Day 5: USS Arizona memorial and Waikiki beach

August 27, 2011


    Today was a busy day. We meet down in the lobby at 7:15am and headed for the WWII Valor in the Pacific National Monument where the USS Arizona Memorial is at. When we got there we got to look around on our own for a while. I took lots of pictures and it was sprinkling off and on during this time.

USS Bowfin

Bird of Paridise flower

Plumeria Tree

       At 8:15 we went to see a film about the attack of Pearl Harbor. The film was about 30 minutes long and quite moving. After the film we boarded a small ferry boat and went to the USS Arizona Memorial. It is a small memorial so we didn't spend much time there.

USS Arizona Memorial

      When we got back to shore we took some pictures and a group photo before we left to get breakfast at McDonald's.

Kelsey, Sarah, Me and Trina

      We then went to the swap meet that is at the Aloha stadium. The vendors wrap all the way around the stadium. It was pretty interesting some of the things they had many vendors carried. I bought a shaved ice, a Hawaiian tank top and a Hawaiian dress. We only had an hour so I didn't have much time to check things out. After the swap meet we decided that we would go to Waikiki beach and have the next day off. Our PC David ended up taking the wrong exit so we got to see a little more of the island before we got to go back to the hotel since it was 10 miles before we could turn around to go back.

Stairway to Heaven

     Once we got back to the hotel we only had 30 minutes to change and pack our lunch before we had to meet in the lobby to go. The trip was a little long bout what a beautiful beach! The waves were much stronger than I expected. It was a lot of fun! Trina and I mostly hung out together at the beach. We stayed for quite a while before we decided to go back.

Waikiki beach

     To get back home we had to take "The Bus" which is their public bus transportation on the island. It took and hour and twenty minutes to get to Makalapa gate. From there we had to walk in the gate and then to our hotel. It was a long but very fun day!

Andrea 

Day 4

August 26, 2011

    Today was my first day at the Harbor CDC and had to do my last day of observations. We first got our 30 day passes for base before we went to our CDC's. The children were really loud in the room and some of them interacted with me. After we were finished at 3:00pm we had the night off. We made plans for what we were going to do for our first weekend off before the night was through.

Andrea

Day 3

August 25, 2011

Today I had observation at Navel CDC. It was only 3 hours but I really enjoyed it there. The children and staff were really friendly. My PC picked me up and we went to a meeting on Creative Curriculum and some other topics. After that we headed to Hickam beach which is on the Hickam air force base. The beach is right next to the airport so we could see the airplanes taxi and the subs coming in which was really cool!

(Group Picture coming?)

 We had a meeting after our lunch and then got to enjoy the beach for a while. I went out in the water and stayed there until we had to come it. Trina stayed out there with me and talked to me. I couldn’t swim because of my ankle so I just hopped off the bottom. I ended up getting sun burnt even with the sunscreen on. We had our last meeting on blood borne pathogens and then were informed we needed one piece suits for swim lessons with the children. We ran to Target but the swim suits were too expensive. So I got food items quickly when I was there. I got home and talked to my mom for a while and then had to leave to go to the local mall to Ross which is like a TJ Max store. We all found a suit quickly and got back.

Day 2

August 24, 2011

Today started off pretty crappy. I fell at the hotel and sprained my ankle. I just dealt with it since it was a busy day. We had trainings all day and went out to eat for lunch again but at a different place. After the meetings we came back early.  I took my shower and after my ankle really started to bother me. My fellow interns helped me out. Sarah got ice for me, Trina brought Zip-loc bags for me, my PC took me to Target to get a wrap for my ankle, and Kelsey gave me some pain relievers (since I total forgot about picking them up). I kept my leg elevated and kept ice on it. For the night I kept it elevated as I slept to help with the swelling.

FYI: I can not take pictures on base. It's not allowed. Since i have been on base most of the time I don't have many pictures to share at this time. They are comming though!

First Day

August 23, 2011

My first day started with orientation meetings. We went over a lot of information and went to lunch. The place we went to was really cool. The building on the inside had this beautiful massive mural of an ocean life scene with whales, turtles, fish, and much more covering this circular dome ceiling. It was awesome but couldn't get a full picture of it.

Artist: Wyland

There was also a statue with a waterfall that went next to the escalator. It was really pretty as well (sorry no picture). We ate upstairs and after had to head out to visit all 7 CDC’s on the two bases. It was very overwhelming and very quick trips to each. After we finished visiting the centers we got to go grocery shopping. It is very expensive to buy things here. Most items at 2X as much as back at home. After the shopping trip the rest of the day was ours. I invited the other girls to hang out and watch AGT with me. Trina was the only one who accepted. It was fun hanging out with her and I think we’re going to be close friends here. After the show was over it was time for bed.

Welcome to Hawaii!

August 22, 2011: Day 1

My first day started off at 4:00am at the Hilton hotel me and my parents stayed at for the night in Toledo. The alarm didn’t go off as planned but I was waking up all night worried that it wouldn’t. I’m glad I was paranoid about it or otherwise I would have been late making my plane.  I got my parents up and we quickly got ready left. The hotel had breakfast on the go bags full of breakfast foods and bottled water. I took that with me for the plane trip except the water. At the airport I had to wait a bit to get my bags checked in and to get through airport security. I gave my parents a hug and took some pictures with them before I left them to go through security. Mom started to cry which made me tear up but I told her that I’m coming back. I had to go through the full body scan when I went through. I got a bottle of water for my trip and got on the plane for Phoenix Arizona. The flight was about 4 hours long and I gained 2 hours in the air. We landed early so I had time to answer text messages and call my parents, eat, use the restroom and send 2 emails before I had to get back on the plane an hour later.

                                                         Phoenix from the plane

The Phoenix to Lihuli, Kauai flight was over 6 hours long. At this point my legs were hurting from all the sitting. I took naps on both planes since it got boring after a while. Kauai was very pretty, what I saw of it from the air and airport. I took some pictures of the garden in the open air airport.

Lihuli, Kauai from the plane

Airport Garden (part of it)

The hibiscus in the garden

                                                    One of the helicopters I saw

 I ate at the airport and got on my 3^rd and final plane to Honolulu. After 2 plane changes and 15 hours I was finally in Honolulu Hawaii! At the airport I had a bag get misplaced and to go through a great deal to get it. I got picked up by my temporary PC and got to the hotel. He got me set up and got checked into my room. My room is really nice and better than I expected.

My room

The base is very nice and the scenery is beautiful. I took a shower, unpacked and went to my meeting. At that point I had been up for 22 hours. I made it through the meeting and the girls decided to pick through what the past campers left us. After that I finally got to bed.

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my new blog!

  I will be sharing about my time in Hawaii through the Camp Adventure program. I will be there from August 22nd through December 17, 2011. I will try to update this as much as possible with photo's during my time there.