Oahu: The North Shore

Our last day in Oahu, we took a bus to the North Shore. We went to the Laniakea Beach (a.k.a. Turtle Beach) hoping to see some sea turtles. Unfortunately, we didn't see any lying on the beach (perhaps we went too early in the day), but we did see a couple swimming in the ocean. They were really cool!

Then, we rode the bus to Turtle Bay Resort for snorkeling. We saw a lot of different kinds of fish and took pictures with an underwater camera, but we haven't gotten them developed to see if any of them turned out.

After snorkeling, we stopped by a random shrimp shop on the side of the road and had some delicious garlic shrimp!

Oahu: Pearl Harbor

We weren't very lucky when it came to weather during our trip. I guess that's what you get when you travel to Hawaii during winter (rainy season). But, for the most part, we didn't let the rain stop us......we just donned a few ponchos and kept going! Our first day sightseeing together, we went to Pearl Harbor and toured the USS Missouri and the USS Arizona Memorial. I highly recommend seeing both of them.

These pictures below are of the USS Missouri:

The coolest thing about the USS Missouri is that it was where the treaty was signed that ended World War II.

It was pretty sobering to watch the movie and visit the Arizona Memorial and think of all the people who died the day that Pearl Harbor was attacked. The memorial is built right on top of the sunken USS Arizona. You can still see a few parts of it sticking up through the water.

Oahu: The first few days

We were in Hawaii for two weeks in December. Dan attended and presented a poster at the Pacifichem conference (Dec. 15-20), and I just came along to vacation. I briefly considered attending the conference with him since we're both chemists, but after seeing the registration fee ($725! if you're not a student), I decided I'd rather just sightsee and hang out on the beach. I think that was a wise decision. Here are a few pictures taken from around the hotel/resort where we stayed on Waikiki Beach:

And, below is a picture of Dan with his poster.

I went on two hikes near Honolulu: Diamond Head Crater and Manoa Falls. The hike to the top of Diamond Head Crater wasn't very pretty, but there are great views of much of Oahu's coastline from the top:

The hike to Manoa Falls was a pretty, easy hike through rainforest. Here a few shots from along the way:

And, here is a picture of Manoa Falls. I wasn't able to get the whole falls in the picture because it was too tall!