Parents Visited O'ahu

My parents have come and gone.  They were visiting for 10 days and I tried to take them to as many interesting things on O'ahu as possible.  I think I exhausted them too because we skipped the Hanauma Bay snorkeling.  However, we did see and/or do a lot of things, including:

• Circle island tour (windward one day, the rest another day)
• Nu'uanu Pali State Wayside
• Waikiki Beach swimming and laying around in the sun
• Dole Plantation
• National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific
• Star of Honolulu sunset dinner cruise
• USS Arizona Memorial and surrounding museums and ships
• Polynesian Cultural Center including the luau and Horizons show
• Diamond Head (hike to the top)
• Shopping at the usual locations (took them to Hilo Hattie's)

We also dined at a variety of places, including the Oceanarium Restaurant, Chuck's Cellar, Wai'oli Tea Room, and the Dixie Grill.  I think they had a great time.  My parents were amazed at the costs of everything.  I knew they would be, but when it came time to get lunch and breakfast and things like that, they were amazed at how high those things cost.

My dad is a WWII history buff and really enjoyed the USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Bowfin, and the USS Missouri battleship and really just everything around that whole area.  He told me he never thought he would have been able to see Pearl Harbor in his lifetime.  Fortunately I moved to Hawai'i and he had an excuse to visit.  We arrived at the Arizona Memorial at 7:30 AM and left at 5:30 PM.  Yes, all day.  We saw the Arizona, Missouri, and Bowfin.  And all surrounding museums.  I read on Jorge Garcia's blog that the gift shop by the Missouri sold plush battleships.  I have to agree with Jorge that a battleship "doll" is a bit ridiculous, but I was still wanting to buy one simply because it is ridiculous.  Unfortunately they didn't have any at any of the gift shops and no one knew what I was talking about.  Oh well.

Both of my parents really enjoyed the Polynesian Cultural Center.  I have to say that I was impressed too.  Aside from everything costing money inside the center, it's still done really well and the shows and demonstrations are done well.  Of course, I have nothing to base this comparison on except that I saw similar performances at another luau.  Yeah, I'm not at expert.

Even with everything we did, there's an equal or larger set of things that we weren't able to do.  The next time they visit we will do other things.

I am currently uploading photos from their visit to my Flickr account.  Between my camera and their camera, we took over 1000 photos.  Probably the most we've ever taken on a joint vacation.  I have reduced the number by deleting duplicate or blurry photos.

Speaking of photos, I think I found a good job for when I get tired of software engineering.  I will use my camera to take pictures of people at a typical tourist location and then sell them the photo as they exit for $18 to $24.  Most places we went did that with photos.  Crazy.  We decided not to buy the photo from the dinner cruise.  Instead, my dad held it up and I took a picture of it.