Day 9/10: Bowfin and Diamond Head.
On Tuesday I visited Pearl Harbor. Unfortunately the wind was too heavy for the boats going out to the Arizona to take passengers. Instead I visited the Bowfin. It is a submarine they have there. I took a self guided audio tour.
I think I've been in that same submarine one time before. That would have been when I was sixteen or seventeen. Really, another life. But it was still interesting. It's almost hard to believe that people then and still today undertake war efforts confined in a small steel bubble at varying depths of the ocean. Incredible ingenuity, or perhaps insanity, only spawned from the pressures applied by the demands of war to gain ever the advantage by whatever means conceivable? Take your pick. But those boys were brave no matter how you cut it!
Inside its cramped compartments, in the dinning area there was a preserved hand written letter written by Captain Tyree to his crew. I won't reiterate the whole letter but I'd just like to say that any letter beginning "Tomorrow we make a submerged transit of Tsushima Straits, which is reported, mined." would have me wishing I'd joined the Air Force instead. But they did it and they did it well.
Side note. I spent some time on the beach today(Wednesday) reading Mournful and Never Ending Remembrance. Poe, in his work, A Premature Burial, says "To be buried alive is, beyond question, the most terrific of these extremes which has ever fallen to the lot of mere mortality." I suppose sinking into the abyss in a vessel that is irreparably taking on water can be considered a form of burial. But I wonder if Poe considered this horror when writing it. I certainly have.
Anyway, after the Bowfin I walked around the museums and bought an illustrated history of Pearl Harbor. The author even signed it for me! He was a nice old man sitting out by his table talking with everyone that passed by. I had to get one of his books.
Wednesday, (that would be today...or yesterday for those reading this) I hiked Diamond Head. It's a very short hike of which its summit overlooks Waikiki beach. I ran half of it and made it to the top in under twenty-five minutes. Admittedly I did overdo it slightly as I felt nauseous upon reaching the summit. I sat in the shade for awhile listening to a man at the top repeat his pitch over and over again to those arriving and willing to donate to to keep the trail in good repair. "Last chance to say you did it before Kilimanjaro!" I wasn't quite sure what he meant by that.
After leaving the park I had a date with destiny. I fell in love. I stopped for some good Hawaiian barbecue and you know what? Wow. That is all I have to say. Hawaiian barbecue. It was practically love at first bite! I'll be here all night. No, literally, cuz I'm going to sleep now.
Goodnight.