers, bathrooms, open to the public, (all shoreline is accessible to the public in Hawaii). This is about as far west as a person should go at night time on the southern part of O'ahu. They have a chapel out there and 2 of the 3 times we went out there, couples were getting married.

The hotels are gorgeous with restaurants and the Marriot has a cool outdoor aquarium. We watched while they fed the sharks and sting rays.

We were also lucky enough to be at the lagoon when a monk seal came on shore and basked in the sun the whole time we were there. Adults weigh 200-400 pounds! Hawaiin Monk Seals are critically endangered and only exist in the Hawaiian Archipelago. They can live 25-30 years but don't seem to usually make it that long. Tiger and galapagos sharks like to have them for dinner.

Pro Bowl

View of Pearl Harbor from the aloha Stadium
Lighthouse performed at halftime-too cool
Halftime Fireworks

Dave, Lori, and Jeff

Jeff, Cameron, and Dave
Lori, Cameron, and Jeff

On Sunday the 10th, we went to the Pro Bowl. The most exciting part of the day for me was seeing two old friends from Vegas. Of course the football game was fun, too. And Lighthouse played at Half-time, kind of a mini concert. They had hula dancers and of course, cheerleaders!

Shish Kabobs

Kaneohe Bay
H-3 Tunnel
Trippler Army Hospital

Drum lessons at the park added to the Hawaiin flavor.

Mt. Olomana-1643 feet, believed to be the volcanic origin of O'ahu-the first land to emerge from the sea.

Went to the park on Kailua Beach-Windward Side. Had chicken teriyaki shishkabobs and salmon teriyaki shishkabobs, read, relaxed and went for a drive in the Lanikai neighborhood. We then drove accross the H-3 to the Ko'olina Lagoons, more on those later.