Woke up very excited today as we were venturing out to see one of the highlights of Honolulu. I booked a car for us for today and tomorrow so that we could get out and about. We started with a booking for a mustang but decided against it after the sprinkles of rain the last few days. We ended up with a Chevy Malibu, which actually is quite a nice car.
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| Nate and the vroom vroom |
Was so weird being on the 'wrong' side of the car - I think we've realized just how natural left and right are when driving. I was the navigator and as we go there in one piece I figure we made a good team. The highways were all marked fairly well and our cheapo gps did ok.
We arrived at the base at about 10 and already it was really busy. The first tour we could get on was 12 so we had plenty of time to have a look at the displays and take a lot of piccies of the ships in the harbor. There was a very sweet little 96 year old vet 'signing' copies of his memoir book so I just had to get one.
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| Boys at the entrance |
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| Herb the 96 y.o. young Vet |
Next was a short video about the attack on Pearl Harbor before getting on our little boat to travel over to the memorial. Ive been there before and I must say the movie was much better this time. I distinctly recall feeling very uncomfortable watching it while there were Japanese tourists around because it was very anti japanese and felt very propaganderish. This time it was factual and was much more respectful - we still shed tears as we had expected to. The memorial boat itself is also very respectful and you certainly are more than aware that you're visiting the tomb for the 1200 plus men who perished in the attack on the Arizona. More tears shed as we saw the wall with not only the names of the men lost that day, but also the many who had passed on after the event and chose to be interred their with their mates - a couple even from last year.
Next stop lunch so we found ourselves a Safeway for sandwiches and drinks. Must say they're certainly cheaper than home and really good quality. We all tried something different; I had a hoagie which is meatloaf basically - yum.
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| Missouri and Arizona Memorial on the right |
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| USS Missouri |
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| Commemoration plaque |
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| Was amazing to see the remains of the ship under water - still leaking oil |
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| Base of gun turret number 3 |
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| Out through the roof of the Arizona Memorial |
Once we were all fed and watered we were off again to Punchbowl which is the home of The National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. What a beautiful and fitting place to be the resting place for all those lost in many wars, including Vietnam. The vistas there were amazing and you could see right over to Diamond Head and Waikiki. We all felt incredibly pleased that they were honored in such a way.
The final stop for our day, was Walmart, and it turned out to be a more expensive trip than we planned. Kinda disappointed that the level of weirdness in the clientele was a bit lacking. We got a couple of bits and then went back to the car. Imagine our joy when we saw a police care parked behind our car having just written us a ticket. Apparently the spot that we were parked in was only until 3.30 pm at which time it becomes a no standing zone!! We still had time on the meter but that was irrelevant it seems. As usual the signage for the park was poor - two different sign posts in separate spots. At least we know now for future. Oh and we later learned that we could have been fined $170 each for trying to walk across the road not using the lights!!
Diner tonight was takeaway steaks and shrimp from another local spot - Blazing Steaks. Not bad although I gipped Tony out of his garlic sauce..
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| National Memorial Cemetery of The Pacific |
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| small sample of the names of the lost |
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| one of the battle theatre maps - close to home |
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| View from the top of the memorial |
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| Oopsie |
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