Today we are heading out on a bus to Pearl Harbor, with folks from 4 other hotels in Honolulu, only we don't know that yet. Since we were on Waikiki Beach, and towards the far end of it, we were the last folks picked up for tours and the last folks dropped off, generally speaking.
We get picked up, with another couple from Texas, out in front of our hotel. We have zero paperwork or anything that indicates that we're supposed to be on this particular bus. Our driver, Cousin Dwight, senses the urgency of us lacking said paperwork and said, "Relax! You're in Hawaii now. We can do this." or something to that effect.
He handled it and we were on our way.
Now, I can say, that of all the bright spots of our vacation, Cousin Dwight was pretty close to the top! The dude had me busting a gut laughing a good majority of the time and was a fantastic tour guide. He talked about everything from drivers who can't read signs, to restaurants, history, vulcanism, respect for what we're to visit on this day, typhoons, immigration, palaces, and various other stuffs. As I've said previously and will certainly repeat again, I love it when you get someone like Cousin Dwight who teaches you a great many things on tour. I'm old and I'll forget, but the boys are young and spongy with their respective memory's and they were learning even though they didn't know it.
Or at least they didn't let on! Sneaky little critters...
Some favorite Cousin Dwight "isms" (I know you can't hear his voice, but just trust me!! He sounded a bit like Rafiki from the Lion King, "You follow ol' Rafiki, he know de way".):
"How's that!?"
"How you like that!?"
"Hawaii is all about immigration. We have all kinds of different cultures and they're reflected in our restaurants. Recently we had a French restaurant open on the corner to right (pointing to a Jack In The Box) Jacques In The Box.".
"Now you know the truth, and the truth will set you free!"
"Haa Haaaaaaaaaaa!!!"
and one that's not funny, but rather, quite repulsive:
"Please, what you're seeing today is living memorial. If you're hunting Poke'mon, don't do it here! We had a big problem with that shortly after the game was released.".
And so many, many more. I wish I would have had my notebook to write his quotes down. He was something from another place!
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| As we start another day, we must start with the obligatory photo from the hotel lobby (open-air, of course!). |
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| Once we're at Pearl Harbor but waiting to start our tours. |
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| We were told a few months back, get to Pearl Harbor early in the morning as the tours for the day are sold out by 10am. There's one group marching past us single file, another group waiting in the background and there were a great number of more groups (and buses!!!) that are not pictured. Our tickets came with our travel package, so we were good, but man, they weren't kidding!!! |
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| On our ferry out to the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial. We passed by a few other ships in the harbor. This baby was BIG! |
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| Another one, not quite as big. |
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| We've arrived... and it's very humbling, just like Cousin Dwight warned us. I was a little 'taken aback' by how emotional I was looking at the remains of the ship and knowing that there are full remains of a good number of men in the sunken ship below us. Whew! |
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| Hard to see in the photo, but someone, possibly with a loved one still aboard, climbed down in there and hung lei's on the ladder. Chills upon chills when I noticed them... |
I don't have many words for some of these and the pictures themselves don't do the memorial justice, so I'll just shut my trap for a few.
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| Ahhh... the black tears! Diesel fuel has been slowly leaking out ever since the attacks. Legend has these pools on the water as Black Tears from the men who perished. |
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| On the very far right of the photo is the U.S.S. Missouri. The United States entry into WWII was from the attack on Pearl Harbor and the treaty to end the war was signed on the U.S.S. Missouri, so you have the representation of the beginning and end of the war from the U.S. perspective. We will see MUCH more of that ship in the next post. |
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| My fams looking down at the wreckage. |
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| This is a shot of us leaving the memorial to get back on the ferry. I took it because there were a number of veterans on the memorial with us and it was fascinating and heartbreaking at the same time to listen to them talk to each other. The pride and sadness in their voice and stories will not be forgotten! Those two in front of the lady were two in the conversation and it was not lost on me, that I was at this memorial, a free man visiting with my family, because of men like these two!! Harrowing! |
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| From the air, the white memorial was placed so that it made a cross with sunken Arizona beneath it. |
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| The marker for the U.S.S. Nevada. |
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| Just a random shot of the bridge over the harbor. The Admiral Clarey Bridge on Ford Island Boulevard, which is the only way to get to Ford Island, the home of the Pearl Harbor Naval Base where the U.S.S. Missouri is docked. |
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| One of the two, circle of names. |
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| A side view of the anchor from the U.S.S. Arizona. |
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| Full on view! |
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