Driving across Hawaii
We decided to drive out and look at the property that is the Parker Ranch. We had driven through it briefly on the bus but we didn't really get to look at it. The history of the parker ranch is fascinating... the founder was a nineteen year old sailer who jumped ship and hid when he was supposed to leave. Eventually he came to the attention of King Kamehameha I who had him do tasks for him. Parker left Hawaii again to go to China during the 1812 war then returned to Hawaii. He brought a musket with him and was given allowed to shoot one of the many wild cows on the island... (five were given to King K 21 years earlier and now there were thousands of them....) He began developing the export crop of salt beef.
Between 1942 and 1945 Waimea hosted 50,000 Marines. They trained and prepared for the battles of Iwo Jimma and Okinawa. Parker Ranch played an integral part for the marine troops at Camp Tarawa. There was a monument along the road that paid tribute to the Camp Tarawa. We stopped and paid our respects. It was a well presented monument to the mission and contribution that the Parker Ranch made to the war efforts.
We drove to the Parker Ranch and were going to take a tour but the price was a bit much. Instead I took an illegal picture in the entry way and we left. The ranch has quite a few activities: they have rodeos, horse races, weddings, hay rides, BBQ's, horse back riding, ATV tours, garden tours ... so many things.
