Tuesday, June 12, 2012
The Video: Chris @ Panewa Rodeo
Chris gets rocked by a bull at the 2011 panaewa rodeo from christopher callisto on Vimeo.
Finally figured out how to post the video...only a year and a half later ;p
You can see the "action" at about the 2:55 mark.
THE BEST DAY EVER :D
So Chris and I continued on our scooter tour and stopped at some scenic points (I thought we were just pulling over to let cars pass...). We pulled into Sandy's, a beach where you can usually see surfing, body boarding, body surfing and maybe some kites. Coincidentally while puttering around the parking lot looking for some place to park we ran into some of Chris' old students as they were leaving!
We laid down a towel and sat down to just hang out. Well, I sat and Chris reclined on my lap. It was really nice - about 4:30 in the afternoon, the sun was just starting to descend and it was really nice just relaxing on the beach. Chris started talking about how he had read the other day that penguins apparently have crazy teeth. They have teeth on their tongues!!!
It's designed so that if they swallow live fish their mouths are designed to ensure that the fish make their way into their bellies! Then he told me how male penguins search for a perfect rock and when they've found it, they give it to the female. If the female accepts it then they mate for life. He then gave me a rock and said that he had searched really hard, but this was the best rock he could find. Of course I thought this was cute and accepted his rock. I totally didn't think anything of these stories since Chris is always telling me about random facts that he's learned.
So then he was all, "Great that was so easy!" Of course, I was like..."Wait a minute...this is just a practice rock. But it's a great analogy since I know you've been searching hard for the perfect, REAL rock for me." He kept insisting, that no, this was my rock, but I apparently wasn't rising to his bait.
Suddenly he sat up and said, "Stand up."
I totally froze and instantly I just knew. I think I said something like, "Are you really doing this here?"
He got down on one knee, reached into his pants for the box, opened it up to show me and asked me to marry him. Of course, I barely waited for him to finish his sentence before I said, "Yes!" Unfortunately I didn't realize there was a whole sweet speech and I totally missed out on it because I'm so darn impatient. Now he's telling me it'll be our vows (which is irritating because I totally don't want to do original vows...oh well I might not have a choice because I really want to know what he was going to say!)
Cute story about the above picture...Chris asked a girl from a group of teenagers next to us to take the picture. I guess he startled her when he went over, but when he explained things she was more than happy to take a picture. Later, Chris kept hearing the girls tell other people the story about how we just got engaged - sweet :)
Did I cry? Actually I didn't until about 10 minutes later when it hit me. I think that since I've been waiting for this moment for so long I didn't really process it. Chris said I just sat there in a daze for those 10 minutes just looking at him and the ring on my hand haha. Then I was just really really excited :)
WARNING: An excessive amount of ring pictures follows!
(If you can believe it...I have more pictures. I totally was having a photo shoot with my ring and just loving it haha)
Later I heard all about how I repeatedly kept foiling his plans. First he wanted to propose at Sea Life Park by the penguins, but needed to go down there to try to set it up because they weren't returning his calls. But then I asked if I could tag along that day. He was trying to propose 6 months from my birthday, but something messed that up. Then when we were scooting around he wanted to climb down and propose on the rocks...but I kept driving off thinking we had only pulled over for cars to pass. Then I was supposed to (like I normally would have) gotten really annoyed with the whole "this is the real rock" bit so that he could say, "well it's a good thing I came prepared with another rock." Then I got too excited to hear the whole actual proposal and just said "Yes" right away haha. Oops.
We hung out at Sandy's for over an hour because I just didn't want to leave and end the experience. I texted my friends, called our families, but in the end we had to go, so we scooped up some of the sand for memories and decided to get back on the scooters for some Bubbie's mochi ice cream. We got root beer, liliokoi, strawberry and dark chocolate (Strawberry mochi and dark chocolate chip ice cream), chocolate and peanut butter (Chocolate mochi and peanut butter ice cream), chocolate and mint (Chocolate mochi and mint ice cream) Yum!
Next Chris took me on a really cute little tour of his engagement journey. We stopped off at where he got the center stone diamond. He said that he realized that everything around our engagement had to do with scooters - he rented a scooter while he shopped for the stone and the ring and we got engaged while scootering around Honolulu!
The whole thing does seem a little like kismet. First, my bike was #21 and my lock was #13 - two of my most favorite numbers. Then I was thinking about how June 11th is Kamehameha Day, a day to honor Kamehameha the Great who unified the Hawaiian islands. Today marks the beginning of our official union of the Wong-Callistos! Then when we got home and he was showing me the ring on the website I realized that when I had given him my "list" of "likes/dislikes" for engagement rings I had included a picture of a different ring, but then later found this exact ring online and liked it more. Without even knowing that, Chris literally picked out my dream setting!!!
At the point above in the two pictures, we had stopped and laughed about how we were "scootering off into the sunset." I thought it was so perfect so I stopped and took the two pictures you see above. As I blog I'm just now ALSO realizing the irony that I took a picture of DIAMOND Head at sunset on our engagement day...see? Kismet!
We finished off the night by celebrating...not at some fancy restaurant, but with some good hearty wings (and beer/peach Schnapps iced tea and pretzels) at Buffalo Wild Wings.
So I've always been curious about how long he'd take and it's been 5 years, 8 months and 2 days. Or:
 |
| SANDY BEACH PARK |
We laid down a towel and sat down to just hang out. Well, I sat and Chris reclined on my lap. It was really nice - about 4:30 in the afternoon, the sun was just starting to descend and it was really nice just relaxing on the beach. Chris started talking about how he had read the other day that penguins apparently have crazy teeth. They have teeth on their tongues!!!
 |
| ACK!!!! TEETH ON THE TONGUE!!!! |
So then he was all, "Great that was so easy!" Of course, I was like..."Wait a minute...this is just a practice rock. But it's a great analogy since I know you've been searching hard for the perfect, REAL rock for me." He kept insisting, that no, this was my rock, but I apparently wasn't rising to his bait.
Suddenly he sat up and said, "Stand up."
I totally froze and instantly I just knew. I think I said something like, "Are you really doing this here?"
He got down on one knee, reached into his pants for the box, opened it up to show me and asked me to marry him. Of course, I barely waited for him to finish his sentence before I said, "Yes!" Unfortunately I didn't realize there was a whole sweet speech and I totally missed out on it because I'm so darn impatient. Now he's telling me it'll be our vows (which is irritating because I totally don't want to do original vows...oh well I might not have a choice because I really want to know what he was going to say!)
 |
| IMMEDIATELY AFTER CHRIS PROPOSED! |
Cute story about the above picture...Chris asked a girl from a group of teenagers next to us to take the picture. I guess he startled her when he went over, but when he explained things she was more than happy to take a picture. Later, Chris kept hearing the girls tell other people the story about how we just got engaged - sweet :)
Did I cry? Actually I didn't until about 10 minutes later when it hit me. I think that since I've been waiting for this moment for so long I didn't really process it. Chris said I just sat there in a daze for those 10 minutes just looking at him and the ring on my hand haha. Then I was just really really excited :)
 |
| BASKING POST PROPOSAL WITH MY "PRACTICE ROCK" |
WARNING: An excessive amount of ring pictures follows!
 |
| MY ROCKS |
 |
| CHRIS + KRIS = ENGAGED! |
 |
| I LOVE THIS PICTURE |
 |
| THE OBLIGATORY RING ON HAND PICTURE ;p |
(If you can believe it...I have more pictures. I totally was having a photo shoot with my ring and just loving it haha)
Later I heard all about how I repeatedly kept foiling his plans. First he wanted to propose at Sea Life Park by the penguins, but needed to go down there to try to set it up because they weren't returning his calls. But then I asked if I could tag along that day. He was trying to propose 6 months from my birthday, but something messed that up. Then when we were scooting around he wanted to climb down and propose on the rocks...but I kept driving off thinking we had only pulled over for cars to pass. Then I was supposed to (like I normally would have) gotten really annoyed with the whole "this is the real rock" bit so that he could say, "well it's a good thing I came prepared with another rock." Then I got too excited to hear the whole actual proposal and just said "Yes" right away haha. Oops.
We hung out at Sandy's for over an hour because I just didn't want to leave and end the experience. I texted my friends, called our families, but in the end we had to go, so we scooped up some of the sand for memories and decided to get back on the scooters for some Bubbie's mochi ice cream. We got root beer, liliokoi, strawberry and dark chocolate (Strawberry mochi and dark chocolate chip ice cream), chocolate and peanut butter (Chocolate mochi and peanut butter ice cream), chocolate and mint (Chocolate mochi and mint ice cream) Yum!
 |
| ON MY SCOOTER AT SANDY'S |
 |
| BUBBIE'S MOCHI ICE CREAM |
 |
| WHERE CHRIS BOUGHT MY DIAMOND (THE ENGAGEMENT TOUR) |
The whole thing does seem a little like kismet. First, my bike was #21 and my lock was #13 - two of my most favorite numbers. Then I was thinking about how June 11th is Kamehameha Day, a day to honor Kamehameha the Great who unified the Hawaiian islands. Today marks the beginning of our official union of the Wong-Callistos! Then when we got home and he was showing me the ring on the website I realized that when I had given him my "list" of "likes/dislikes" for engagement rings I had included a picture of a different ring, but then later found this exact ring online and liked it more. Without even knowing that, Chris literally picked out my dream setting!!!
 |
| CHRIS AND DIAMOND HEAD |
 |
| SCOOTERING INTO THE SUNSET |
We finished off the night by celebrating...not at some fancy restaurant, but with some good hearty wings (and beer/peach Schnapps iced tea and pretzels) at Buffalo Wild Wings.
 |
| CELEBRATING |
So I've always been curious about how long he'd take and it's been 5 years, 8 months and 2 days. Or:
- 179,020,800 seconds
- 2,983,680 minutes
- 49,728 hours
- 296 weeks
- 2072 days
 |
Blissfully Ignorant - June 11, 2012 Part I
Today (June 11, 2012) Chris and I decided to head down to Hanauma Bay for some snorkeling. We got down to the bay and the parking lot was full. So instead we decided to try renting scooters for the day. I had never ridden scooters, but Chris had and he was always talking about how fun it was. We went to this place called Hawaiian Style Rentals & Tours in Waikiki.
 |
| TELLING ME TO STOP TAKING PICTURES AND SIGN THE WAIVER |
The company was really great at orienting me and soon we were off. We scooted around Diamond Head until I was comfortable and then it was off to try Hanauma Bay again. We had stopped off in Ewa before we headed down to town and loaded up on snacks and drinks for Hanauma, but totally left them in the car when we rented the mopeds...oops! So we stopped at the Koko Marina Shopping Center and got Subways, drinks and sunscreen.
When we got to Hanauma the parking lot was open. Yippee! Parking is a $1, but it's FREE if you are on a bike or moped. Score! Then admissions is $7.50, but it's FREE if you are kama'aina.
 |
| HANAUMA BAY |
They have a trolley that shuttles people up and down the hill since it's pretty steep. I thought it was interesting that it's only $0.75 for the ride down, but it's $1.00 to take it up! I'm totally cheap (and we're healthy and able) so we walked down, picked up some rental snorkel and fins, put our stuff in a locker and then we were off to enjoy the bay.
I was hungry and promptly inhaled probably about 8 inches of my footlong sub. Chris immediately headed off into the water to go out the channel to snorkel around back (where I'm too chicken to go unless I'm in a dive outfit).
When I went out with Chris, but it was really hard because it was really shallow and it sucked trying to float over the reef without bumping into it. I felt like I was sucking in my stomach the whole time I was snorkeling and that was really obnoxious. I did get to finally try out my camera that I bought specifically because it had a dive housing. (Actually I bought the underwater housing BEFORE I got the camera...silly me since the camera was discontinued by Canon!)
 |
| THE FISH JUST LET YOU GET LIKETHISCLOSE TO THEM :) |
Chris was also over snorkeling, so we read our magazines/book while we dried out a little and then headed out to do some more scooting :)
 |
| US AT HANAUMA BAY (WE LOOK RED BECAUSE IT'S THE UNDERWATER SETTING - OOPS) |
In the parking lot, we noticed some college aged girls were having trouble starting up their mopeds. Chris swooped in to rescue them (although one of the girls actually did some damage to her bike and she had to call the company). We then scooted off...little did I know what was to come
 |
| GIRLS THAT CHRIS HAD TO HELP START THEIR MOPEDS :) |
Friday, June 8, 2012
Crawling through a Hedge = Winning! (Not Really)
We spent this past Sunday roaming our old haunts at the North Shore and most specifically Haleiwa. Both Chris and I love Haleiwa...the chill, laidback vibe just works for us. Keep the country country!
If I were a multi-millionaire and could afford it, I'd buy a house up here and stay here for awhile (but I'm not a multi-millionaire and there is that whole global-warming-rising-seas bit which probably means North Shore property may be a limited time asset)
One of our favorite things to do is get the huli huli chicken next to Malama Market.
"Huli" means "turn" in Hawaiian (Thanks to hula, I now know this!) and basically it's chicken on a spit, turned over kiawe wood which is Hawaiian mesquite.
It is just so insanely good. Two servings of rice and one huli huli
chicken chopped for you and that's just a finger lickin' good meal. I guess I should really say it's ono grindz! (Translation: Finger lickin' good food!)
Then we headed over to the Haleiwa's Farmer's Market.
Hopefully they'll get to stay in their current location since there's a lot of current drama about the Department of Transportation telling the managers to cease and desist (despite having it run without issues for three years). We were pretty stoked to see some old friends (an old TFA-er and another Ilima colleague who has a new business venture with Bokashi buckets - a way to turn food scraps into soil...for more information: http://eachoneteachonefarms.com/bokashi/). We also got some delicious mini cheesecakes (Waimea strawberry for me and lilikoi for Chris). Unfortunately they were too good and there's no proof since we ate them before I thought to take a picture. Chris got some gross (smelly) smoked fish.
The real reason I wanted to head up on this particular day is that I have always had this really weird hankering to do the Dole Plantation Maze. Billed as the World's Largest Maze (Guinness confirmed in 2008), I have wanted to do the maze since I moved out here. So Chris and I finally got the opportunity to tackle it.
They have you clock in at the beginning. I clocked in at 1:40pm and Chris clocked in at 1:42pm (Ostensibly to give me a "head start"...pshaw!) and then we were off!
I quickly realized the maze was no joke. This wasn't going to be a sprint race. The goal is to find eight "secret" stations and then get the different symbols stenciled (e.g. a palm tree, a fish, a train, a pineapple, etc) onto your ticket and THEN find your way out.
I bumped into Chris three times in between walking in what I felt were circles. The first time I totally heard him laughing through a hedge. This picture below is the second time when I found out...
HE HAD A MAP! Cheater. But being that he's a good boyfriend (and also a cocky bastard haha) he gave me the map. It helped somewhat to have the map (even more helpful that he labeled his routes and what symbols were where...
But I'm not above a little "shortcut" here and there. Especially when it's clear I'm not the only one who's done it! Although there was this one Japanese couple that seemed especially horrified when I crawled out of a hedge while they were stenciling at one of the stations. Puh-leeze. Call it American weirdness...I call it: Winning. Ok I don't, because if I really said that line I would sound like Charlie Sheen and he's Cra-zee.
Finally I emerged, tired, hot but complete and saw Chris across the clearing. I went up to him and asked him if he was done. He asked me if I was done. We both were pau. He looked at me. I looked at him. And we started sprinting...I vaguely recall seeing a really confused four year old boy giving us a bewildered look as we left him and his family in our dust.
I got to the station and clocked in: 2:32pm. I looked at Chris and he was just standing there. And then realization hit me like a splash of cold water...he had already finished AND clocked out. Sure enough he had: 2:21pm. He had beaten me AND come back to the maze to find me. Bugger.
Ugh. I hate losing. But I conceded victory since fighting it only meant Chris would be even more obnoxious (as I would be too if I had won). The pineapple whip and pineapple float in the tacky souvenir cup helped soothe my losses though.
We took a stroll in the pineapple garden before heading home. Even though I lost, it was a lot of fun.
If I were a multi-millionaire and could afford it, I'd buy a house up here and stay here for awhile (but I'm not a multi-millionaire and there is that whole global-warming-rising-seas bit which probably means North Shore property may be a limited time asset)
One of our favorite things to do is get the huli huli chicken next to Malama Market.
 |
| HULI HULI STAND IN HALEIWA |
"Huli" means "turn" in Hawaiian (Thanks to hula, I now know this!) and basically it's chicken on a spit, turned over kiawe wood which is Hawaiian mesquite.
 |
| IF ONLY YOU COULD SMELL THIS |
Then we headed over to the Haleiwa's Farmer's Market.
 |
| E KOMO MAI! |
Hopefully they'll get to stay in their current location since there's a lot of current drama about the Department of Transportation telling the managers to cease and desist (despite having it run without issues for three years). We were pretty stoked to see some old friends (an old TFA-er and another Ilima colleague who has a new business venture with Bokashi buckets - a way to turn food scraps into soil...for more information: http://eachoneteachonefarms.com/bokashi/). We also got some delicious mini cheesecakes (Waimea strawberry for me and lilikoi for Chris). Unfortunately they were too good and there's no proof since we ate them before I thought to take a picture. Chris got some gross (smelly) smoked fish.
 |
| HALEIWA FARMER'S MARKET |
The real reason I wanted to head up on this particular day is that I have always had this really weird hankering to do the Dole Plantation Maze. Billed as the World's Largest Maze (Guinness confirmed in 2008), I have wanted to do the maze since I moved out here. So Chris and I finally got the opportunity to tackle it.
They have you clock in at the beginning. I clocked in at 1:40pm and Chris clocked in at 1:42pm (Ostensibly to give me a "head start"...pshaw!) and then we were off!
 |
| WHICH WAY TO GO??? |
I quickly realized the maze was no joke. This wasn't going to be a sprint race. The goal is to find eight "secret" stations and then get the different symbols stenciled (e.g. a palm tree, a fish, a train, a pineapple, etc) onto your ticket and THEN find your way out.
I bumped into Chris three times in between walking in what I felt were circles. The first time I totally heard him laughing through a hedge. This picture below is the second time when I found out...
 |
| RUNNING INTO CHRIS |
 |
| CHEATER HEDGE |
But I'm not above a little "shortcut" here and there. Especially when it's clear I'm not the only one who's done it! Although there was this one Japanese couple that seemed especially horrified when I crawled out of a hedge while they were stenciling at one of the stations. Puh-leeze. Call it American weirdness...I call it: Winning. Ok I don't, because if I really said that line I would sound like Charlie Sheen and he's Cra-zee.
Finally I emerged, tired, hot but complete and saw Chris across the clearing. I went up to him and asked him if he was done. He asked me if I was done. We both were pau. He looked at me. I looked at him. And we started sprinting...I vaguely recall seeing a really confused four year old boy giving us a bewildered look as we left him and his family in our dust.
I got to the station and clocked in: 2:32pm. I looked at Chris and he was just standing there. And then realization hit me like a splash of cold water...he had already finished AND clocked out. Sure enough he had: 2:21pm. He had beaten me AND come back to the maze to find me. Bugger.
 |
| OBNOXIOUS |
 |
| SIPPING ON MY PINEAPPLE FLOAT |
 |
| TINY, PLUMP PINEAPPLE WITH TINY TOP |
 |
| PINK PINEAPPLE WITH FLOWERS |
 |
| WEIRD GOURD SHAPED PINEAPPLE |
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial
This Memorial Day I decided to spend the day reflecting on what the holiday is really about: a day to remember those men and women who died serving in our armed forces. An interesting fact: Memorial Day was originally known as Decoration Day and was to commemorate the Union soldiers who died in the Civil War.
Fittingly I spent the day at Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. I hadn't been since they built the new Visitor's Center and I was really impressed. I didn't realize you couldn't bring your bags/purses in and so I was kind of kicking myself for having to pay $3.00 for a bag check, but oh well.
Of COURSE because I am the consummate tourist I didn't mind paying the $7.50 for the audio guide. It's narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis and augmented by pieces from Pearl Harbor survivors. I know that I have a terrible memory, but I did learn a lot of new things that I never really registered in prior visits.
Alfred Preis designed the Arizona Memorial. One of the features built into the memorial is this Tree of Life. Preis intended it to be a symbol of renewal to inspire contemplation (I totally got this sentence from the plaque next to it!). It also is a symbol of the interconnectedness of all life on Earth. To the left of the relief you can also see the Crossroads to the Pacific which has signposts to various places of Pearl Harbor relevance.
They have two mini-museums (Road to War Museum and Attack Museum). I'm sure they had these before, but somehow in the renovation it seems much sleeker and a better production than before. One of the things that I learned was that part of the surprise in the attacks was that Pearl Harbor was supposed to be too shallow for torpedoes. Additionally the military thought it's armor plated battleships could survive bombs. The Japanese developed a special torpedo that could be launched into shallow water and armor piercing bombs for the battle ships.
In 1991 they were dredging the harbor and found this original torpedo just off the USS Oklahoma's mooring on Battleship Row:
The warhead was still intact so it needed be exploded. On one of the panels there's a photograph of the Japanese writing found scratched into the torpedo that identifies it as dropped by Akagi pilot airman Tomoe Yasue.
The museums have these fun mini interactive parts. The one below is how they searched by air and sea for any interlopers. It took me forever to "spot" any Japanese subs or planes since you can only search by a little slice of the pie each time. The quote on the back says: "Do you mean to say they could be rounding Diamond Head and you wouldn't know it?" It's from Admiral Husband E. Kimmel on December 2, 1941 after being told the location of the Japanese aircraft carriers was unknown.
Clearly I've never seen the movie, but I didn't know that "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (Which, by the way, is literally "Tiger! Tiger! Tiger") was the Japanese code that the Japanese fighter planes used to indicate total and complete surprise as they flew in and met no antiaircraft fire. Additionally I really didn't register in the past that "Pearl Harbor" wasn't just an attack on the harbor and the battleships, but a very well-coordinated attack on all the air bases at the time and was designed to cripple the American fleet, eliminate our planes and demoralize us. They attacked Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Bellows Firld, NAS Ford Island, NAS Kanehoe and MCAS Ewa in addition to the more well-known attack on the ships in Pearl Harbor.
Of course we didn't help our cause by lining up our battleships in Battleship Row and our planes were parked wingtip to wingtip to "prevent sabotage."
I also didn't know that we knew about the Japanese flying in before the attack. A huge "what if" moment! Below is the Opana radar plot. The Opana Radar Site was the first use of radar in wartime. It was primarily set up to train, not quite ready for use in the defense of the US. So on December 7, 1941 when two privates detected a very large spike of activity at 7:02am, they called in Lt. Kermit Tyler. He thought it was an expected flight of American B-17 bombers and told them not to worry about it. They plotted the incoming planes until 7:40am and then went to breakfast. The air portion of the attack began at 7:48am.
The other thing that I didn't realize was that Memorial Day 2012 was literally the 50th anniversary of the USS Arizona Memorial. As I stood waiting to get into the theater for the movie the screen before you board the boat to the memorial, a park ranger came over and told us what a special day it was. They gave us these commemorative cards.
After the movie I boarded the ferry. I noticed that there were two service men and a service woman standing in the front of the boat. They were let off first so I quickly scurried off the board after them. I'm really glad I did as they went and paid tribute in the memorial shrine room.
Of the 2,386 American fatalities on December 7th, 1,177 were killed when a bomb exploded the forward magazine of the USS Arizona.
Being present at the memorial during Memorial Day and getting to see the wreaths and the tribute from the servicemen and woman really struck me that this was such a perfect way to celebrate Memorial Day.
The weather was beautiful (unlike how it normally is on the Big Island...) with blue skies and wispy white clouds.
Looking up I caught this image of the American flag at half mast through the beams:
Alfred Preis designed the memorial to represent the height of American pride before the war, the sudden depression of a nation after the attack and the rise of American power to new heights after the war.
The architecture of the USS Arizona Memorial is explained by Preis as, "Wherein the structure sags in the center but stands strong and vigorous at the ends, expresses initial defeat and ultimate victory ... The overall effect is one of serenity. Overtones of sadness have been omitted to permit the individual to contemplate his own personal responses ... his innermost feelings."[7]
Fittingly I spent the day at Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. I hadn't been since they built the new Visitor's Center and I was really impressed. I didn't realize you couldn't bring your bags/purses in and so I was kind of kicking myself for having to pay $3.00 for a bag check, but oh well.
 |
| FLAGS AT HALF MAST FOR MEMORIAL DAY |
Of COURSE because I am the consummate tourist I didn't mind paying the $7.50 for the audio guide. It's narrated by Jamie Lee Curtis and augmented by pieces from Pearl Harbor survivors. I know that I have a terrible memory, but I did learn a lot of new things that I never really registered in prior visits.
 |
| STANDING BY HAWAII |
Alfred Preis designed the Arizona Memorial. One of the features built into the memorial is this Tree of Life. Preis intended it to be a symbol of renewal to inspire contemplation (I totally got this sentence from the plaque next to it!). It also is a symbol of the interconnectedness of all life on Earth. To the left of the relief you can also see the Crossroads to the Pacific which has signposts to various places of Pearl Harbor relevance.
 |
| TREE OF LIFE |
They have two mini-museums (Road to War Museum and Attack Museum). I'm sure they had these before, but somehow in the renovation it seems much sleeker and a better production than before. One of the things that I learned was that part of the surprise in the attacks was that Pearl Harbor was supposed to be too shallow for torpedoes. Additionally the military thought it's armor plated battleships could survive bombs. The Japanese developed a special torpedo that could be launched into shallow water and armor piercing bombs for the battle ships.
In 1991 they were dredging the harbor and found this original torpedo just off the USS Oklahoma's mooring on Battleship Row:
The warhead was still intact so it needed be exploded. On one of the panels there's a photograph of the Japanese writing found scratched into the torpedo that identifies it as dropped by Akagi pilot airman Tomoe Yasue.
The museums have these fun mini interactive parts. The one below is how they searched by air and sea for any interlopers. It took me forever to "spot" any Japanese subs or planes since you can only search by a little slice of the pie each time. The quote on the back says: "Do you mean to say they could be rounding Diamond Head and you wouldn't know it?" It's from Admiral Husband E. Kimmel on December 2, 1941 after being told the location of the Japanese aircraft carriers was unknown.
 |
| ENEMY AIRCRAFT SPOTTED! |
Clearly I've never seen the movie, but I didn't know that "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (Which, by the way, is literally "Tiger! Tiger! Tiger") was the Japanese code that the Japanese fighter planes used to indicate total and complete surprise as they flew in and met no antiaircraft fire. Additionally I really didn't register in the past that "Pearl Harbor" wasn't just an attack on the harbor and the battleships, but a very well-coordinated attack on all the air bases at the time and was designed to cripple the American fleet, eliminate our planes and demoralize us. They attacked Hickam Field, Wheeler Field, Bellows Firld, NAS Ford Island, NAS Kanehoe and MCAS Ewa in addition to the more well-known attack on the ships in Pearl Harbor.
 |
| TORA! TORA! TORA! |
I also didn't know that we knew about the Japanese flying in before the attack. A huge "what if" moment! Below is the Opana radar plot. The Opana Radar Site was the first use of radar in wartime. It was primarily set up to train, not quite ready for use in the defense of the US. So on December 7, 1941 when two privates detected a very large spike of activity at 7:02am, they called in Lt. Kermit Tyler. He thought it was an expected flight of American B-17 bombers and told them not to worry about it. They plotted the incoming planes until 7:40am and then went to breakfast. The air portion of the attack began at 7:48am.
 |
| OPANA PLOT |
The other thing that I didn't realize was that Memorial Day 2012 was literally the 50th anniversary of the USS Arizona Memorial. As I stood waiting to get into the theater for the movie the screen before you board the boat to the memorial, a park ranger came over and told us what a special day it was. They gave us these commemorative cards.
After the movie I boarded the ferry. I noticed that there were two service men and a service woman standing in the front of the boat. They were let off first so I quickly scurried off the board after them. I'm really glad I did as they went and paid tribute in the memorial shrine room.
 |
| SALUTE |
 |
| GIVING A LEI |
Being present at the memorial during Memorial Day and getting to see the wreaths and the tribute from the servicemen and woman really struck me that this was such a perfect way to celebrate Memorial Day.
 |
| ANOTHER SERVICEMAN HONORING THE MEMORIAL |
Looking up I caught this image of the American flag at half mast through the beams:
 |
| USS ARIZONA MEMORIAL ENTRANCE |
 |
| VIEW AS WE PULL AWAY FROM THE MEMORIAL |
Alfred Preis designed the memorial to represent the height of American pride before the war, the sudden depression of a nation after the attack and the rise of American power to new heights after the war.
The architecture of the USS Arizona Memorial is explained by Preis as, "Wherein the structure sags in the center but stands strong and vigorous at the ends, expresses initial defeat and ultimate victory ... The overall effect is one of serenity. Overtones of sadness have been omitted to permit the individual to contemplate his own personal responses ... his innermost feelings."[7]
Sunday, May 20, 2012
You Know You Live in the Middle of Nowhere When...
Chris and I decided we wanted to move at the end of April. The logic was that our lease in our current home was up in May and we really did not need to be paying $1150 in rent for a home that we liked, but didn't necessarily love. It's been nice living right on the water, but with that comes: corrosion of everything, sea spray on our cars (meaning lots of wiper fluid and car washes), dirt blown into our house from the off-shore winds, etc. Additionally we have no water pressure upstairs which is a pain.
Of course I dove into house hunting...any excuse to make a spreadsheet or table! I quickly started to despair. Like most of our experiences on the Big Island - it's really hard to find anything decent. Our basic requirements were: Washer/Dryer (Kris), a yard (Chris), closer to the main road (We're currently 5 miles from it) and ideally cheaper than $1150.
We must have looked at half a dozen houses in Onomea, Waiakea, Hilo, and Keaau and I was starting to panic. None of them seemed to work for us and Chris was really pushing on the yard thing. As we did our house viewings I realized that two years living on the Big Island have really accustomed us to living in the middle of nowhere.
Because you would only say these phrases (in totally seriousness and excitement) if you lived in the middle of no where:
1. Wow! You can get mail here???
2. Water? Oh you get county water? I completely forgot some people got piped water! (We have been living on catchment)
3. The water isn't drinkable? That's okay - in our first home the landlord said there was UV filter on the catchment and there wasn't. We drank that for a year and were fine!
4. The street is paved!
5. I get 2-3 bars of cell phone reception here!!!
6. No indoor pets...bummer. Oh we can have outdoor pets though? A dog, chickens, sheep or goats...ooh let's get a goat!
7. Oh, you can't get internet here. You can't get internet?!?! Well that changes things.
8. What are these? Oh, you get wild pigs that run through the backyard?
Of course I dove into house hunting...any excuse to make a spreadsheet or table! I quickly started to despair. Like most of our experiences on the Big Island - it's really hard to find anything decent. Our basic requirements were: Washer/Dryer (Kris), a yard (Chris), closer to the main road (We're currently 5 miles from it) and ideally cheaper than $1150.
We must have looked at half a dozen houses in Onomea, Waiakea, Hilo, and Keaau and I was starting to panic. None of them seemed to work for us and Chris was really pushing on the yard thing. As we did our house viewings I realized that two years living on the Big Island have really accustomed us to living in the middle of nowhere.
Because you would only say these phrases (in totally seriousness and excitement) if you lived in the middle of no where:
1. Wow! You can get mail here???
2. Water? Oh you get county water? I completely forgot some people got piped water! (We have been living on catchment)
3. The water isn't drinkable? That's okay - in our first home the landlord said there was UV filter on the catchment and there wasn't. We drank that for a year and were fine!
4. The street is paved!
5. I get 2-3 bars of cell phone reception here!!!
6. No indoor pets...bummer. Oh we can have outdoor pets though? A dog, chickens, sheep or goats...ooh let's get a goat!
7. Oh, you can't get internet here. You can't get internet?!?! Well that changes things.
8. What are these? Oh, you get wild pigs that run through the backyard?
Saturday, May 12, 2012
What Do You Mean Children Grow Up?!?!
Tonight I hung out at the Hawai'i State Track and Field Championships at Kea'au High School. I went for one reason: see my former student run the 3000m. (I suppose I'm not supposed to confess this, but he is totally one my favorites! SHHH.)
Now that I've moved to the Big Island I rarely get the chance to see my former students so I was really excited to see KK. First of all, he's totally sprouted. He's really tall, tan and muscular....so different from the sweet child I remember. I guess that in my head he'll always be 12 years old! It got me thinking that if I'm this stunned by a child actually growing up, what the heck am I going to do when I have children?!?!?!
Obviously seeing him made me remember fondly all the memories from when I taught him. It was so fun to see him run his race since one of my fondest memories is how he used to run from class to class even though we had plenty of passing time for them. NOTHING I could say would convince him to just walk to class. I suppose I should've let him run since he's developed into quite the runner!
KK has amazing parents. It really makes you realize how much of a difference a supportive and nurturing family can do for a child, especially one with a disability. I wish every child had parents as amazing as KK's and I particularly wish that every child with a disability had a parent that would advocate as fiercely, love as ferociously, and be as supportive, patient, and understanding as Mark and Tara. (On a side note, Tara was an educational assistant with Chris at Ilima and he also taught KK for a quarter at Ilima!) Perhaps that's why I am so passionate about working with parents...
One of my greatest disappointments (that's saying a lot to since this whole year as been basically nothing but disappointment) is that I won't be able to see my first group of students graduate. (KK was my second class) When I was still at Ilima I had a couple of girls from my 7th grade homeroom who'd ask me every now and then to make sure to come for their graduation. For years I have been looking forward to this and I always thought I wouldn't be in Hawai'i still. However, work has been so bad and I have one if not multiple meetings every day after school and I just can't go :(
I only did three years in the classroom (Weird to think I'm now at the point where next year I'll have been out of the classroom for longer than in it!), but I do think about those kids all the time. Especially my first class of kids. The stories I could tell!
I hope that for as long as I'm in education that I can always make sure to find a way back to the kids. Nothing is scarier than an educational leader that has forgotten what it's like to be a teacher.
Today I went to a 1st grade end of the year performance because a bunch of my ELO kids (it's a class I teach after school for lower elementary students) asked me and it was the cutest stinkin' thing. If it wasn't for FERPA I would totally post pictures of their adorable-ness. I can only imagine what it's like to be an elementary teacher and see your little guys grow up!!! I'm having a hard enough time coping with the fact that KK hit puberty and is now a head taller than me. I'm trying to picture what it'd be like to see my little students that hug me every class (and sometimes every time they see me at school!) as teenagers!
Now that I've moved to the Big Island I rarely get the chance to see my former students so I was really excited to see KK. First of all, he's totally sprouted. He's really tall, tan and muscular....so different from the sweet child I remember. I guess that in my head he'll always be 12 years old! It got me thinking that if I'm this stunned by a child actually growing up, what the heck am I going to do when I have children?!?!?!
 |
| RUN KK, RUN!! |
I always knew KK would be a special person. I don't know how, but you know every now and then you just meet someone or teach a child and you just think, "You're something special." (I have one of those now - an adorable, precocious 2nd grader that is just so bright I want to bottle him up) Recently KK was featured as a speaker for an Autism Speaks event in Honolulu and was the HI-FIVE Athlete of the Week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mnzJkNTWmc
 | |
| KK & MARK |
I only did three years in the classroom (Weird to think I'm now at the point where next year I'll have been out of the classroom for longer than in it!), but I do think about those kids all the time. Especially my first class of kids. The stories I could tell!
I hope that for as long as I'm in education that I can always make sure to find a way back to the kids. Nothing is scarier than an educational leader that has forgotten what it's like to be a teacher.
Today I went to a 1st grade end of the year performance because a bunch of my ELO kids (it's a class I teach after school for lower elementary students) asked me and it was the cutest stinkin' thing. If it wasn't for FERPA I would totally post pictures of their adorable-ness. I can only imagine what it's like to be an elementary teacher and see your little guys grow up!!! I'm having a hard enough time coping with the fact that KK hit puberty and is now a head taller than me. I'm trying to picture what it'd be like to see my little students that hug me every class (and sometimes every time they see me at school!) as teenagers!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)