Hawaii pt. 8: Pearl Harbor

If you've never been, visiting Pearl Harbor while in Hawaii is a must.  And since neither Eric nor Emma had been, we knew we'd be visiting.  This is yet another early morning activity.  You could easily spend all day out there, but you must start early.  Tickets to see the Arizona Memorial are free, but they are by time.  So unless you want to run the risk of either getting a late time and needing to wait around a long time, or possibly not getting a ticket at all, you go early.

We arrived just after they opened and only had to wait about 15 minutes before our tour started. Before we came on this trip we had talked to Emma quite a bit about World War II.  She knew some about the war in Europe, but not much about the war in the Pacific.  We wanted to make sure she understood what happened, not only because it would make all the Pearl Harbor stuff make more sense, but because two of her great-grandfathers served in the Pacific during the war.  One on each side of the family.

Before you take the boat over to the Arizona Memorial, you watch a film about WWII.  The memorial itself is a very reverent sort of place.  Each time I've been there the feeling has been the same.  After you come back from the memorial there are several things to see including displays, pictures, videos, and other artifacts inside a couple different exhibits, and plaques and other informational boards outside.

There was still oil escaping from the sunken Arizona.

They were fixing up the marble wall (which bears the names of those killed on the Arizona) in the shrine.  You can see the wall in the background, but they put a large photo of the wall at the entrance to the shrine where visitors could actually read the names.

We then boarded a shuttle and headed over to tour the USS Missouri.  This thing is huge!  They've opened up a few more areas that you can now tour than there were last time I was here, so it was interesting seeing a little more this time.  There happened to be a bunch of army soldiers visiting, and the presence of so many soldiers in uniform (even if they weren't navy uniforms) added a really neat element to our visit.  Almost like we were there in the midst of battle preparations.

I love all the flags lining the walkway to the ship.  And the soldier in the shot makes it perfect.

Even here there were beautiful flowers.  I love these hibiscus flowers. 

Again, seeing the soldiers on the ship in the background and the truck on the dock was surreal. 

Emma trying to lift the chain attached to one of the anchors. 

Emma thought the beds stacked three tall were crazy!  She
couldn't imagine adults climbing in and out of these things.

After climbing all over the Missouri, Emma said she was too tired to tour the USS Bowfin, the submarine they have there.  I've toured it before, and so I just told her about it.  Maybe next time she'll be up for it.

After we finished at Pearl Harbor we went back to chinatown.  Emma really wanted to go look in more shops to try to find more souvenirs, including a little coin purse she'd seen our first time there, but hadn't bought.  Since we had plenty of time we humored her and went.  She quickly learned that most of the shops there have pretty much the same thing.  I told her that, but it means so much more learning it for yourself than just listening to mom.  I think it's hilarious that it cost us $3.00 (for parking) so Emma could by an .85 cent item.

We stopped by the Kahala Mall again and were planning on going to a sushi place my cousin had recommended, but the wait was longer than Eric wanted to deal with.  So instead we went to pick up some California Pizza Kitchen to take back to my aunt's with us.  There was a wait here too, just as long actually as the sushi place.  Oh well.  While we waited we shopped in Macy's and ended up finding Emma about $200 of new clothes all for only $50 or so.  Score!