Hawaii - Day 6

Today was our big day at Pearl Harbour.  We got up really early and headed out to catch an early bus, since it is an hour and a half bus ride and the tickets to the Arizona memorial are first come, first serve.  On the bus, we could see one of the small Marine attack carriers docked at Pearl Harbour, with Ospreys and Harriers on the deck.  We arrived and checked the bag we brought, since no bags at all are allowed in the Pearl Harbour area.  We got tickets for the 1:15pm tour and then headed out to the USS Missouri, the battleship where the treaty ending the war with Japan was signed.

I’ve never been near a battleship and was not really prepared for how massively big it is.  The deck is way up above sea level, and then the superstructure rises far above that.  Once you get on the deck, you can see how wide the ship is as well.  We started by exploring the deck and the big guns, though the kids were far more interested in the small anti-aircraft guns mounted on the railing.  They kept pretending to shoot down plane after plane while we tried to drag them around the deck.  Just up from the main deck is the area where the treaty was signed.  It felt interesting to stand in the same spot where something so historically important had happened (even though the boat was in Tokyo harbour when the treaty was signed, and not in Hawaii).

We then went down to the first level below the main deck and explored all the eating areas, as well numerous crew areas and all the other stuff used to keep a ship with 1600 people on it operating when out at sea.  The final part of the tour was part of the superstructure, including the bridge.  We sat some of the kids in the chair on the bridge and snapped pictures, before leaving the Missouri and heading back to the main entrance.

At the entrance, we took the older kids through the USS Bowfin, a submarine from World War II.  Jonathan and Bradley weren’t allowed in the submarine, so Sandra stayed out with them because she had been through the Bowfin the last time she was in Hawaii.  After the massiveness of the Missouri, the Bowfin was miniscule.  You start out in the torpedo room, where torpedoes are stacked with beds in-between them, and then you head through a bulkhead door that was just big enough for Evan to climb through without ducking his head.  The rest of the ship was very cramped - I cannot imagine how the sailors survived their time out in open sea on such a small ship.

We then grabbed a quick lunch before heading over to the entrance to the Arizona memorial.  We got there just as the 1:00pm group was leaving, so we did not have to wait long before we went in to watch a short movie about the Pearl Harbour attack.  Then it was on to the boat and out to the memorial.  The kids were pretty interested in seeing the boat sitting under the water, though I’m pretty sure only Alexander has grasped the significance of what happened there.

On the way back to the shore, we passed an empty boat heading to the memorial and when we went to retrieve our stroller, we discovered that all the tour boats after ours were cancelled due to high winds, which I found odd, since it did not seem very windy to me.

Anyway, we then headed out to the Pacific Aviation Museum, as our last stop of the day.  The museum starts with another short movie and then goes into a small area with just a few important planes from the Pacific Theatre.  There was a Zero, a B-25, a Dauntless and a Wildcat.  Jonathan was very excited to see the planes, and really liked when I showed him different parts on the aircraft.  We then walked over to another hangar, where they had a bunch of newer aircraft, including an F-15 and a P-40 painted up in the Flying Tigers paint scheme.  There was a rescue helicopter that you could walk in, which was a big hit with the boys.

That completed our day at Pearl Harbour, and all that remained was another hour and a half bus ride back to the hotel.  Bradley slept for the majority of it, but he was quite upset when he woke up and did not look like he could take any more constrained areas.  I decided to take him back to the hotel and let everyone else go out for supper.  I got him fed and bathed before everyone returned.  After getting the rest of the kids into the bath, Sandra and I went out to do some shopping at the market and to get me some supper.

We’re getting close to the end of our time in Waikiki, as we only have one more day left.  In two days, we fly to the Big Island to continue the rest of our vacation.