Island History

Today we all went to a place called Pearl Harbor. I've been told it's the place where Japan attacked America and that brought the United States into the Second World War. First we visited the USS Arizona Memorial. While waiting in line to see a short film about it, Luda and Ida met a nice man who had served in the navy during that terrible time and was at Pearl Harbor during the attack. He told them a nice story of meeting a friend during that time and then after losing touch, meeting again many years latter. The story even came complete with pictures. They enjoyed talking to him very much. At the Arizona Memorial itself you couldn't see very much. The memorial was a nice white bridge over the sunken ship. There was little of the ship to be seen below, just the very top of the ship by the waters surface. You could also see some oil and fuel that continues to slowly leak out of the ship to this day.

Next we walked through a museum with lots of Pearl Harbor history and artifacts in it. Then we headed to the other side of the park and went through another museum full of stuff. The second museum was about submarines in world War II.

Once that was done we boarded the USS Bowfin, which was an active submarine during World War II. It was actually a submersible, not a submarine, as it had diesel engines. We listened to a guide tape while walking through the ship. It was rather cramped in there and I can't begin to imagine how so many men lived there, at sea, for long periods of time. I tried out lots of things on this ship to see how they worked. It was a lot of fun!

We then boarded a bus that took us to see the USS Missouri anchored off Ford Island. The USS Missouri is a battleship, also from World War II. Max said that the war began with USS Arizona, continued on USS Bowfin and ended on the USS Missouri. The tour we had here was with a real human being who had served on the USS New Jersey, a sister ship of the Missouri. He was a great guide and knew lots of information, which he shared with us. We got to stand on the very spot where the formal surrender papers, to end the war, were signed on September 2, 1945. These ships were neat and fun to see. If you are ever in Hawaii, I'd strongly encourage you to pay a visit to Pearl Harbor and take a look around.

Having concluded all tours we were ready to leave the memorial. Everyone was tired and ready to get off their feet and grab a bite to eat. Dinner tonight was at Chili's. We had a bit of trouble getting seated (even though the place was empty), but once that got taken care of, the food was very tasty. Then it was back to the car for more site-seeing. We followed Farrington Highway to its very end. Just like the rest of Ohau, everything was blue and green for as far as the eye could see. On the way back we passed a cave that was worth investigating. It wasn't very deep and it had sadly been very vandalized. Legend said that Nanaue, the Shark Man of Waipio Valley, lived there at one time.

We finished the day with a little more sightseeing. I was once again glad to crawl into bed for well deserved rest. Why do Max and Jenn call it vacation when we have to run around so much?

Stormy