Waikiki, HI

Friday 16th December I walked on my own today and much earlier, out by 6.30am. Sadly, it was just me and all the homeless out this early. There are more homeless here than last time.  Mark and I went down to breakfast at around 7.30 leaving Tom cursing us from under the bed covers. The waiters could all relate to our teenager issues as they all had some of that species themselves.  They chuckled as Mark  went out to ring up to the room in a further attempt to coax Tom down.  They, too,   also wondered whether Tom would appear after the phone call and were all mightily pleased when he did eventually turn up.  We all then went down to the pool/ beach area for a couple of hours before heading off to get ready for our afternoon  tour.   Our Pearl Harbour tour  pick up was at 11.15   There were only 12 of us on the tour and 9 were  Aussies! Pearl Harbour is out on a similar route as to the airport and it took about 30 minutes to get there.  Our first stop was at the Arizona Memorial where about 900 men are still entombed  on board and under the water.  From there we went out to Ford island to access the USS Missouri or ‘ Big Mo’ as she is affectionately known. Such a massive hunk of metal. The mind boggles at just how this hulk of a thing floats. Don’t quote Archimedes to me…. I know the Science but, when you see such a massive bulk, well, you do wonder!   On the way back in to Waikiki we drove  past the apartment block where Obama grew up, the school he went to and the hospital where he was born.  The Baskin and Robbins where he first worked was near by but we didn’t  actually pass this .   We got back to our hotel at about 5.30.pm.  Just enough time to attempt to re-pack our bags before our 6.30pm dinner booking at Dukes next door.  Dukes is ok but I’d guess it’s full of 80% Aussies.  Enough said there. We were back up in our hotel room by  8 pm.  Mark and I are hoping to get out on an early walk before we leave for the airport at 8.30 am.