1,000 Places to See in the U.S.A. & Canada Before You Die (115 page)

The local tradition for a trip to the North Shore includes stopping at one of the shrimp trucks, located around Hale’iwa or Kahuku on the Kamehameha Highway, selling farm-raised North Shore shrimp. The menu usually offers shrimp prepared spicy, garlic, Cajun, coconut, buttered, lemon, or just plain, and most trucks have picnic tables alongside. Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck claims to have been the first truck to serve the delicious fare, but Kahuku Famous Shrimp has a more extensive shrimp menu plus squid, shrimp and steak, and shrimp and vegetable stir-fry. The trucks generally show up before noon and stay until about sunset, when the last surfers head home.

O’ahu’s North Shore is the perfect place for surfers and bodyboarders to test their tricks.

W
HERE
: Hale’iwa is 28 miles northwest of Honolulu.
G
IOVANNI’S
S
HRIMP
T
RUCK
: Kahuku. Tel 808-293-1839.
Cost:
$12.
K
AHUKU
F
AMOUS
S
HRIMP
: Kahuku. Tel 808-455-1803.
Cost:
$12.
B
EST TIMES
: mid-Nov–mid-Dec for the Triple Crown of Surfing (
www.triplecrownofsurfing.com
); Nov–Mar for biggest waves.

Remember …

O’ahu, Hawaii

On a sunny Sunday morning, December 7, 1941, Japanese planes appeared over the island of O’ahu and began bombing the U.S. Navy’s Pacific fleet, the bulk of which was docked in Pearl Harbor. Ninety minutes later, 2,403
Americans had been killed. Nearly half died on the 608-foot battleship USS
Arizona,
which sank in 9 minutes without firing a shot after its forward ammunition magazines exploded catastrophically, taking 1,177 sailors and marines to their deaths. The attack crippled the fleet, severely damaging or destroying 12 warships; destroyed 188 aircraft, representing nearly all the planes on nearby air bases; and catapulted the U.S. into WWII.

More than 20 years later, in 1962, the USS
Arizona
memorial opened to the public, its bone-white rectangular structure spanning the middle portion of the sunken ship, which lies untouched and rusting just a few feet below the surface. A visit is a somber, poignant event, as you step from the ferry—the only access—into the shrinelike space, peer over the side toward the sunken ship, and begin to notice the spots of oil that still bubble up from her tanks to the surface, about a quart a day, like a dark shadow of blood. At the far end, a memorial marble wall includes the names of all those killed on the
Arizona,
along with those of surviving crewmen who later chose to have their ashes interred with their comrades in the sunken ship.

At the opposite end of Battleship Row, where eight ships were moored together off Ford Island on that grim day, sits the 58,000-ton battleship USS
Missouri,
which served as part of the force that carried out bombing raids over Tokyo and provided firepower in the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. While the nearby
Arizona
represents the beginning of American involvement in the war, the
Missouri
represents its end, as it was on the deck of this great ship, the last battleship the Navy ever built, that the war finally came to an end with the signing of the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945. Visitors are shuttled to Ford Island on military-type buses while listening to a 1940s-style radio program (complete with news clips, wartime commercials, and music). Once aboard the ship, you watch an informational film and are then free to explore on your own or take a 60-minute guided tour. The last stop on the tour of Hawaii’s role in the war is the slender 311-foot USS
Bowfin,
one of only 15 WWII submarines still in existence today. You can go below decks on this famous submarine—nicknamed the “Pearl Harbor Avenger” for its successful attacks on the Japanese—and see how its 80-man crew lived during wartime.

The 184-foot long USS
Arizona
memorial’s design has a peak at each end connected by a sag in the center, representing America’s initial defeat and ultimate victory in WWII.

W
HERE
: 11 miles from Waikiki.
U
SS
A
RIZONA
M
EMORIAL
: Tel 808-422-0561 (recorded info) or 808-422-2771;
www.nps.gov/usar
.
U
SS
M
ISSOURI
: Tel 808-423-2263;
www.ussmissouri.com
.
U
SS
B
OWFIN
: Tel 808-423-1341;
www.bowfin.org
.
B
EST TIMES
: mornings for smaller crowds; Dec 7th for the anniversary of the attack.

E
ASTERN
C
ANADA

W
ESTERN
C
ANADA

N
EW
B
RUNSWICK
• N
EWFOUNDLAND AND
L
ABRADOR
• N
OVA
S
COTIA
• N
UNAVUT
• O
NTARIO
• P
RINCE
E
DWARD
I
SLAND
• Q
UEBEC

Music, Culture, and Lobsters on New Brunswick’s Northern Shore

New Brunswick

In the 1750s, when the British deported French Acadian settlers from Nova Scotia and the lower mainland of New Brunswick, some fled north to the coastline of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, where they reestablished farms and
fishing villages. Many settled along this long stretch of sandy beachfront, barrier islands, and coastal wetlands known today as the Acadian Coast, where French Canadian joie de vivre is manifest in a summer’s worth of festivals.

Maritime Canada has long been renowned for succulent lobsters and the summertime festivals that celebrate them. The largest of both are at the fishing town of Shediac, at the base of New Brunswick’s Acadian Coast. With down-home events and lots and lots of just-caught lobsters to eat, this is one of New Brunswick’s best-loved summer events with over 50,000 gastronomic devotees of
Homarus americanus
gathering in early July for four days to devour several tons of lobsters.

Self-appointed Lobster Capital of the World, Shediac also has the largest lobster in the world—the 50-ton, 36-foot-long statue at the town entrance that seems more sci-fi monster than tempting crustacean, and just a little scary if you happen upon it by chance.

North of Shediac, sandy beaches and grassy dunes front the warmest coastal waters north of Virginia—stretching past Kouchibouguac National Park and Miramichi Bay. At the end of the Acadian peninsula, two islands point out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The larger of the two is Île Lamèque (Lamèque Island), whose sleepy fishing village of Petite Rivière de l’Île is transformed in late July by the week-long Lamèque International Baroque Music Festival. Many recitals and concerts take place in the early 20th-century Church of Sainte-Cécile, a brightly painted wooden structure with perfect acoustics.