Lest We Forget... One Year Later

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but here's a long post for you to enjoy! I never got to talk about the experience I had in Pearl Harbor, so I'm going to be doing that today. I was supposed to have posted this last week, but... that obviously didn't happen. So let's take a walk back through time, a year and 14 days since we stepped on to Delta #1105 to Honolulu, Hawaii.

[If you'd like to watch my experience instead of read it, you can click here]

Tuesday November 22, 2011 (the day before departure)

Gathered together before the concert
(Photo credit to The Salt Lake Tribune)

As soon as the bell rang to end 8th period, several of the band students participating in the project hurried over to the cafeteria to help with the set up for the farewell concert that night. The concert was at 7pm and we were looking forward to the concert, but were also a little nervous for our name to be drawn out of the hat where we would then have to address the audience and tell them about what our research paper was about. My name wasn't drawn out.

Performance during the concert
(Photo Credit to The Salt Lake Tribune)

After we were done performing all of our music, Dr. Fullmer asked all the veterans that were present in the audience to step forward and come to the front. We got to shake all of their hands and thank them for their services to our country. Shaking their hands brought a smile to my face that wouldn't disappear for any reason at all. After the band got through the line, we cleaned up the chairs and the lunchroom and as soon as we got the okay sign, we all headed back to the band room to get our Hawaii shirts, travel handbook and traveling ID tag to take home and get ready for the trip.

Day One: Wednesday November 23, 2011

Call time was before 7:00am and you could feel the excitement as you walked into the band room. We had been preparing for over a year and now our work was going to pay off. We met two of our four guests for the trip that morning, Ken and Doris Potts, and they were both wearing matching jackets and hats. They looked pretty darn cute. Dr. Fullmer talked to us for a bit, and then we loaded the buses with all of our stuff and started the drive to the Salt Lake International airport around 7:45.

Our plane

Waiting patiently to board the plane
(Photo credit to Alicia Johnson) 

We arrived at the airport a little before 9:00 and then proceeded to go through security together. Max and Shirley Burgraaff met us at airport. Once we all got through, we met with our Chaperones and got the ok from them to go and get lunch/wander around. Alicia was my buddy for the trip and we were beyond excited for the trip.









Finally, the time came and we were able to board the plane. The band took up most of the back of the plane and all you could see was a wave of blue Hawaiian shirts. As noon came, we took off and we started our adventure.

Flying over the ocean

Map of flight progress

Staying entertained on the flight

Flying over Oahu!

First sight of the island

After a six hour flight, the Timpview band landed at the Honolulu International Airport around 4pm Hawaii time and were greeted with leis as we gathered our things.

Alicia and I happy we've landed

We met Kelli the tour guide and then boarded the buses that would take us to our hotel. We arrived at the Doubletree Alana hotel a little later, were briefed on hotel rules (and where we could get free cookies but were later told by DF to not bother them) and were then given our room keys so we could see where we would be staying for the week. My room was on the 7th floor I believe and boy was it amazing. There were two queen size beds that were SO comfortable, a flat screen tv and a balcony looking out onto the city. My room consisted of Kara, Holly, Alicia and I.

Our hotel
(Photo credit to Doubletree Alana Hotel)

A picture of one of the rooms at the hotel
(Photo credit to Doubletree Alana Hotel)

The next thing we had on our itinerary was something that was new for me on a band trip. Free time. Free time meant that you were able to go wander the streets of Waikiki (not alone) and get to know the different places there. For my free time, I went with Alicia, Joseph, Morgan and Sean to the International Marketplace where we got some dinner and got to take a look at the things they were selling. On the way back we encountered a person dressed as a golden statue who tries to scare people, but he wasn't my favorite person. (He flipped us off when we tried to get a picture of him!)

Mr. Jerk statue man
(Photo credit to Alicia Johnson)

Hugging the teddy bear

We also got the privilege to look at Teddy bear world, a museum dedicated for teddy bears. We didn't go farther than the gift shop because it was super expensive to just see a couple of stuffed bears, but we were able to take a picture with a person dressed as a bear. A little jet lagged from the trip, we headed back to the hotel and called it a night.

Day Two: Thursday November 23, 2012 (Thanksgiving Day)

Bright and early at 6:00am, we headed down to the restaurant on the corner called "Cheeseburger Waikiki" where we were told that we would be eating cheeseburgers for breakfast Every. Day. I was grateful the moment I walked in and saw not cheeseburgers, but actual breakfast food. The breakfast consisted of eggs, cheesy tater tots, bacon (or sausage), pancakes (or french toast sticks), fruit and a delicious fruit drink. 

Happy we're not eating cheeseburgers for breakfast

The band was separated into 3 different groups (A, B and C) for our visit to Hanauma Bay that morning. I was in group A and we were the first group that would be going down. We rode shuttles to the bay and my shuttle had a really cool lady driver. She gave us some history on Oahu and made sure that we were having fun. She gave us our snorkel gear and we were super excited to go.

Ready for some snorkeling!

When we arrived at the bay, we had specific instructions to not clump together in groups because they don't allow big groups to visit (since it a preserved bay), so we got there and went in no more than groups of two while paying for our entrance ticket. Once in, we had to watch a required video about the bay and then were finally able to go down to the beach. The snorkeling was AMAZING. Since the bay is protected, we got to see many fish that you normally don't get to see and it was well worth it. While snorkeling, I managed to get a huge scratch on my arm from what I thought was coral, but later found out was actually a jelly fish sting.

Hanauma Bay

Relaxing at the beach

Our group was there for a good 3 hours and then we headed back to hotel where we had free time options and time to get lunch for 4 hours (since we were the first group of the day). Alicia and I decided to go try the actual cheeseburgers at Cheeseburger Waikiki for lunch. I got the California burger and she got nachos. The food was okay (extremely overpriced, but still tasted alright) but it took forever to actually get to our table. 

The California burger (with pineapple and avocado)

After we finished our expensive lunch, we walked back to the hotel and got ready for our Thanksgiving celebration that we would be spending with the other 14 bands there for the tribute. The celebration was held at Wet N' Wild Hawaii (since there was no other place big enough [besides the beach] to hold all of us). There were bands there from all across the country and even one from Canada! There was a "surfing contest" against the bands on the flow rider at the park. The Timpview team consisted of Bao, Joel and Clinton. Needless to say... Bao accidentally broke the machine (which didn't really break, just over flooded). After the surfing contest, we gathered around the pavilion area and got in line to receive our "delicious" Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner was anything but delicious. There was turkey, weird tasting gravy, watery mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing (really nasty) and pumpkin pie (that was also funny tasting). By the time I had gotten my food, all of the tables had been filled, so we went another group of Timpview kids to a hill and decided to eat there. The hill ended up having an anthill close by and beetles, so we tried being nice to the insects and sharing our interesting tasting dinner with them. The ants took one whiff of the food on the sidewalk and then crawled away. Smart ants. One of the beetles that crawled toward us tried to get some of our food and Matt Drewes stabbed it with a fork. It was still alive and could barely walk, so he picked it up and placed it in the pumpkin pie so it could enjoy its last moments enjoying some food.

Mr. Beetle enjoying his pie

As soon as we finished our "wonderful" dinner, we gathered with the rest of the band under a pavilion and the people in charge of the celebration called all of the drum majors and band directors and gave them a trophy for being participants in the parade that would take place the following evening. Timpview got the "Spirit of Aloha" award

Receiving the trophy from a Pearl Harbor Veteran

The trophy

Proceeding the awards ceremony, there was another competition against the bands. They were each given a t-shirt which was inside of a block of ice. The competition was to see who could break the ice the fastest, get the t-shirt out of the ice and have their band director wear it. As soon as the whistle was blown, Bao started using his professional karate moves and chopping that ice as well as he could and it payed off when we got FIRST PLACE.

Bao in mid-chop
(Photo credit to Maya Santa Maria)

There was a dance party that followed our win and it was SO much fun. There was a band from Georgia that had a "dance battle" against our band and they were so much fun to be with. We got to "Beef it up" with them until we wore ourselves out and headed back to the hotel. Definitely a Thanksgiving I will always remember.

Day Three: Friday November 25, 2011

Around 3 in the morning, the fire alarm went off at the hotel, which was then suddenly cut off. It woke me up, and had me jumping out of bed. I was determined that if there was a fire in the hotel, I would jump off the balcony window and jump into the pool below, but when I realized it had turned off, I waited a couple minutes and then went back to bed. Around fifteen minutes later, the alarm went off again and was followed by an announcement  that said "Hotel guests may now return to their activities." Alicia and I looked at each other saying "Wait, we were supposed to evacuate the building?" We considered going out of the room to check what had happened, but we ended up falling asleep. A few hours later, we had breakfast at Cheeseburger Waikiki again and found out that the fire alarm earlier had been because a pipe had broken or something. It gave us a sigh of relief. Once we were done with breakfast, we went back to our hotel room to finish getting ready for our catamaran cruise that would be that morning. We were split into two different groups this time (Bus 1 and 2) and Bus 1 got to be the first ones to go out on the cruise. The captain drove us out to a spot and then told us "Alright, here are some life jackets and snorkel gear. If you'd like to jump off and swim a bit, you can." Most people were already in their swim suits, but some didn't think we'd be going swimming on the cruise (but they jumped in, clothes and all). It was amazing to be swimming out in the open ocean. we got to see more fish and sea turtles! We were in touching distance of the turtles, but were later told by the lifeguard that it was against the law to touch them because they were endangered species.

Fish in the ocean
(Photo credit to Amy Dong)

The sea turtle!
(Photo credit to Amy Dong)

Another picture of the sea turtle
(Photo credit to Amy Dong)

After swimming as long as the captain let us, we got back onto the boat and dried off. There was a point where DF started patting his pockets, got a scared look on his face and then proceeded to pull out his drenching phone from his pocket. He sacrificed his phone to the Hawaiian God's that day. On the ride back, a pack of dolphins started swimming along our boat and it was amazing to see them put on a show for us!

Dolphins!
(Photo credit to Rebecca Donaldson)

Photo credit to Rebecca Donaldson

Photo Credit to Sarah Wood

Once we got back to the docks, we got lunch and then prepared for our hike to the top of Diamond Head. The hike wasn't super hard, but it was worth every step of the way. The view was breath taking and absolutely amazing, but don't just take my word for it. Have a look yourself.

Doris Potts and Veneese Nelson (DF's mom) at the top.

After the hike, we went back to the hotel and made our preparations for the Waikiki Holiday Parade which we would participate in later that night. Some footage of the parade can be viewed here.

Day Four: Saturday November 26, 2011 

After our usual breakfast at Cheeseburger Waikiki, we boarded the buses and made the hour long drive to Laie. The view on the drive was amazing and the bus driver started telling us about certain movies that had been filmed at the locations we were passing by (Mighty Joe Young, Cast Away, etc).

Our first stop in Laie was the Laie, Hawaii temple and it was absolutely beautiful.

This is the view from the temple. Absolutely beautiful.

I loved how the palm trees led to the ocean

The visitor's center all decorated and ready for Christmas

View of the temple as we were driving away

 

Our next stop was at BYU- Hawaii where we met up with the music director there for a Tahitian drumming lesson. The lesson was awesome and we had a ton of fun watching everyone drum. After our lesson, we had lunch at the student center and then walked to the Polynesian Cultural Center next door.

The attractive guy from New Zealand

Map of the different Islands we could go visit

The most entertaining host EVER at the Samoa show

Polynesian guy showing off his tree climbing skills

Morgan climbing the tree

Joseph attempting to climb the tree

After exploring for a couple of hours, we went out to the parking lot to get our instruments for our performance. Part of the performance can be viewed here. As you can see in the video, the performance was VERY windy. It wasn't much of a problem for the members in the band, but it was very hard on the colorguard. The wind affected their tosses and made it really hard for them, but they did a very good job (from what I could see because my eyes were on the drum major the whole time...). After our performance, we were treated to a Polynesian luau that was delicious. It was heaven compared to our Thanksgiving "dinner". We stuffed ourselves till we could not eat anymore and then headed to the "Ha:Breath of Life" show. The show was absolutely incredible! If I had been allowed to take pictures, I would have, but it was amazing. After finishing the show, we boarded the bus and drove back to the hotel. That was the quietest drive I had ever been on since we were all worn out from the activities from the day and most of us managed to fall asleep before we pulled out of the parking lot.

Day Five: Sunday November 27, 2011

We awoke early the next morning, dressed in our Sunday best, had breakfast at Cheeseburger Waikiki and then took the short drive to the Honolulu Tabernacle where we had our church services. 

The Honolulu Tabernacle

Following our church services, we drove to The National Cemetery of the Pacific (Punchbowl Cemetery), where we would be playing a tribute and receiving our final history lecture. When we played Hymn to the Fallen, I could not contain my tears any longer. They started up again when we played America the Beautiful and the rest of the band sang the third verse while the clarinets played.

The third verse reads:

O beautiful for heroes proved
In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved
And mercy more than life!
America! America!
May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness
And every gain divine! 

Following our performance, we lay our instruments down on the grass and headed to a shaded area by a tree where we all sat and listened to our final history lecture. After our lecture, Max Burgraaff addressed us and the tears started flowing once again. Once our lecture was over, we were given some free time to go find a place to sit down in the cemetery and write down our thoughts. I will never forget how I felt walking past all those gravestones. Especially the ones that were simply marked as "Unknown"

Photo Credit: Rebecca Donaldson

The names of the ones buried in the cemetery are inscribed on these walls

Photo Credit: Rebecca Donaldson

After many shed tears and meaningful words written down on paper, we boarded our buses and drove to our next (and most anticipated) location. Pearl Harbor. When we arrived, we were treated to a delicious lunch and were then taken to go see the required film for the USS Arizona Memorial. I was able to sit next to Ken Potts during the film and will never forget the moment in the film where they show the bomb hitting the Arizona. Watching Ken sitting next to me break into tears caused me to do so as well. When the film was over, we were going to take the boat ride to the Arizona memorial and participate in a wreath laying ceremony, but the Navy told us it was too windy and that no boat rides were going to be allowed for the rest of the day. We were a little sad knowing that we would not get to see the memorial, but were promised that we would be able to do so the next day. We were then given time to go explore the USS Arizona Memorial museum.

First sight of Pearl Harbor from the buses in the parking lot

Map of the affected areas from the attack

The new billion dollar telescope built to protect Pearl Harbor

Max got to meet another survivor

Anchor from the USS Arizona

Part of the USS Arizona

Dr. Fullmer being interviewed for KSL

FDR's first draft of his "Day of Infamy" Speech

Model of the USS Arizona Memorial

Model of the USS Arizona before the wreckage

After the museum, we were taken to Queen Kapiolani park for a traditional Hawaiian dinner. The only problem that we experienced while at the park was that the winds started picking up again and were blowing our food off of our plates and tipping over our cups. There were some Hawaiian soccer players playing at the park we were at and some of the band members went to go play with them. There was a point where the accidentally kicked their ball into the tree, so they threw another ball at that one as an attempt to get the other ball down. That one got stuck up there too, so Max Coca decided to through his shoe in attempt to get the soccer balls down. His shoe got stuck up there as well. As band members and soccer players laughed and attempted to get the items down from the tree, a gust of wind helped us out and slowly knocked everything out of the tree.

Max's shoe (Top middle-ish) and two soccer balls stuck in a tree

Dr. Fullmer taking a break in Max's wheelchair

We left the park a few hours later and returned to our hotel and were given "Free time" to go explore some more if we wished to. Alicia and I decided to stay in our room for the night and keep things calm.

Day Six: Monday November 28, 2012

After an early breakfast at Cheeseburger Waikiki, we boarded the buses in uniform and drove back to Pearl Harbor for our tributes that day. We had a performance at the visitor's center first thing and had the privilege of having a guest conductor who was another Pearl Harbor Survivor who had always wanted to be a music teacher. As the Navy had promised, we were able to ride the boat to the Arizona memorial after we finished our performance.

Boat ride to the memorial

John Hollenhorst from KSL News

The wreath laying ceremony at the USS Arizona was the most emotional part of the trip for me. We were given special permission to sing the Naval hymn, Eternal Father Strong to Save (which can be viewed here) and after having done so, there were few eyes in the room that were still dry.

Ken Potts looking at the names of his shipmates still entombed in the wreckage

Photo Credit: Rebecca Donaldson

Photo Credit: Rebecca Donaldson

Tears of the Arizona coming to the surface

Other bands that were here for the tribute had also participated in a wreath laying ceremony, but we came on the trip with the sole purpose of paying tribute to those fallen soldiers and that made the experience all the more special.

After the tribute at the USS Arizona, we went on the boat ride back to shore, boarded the buses, drove over the bridge to Ford Island and went to the USS Utah Memorial. We played another tribute there and then participated in another wreath laying ceremony. Max laid down this wreath and gave a wonderful speech in honor of those that are still entombed in the USS Utah.

Our instruments laid down in an arch

After our tribute at the USS Utah memorial, we boarded the bus once more and drove to the USS Oklahoma memorial next to the USS Missouri. We were able to walk through the memorial and have some time to think about things.

We then had lunch under a shaded tree and prepared ourselves for our final performance on the trip at the USS Missouri. The performance went very well and were able to take a group picture in front of the ship.

After our group shot, we were given time to explore the ship.

U.S copy of Instrument of Surrender from Japan

The Surrender Deck

The Arizona memorial. Notice the flowing oil tears?

The most memorable part for me while exploring the ship was when I heard another person touring the boat ask a band member "What is a high school band from Utah doing in Hawaii?" The band member simply said "We are here to pay tribute to the ones who perished in the attacks at Pearl Harbor 70 years ago this year. That is why we are here." The person stood in silence for a moment and then said "It is amazing to hear that come from a high school student. Thank you."

After we toured the ship for a while, we boarded the buses once more and drove back to the hotel where we changed and were given our last time to have "free time" on the trip. Since it was our last night, Alicia and I decided to go back to the International Marketplace and see if we could have some more fun on our last full day in Hawaii. I got to try a delicious smoothie with black tapioca in it and was able to bargain with some of the sellers. At one point, Joseph Merrill and I were looking at a booth and the lady in charge of the booth would not let Joseph leave until he bought this overpriced wallet clip. The lady even grabbed him by the shirt! He was beyond angry and we were luckily able to find Jasmine Fullmer close by and told her the story and she took Joseph to try to clear things up with the lady. In the end, she denied ever touching Joseph and would not accept refunds, so Joseph stayed with the overpriced wallet clip that he probably will never use.

Black tapioca in our smoothies!

Bike rack planking

Day Seven: Tuesday November 29, 2012

We awoke early again for breakfast at Cheeseburger Waikiki and then finished packing up everything to get ready for our departure that evening. We left at around 8am and drove past the Iolani Palace and then drove out to Pali lookout. The view from over there was incredible! And the wind was so strong that if you tried to jump off the cliff, the wind would push you back.

The only royal palace on American soil

Blurry picture of King Kamehameha

Fullmer sibling love in the wind

After our windy encounters, we boarded the buses once more and drove to Secret Island, where we would be spending most of our day. The beach there was great. The y had a lot of activities to do (Kayaking, surfboards, canoeing out to the sand bar, making sand castles, etc.). We had the place to ourselves and it was paradise. They fed us a wonderful Hawaiian lunch and we ate pineapple till our mouths couldn't handle it anymore. While laying out in the sand, I managed to find a cute baby crab I named Herman. Going out to the sand bar was pretty fun too.

After being in the sun all day, we walked to the Macadamia nut farm that was next door. They had a canister full of the nuts in their shells and said that if you could break them open, you were free to have as many as you wanted, so we used rocks and smashed the shell till we got to the nut.

Smashing nuts with a rock

 It started to rain, so we boarded the buses and drove back to the hotel. We took roll at the hotel and then all walked to Cheeseburger Waikiki where we had our final meal in Hawaii. Instead of the breakfast food that we had had for 6 days straight, we got to try their cheeseburgers. After we filled up on food, we walked back to the hotel, went to our rooms, made sure we had packed everything and then took our luggage down to the lobby and waited till the buses came to go to the airport. Waiting to get through at the airport was hectic and took FOREVER, but we made it through eventually and boarded our flight around 10pm Hawaii Time (1am Utah time).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day Eight: Wednesday November 30, 2012

On the flight back home, we had specific instructions from DF to sleep and not touch the T.V screens. I did just that slept most of the flight home until we had about an hour left to land. There was a little daylight outside and the sun coming out looked beautiful from the air. We landed at about 7:30 and came back to Utah with tanner faces, lower grades and lives forever changed.

My dad and I after arrival

P.S. If you are interested, the KSL footage that was taken of us can be viewed here and here.