Email us at:
pej@pejnron.com
ron@pejnron.com

Click the sun to see the
weather in Buenos Aires!

I took a few more photos from the third floor terrace of the Kamehameha School building. When I would fly into Hawaii with my P-3 flight crew from Moffatt Field in California, we would normally land at Barbers Point Naval Air Station. The base was commissioned on April 15, 1942.

The base is located at the end of H1 and is now called Kalaeloa Airport.

The story of how it got the name Barbers Point is an interesting one. NAS Barbers Point was named after Captain Barber. On a voyage to china in 1796, Captain Barber, commanding the British brig Arthur, called at Honolulu for supplies. He left Honolulu about 6 p.m., October 31. At 8:10 p.m. Barber's ship struck a coral shoal to he west of Pearl Harbor. The Arthur cleared the shoal, but was driven on the reef and broke up.

Captain Barber and his crew of 22 men took to the life boats. Six drowned. The survivors landed near the point which ever since has been named after Barber. The Hawaiian name for this is Kalaeloa which means long cape (headland).

There was a bus on base that did a circuit around the air field and the housing area,
making it easy to get to the beach on Mamala Bay, which was great for suntanning.

Barbers Point NAS was decommissioned in 1998 and turned over to the State of Hawaii for use as Kalaeloa Airport, and serves as an alternate landing site for Honolulu International Airport and for general aviation purposes. It has three paved runways, 8,000 feet by 200 feet, 4,500 feet bt 200 feet and 6,000 feet by 200 feet.

On one of my Naval Reserve VP-91 summer cruises out of Moffatt Field, we spent a week at Barbers Point. I remember that on one of my off days, I did go sunbathing on that beach. I made myself a picnic lunch and took some water, and made a day of it. Big mistake. The next day I was to meet Suelyn at the Ala Moana Shopping Center. At that time, Rick was only 10 years old, so I guess it must have been 1986. That was the first time I met Suelyn and Rick. She took me to their home in Kailua, and I'll never forget that day. My cousin Jerry saw how red I was from my sunbathing the day before, and I was obviously in great pain, so he went into his back yard and cut off some aloe leaves and squeezed out the oil for me to rub on my sunburned skin. The pain stopped immediately. I was astonished, and so grateful. My cousin was brilliant, and instantly escalated to hero status in my mind. That was the last time I saw Jerry. He passed away a few years back, from melanoma cancer of the skin.

We continue our tour of the Island with Suelyn, and she takes us across the Island, through what is left of the Dole pineapple plantations, and to the windward side of the island. She stops at a famous surfing beach.

The surf is not up on this day, but there are still some hopeful surfers on the beach.

The Life Guard Station won't see much action today. The waves are perfect for beginners.

Pete is always happiest with his bare feet in the sand on some tropical beach. Come to think of it, so am I!

We drive on up the coast in quest of the famous Giovanni's shrimp wagon. Suelyn tells us that she and Jerry used to love to come this route and stop for the shrimp.

I got the regular shrimp, but Pete ordered the hot and spicy shrimp, and were they ever HOT and SPICY!

They actually had a sign that read "NO RETURNS", and after Pete's first shrimp, he said now he knows why they have that sign. LOL

Suelyn mentioned stopping for "shave ice". My first thought was that it would be like a Snow Cone, but was I wrong.

Shave Ice is positively delicious, and more like snow than ice. I'd go back for one of those any day.

We continued on around the north side of the island, and we stop at another vista point.

It was quite windy here as well. The scenery was beautiful, timeless and enchanting.

There were plenty of surfers waiting for the perfect wave to ride to shore.

Our next stop was Hanauma Bay. It is near Coco Head, and is a famously perfect spot for snorkeling and scuba diving. The curved bay was declared a protected marine life conservation area and underwater park in 1967. This is THE BEST protected cove if you are new to scuba diving or snorkeling, with a diverse population of marine life and a large, rich coral reef.

It is a long walk down to the beach, so we just stood on the cliff above and took a few photos.

The bay floor is actually the crater of an ancient volcano that flooded when the exterior wall collapsed and the ocean rushed in.

Pete and I snorkeled there many years ago, and I still remember us coming face to face with a huge Moray eel.

We came upon him by surprise, his head poking out of his cave like home, his mouth opening and closing, with those sharp teeth looking ominous. He looked at us as if he was eyeing his next meal. We hightailed it away from him and quick.

A few scenes of Hamauma Bay, where you can see the extent of the coral reef from these aerial views.

When the tide is out, there are a zillion tide pools to explore. We experienced a change in the tide when we were there.

Well, it is time to move on to the next chapter, where we will return to Ricks home to take a few photos there.