Day 2 in Hawaii: A Day at Pearl Harbor

Day 2 of Hawaii was our day at Pearl Harbor. I'm going to back up though and say that for whatever reason, I woke up around 1:30 a.m. and I don't think that I ever went back to sleep. Michel and I learned that Honolulu is not a city for us. It's much like downtown Dallas - it's all about the nightlife. Without sounding like an old fart, Michel and I are not party-late-into-the-night-kind-of-people. Especially not our first night in Hawaii when we were so jet-lagged. Anyways, we had to be up by about 5:30 a.m. on Day 2 because we were going to Pearl Harbor and a tour bus would be picking us up by 6:15 a.m. One of the few restaurants that was open at this hour was McDonald's, so we grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald's and then we were on our way.

We were really glad that we went through a tour group to do our tour of Pearl Harbor because our tour guide was very informative, got us tickets for everything we needed, and was just energetic and fun to listen to. 

The starting point of Pearl Harbor where the USS Arizona lies

Waiting in line for the gates to open!

 I won't be as good at describing everything that we saw as what Michel could because there was a TON of information thrown at us, and I kind of zoned out at some points. Remember, I woke up at 1:30 and couldn't go back to sleep!

One of the reasons that we were glad we toured with a group rather than on our own is because we wouldn't have known otherwise that there are only a certain number of tickets given out each day to see the where the Arizona lies and be boated out to the memorial. We arrived around 6:45 and the gates didn't even open until 7:00, and we still ended up with a 9:15 time to go to the Arizona. This was the third or fourth group of the day, so if you get there at 8:00 or 9:00 you might not get to see the Arizona. Anyways, while waiting for our time we got to go down into the Bowfin Submarine. I learned in this tour that I am not meant to be in a submarine as a Navy man/woman. One person could barely fit through the "hallways".

Down in the Bowfin - TINY beds

World's tiniest bathroom

Dining table

Check out this super old typewriter!!

The galley

The menu

Once finished underneath the Bowfin we went to the top of it and got some awesome pictures!

Proud to be an American!

Submariner Julie

Submariner Michel

On each stone was the name of a ship, when it went down, and the crew that died on it

This anchor is from the USS Arizona

Once 9:15 came around we were led into a movie theater first to watch a 20 minute video. In this movie they had actual footage from the attack of Pearl Harbor from the point of view of an American and the point of view of one of the Japanese pilots. Apparently they flew with video cameras back then?? I didn't realize that we had that kind of technology in the early '40s. It was very interesting.  We were also asked to stay as quiet as possible once we entered the memorial as it is a memorial and we need to be as respectful as possible to the men who lie entombed beneath us.

Parts of the ship still lie above water - and leak oil!!

In memory of all the men who gave their lives on December 7, 1941.

I was hoping that we would get a chance to see/drive by Hickam Field because my grandfather was stationed there during the attacks on Pearl Harbor, but sadly they don't allow tourists over there because it's still an active air field base used by the military.

After we left the USS Arizona we were bussed over to the USS Missouri. At this point in the day it was about 11:00 a.m. Remember we had been picked up a little after 6:00 a.m.? Michel and I both decided later that it was really cool to see everything, but the day lasted WAY too long. At every stop we had a tour guide who gave us a minute-by-minute play-by-play of what went on the day of Dec. 7 and everything after that until the victory of WWII was ours. So at the USS Missouri we had a tour guide named Doc who really did share some interesting information about how WWII ended, signing the peace treaties with Japan, etc. We were allowed to go wander for a while and Michel and I looked at the souvenir shop, and got some ice cream.

USS Missouri

 After the Missouri we went to one of the air fields. We finally got to eat lunch and have a bit of a rest time! Then we were up and at 'em again. The tour guide we had at the air field was again very knowledgeable, and interesting, but very long-winded. At that point most of our group was deteriorating - sitting on benches, wandering the museum on their own, you name it. I stayed for a bit, but then also started wandering. There were about 20 airplanes for us to see and our tour guide talked for 15-20 minutes on each plane. Way. Too. Long. Even Michel left the group and was wandering on his own, and airplanes and history are his thing!

We left the museum around 3:00 in the afternoon. Our tour guide asked how we liked it and got lots of "ehhh" and "I enjoyed it, but it was way too long". Our tour guide said that's generally the common answer among the tourists.

We got back to our hotel room around 4:45 (we were given a trip around Honolulu and told some of its history - which was actually very interesting). We showered and changed to go eat one of our fancy dinners that we planned for. We went to the d.k. Steakhouse and splurged on everything - it was awesome!!

Our waiter was nice enough to also serve as our photographer!

Our appetizer - some shrimp cocktail!

Another picture with all of our food in front of us! I got a 14 oz. New York strip steak which I can say (I don't know if I should be proud or ashamed) I ate about 12 oz. worth of it! I've never eaten that much at one time! I also got some garlic mashed potatoes which were not nearly as delicious as I had hoped for, but my steak more than made up for it! Michel got a 22 oz. bone in Prime Rib (which he ate all of!) and some white truffle mac and cheese.

And if we still hadn't had enough to eat, it's a must that you have to wash down a delicious dinner with some delectable desserts! So we did!

The restaurant even catered to my chocolate needs! I got a chocolate-chocolate decadent dessert (that's the name). It was a piece of chocolate cake with a scoop of chocolate ice cream on top some chocolate syrup to go alongside. Mmmmm mmmm!!!

Michel got a chocolate chip bread pudding.

The day was very long, but fun! It was a great way to end our last day in Waikiki. The next morning we would be checking out of our hotel and driving to the east coast of Oahu to stay in Waimanalo Bay in a cottage on the beach that we rented for the remainder of our time in Hawaii.