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Post by NorthWes on Jan 18, 2011 20:13:34 GMT -9
One of the only consolations about coming home from a great vacation is lingering over photos of the fun you had while away. And... your family and friends who didn't get to go sometimes have to suffer through your photos too. Here's some highlights of a recent short trip to Oahu. Do you have Hawaii Caching Memories to share too?
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Post by NorthWes on Jan 18, 2011 20:27:26 GMT -9
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Post by NorthWes on Jan 18, 2011 20:35:48 GMT -9
Most of you know I like benchmarks - on this trip I 'liked' them 4 to 1 over caches! Here's TU0305 WAIKIKI 2, a triangulation station located on the Alai Wai Canal along Waikiki's northern edge. By my reckoning, this was benchmark find #1,000 for me. It was great to achieve that milestone on a warm sunny afternoon while walking through Waikiki with my dad!
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Post by NorthWes on Jan 18, 2011 20:48:27 GMT -9
Yup - I only managed to find 16 caches during the time I could spare for caching (with 2 dnfs), but I crammed in 63 'benchmark' recoveries! Let's just say it's a target-rich environment - and I only scratched the surface of what's there to find! With elevation marks like the one shown below, who wouldn't want to go looking for benchmarks? TU1008 MAKAPUU POINT LIGHT, found at the end of a 600ft elevation gain during a mile walk from the parking lot here in a cactus-strewn dry corner of the island. And yes, there were whales just offshore too, as well as a half-dozen caches within a half-mile radius, of relatively high terrain ratings. My 80-yr old father helped me find the two other benchmarks up on the ridge during this hike, but we passed on all but two of the nearby caches - the ridge scramble wore us both out!
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Post by NorthWes on Jan 18, 2011 20:59:52 GMT -9
One of the most scenic cache locations was out on the North Shore near Waimea Beach. We ran out of time to go all the way out to the northwest corner of the island to the 'Lost' Beach crash site cache, but this one was a beauty of a place to sit and watch the waves for awhile. I spent quite a bit of time planning the caches I was going to look for - outside of Waikiki I ignored nanocaches and micros, looking instead for this sort of placement as a place to invest my limited time. The 'favorites' rating system helped immensely in selecting caches that were worth the visit for the intrinsic loveliness of their locations. Two Alaska geocoins and another traveler at GC1HTBP Waimea View Cache. Below is another view of Waimea Beach Park from the cache site.
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Post by NorthWes on Jan 18, 2011 21:23:53 GMT -9
My father and I are military history buffs, so of course we visited the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (the Punchbowl) early one morning right at opening. Besides the virtual cache here, there are two benchmarks - one of which makes for a picture which captures a significant portion of what makes this place special: TU1251 HONOLULU NATIONAL CEMETERY FP, an elevation station located at the entrance to the Punchbowl. Here the flag's at half-mast because of funerals occuring during our visit. The cemetery is a national shrine, with a memorial to the missing in action from all the wars in the Pacific theater that is incredibly sobering. After your approach through the serried ranks of graves you come to the memorial set at the far west end of the drive (in the distance behind the flagpole). It's a must-visit site in Honolulu. Another benchmark location that's totally unique in its historical importance is the TU1425 PEARL HARBOR FORD ISLAND CONTROL TOWER, standing on Ford Island in the midst of Pearl Harbor and visible at a distance to visitors at the Arizona Memorial. Bullet holes and gouges can be seen in the buildings and windows of the tower and the hangars, which are now part of the Pacific Aviation Museum. It was pretty wrenching to stand in the midst of a place where history was written in blood and see the evidence of it still lingering, nearly sixty years later. I had no difficulty recalling the photographs of this same flight line taken on Dec 7th 1941. The site is a part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument with locations in Alaska, California and Hawaii.
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Post by NorthWes on Jan 18, 2011 21:26:59 GMT -9
If you're going to Hawaii, practice taking sunset photos before you arrive. Waikiki's beach right in front of our Hale Koa Hotel was the setting for this photo, taken with the 'sunset' setting on my little Panasonic DMC-ZS1 camera. Yes - the sky really looked like this... beautiful!
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Post by li1gray on Jan 19, 2011 14:09:22 GMT -9
Nice shots and ideas for BM's Congrats on your 100th find on BMs
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Post by caprahircus on Jan 20, 2011 8:03:52 GMT -9
This may sound silly, but I kind of prefer the "cooler" climes. It IS nice to see it vicariously through your eyes, though!
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Post by NorthWes on Jan 20, 2011 10:26:18 GMT -9
This may sound silly, but I kind of prefer the "cooler" climes. It IS nice to see it vicariously through your eyes, though! It was a nice change, and when benchmarking it was nice not to worry about where to shovel in order to look for the mark! What was funny was the locals claiming that the 74 degree temps were so cold that they were going to have to wear 'thermals'. I was mistaken as a local at the hotel because I was wearing long pants when all the other visitors were in shorts; a tourist 'assumed' I was staff because I was dressed like he'd seen all the other locals. Long pants = no need for sunscreen on legs; at those temps and with the constant wind, my lightweight hunting khakis were ideal.
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cavyguy
Silver Cacher
Posts: 175
GeocacheAlaska! Membership Level: Sourdough
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Post by cavyguy on Jan 25, 2011 19:43:54 GMT -9
I think your first cache in HI was mine as well!! Great Pictures
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Post by caprahircus on Jan 26, 2011 8:08:53 GMT -9
My vacations no longer seem so exciting!
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Post by NorthWes on Jan 26, 2011 9:12:38 GMT -9
I think your first cache in HI was mine as well!! Great Pictures It was such a nice little cache in downtown Waikiki - clean, warm, and with so many folks swarming about nobody noticed what I was doing!
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Post by NorthWes on Jan 26, 2011 9:15:44 GMT -9
My vacations no longer seem so exciting! Could it be related to traveling to a place that in benchmarking terms is a desert? LOL! Eyecandy is where you find it, I suppose. Just a matter of being always ready with a camera.
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