Hawaii: Pearl Harbor

We finally made it to Pearl Harbor. This second morning on Oahu our shuttle arrived right on time. They had our reservation. Everything was a go. The guide on the bus was a wealth of information. He told us all kinds of interesting facts on the way there.

I don't know what I expected for Pearl Harbor. I think in my mind I had it envisioned as a tacky, cheesy tourist attraction. It was nothing of the sort. First off, it is beautifully landscaped. Take a look at these pictures...



Beautiful right? Second, there are so many moving monuments and tributes throughout the memorial. This is one of the submarines. You had to pay extra to see this and I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it!


This an anchor recovered from the USS Arizona.


And a bell...


There is also this area that has a ton of plaques with the name of submarines that were lost in WWII. Each plaque had the name of the sub, who the commanding officer was, how many were lost in the attack and then a brief synopsis of what happened, in many cases it is just what they think happened, to that sub and the men on board. At the bottom of each plaque it has a headline saying 'On Eternal Patrol' and then a list of the men's names who were lost at sea. That part was probably the most heartbreaking for me, besides the USS Arizona.

We had a while to look around, then we had tickets to the movie you watch before heading over to the Arizona. It is pretty sad how little knowledge I have about things in history. I mean I guess I know a lot about Germany's involvement in WWII, but I knew next to nothing about Japan's role. I seriously had no idea how powerful they were at that time in history, so this movie we watched was so interesting in recounting what led up to the attack at Pearl Harbor. On a separate note - if you have not read the book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, read it. It has a lot more information on what went on in the Japanese camps and such as that. SO moving.

After the movie, you get on a ferry and head over here...


I have seen the image of this memorial a million times, so to see it in real life is kind of surreal. You can see the ship right under the water and there is even still oil leaking, just a few drops a day, in to the water from the ship.

Here is one of the smoke stacks that sticks up above water.


A look inside the memorial.



This wall holds the names of all the men on the Arizona.


I have always heard that lines for Pearl Harbor are crazy long, but we never saw any lines. I guess maybe since it was an off time of year. We went to Oahu, mostly just to see Pearl Harbor, so I was glad we did get to go. It was a very interesting and moving memorial.

After that, we got back on the bus and it took us on a tour of downtown Honolulu and then up to the Punch Bowl cemetery. Again, our guide had so much interesting stuff to tell us. We even saw where Obama went to school. Haha.

As soon as we got back to our hotel, we checked out and walked down to the Moana Surfrider hotel Beach Bar to have lunch and a drink. We didn't get to spend any time on Waikiki so we wanted to at least have an hour just sitting looking at the water. We soon had to head out to the airport to catch our plane to Maui. Stay tuned!