Second day in Hawaii

On our second day in Hawaii, we went to Pearl Harbor in the morning. We waited for a while to get in because there were a lot of people. We got our tickets (Top) and were told when we should be able to get in. While waiting, we took pictures of the harbor (Bottom). If you look closely, you can see the USS Arizona Memorial in the harbor.

After taking pictures of the harbor, we still had a long time before our tour was supposed to start. Lauren was with us and had her handy tourist's guide to Hawaii. I also had my list of things that I wanted to see. Luckily, we discovered that the Swap Meet that I wanted to go to wasn't very far from Pearl Harbor, so we set out to see that. We ended up walking a way that led to a large fence, but luckily we squeezed through the gate and were off! I bought 5 t-shirts for $10! Getting back was just as tricky, but we made it with time to spare for our tour.

We rode a little boat out to the memorial and looked around inside. It was really interesting to see. The USS Arizona is still there, right where it sank.

Later that day, we drove to the north end of the island in the hopes of getting a permit to camp, with no luck. We were unable to find the office, so we went back to the hostel we had stayed at nearby. We were to spend the rest of our stay in Honolulu in that same hostel.
We tried once again to go see Diamond Head (this time without Lauren), but were once again unsuccessful. Would we ever manage to climb to the top?
Instead, we went to the Spam Jam (I guess Hawaiians love spam!) and the International Market Place. We wanted to go to Sunset on the Beach, an outdoor film that is played on the beach, but I guess because of Spam Jam, it was canceled. So, even though we weren't able to watch a movie, we did watch the sunset on the beach at Waikiki. We also went night swimming (as in swimming in the ocean after dark). That was great, the water was warm and very, very salty. It's easy to forget that swimming in an ocean is different than swimming in a lake if it is your first time. Man, that salt water really tastes bad!
I'll tell you one thing, you can never capture the beauty of a sunset on film. It's really a shame. No matter how hard you try, it is never the same. I suppose that's what keeps people looking at sunrises and sunsets. They know its one of those things that can only be experienced in person.

Hawaii

Bridesmaids: Erin's two nieces and their mother, Erin's sister;
than me, and our other best friend, Heather.
Groomsmen are Victor's friends.  Erin and Victor
together in the center with the two flower
girls in front.

Well, before I get to my mission, since I am still in the process of gathering my letters/emails, I decided to write about my adventures right before that time. School got out in April of 2005 and I immediately left for home after my last final. I drove through the night and arrived for hastened preparations to send in my mission papers and to be a bridesmaid in my best friend's wedding on April 23, 2005. I had less than a week before I was to leave again.

Diamond Head, Oahu, Hawaii

Cheeseburger in Paradise with Lauren, me, Kandice, and
the waiter

The following Monday I left for Salt Lake City where I would meet up with my friend, Kandice, before going to Hawaii. Originally, we were going to spend two weeks with another friend at her family's place on Maui, but due to some miscommunication, she was unable to go with us and we already had purchased our tickets. So, we, of course, decided to go anyway. Because of that, we decided to see more than we had originally planned. I planned the trip, beginning with Oahu. After arriving in Salt Lake City, I had some time with my sister before Kandice and I flew to San Diego. We had a long layover there and spent the night in the airport before finally boarding our plane for Maui. It is quite a long flight, the longest I had been on up to that point (I think 6 hours), but they fed us warm cookies and milk after the in-flight movie, making it the best flight I had traveled on, too.
We had a short layover in Maui before flying to Oahu. We picked up our car rental at the airport, drove to the hostel where we would be staying to check-in and get a little settled. We met a girl from England named Lauren and invited her to go see Diamond Head with us. Unfortunately, they were already closed for the day, but we took a beautiful picture from the ride up (see photo above).
Then we decided to go to a fabulous restaurant called Cheeseburger in Paradise that I had heard about. It's delicious and not too expensive. 
That was our day. What a way to begin our Hawaii trip.