Early start, 5am wake up. Tough.
(Cos is) Currently operating on about 3 hours sleep due to thinking about work. (Silly Cos).
Quick drive to Pearl Harbour by our very witty driver (who was a history ex-teacher from Chicago). We arrived in time for the 7am opening. We did the tour with Dicover Hawaii Tours and would throughly recommend them. It was a long day but seeing all the important historical memorials and museums in a day was good. They are one of the few that offer the complete tour in day. Great for those on a tight time frame who wanted to see submarine museum (USS Bowfin), the tragic and touching memorial of USS Arizona, the last US Battleship USS Missouri and Pearls Harbour Aviation Museum.
Our first visit is to the submarine USS Bowfin. Very cramped boat.
We were in a tour group of 12 that included 9 main land Americans. All very friendly and willing to chat and share stories.
The gift shops are reasonably priced. Cos purchased several books, of which one included the author autograph as well as two Pearl Harbour survivors signatures and greetings.
The Arizona memorial was very moving. Left touched, by the loss of so many people.
Part of the tour involved a short boat trip run by the US Navy. Very business like. The ship has over 900 seamen entombed in the hull. The ship was destroyed by Japanese attack on 7th December 1941. The hull still leaks fuel daily. The over head memorial is located at right angles to the sunken battleship. By far the most significant visit to historical site so far.
After the Arizona memorial we bussed onto Pearl Harbour Naval base to visit Pearl Harbour Aviation Museum and the WW2 battleship Missouri.
The USS Missouri was launched in 1944 and was decommissioned in 1956, re-commissioned in 1984, and finially ending up museum ship in 1998. The ship was famous for the signing the Japanese surrender documents in 1945 that ended WW2. The guided tour was very informative.
During our visit the practice nuclear attack alert was played for the 1st time in 40years. Scarey, because the Americans are taking North Korean nuclear threat seriously. Lucky the locals knew it was coming being the 1st work day of the month which is when alerts are practiced. We now know if a tsunami on its way, North Korea strike or something else strikes (just not sure what) The practice alert was apparently across Honolulu, but we would have had no idea if we weren’t on a Naval Base with people in the know.
Next stop was the Pearl Harbour Aviation Museum, on Ford island in the middle of the base.
It was a guided tour by a retiree academic who was interesting to Cos but no else because he was too detailed in his information.
We returned home 4:30pm local time but not before we visited “Punch Bowl National Cemetery” for the war dead and the Parliament House and palace of the last Hawaiian Monarch. The last monarch (Queen Emma) was removed by an illegal take over by US businessmen in 1898. Later the US government annexed the islands as a US territory in 1900, which became a US state in 1959. Prior to annexation, the local Monarchy was heavily influenced by the British, which can be seen in the 19th Century architecture of some church and government buildings.
Tonight after dinner we caught up with North Carolinian couple we met on the tour. Nice people. We swapped details, and would be happy to stay in touch.
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