Honolulu, Hawaii: One reason for our visit to Honolulu was to visit the sites associated with the bombing at Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, causing America to join the world in war. We didn’t have to wake too early, but found Sleeping Beauty on the bed next to ours when we did.
Lisa had arranged for a 5-hour bus tour to the memorial, which included a drive-by of the local attractions and monuments after/on the way back to our hotel. We had a very fancy 45-foot-long tourist bus and it was about half-full. Our driver, Dave, was quite knowledgeable and knew a lot of local history. Dave also had a funny wit and cracked us all up several times, reciting (probably) the same jokes he recites every day to thousands of tourists annually. Our favorite story was about the 60s-70s when bell bottom pants were popular. He is so short, his mom had to hem the pants, so they lost the bell, resulting in Dave winning the No-Bell prize.
The Memorial is along the shore across the bay from the sunken battleship Arizona. There are museums, informational displays, snack shops, gift shops, bathrooms and a very nice informational (and inspiring) video. For an additional $25 fee, visitors can visit the Battleship Missouri, the site for the Japanese official surrender ceremony in September of 1945 in Tokyo Bay. I really learned a lot this afternoon and it was all a bit overwhelming. America seriously underestimated the Japanese military and, though we knew it could happen, were not prepared. Even when the Japanese planes were seen on the most rudimentary radar available at the time, it was assumed they were American planes scheduled to land that day from the US mainland. The Japanese first hit our airfields and airplanes, then started sinking the US fleet, then more planes arrived and cleaned-up anything that was missed. Over 2,400 Americans died on December 7th, another 1100 were wounded.
Before boarding the ferry-type boat to the Arizona memorial built over the sunken ship, visitors are herded into an auditorium where were either given a lecture or a sermon, as the speech was a bit part of each, on how this sacred space must a a solemn, reflective, and moving experience. Then all the usual warnings about silencing your phones, etc.
The memorial is situated over the sunken vessel, covering the width of the 608 foot ship. On days when the sea is clearer, quite a bit of the rusting ship can be seen. Today, we could only see about a dozen feet down. Over 900 servicemen are still inside the sunken ship.
The white buoy at 2 o’clock indicates the bow of the ship.
(all were men) lost on December 7th. Most were Navy,
but there were also many Marines.
The government has a program where crew surviving the Arizona sinking can have their ashes placed into the sunken ship after they die. Attack survivors can also opt to have their ashes spread in Pearl Harbor.
Instead of returning on the 1.5 hour driving tour of Honolulu sites on the way back to Waikiki, Lisa took the kids back to the hotel in an Uber. Dave, Lenn and I returned on the bus, driving through the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in the hills above town.
Our guide drove us through town, past the palace and the statue to King Kamehameha, but we did not stop even once. It was a drive-by tour only.
When we returned to our hotel, we went directly to the beach bar. I was ready for a Mai Tai. It arrived with a cherry on top!
I’m going to claim this is my first-ever Mai Tai, as the only other version (consumed circa 1985) was made in Maui at the Embassy Suites hotel. It was “free” at their nightly happy hour and it was made with a powdered mix. It was awful and I could never understand why people would ever drink such a thing… until today. Delicious. This drink included (straight off the menu): Maui’s kula organic rum infused with hibiscus, lime, passion fruit, fresh pineapple, orgeat (a vanilla-syrup) and orange cordial, all housed under a float of kula dark rum to depict the beautiful Hawaiian sunset.
Dinner tonight was at a sushi place off the beach madness, 855 Aloha. It was fantastic and they had chicken karaage.
Interesting enough… Lisa looked out the window behind the kids and said she thought it was snowing. What? (75 degrees at dinner time.) Sure enough, the restaurant had some-sort of machine making it “snow” foam or bubbles or something in the front patio of the building. That was fun!
Tomorrow? Nothing planned except dinner reservations. Hopefully we can sleep late and put our toes in the sand?
Until my next update, I remain, your reverent correspondent.