Hawaii Day Five

I knew this was going to be a crazy day. If anything, it was going to be long. Wake up and be ready for a 630am tour of Pearl Harbour, Ford Island, and a Honolulu city tour. Scheduled to arrive back at the hotel at 4pm.

Start the day waiting outside the hotel at 630 waiting for a tourbus and a guide in a red shirt. A short time later, it arrives with an older gentlemen named "Papi". He seemed way to happy to be up that early in the morning. Peppy Papi. After a few more stops at other hotels, we made our way to Pearl Harbour. All through the rise up, Papi was making jokes and keeping us all awake. He then went into a somber but informational mood about the events of Dec 7, 1941. He even memorized the FDR speech "a day that will live in infamy"

We get to the site (again) and I'm hoping there are tickets. I mean, sheesh, we were there at 745am! Weget our tickets and are instructed to be at te theatre at 815. For the remaining time we walk around the area looking at little exhibits and the bookstore. Then the movie and subsequent ride to the USS Arizona Memorial.

The movie was great, informative and I really liked it. Was Damn good. After the movie we take a ride on a craft to the memorial site. All of a sudden it a somber mood. Very respectful. The memorial is beautiful. Centered over the sunken ship, the memorial is a white building that contains the names of the 1100plus men who died and are still burried with their ship. It's an amazing and powerful moment as you realize just how real it all is. You can look out either side and still see the ship, and it's tears. They say the oil that continues to leak out represent the tears of the ship and it's fallen
Men and will continue to do so until the last survivor of the Pearl Harbour attack has passed away. It is something everyone should experience. An amazing moment.

After that part, we sailed back to the original area to meet up with our guide for the rest of the day. Peppy Papi was gone and we had Kanoelei, a professional hula dancer; apparently one of the best in hawaii. (how good? She was handpicked to dance in front of the pope.) She took us across to the second part of the tour: the Bowfin submarine and the museum of submarine history. This was a self guided audio tour of a submarine and WOW was it cool. I can't believe how sailors could stand it! I'd go mental living and working in such a small area for 6-8 months at a time. On a side note- I've never before taken a self-guided audio tour, but if I ever go somewhere and it is available, I'm doing it again. Very worth it.

We then travelled to Ford Island to see the main bomb sites, hangers, airfields, and the Aviation Museum. Everything was great until we got to the museum where we were given a tour of it by an older gentlemen. It was mainly about planes, with huge HUGE replicas of these planes that were involved in the PH attacks. If you are not a huge fan of planes and aviation history in general, then you will probably get bored.

After returning from the aviation museum we hit the city of Honolulu where we saw a palace, a cemetary, lots of history, and the location of the humble beginnings of Barack Obama. It would have been an exceptional tour if we weren't so distrcted by the stop and go jerking of our tour bus driver. A little like being out at sea, lurching back and forth, except we were on a bus. A few people didn't feel well after.

The end of the day was relaxing as we were pretty tired from a crazy long day.

Tomorrow: chillin on the beach.