What they were really like, what they cost, and the things nobody mentions until you are standing there.
Most people see Oahu from Waikiki and go home thinking that was the island. We took a car for a day and got a waterfall, a pineapple plantation, a kayak to a bird sanctuary and the long way home.
It is under a mile each way, it sells out days ahead if you are from out of state, and the first entry time of the day is worth setting an alarm for.
Hawaiian green sea turtles haul out on the sand in the late afternoon, sometimes a dozen at a time. There is a right way to watch, and it is also the better way.
They were built where somebody needed to see trouble coming. Which means every one of them looks out over something worth standing still for.