This morning we had an included trip to Pearl Harbor, followed by a tour of Honolulu. It took a while as the driver was called back to explain why he didn't stop after hitting another vehicle (mostly, because he hadn't hit another vehicle) and then because of detours as there was a charity walk going on.
We drove alongside the Ala Wai Canal as we left Waikiki before heading out towards Pearl Harbor.
We arrived at World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument at Pearl Harbor in good time for a look around the two museum
Exhibit Galleries. The first describes The Road To War which describes the War in Europe and events
that led up to and the attack on the US naval base in Hawaii. There are models of the battleship, the USS Arizona and the Japanese Aircraft Carrier Akagi.
The second Attack exhibit outlines the attack on 7 December 1941. For the attack from above, the Japanese developed armour-piercing shells (below left) which were vital to their success at Pearl Harbor. From below, they needed torpedoes (below centre) that would work in shallow water. The technicians achieved development success in September, fixing wooden fins to stop the torpedoes sinking too low.
Below left is an oscilloscope, which was used to read radar signals - radio waves as they bounced back off structures. The skill was in reading the scope, which developed throughout the War. The British had successfully used radar in the 1940 Battle of Britain but the US Army knew little about it. Below centre is a draft of the date that will live in infamy speech President Franklin D Roosevelt gave the day after the attack.
Below right is an actual torpedo, dropped on 7 December 1941. It was recovered, almost intact, by a dredging crane in 1991 and with a fully armed warhead. It was safely detonated at sea.
At 9.30am, we met up with Pam and picked up our tickets to the USS Arizona Memorial. We needed to line up outside the Pearl Harbor Memorial Theater at 9.45am so we took a few minutes to get a few shots of the area.
Across the water we could see the Arizona Memorial, the submarine the USS Bowfin and the battleship USS Missouri.
At 9.45am, we got in line - we thought for a movie but they took us
straight onto the boat which would take us out to the USS Arizona Memorial. We found out later the aircon in the theater was broken so we were taken straight onto the boat.
It's an open-sided boats and from it, we could see the US Naval Ship Guadalupe, and several concrete memorials which indicate where each ship was when the attack occurred.
The Arizona Memorial a simple white-painted structure, which stands over the top of the sunken boat. As one boat arrives, the previous visitors line up to get the boat back to the mainland.
There is a shrine of names of those lost in the raid on Pearl Harbor. A man was giving a very brief
talk about what happened. He explained how fuel is still leaking very slowly out of the hull,
but that is monitored for the environmental impact.
Survivors of the Arizona can request to be laid to rest on the Missouri and this is now permitted. While there we were closer to the USS Missouri, but unfortunately we didn't have time to take the tour. We did get a couple more photos before returning to the mainland.
As we headed back, the rains came during our return crossing but luckily it eased off as we landed. We had
another 45 minutes free time to look around so we decided to spend $10, including audio tour, on a tour of the
USS Bowfin,. The submarine is a National Historic Landmark.
As we climbed on board, the grey skies were back so we didn't hang about and headed below deck.
The boat seemed a pretty tight fit for it's eighty-strong human crew. Eighty bears
would find it a struggle! We walked from the forward torpedo room, all
the way through the sub to the aft torpedo room. It's not like there was anywhere else we could go - it's a submarine!
They put bathrooms (heads) in where they could, but they were a bit cramped. I wouldn't like the glass door though! (Just kidding!) They crammed the beds in too - multi-storey sleeping - these must be for officers, cos they're not too bad!
The Galley Kitchen and Officer's Mess relied on the sailors eating in shifts as there wasn't room for everyone. The beds were almost in the cupboard and the office was very crammed too.
Lots of technical stuff in here - the driving room? Well, there were two big steering wheels!
Towards the back (aft) end of the sub I found the living quarters of the regular sailors. This was even more crammed - check out the triple decker bunks! In the middle of this room there were fold-up bunks too. Hot-bunking (taking it in turn to get a bunk) was common - when not on duty, you slept, when you were someone else slept in the same bunk.
As we reached the aft torpedo room, we could hear the rain outside. It
was much worse! Unfortunately, there's no dry way off a sub in
pouring rain, so I didn't get many photos of the deck or guns. We ran
down the gangplank back to the ticket office to return the audio tour.
We were soaked!
We ducked into a gift shop which was packed with folks avoiding the
rain or buying ponchos. They had some good t-shirts, pens and the
regular tourist stuff, but no bear shirts (as usual!). They had Hawaiian shirts for humans but they were more than $50 so we didn't bother.
We waited as long as we could, but we had a
bus to catch so had to go back out in the rain, not that we could get
much wetter. It was more than an inch deep in places, not that I cared about
that! So much for that day's weather forecast, which was still showing a ZERO percent chance of rain! Yeah, right.
What do you know? As soon as we were settled onto the bus, the flippin' rain stopped. Grr.
We set off next for the Punchbowl - the National Memorial Cemetery of
the Pacific, built in the 1940s. We weren't stopping, just driving
through for a look - seems they got fed up of the congestion of visitors! While there we saw the gravesite of Space Shuttle Challenger astronaut Ellison S Onizuka.
We made a brief stop at the State House. Across the road was
Washington Place, the Governor's Mansion.
We stopped at the statue of King Kamehameha. Across the road was the
building used in the 1970s as police headquarters for Hawaii 5-0. This
is the Miulani Palace which was the first building in Hawaii to have
indoor plumbing, electricity and telephone - all before Buckingham
Palace and the White House!
When we arrived back from Pearl Harbor we were still wet so we figured
it was the perfect time to go surfing on Waikiki Beach. There was time for a quick beer first though. Had a visit from this guy while I was there, friendly chap, but not very chatty.
I'd brought my board with me. Trouble was my useless assistants couldn't get photos
to show how really good I was! At least I ticked "surfing on Waikiki
Beach" off my "bucket list".
As well as surfing, Colin and I worked on our tans (it was harder for him, wearing that sweatshirt!)
Tired and hot from surfing, we decided to go back to the hotel. I'd been watching the 'proper' surfers, some of them carried their surf board on their head. Nah, that was too heavy. Under the arm didn't really work for me either, cos I have such little arms. In the end I made the assistants carry it - they are assistants after all!
By the hotel was a Haagen Dazs store. I had a pineapple coconut ice cream in a chocolate coconut cone, it was awesome!
We went back to the room for a chill (and a dry!) before heading out
to the Hula Grill for their Aloha Hour. They had a Blue Hawaii
cocktail on offer, so we all had one - pineapple juice, white rum and CuraÇao. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great.
As we had dinner reservations there they were able to seat us early. What a
fabulous view! Overlooking the ocean it was amazing. Our waitress - Jess, I think - was very nice and brought
us focaccia bread with olive oil and chilli, which was lovely.
There were a couple of veggie choices for Di, who had the gnocchi with
mushrooms. It was a bit stodgy but much better than the similar dish served
at the Sandbanks Hotel a few weeks earlier. This had lots of fancy
mushrooms and a "nice" sauce! Paul and I had the chicken and mash,
which was good (very Hawaiian, I know!) As Greg and John from
Masterchef would attest, there wasn't enough onion and bell pepper
sauce. Dave had the Scampi Shrimp. The wine was $30 a bottle here.
They got five Teds for the view and the service and I chose to overlook their
shortcomings. You know me (I assume), I call it like I see it - you
can make up for a not great meal or lose for something else. I try to
rate the overall package. It was a fantastic evening so they got five
Teds.
We were pretty tired after dinner so went back to the hotel to sleep.
