Flat Rose Day 10 Polynesian Cultural Center

 

Day 10 - Sunday, March 23:

Polynesian Cultural Center: Water Show, Luau and Hula Show

 

The King, and his court bearing yellow and red feather standards

The Polynesian Cultural Center is on the Windward (east) side of Oˋahu. Six Pacific isle villages are on display: Tahiti, Samoa, Fiji, Tonga, Aotearoa (New Zealand), and Hawaii. Exhibits for Rapa Nui (Easter Island) and Marquesas are there, too. I didn’t have time to see all the displays before the water show started. Auntie didn’t want me to miss any of the show.

 

 

   

 

 

The dancers on the canoes all wore colorful costumes. I liked the red and yellow cape of the king on the main float best. It looked just like one of the capes in the glass cabinets at the Bishop Museum. The floats represent the different Polynesian Islands.

 

After the water show was over, we listened to a big man play the drums. I think he is from Samoa. He asked for someone from the audience to come on stage and play music with him. I didn’t raise my hand. But I clapped real loud after he played the drums.

 

   

When we stood in line for the luau, I got scared. I was never at a luau before. What if I did something wrong? I told Auntie I was afraid. She said it was normal for me to feel nervous in new situations. Then she told me things about a luau.

For a luau, people dig a hole in the ground and put in rocks and leaves and twigs. They light a fire so the rocks get hot. It is like an oven, only it is called an imu. A whole pig is roasted inside the imu. When the pig is cooked enough to eat, strong men remove it from the hole.

 

 

  

 

We stood close to the imu and watched as men lifted the pig out of the ground. They wore a cloth around their waist called a lava lava. The men showed us the pig before carrying it away.

Everyone walked over to a row of tables and sat down. There was a lot of food for us to eat. On the table were slices of pineapple, papaya, and mango; macaroni salad, rice, and buns; kalua pig and poi. Some people had a drink called a Mai Tai. I asked for milk. Auntie had diet cola. I thought maybe we would have Shave Ice for dessert. But they brought trays of little square cakes and something that looked like white jello. It was called haupia. It tasted like coconut.

 

The hula show was fun to watch. I was very tired though. Auntie said the warm weather probably made me tired. I fell asleep on TheBus and didn’t wake up until we were home. I can sleep late tomorrow morning while Auntie does some work.

*****

Flat Rose Day 9 Pearl Harbor & USS Missouri

 

Day 9 - Saturday, March 22:

Pearl Harbor: Arizona Memorial, Missouri Battleship, Bowfin Submarine

 

View of Arizona Memorial from the U.S.S. Missouri

 

On December 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor was attacked. The U.S.S. Arizona Battleship sank to the bottom of the harbor. On September 2, 1945, the final surrender of the Empire of Japan took place in Tokyo Bay. The peace treaty was signed on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri. Both ships are now on display in Pearl Harbor.

Auntie Gail wrote this haiku for the U.S.S. Arizona Battleship

She said a haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables:

the first and third lines have five syllables each, and the middle line has seven syllables.

I wonder why her haiku says Oil and Pearly Shells?

Pearl Harbor Visitor Center

                                      

Inside the Visitor Center, Auntie arranged for us to take a boat ride to the Arizona Memorial. While we waited our turn for the ferry boat, we watched a 25-minute documentary film about the attack on Pearl  Harbor. We looked at some books inside the Pacific Historic Parks bookstore.

Then we went outside to read the plaques. They tell all about the battleships that were docked at Pearl Harbor the day of the attack. I spotted a huge anchor on display.

U.S.S. Arizona Battleship Anchor

 

This anchor was recovered from the Arizona. The ship had three anchors. The crew used one in calm seas, two during foul weather, and the third as a spare. Each weighed nearly 10 tons.

War and Peace

The U.S.S. Missouri Battleship is on the far left. The Arizona Memorial is in the middle.

 

A haiku for the beginning and the end of World War II:

 

Bookends of the War

Sinking Arizona, then

Missouri Treaty

 

We lined up to board the ferry. The Arizona Memorial is in the middle of the harbor. The only way to get to it is by water. It is a short ferry boat ride to the memorial. I could see the Battleship Missouri past the Arizona Memorial. It was windy on the ferry boat and I had to hold on to my hair ribbon so it wouldn’t blow away.

 The memorial looks like a long white building. It covers the sunken battleship. I couldn’t see the ship underneath. Oil still leaks from the ship’s fuel tanks. It has been leaking for over 70 years. Two or more quarts leak out every day. There is a rainbow on the water where oil bubbles up.

Inside the memorial there is an honor wall. All the sailors who died when Pearl Harbor was attacked have their names engraved on the wall. People looked at the names on the wall and read information on signs by the pictures. In honor of the sailors buried on the ship, everyone stayed real quiet all the time we were at the Arizona Memorial. I didn’t even whisper while I was there.

 After the ferry boat returned to the Visitor Center, we had to wait for a tour bus to take us to see the Missouri Battleship and Memorial. We walked over to look at a submarine. Its name was the U.S.S Bowfin. We went onto the deck and below deck. I saw bunk beds where sailors once slept, a tiny galley kitchen, and all kinds of gadgets on the wall.

 

U.S.S. Bowfin Submarine

Permanently home-ported at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

 

  

   

 

 

 

  

This is the Admiral Clarey Bridge that goes over to Ford Island. The size of Ford Island is 450 acres, about one-fourth the size of Waikiki. The bridge spans the harbor where Hawaiians once harvested pearl oysters. It connects Ford Island to the 596-square-mile Island of Oˋahu.

 The bridge is very long. We rode across the bridge on a tour bus that took us to the island. There we visited the U.S.S. Missouri Battleship and Museum.

 

U.S.S. Missouri

 

        

 This plaque is embedded in the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri Battleship

It reads:

 

U. S. S. MISSOURI

OVER THIS SPOT

ON 2 SEPTEMBER 1945

THE INSTRUMENT

OF FORMAL SURRENDER

OF JAPAN TO THE ALLIED POWERS

WAS SIGNED

THUS BRINGING TO A CLOSE

THE SECOND WORLD WAR

_____________

 

THE SHIP AT THAT TIME

WAS AT ANCHOR

IN TOKYO BAY

 

LATITUDE 35◦ 21’ 17” NORTH  ~  LONGITUDE 139◦ 45’ 36” EAST

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