Pearl Harbor
We woke up early at about 4:30am, showered and looked for coffee. Today we caught a shuttle bus at 6:20am that took us to the Pearl Harbor memorials. There was a heavy atmosphere of strong emotions. It's a working military base and the public is restricted to certain areas and limited to what they can carry onto the base. No bags, camera cases, purses, etc. The memorial to the Arizona was particularly emotional because for most of the crew of the Arizona, this is their final resting place.
Tears were shed as we watched the oil from the sunken remains of the ship bubble up to the surface. The veterans say these are the tears of the crew who never got to say goodbye, for it is believed they died instantly.
This was a very somber time in our nation's history. We were caught unaware and completely defeated. No matter which side of the war you were on, mother's lost their sons and wives lost their husbands; many, many lives were lost. The memorials at Pearl Harbor stand as fitting tributes to lives given in honor of the country they served. 'Thank you' doesn't seem like enough, so the memorials say what the heart feels. The days tours included the Ford Island air museum, and visits on the USS Missouri battleship and the USS Bowfin submarine.
The return trip to our hotel on shuttle bus was a tour of the island with a history of Hawai'i provided by our driver, Hana. We rode up a mountain to a cemetery where most of the Pearl Harbor attack victims were buried. We saw great views of the island from the mountain, several views of rainbows and several locations where Barack Obama slept. We saw the hospital where he was born, the aprtment building where his grandmother raised him, the private school he attended and even the Baskin Robbins store where he worked at his first job (presumable he didn't sleep there).
The driver took us past the 'Iolani Palace (seat of the Hawai'ian kingdom), the courthouse, the financial district, and lots of other sights. Great job! Thanks, Hana!
We freshened up and had dinner at Chuck's grill with a beautiful view of the sunset. After dinner we enjoyed live music on the patio of our hotel. We had been entertained by musicians a few times now and While the singers were different, the songs seemed to come from the same playlist.