The buildings at Koolina Beach Club resort.
Thursday
Good Morning. I think the first time I woke up was around 4 am which was way too early to do anything so I forced myself to go back to sleep. By 4:45 it was clear that I had slept all my body would let me, but it was still too early to do anything. I piddled around my room, read my scriptures and part of a book and then looked to see if anything was on TV, which there wasn't. I figured I could eat breakfast and get that out of the way and I also did some planning on what to do for the day. The Gym opened at 6, so I was dressed and ready when it opened.
An American flag flying over the Arizona Memorial
Fish Feeding
As I was waling around looking at the resort after my workout I saw that there was a fish feeding at one of the Lagoons. It was nearly time so I jogged to the beach and asked where it was and was directed to the farthest of the 3 private lagoons. I jogged down the beach and made it to the lagoon just as a group of people were wading out into the water, so I joined them. As one of the Marriott workers tossed fish food to the water there was a raucous splashing of water as fish came to the surface and grabbed the food. Some of the fish were 12 to 18 inches long but I don't remember what kind they were. Looking in the clear water I could easily see other small fish swimming around. After the festivities were done I headed back to my room to shower and get ready to be a tourist.
The Bowfin submarine seen from the Arizona Memorial.
Arizona Memorial
The Arizona Memorial is probably the best known of Hawaii's tourist attractions and it was on a short list of things I had to see while on vacation. I grabbed some food for the car, put on some shorts and a T-shirt and headed to Honolulu. The memorial itself is free and very inspiring. The hull of the Arizona is under about 8 feet of water and is the permanent burial place of more than 1500 sailors who were killed on board during the attack on Pear Harbor December 7, 1941. Several other survivors have since been placed with their shipmates within the underwater tomb. It is amazing to think of the sacrifice of many young men, who did not know what was coming, but were in the act of serving their country just the same.
Inside the Bowfin submarine.
Inside the torpedo room on the Bowfin submarine with the tour
group I adopted along the way. 
Bowfin Submarine
Next to the Arizona is a World War II submarine called the Bowfin, which was one of the most successful of all warships. When purchasing my ticket I was offered an audio headset for a self tour, or an information card. I took the card, figuring it would allow me a more leisurely pace and also being a visual person I figured I could get more out of it. Once I got on deck there was an organized tour group just heading down and I inserted myself among them. Their guide was a former submariner and one of the other members of the group had been on submarines, both the WWII type like the Bowfin, and more modern ones. The hour trip through the ship was very interesting and confirmed some of the things I knew about submarines, but also reversed some of my previous perceptions. For one, a submarine is not as cramped as I thought and it also had a crude form of air conditioning to keep temperatures at acceptable levels. Regardless of what happens in the movies, torpedoes are not very accurate and would often miss the target and sometimes hit without exploding. As most people know, submariners got the best food the navy could provide.
The tourist trap called Waikiki beach.
Waikiki Beach
Talk about a tourist trap! I walked along the beach and shops and it seemed very much a beach city. I am sure in the summer it is jammed, but it was rather calm and sedate. I was surprised to see more men than women on the beach but it may have been a coincidence or a daily fluke. The waves and water weren't too impressive. There was a breakwater close to shore to make the beach calm for non swimmers and other tourists. I don't know if they get good surfing waves, but if they do they would have to be much further off shore. One cool thing I saw was a large rack, much like a bike rack, only full of surfboards. They were padlocked up and most were covered.
After a long day I stopped at Pizza Hut on the way home. I just felt like having pizza, especially as a way of supplementing all of the healthy food I had purchased at the store. One personal size pizza and I was good to go. I didn't finish dinner until about 8:30 though.
