Honolulu, Oahu - January 30

Hawaii state flag

Clear, 26 degrees

Sailing into Honolulu was glorious. We were on a tour this morning, so were up before 7. It was the perfect morning to have breakfast on our

memorials to ships

deck, about 21 degrees and a very slight breeze when I poked my head out.

“No bags allowed” read the sign at Pearl Harbor and Arizona Memorial. We knew this ahead, so were able to plan, but I never like not having my bag. This isn’t the first time I’ve cried about the lack of pockets in women’s clothing, and the pockets that do

USS Arizona Memorial

exist aren’t exactly roomy. So today I wore the clothes with the biggest pockets and all I brought was my phone, ship key card and sunglasses. I let Chris deal with the money for once :) We knew there would be lockers available to store bags etc. in but didn’t want to bother with that. Things can typically be left on the buses we travel on, but not today…high security – or so we are

USS Arizona

told. In the end we could have left bags on the bus, so I was choked that the ship told us otherwise.

Visiting Pearl Harbor and the Arizona Memorial was something else. I have to admit to not knowing a whole lot about the Pearl Harbor attack, so this was a huge learning experience for me. Onboard our ship we have lectures each sea day about the areas we are visiting, things we will see, and the culture we will experience. These lectures

Navy launch

are recorded and play on a loop on our TV, so we watch them in our room rather than actually going to them.

The Pearl Harbor lectures gave me some background before we arrived. Most of the visit occurs outside or at least in open air exhibits. The highlight of the visit was a 20 minute film and visit to the Arizona

names

Memorial. The film was very well done. After the film we directly boarded a Navy launch for the short ride to the actual Memorial which straddles, but doesn’t touch the ship. There are still men entombed in The Arizona – wow.

Although the whole visit was very moving, especially the personal stories of people affected – civilians and military, adults and children, I expected a bit more. While there

was what they call park rangers on the Memorial, he only explained things when people asked questions. I would have liked to have heard a bit more from him.

King Kamehameha

By now it was about 11:30 and we wouldn’t be getting back until after 2, so we thought it best to have a couple of 6.00USD hot dogs!

One thing we saw that was just crazy was a suicide torpedo…there was a place for a guy to sit INSIDE of this bomb!

Our tour continued to the Punchbowl Crater where the Punchbowl National

Cemetery is. This was a slow drive through on the bus without getting off. I expected a lot more from this cemetery. Compared to other military cemeteries we’ve visited, this was a bit underwhelming. All of the graves we saw were ground plaques.

Next we drove through Honolulu, seeing some highlights - Aloha Stadium, the downtown district, Chinatown, City Hall, and Iolani Palace, the former residence of Hawaii’s last two monarchs and the only palace on American soil.

The pier our ship was docked at was within

always hiding from the sun

walking distance to many some shopping and places to eat/drink. We stopped for a drink and some calamari at a pub and then just couldn’t walk by Hooters without stopping. It was completely as expected until the guy sitting at the table behind us started berating the waitress, and

palace

then the manager. This guy claimed to be a Hooters aficionado and was in a rage about his burger and would not let it go. Finally, Chris and I both said something to the guy, and after more raging he stormed off. The last thing we are is confrontational, but wow…this guy was a piece of work. We chatted with the waitress and manager a bit after and they bought us 2 more beers. Super sweet, but we were finished, certainly didn’t need any more beer and were ready to leave but had to be polite! BTW…the beers here were 11.00USD!!!!

I’m pretty sure I had a pre-dinner nap…3 giant beers and telling off a lunatic made me sleepy :)