Zonked

I can't do it the way I used to...
Run, run, run.
We all know traveling is stressful in a thousand ways. The logistics of getting to the airport, getting your boarding passes, going through new security measures, making your way to the gate and airplane on time, then doing it all again in reverse at the other end of the flight... that alone is enough to wear you out. But then you face new geography and all that goes with that... new food, new contacts, and new living/sleeping quarters.

As you have read, we have tried to make efficient use of our time.
TC and Sharon, TD and Cinders had plans for Tuesday... they wanted to hop a flight over to "The Big Island", Hawaii, to get a look at lava flowing from the volcano. Cindy and Sharon had never flown in a helicopter and wanted to tour some sights there via the chopper. Making all this work required a 4 A.M. departure from the Lodge.
I couldn't do it. I was already feeling the stress of the hustle/bustle, and was beginning to feel that my "vacation" had become a lot like "work". Sara Jean, Big Bubba and I slept in while the others headed out early. I'll leave it to them to regale you with their volcanic ventures.

When we finalized our plans to make this Hawaii mini, "Google Earth" became a real tool. I love that program... it gives you the ability to take a "virtual" walk around those places you will visit. You can check them out from above at high altitude, or low. I used Google Earth to take a close look at Ford Island and all the history it offered.

Pearl Harbor and Ford Island has personal historic significance for Family Greybeard.
My Dad was the second of seven children. His only older sibling, a brother, joined the Navy in the late 1930's and was aboard the U.S.S. West Virginia on 7 Dec 41. When the bombs and torpedoes started to explode, he manned a gun turret and started firing back at the Japanese. The order to abandon ship was given when it was obvious the ship was sinking. My Uncle G and his shipmates tried to leave the gun turret, and found it jammed. Resigned to the fact they were gonna die, they returned to their guns to die shooting. Another big explosion shook the ship and the jammed door flung open, allowing these brave guys to escape, jump from the ship, (maybe a life-threatening event on its own!), and swim to safety.
(Update here-
I had been told a story all my life that my Mother just verified. When they left the turret on the West Virginia, they were the only sailors left aboard. Mom says the "Tennessee" shot a line over to these sailors, and they walked hand-over-hand to the Tennessee, berthed next to the West Virginia. I like that story better anyway!)

You can imagine Pearl Harbor after the attack...
The Arizona and several other Battleships on the bottom... hundreds of men dead, maybe thousands unaccounted for. My Uncle was one of those. My Grandmother received the telegram-
"Missing and assumed dead".

It was a couple weeks before things got organized and the mail had time to make it to Indianapolis...
Imagine my Grandmother's reaction to the note from my Uncle-
"Reports of my death are exaggerated".

My Uncle G served 30 years in the Navy, retiring a Commander.
He and his wife took up residence on Oahu in Mililani, just 30 minutes from his 7 December experience. He died in 2003. Much of my family was in attendance when the Navy provided Military honors as his ashes were spread from the U.S.S. Utah Memorial, a few steps West of the Navy Lodge.

One of the things I vowed to do this trip was, to the extent it was possible, walk the circumference of Ford Island. After sleeping past 8 A.M. for the first time since we arrived, Big Bubba and I set off on our Ford Island walk. We visited the Utah and my Uncle G's burial site, then walked South along the West bank. Various construction projects are ongoing on the Island, and there are Official Navy facilities that are fenced in along the way, so we made our way around those. At the South end of the Island I watched as an Aegis Cruiser made its way into the Harbor. I was surprised at the speed she was making along the way... I'd guess 10 knots... could've pulled water-skiers!

Heading back Northbound on the East bank we made our way back past the Battleship Missouri and the Arizona Memorial, then past the Huge Banyan tree... (photos forthcoming). We found tribute markers most tourists never see... for the sinking of the West Virginia and the Oklahoma, and a marker telling the story of the Nevada, which got underway during the attack and tried to make her way to sea, only to be attacked and damaged so badly that her Captain
had to beach her in order to insure the mouth of Pearl Harbor remained unobstructed. (It's interesting to read the "after the war" section at that link.)

From there it was a short walk back to the lodge. I was happy to have accomplished my circumferential walk, and was happy when the others, exhausted from the long day and all they had done, returned safe and smiling from their journey to The Big Island.

That was Tuesday...
More later.