Tragic Beauty

Ron Niebrugge Hawaii, Photos, Travel 4 Comments

An oil sheen from the USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

An oil sheen from the USS Arizona, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

On the surface (literally), this is a beautiful subject – the dramatic kaleidoscope of colors and patterns is a ph0tographer’s dream.  But, these colors are from oil that to this day still seeps up from the USS Arizona.   The USS Arizona is a battleship destroyed during the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese in which 1,177 lives were lost on this ship alone – most of which are still on board in a watery grave.  To say that a visit to the USS Arizona Memorial is a moving and somber experience would be an understatement.

Trip from Hell to Paradise

Ron Niebrugge Hawaii, Photos, Travel 13 Comments

Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Waikiki, Honolulu, Hawaii.

Well trip from Hell is a big exaggeration – A series of inconveniences would be more accurate.  But that just didn’t sound nearly as good in the title for this post.

It started with our flight.  We got the very last row in the plane – you know, the one where everyone who uses the bathroom stands right next to you and constantly bumps into you as people try to pass each other in those wide isles.  Especially the really drunk lady who visited the restroom every 10 minutes!  On top of it, those seats don’t recline, and the lady next to us couldn’t have been sicker if she was in the hospital.  Finally, the airlines ran out of that thing they call a meal.  But, our luggage made it and we didn’t crash!

Next, our shuttle driver dropped us off two block from our condo.  Not a big deal if we didn’t have 157 pounds of gear in numerous bags.  We drag our gear down the sidewalks and make it to our condo only to find out it hadn’t been clean since  the previous guest.  After a bunch of run around it became apparent that despite being hungry and tired, we needed to find a different room for the night.  We found one, two blocks away – now the 157 pounds felt like 257 pounds, but we made it.

Next morning came and  our condo was still dirty.  Facing check out in our current room, we decided we better cancel our condo and find a room.  This is supposedly a slow time of year here, and a bad economy, but we had a heck of a time finding a place that wasn’t full.  Hotwire finally saved the day.

So, like I said, just a few minor inconveniences.  But we only had a couple of days here and we spent the first two finding rooms or awaiting check in with our bags, but now we are off and running and hope to get as much as we can for our last two days here.  This was just after sunset last night.