Sarah and Rachel do Hawaiifornia, July 2009 - Day 11

[DisneySarah]

The cast:

Me (Sarah) 24 – Disney addict and holiday planner extraordinaire

Rachel, 21 – Lover of sleeping in late and not doing a lot else. Partial to a little Disney. Oh, and my little sister.

Day 11
Thursday 23rd July

We were both excited about today as we were going to Pearl Harbor. We both studied that part of WWII as part of our degrees (I did American Studies, and Rachel did International Relations) so we were looking forward to seeing such an important place in American history.

I had read that we needed to be there early so we grabbed breakfast in the room, and then got on the bus for 8am. The bus took just over an hour to get to Pearl Harbor, as it is the other side of the city of Honolulu and the bus also drops people off at the airport, so it was packed!

We dropped our bags off at the locker area (You are not allowed to take anything in to Pearl Harbor apart from cameras without cases and purses) and picked up our free tickets for the USS Arizona memorial, which were now for 11.15am, despite the fact it was only 9am! So we had a long wait ahead of us. You can pay to go and see other parts of Pearl Harbor, but we didn’t.





This is when we realised that we didn’t have a watch between us, and we had left our mobile phones at the bag drop. Uh oh. In the end, we had to run in and out of the gift shop about 10 times asking the time, so we didn’t miss our 11:15 time slot... bet they loved us!
Anyway, 11:15 finally arrived, so we headed down to the entrance to the USS Arizona memorial and got in the queue. We saw a Pearl Harbor attack survivor:



And then it was time to file in to watch the pre memorial visit film, which was an excellent breakdown of the lead up to and events of Pearl Harbor.

After the film, a boat takes you across Pearl Harbor over to the memorial,



which is located over the actual sunken USS Arizona:



1175 men died on the USS Arizona and over 800 are still lying in the sunken ship. Some of the survivors have asked to be buried with their ship mates on their deaths:



Oil is still coming up from the ship, 60 years on:



Some of the men who died:



It was a very sobering experience, but I have to say the memorial is very well done and fitting to remember everyone who died.





On the bus back, we were sat behind an umm... interesting woman, who interrupted her phone call to turn around and accuse me of kicking her, despite the fact that my legs had not moved! She then proceeded to hang up on the person she was speaking to, mid sentence, because she was, “bored” of talking to them, and shout at the bus driver because he apparently didn’t stop in the right place.

Nice.

We were glad to be off the bus when we got back to Waikiki, and hit the beach for some afternoon sun about 3pm. By now, the tide was coming in, so the sea was quite wavy, but it was bliss floating around on a rubber ring

That night we went to Cheeseburger in Paradise for dinner, because they had the shortest wait. They have an offer here, where you can ask for beer /cocktails to be served in novelty glasses and then you get to keep the glasses at the end of the meal. We were sucked in of course, so Rachel got a cocktail in a pineapple cup (can also be used as a money box, lol) and I got a souvenir Cheeseburger in Paradise glass with beer in it. It actually turned out that they charge you for the drink as well as the glass – so in effect you are just buying a glass from them. Oh well, live and learn!

After dinner, we went to buy some new books from Borders, as we had already finished the ones we brought, and read each other’s!

Then we tried on some cool sunglasses :



Browsed Waikiki at night again:



And went back to bed!

Tomorrow: Beach, anyone?!

[DisneyMadAng]

Silly mare on the bus!

Pearl Harbour looks really interesting. It brings it home to you seeing all the names listed. I'd be blubbling.

Nice sunglasses! Did your Cheeseburger in Paradise (great name)glasses make it back home?

[Guest]

Another great report!

[MrsG26]

Stumbled upon your trip report tonight whilst combatting the effects of Jetlag (got home from Texas today). Loved it - cant wait to read the rest of it!

[Guest]

Another great report with lovely photos.

[colinzy]

Its a shame you didn't have the woman sat in front of you on the way there... YOU COULD HAVE PUSHED HER OVER BOARD!


Another great trip report!
Thank you

[Strommie]

Another great day. The Pearl Harbor tour sounds interesting.

[pepsicube]

Pearl Harbour sounds interesting, as does the charming lady on the bus!

[mossyflossy]

found pearl harbour v. moving. like the glasses

[orlandosgr8]

Pearl Harbor sounds like a moving experience.

Lol at the glasses picture