Hawaii - the series: Pearl Harbor

The day after we arrived in Hawaii we were going to have to fly to the Big Island in the afternoon.  We knew we wanted to see Pearl Harbor (it's on Oahu...) but we had little time.  (I probably should've done this post first, but I really wanted to tell ya'll about the ucky sushi...)  

I went to the concierge at the hotel & said, "We wanna see Pearl Harbor tomorrow morning, & we gotta see it fast!"  He suggested a 3 hour tour that left the hotel around 6:15 am.  That was perfect because we weren't adjusted to the time difference & that's 12:15pm our time.  

We were up BRIGHT & EARLY (UHM 4:30AM Hawaii time!) so we even had time to go get breakfast. At McDonald's... 

I also got Rhonda a flower for her hair because I'm so nice (but she loves pink.  Pssssh...) so we decided to wear them!

Here we all are before going into the visitors center.

This is the view in the Harbor today.  That's the Battleship Missouri on the left & that long white thing is the memorial that's over the Arizona.

 In the museum they have all kinds of artifacts & this is someone's uniform from that day.

 This is a piece of the Arizona.

This is the speech that Roosevelt was going to give to the media the day after the attack.  You can see where he marked words out & re-wrote it. 

 This is some of a torpedo they found 50 years after the attack when they were drudging the Harbor.  This is just a section of it.  Imagine how big the whole thing was?

They take you out on a ferry over to the memorial.  This is the Missouri again.  Students this is your history lesson.  The Missouri was in the Harbor on December 7, 1941 & was badly damaged.  After the repairs were finished, the Japanese surrendered on the front deck of this ship.  Karma's a biotch...

 The memorial...

 This is the room made of marble at the end of the memorial that has all the names of those that died that day etched into.

 I thought this was really cool.  These are names of the survivors of the attack, but after they died, they were interred down below with their shipmates.  

 I'm sure you've all heard about the infamous oil that still leaks up to the surface from the Arizona.  Here it is.  There were 2 million gallons of oil on that ship when it sank...

 It was a dreary & raining for a bit while we were there & then we saw this rainbow.

 This flag is coming up from the original mast from the Arizona.  They extended it & wave the flag.  Cool pic. 

 Here's B-rad trying to lean over as much as humanly possible to see everything he can see.  

 I didn't really fully understand that the freakin' ship is still under the water.  But you can see part of it sticking up here.

 They only allow one group at a time in the Memorial.  When the other group came, we were ushered off - whether we were ready to go or not...

 These are the 2 Major McHotties that drove the ferry back & forth.  I would've given B-rad's left arm to get pics of their faces but they were serious business.  They were actually watching us & there was no way I could get a shot.  It's sad really because they were yummy.  I thought of you all immediately & wished I could share...