Pearl Harbor, Day 2

We woke up nice and early Friday morning in order to arrive at the Arizona Memorial early enough to secure tickets.  We only had about 30 minutes to wait for our tour time, so we just milled around the shops and read up on the history surrounding the attack on Pearl harbor.

It was my dad's, Ryan's & my first time there.  We decided on a few souvenirs and then headed into the theater to start our tour.  The tour of the USS Arizona begins with a 30 minute movie that explains what happened on December 7th, 1941 and why. 
 

We loaded the boat and the Navy took us out to the memorial.  We spent our time out there remembering those who lost their lives…and all those who lost their lives during World War II.  Our tour ended, so we drove across to Ford Island and spent time at the Pacific Air Museum, including Hanger 79.  Hanger 79 has not been refurbished since the attack on Pearl Harbor.  There were still bullet holes in the structure from the war.

After that we drove to the USS Missouri.  The Battleship Missouri was where the war ended and has been turned into a museum/memorial.  Robyn, Regina, and I stayed in the car while Ryan, my dad, and Randi took a self-guided tour.

Next we went to the memorials for the USS Oklahoma and the USS Utah.  The Oklahoma memorial is just outside the Missouri memorial, and the memorial for the Utah is on the other side of Ford Island.  The remnants of the battleship can be seen, but there is not much left.  It's sad that the Utah and Oklahoma don't get nearly the mention that the Arizona does.  I understand why, but it's still a little sad to me.

We finished up with our memorial tours, so we headed back to the hotel.  We planned to go down to the pool, but to was pouring rain, so we relaxed for a bit and then headed down to Chuck's, the steak restaurant on the hotel property.  We ate steak, potato, and shrimp scampi.  We also got a salad from the salad bar and our family favorite- the virgin Miami Vice (1/2 strawberry daiquiri and 1/2 pina colada).  After dinner we looked at the pools,  found a wishing well, and then we headed back up to our room.  Ryan and Regina went for a long walk to satisfy Regina's need for exercise…and then they drove to the store to buy us ice cream for the week. 

Visiting Pearl Harbor was the reason we chose to take my dad to Hawaii for his 70th Birthday present.  We tried to go as a family, but there are so many of us that it proved nearly impossible to plan.  We decided this was the next best thing.  We couldn't come up with one other time since 1988 when Robyn got married that we have gone somewhere just us…no spouses or kids.  We had such a good time together!  I can't remember the last time I laughed so much and so often.