TRAVEL BRIEFS
Check out the Bowfin
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Next to the USS Arizona Memorial Visitors' Center at Pearl Harbor is the USS Bowfin Submarine Museum and Park.
Visitors can take a 30-minute, self-guided tour of the moored and refurbished submarine using a cassette tape and get a feel for how it was to live as part of the Bowfin's 80-man crew during World War II.
Would-be submariners and the merely curious can check out defused torpedoes among an impressive collection of submarine artifacts and learn the history of submarines from their early origins to the nuclear age.
The USS Bowfin is credited with sinking 44 ships in the Pacific before the end of the war and is one of 15 World War II submarines still in existence.
This year marks the 60th anniversary of its launching at Portsmouth Navy Yard, exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Within Bowfin Park stands a public memorial honoring the 52 American submarines and the more than 3,500 submariners lost during World War II.
Admission: Daily 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving, Dec. 25, Jan. 1. There is no charge to enter the park and view the missiles and torpedoes, or to look through the periscopes and inspect the Kaiten, a Japanese suicide torpedo. Cost is $8 for submarine/museum tour ($3 ages 4-12; $6 military, seniors and Hawai'i residents with ID). Museum only is $4 ($2, ages 4-12). Information: 423-1341, info@bowfin.org.
Parking is free.
North Shore High surf and more
Big-wave time has arrived on O'ahu's North Shore. Next time you're headed that way, stop off at the North Shore Country Market, a roadside collection of a dozen or more growers who set out tables or sell from tailgates from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m on Saturdays on Kamehameha Highway, a mile north of Waimea Bay.
On sale: Swiss chard, spinach, arugula, sweet potatoes, beans and other fresh veggies. Fruits often include unusual papaya and banana varieties. The market also attracts crafters and food vendors serving up delicacies made with produce from their own back yards.
