Whirlwind trip to Oahu

My mom's 80 year old cousin and his daughter and grandson wanted to visit me in Hawaii, on their way from Japan to San Diego. But that meant I had to fly to Oahu for the day and drive them around an island I barely know. After some good suggestions from Arthur and my sister I drove them up and around the North Shore with stops in Haleiwa and the Dole Plantation. On the way back through the saddle to Honolulu I mentioned (thanks to my brother-in-law's tours) we were in the path of the kamikaze pilots that had flown during WWII. This 80 year old grandfather (who was too young to have fought in the war) suddenly got emotional and mentioned that he really wanted to see Pearl Harbor. Maybe next time he said. Not on my watch - why leave for next time what you can do today. I told him we could go now. They were concerned because they knew I had a plane of my own to catch back to the Big Island at 7. No problem I said. So we went to Pearl Harbor. Upon seeing the memorials my mom's cousin became so moved. He had been doing volunteer work in Japan with the survivors of the atom bomb, many older Japanese do this. He wanted to see this place and the connection to it's own senseless destruction. After driving by gorgeous beach after gorgeous beach, this was the highlight of the trip for him.





Notice how stylish those Japanese are (compared to me...).