Pearl Harbor, Honolulu, Waikiki Beach

We were picked up at 6:30 at our hotel to tour the Pearl Harbor site, including the USS Arizona Memorial, & the USS Missouri. Some of the Arizona, which was bombed on Dec 7, 1941, is still visible from the Memorial that was constructed. We were ferried out to the site to look around. Our visit was handled by on-duty Naval soldiers & was tightly monitored. We were then bused to board & tour the Missouri, which is set up next to the Arizona Memorial on Ford Island. A bridge was constructed to access the warship on the island. The history of the Missouri is quite interesting. It was commissioned initially in 1942, used in WW2, then again in 1950 in the Korean War. It was decommissioned but was upgraded & recommissioned to serve again in the Gulf War. We stood on the deck where the paperwork of Japanese surrender in WW2 was signed. We also saw the dent in the side of the ship where a Japanese Kamikaze plane, with a bomb on board, clipped the Missouri, but didn’t cause much damage. The 19 year old Japanese pilot was given a military burial at sea. Our tour ended with a mini tour of Honolulu. Our driver pointed out a couple of private high schools where famous people like Barack Obama, golfer Michelle Wie, and actor Dwayne Johnson attended. In front of the courthouse, we saw a statue of the last King of Hawaii, & the Royal Palace across the street. We also saw a tree which puts out roots from it’s branches, and reroots in a different spot. We also saw a military cemetery, nicknamed the Punch Bowl. We took a double decker trolley to Waikiki beach this afternoon but, despite the warmth of the water, we didn’t swim. It was very crowded. We did watch many children playing, surfers surfing, and a multi-person outrigger canoe riding a wave towards the beach. We walked around the International Marketplace for a bit, ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and took the trolley back to our hotel for our last night on Oahu.Read more