Honolulu - Day #3 (Pearl Harbor)

Monday, March 28

When making reservations online through Discount Hawaii Car Rentals for each of the four islands we visited, I looked for offers that allowed an extra driver (or two) for no extra charge. This gave Bob and Kent the ability to take turns with the driving.

Since Kent had done all of the driving on our north shore trek, Bob took the wheel today for the drive to Pearl Harbor. I didn't want to be in charge of navigating through the rush hour traffic in Honolulu, so Kent sat up front and Laurel and I were in the back seat together. Using his smart phone, Kent verbally asked for directions to Pearl Harbor and by the miracle of GPS, it began giving him turn by turn instructions.

Tickets to the Arizona Memorial are free but can be reserved online for a small fee ($1.50 per person.) In order to get tickets for the 9:00 am tour that we wanted, I had gone online EXACTLY two months earlier at 7 am Hawaii time when the tickets first became available. (Tickets are also available on a walk up basis on the day of the tour, but there is no guarantee what time you will get.)

Laurel and I weren't paying much attention to where we were going, but at one point I commented on the lack of signs for such a popular destination. With advance reservations, you are instructed to claim your tickets one hour before the tour and I was confident that we had allowed enough travel time. As it got closer and closer to 8 am, I was surprised to see that we were leaving the heavier traffic and were in an area that did NOT resemble a popular tourist destination. When Kent's phone announced "Turn left on Barracks Road", I knew we had a problem.

The phone was giving the guys directions to the military base on Pearl Harbor...not the Arizona Memorial. Laurel quickly checked the location of the memorial on her phone and realized that we were over a half hour away...on the opposite side of the harbor! I made a quick phone call to the visitor's center at the Arizona Memorial and explained our situation and the guy told us we would be OK...they would NOT give away our tickets as I feared. By requesting directions to the Arizona Memorial (instead of Pearl Harbor) the phone got us back on track and guided us to where we needed to be!

After claiming our tickets, we had a little time to look around the visitor's center area. We could see the Bowfin Submarine anchored there, but opted not to pay the additional fee to go on board. A series of plaques near the sub remembered those who had lost their lives on submarines.

One of the anchors from the USS Arizona.

USS Bowfin Submarine

Plaques honoring those who served and lost their lives on submarines.

We got in line a bit early for our tour and were able to join the 8:45 am tour instead. The tour begins by watching a movie about the Pearl Harbor attack. It was very moving and set the tone for the remainder of our tour.

Following the movie, the group is taken outside where we boarded a Navy boat to take us to the Arizona Memorial. The memorial straddles the sunken hull of the USS Arizona, which still remains where it sank on December 7, 1941. The bodies of hundreds of soldiers killed in the attack are still entombed inside the ship. From the memorial, you can look down into the water and see the hull of the USS Arizona below.

An aerial view found online shows the sunken hull of the USS Arizona beneath the memorial.

Oil from the battleship continues to seep from the ship (up to 9 quarts daily) and is referred to as the "black tears of the Arizona."

Flowers to honor the victims float among the oil seeping from the ship.

Black tears of the USS Arizona.

At the far end of the memorial is a wall, carved with the names of all of those who lost their life on the USS Arizona. The atmosphere was one of quiet and somber reflection as those in the group stood before this shrine.

A short distance from the Arizona Memorial, the battleship USS Missouri is docked. In contrast to the attack on the Arizona which marked the beginning of the U.S. involvement in World War II, the Missouri marks the end of the war. It was on the deck of this ship that the Japanese officially signed their surrender.

USS Missouri

After we returned to the visitor's center, we spent a couple of hours going through exhibits on display. This past winter I watched a documentary on TV that chronicled, hour by hour, what was happening following the Pearl Harbor attack and in particular what President Roosevelt was doing during this time. I found it so interesting to see a copy of his famous "Day that Will Live in Infamy" speech with the hand written revisions.

It would be possible to spend a whole day touring at Pearl Harbor...the Arizona Memorial, USS Missouri, Bowfin sub, etc...but with limited time on Oahu, we felt like one morning was just about right to see what we wanted to see. It was lunchtime when we left the memorial. I had read that McDonald's restaurants in Hawaii served Spam so the others indulged my request to eat there...just for the experience of ordering a "McSpam." Well...we found out not every restaurant has Spam...and who knows...maybe none of them do. No Spam was on the menu at the place we stopped and the hamburgers we ordered tasted just like they do back in Minnesota.

On the way back to our hotel in Waikiki, we stopped at the Iolani Palace in Honolulu just long enough to take a couple of photos. The palace is the only royal building in the United States and had electricity and telephones even before the White House!

With one stop we actually got two historical photos...across the street from Iolani Palace is the Aliiolani Hale (home to the Hawaii State Supreme Court). A statue of King Kamehameha stands in front of the building.

Kent's one request for the trip was to take a surfing lesson. Normally I would have expected Bob to be all in for something like that, but he wasn't. After spending hours and hours paddle boarding on our trip to Akumal, Mexico in the fall I think he figured that trying to surf on small waves in Waikiki would be a letdown.

With no other plans for the afternoon, Kent walked over to Waikiki Beach and made arrangements for a lesson. The other three of us enjoyed playing in the waves and just relaxing on the beach. We had been on the go so much for over a week that it felt good to just lay in the sand and do nothing!

Kent spent about an hour paddling out and trying to get upright on the surfboard. At one point he was up briefly, but most of the time he jumped up...and then fell down. He is a very athletic guy, but admitted at age 60 the body just doesn't respond like it used to.

So easy on land!

Paddling out to the waves.

Can you tell which one spends every day on the beach?

Later, after showering and getting cleaned up, the four of us walked a couple of blocks to Surf & Turf Tacos for dinner.  Bob ordered a burrito and I chose a carnita torta...both were huge. The place was just Mexican fast food but sitting outside to eat in March was a rare treat. Oh...and the food was pretty good too! (Photos found online...)

There was a bus stop right by the restaurant so after eating, the four of us took a spin on the Pink Line Trolley again. This time rather than the vintage trolley that we had been on before, a double-decker bus showed up. We sat on the top level...of course! Simple joys for simple minded people I guess! :)

Tomorrow would be our last full day after nearly 3 weeks of traveling...our longest trip yet. I'm pretty sure that once we move completely into the retirement season of our life I will have no trouble taking long trips for multiple times each year...Lord willing.