Police Report, Dinner, Early-ish to Bed

Hawaii April Travelog #7
Waikiki, Honolulu, HI - Sat, 9 Apr, 2022, 10pm

Around 5:30 we got back from our day's adventures— hiking to Ka'ena point in the sweltering heat, visiting the Mermaid Cave and Nanakili Beach— and set about dealing with the day's mis-adventure— the theft of $2,000 of gear from our car. I looked up the Honolulu Police Department (HPD) contact info online and set about filing a police report.

While online I found that HPD lets you report crimes online. That seems like a reasonable approach for something like a theft that's already occurred though obviously not the way to report a robbery in progress. The thing was, though, their online reporting form wasn't just limited to "theft that already occurred, with nobody injured or in danger"; there were, like, forty crime classifications to choose from, and none of them were as obvious a description of my situation as just plain "theft". So I called the non-emergency number to speak to an operator.

HPD said it needed to send officers to meet me in person at my car. I gently challenged the operator on this; she explained that officers would do things like dust for prints. Within 5 minutes a pair of friendly officers met me in the hotel's garage at my car. Long story short: I wrote out a lengthy narrative of what happened for the police report, and there was no dusting for prints.

BTW I don't expect to get any of our stolen property back. HPD has better things to do with its taxpayer-funded staff than go looking for our stuff. We filed the police report primarily as evidence with which to make an insurance claim. Secondarily, we felt the authorities should know this occurred. If a lot of thefts are reported in the same area they might increase enforcement or investigate to see if the same thieves are committing multiple crimes.

After dealing with the cops it was time for dinner. Even though we had lunch after 2 and ate a pretty good fill, we were both hungry again at 6:30. And not just hungry but ravenous. Hawk had a tip from a friend to try an udon restaurant called Marukame. "Cool, call ahead for reservations," i suggested as it was Saturday evening. "They're not the kind of place that takes reservations," Hawk countered. They're too casual. Well, we walked over there— it's only about 7 blocks from our hotel— and found a line out the door and all the way up the block. Yeah, the restaurant doesn't need to manage reservations when people are willing to wait 50 deep for a table!

We noped out of Marukame and tried our luck with other restaurants nearby. The thing is, they were all either a) takeaway places with no seating except plopping yourself down on the curb, b) not exactly our kind of food, c) crowded with long lines, or d) very expensive. Some were more than one of the above.

We landed on a place called Duke's for dinner. It's kind of an upscale food line meets upscale convenience store. With all of 4 little tables out front but reasonable prices. I ordered a couple of pizzas for us while Hawk vultured for a table. With order tape in hand I tapped in for vulturing while she went to buy a drink. By the time she was done I'd snagged us a table. We had a nice little sidewalk cafe thing going. And the food tasted so good after such a long day.

Back at the room I've been telling myself (and Hawk) that I'm going to go to bed early tonight. I'm tired! At first I thought I'd lie down for sleep at 8:30 despite having just finished dinner, then it was 9, then 9:30, and now 10. I've been catching up on my blog. (Still not caught up, just less behind.) But now I really am going to switch my computer off in a few minutes and get into bed.

Tomorrow we've got an early day planned with a visit to the USS Arizona memorial at 8am, and alarms set for 6am to get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, and drive over there.

Visiting Pearl Harbor

Hawaii April Travelog #8
Pearl Harbor, HI - Sun, 10 Apr, 2022, 10am

We roused ourselves early this morning to visit Pearl Harbor. Looking to beat the crowds as much as possible we bought tickets for the 8am ferry to the USS Arizona Memorial. We set our alarms for 6am. Hawaii's early morning sun helped us rise and shine once again.

We ate breakfast in the room instead of going downstairs to the breakfast buffet. Just because it's free doesn't mean it's good. In fact, the fact it's free almost guarantees it's not good. We ate cold food we bought from a convenience store Friday night.

We arrived at Pearl Harbor plenty early for our 8am ferry. That gave us time to look around the outdoor exhibits.



One big takeaway for me was that the US military presence in Hawaii really only began a year or 18 months before the Pearl Harbor attack. The US established this base for its Pacific fleet in response to Japan invading China and various Pacific island countries in 1939-40. The Japanese, through their diplomats, challenged it as provocative. Of course, aggressors routinely call out maneuvers others make to deter their aggression, "provocative". Look at the nonsense from Russia re: Ukraine the past many months.



Some people think that visiting the USS Arizona Memorial means setting foot on the USS Arizona. That doesn't happen. One big reason is that the Arizona sank. Only small parts of it remain above water. Two, the USS Arizona Memorial is a memorial. I.e., it's the final resting place of hundreds of soldiers whose remains were not recovered from the ruins. Instead the memorial built for visitors is something like a bridge (see above) the straddles the underwater remains of the USS Arizona.

The USS Arizona sank when a high-altitude (~10,000') bomber dropped a huge bomb (1,700+ pounds) on the forward deck. The explosion of the bomb ignited an ammunition magazine. That secondary explosion tore the ship apart. The water the battleship was moored in wasn't terribly deep, though, about 50', so when the ship came to rest on the bottom many parts of it were still above the water.



In the months following the attack on Pearl Harbor the navy worked hard to recover as many ships as possible. All but 3 were raised and returned to service. The Arizona was too badly damaged to be fully recovered. And it lay resting in a spot that wasn't urgent to be cleared— unlike, say, the USS Oklahoma, which rolled over upside down in the channel. The navy recovered what it could of the Arizona and left the rest. The picture above shows one of the rear gun turrets (right) and an access tube (left). The concrete pier adjacent to the turret was constructed as part of the salvage effort. Below the water's surface one of the ship's decks can be seen. It looks like it's only about 10' deep.



The December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor killed 2,403 Americans. On the USS Arizona alone 1,177 service members perished. Their names are all recorded in this memorial.