Pearl Harbor

The next day we took a tour of Pearl Harbor and the surrounding area.  We left our hotel around 6am and returned about 6pm.  It was a long day and we saw a lot of stuff.  Pearl Harbor and the museums could easily take two days to see everything.  We got a brief tour of everything.

First, we saw the USS Bowfin submarine.

Then the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center with the battleship USS Arizona Memorial.  We took a small ferry boat to the memorial that sits over the sunken ship.

The Pacific Aviation Museum was the next stop on the tour.  Matt enjoyed the planes.

Matt and a Flying Tiger

Shattered glass at the airplane hanger from bullets fired from Japanese war planes on their way to Pearl Harbor.

 

After the plane museum, we went to the USS Missouri battleship.  Click Here for more pictures.

 

The location of the Japanese surrender on the deck of the Missouri

Arizona from the Missouri

After Pearl Harbor, we saw the Royal Hawaiian Palace.  It's the only royal palace on US soil and was fashioned after Buckingham Palace.  The King of Hawaii had a fascination with British Royalty.

After the tour we walked along the sandy beach back to the hotel with the sun setting behind us.

And Diamond Head in our view.

USS Missouri

I've always wanted to visit the Missouri.  It's such a historic ship. It's docked at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.

Once on board, you can explore the sites of the ship.

The treaty to end WW2 was signed on the deck of the Missouri.  It's a very historic ship.  They have a memorial on the deck.

The interior was interesting because it was a mix of WW2 and 1980's technology.

Dining Area.

They had regular facilities like a small town. 

This was a special command briefing area they called "Officer Country". It was the nicest area of the ship. 

The captain's cabin had a similar feel. 

Aloha, Hawaii!

Matt and I decided to take a parent only vacation to Hawaii!  We arrived at 2am after our flight was diverted back to LAX for an equipment failure.

Aloha!

We stayed in a cute little hotel closest to Diamond Head.  

This is a view of Diamond Head from our room.

The first day we walked around and saw lots of new things.  We asked the locals where we should go that was not typical tourist fare.  Our first stop was a little restaurant called LuLu's.  The view from was amazing.  We had poke (poh-kay).  It is a Hawaiian raw fish (tuna) salad.  It was very refreshing and delicious. 

The view

Ahi (tuna) Poke

Then we walked and found a eatery called Rainbow Drive-In.  It had typical Hawaiian fast food.

This was the combo plate.  It had chicken, beef, fish, rice, and macaroni salad (a staple in Hawaiian dishes).

Then we ventured further to Leonard's Bakery.  There we got a box of Malasadas. Basically, cream filled donuts.

Beautiful sunset at Waikiki Beach

There were many, many ABC Stores.  They are found on about every corner shop along Waikiki.  They had apparel, souvenirs, lots of different snack food and drinks, and sundries.