Aloha: One Particular Harbor

Still being on Oregon time worked in my favor today! I was wide awake before 4:30am, so I decided to just get moving. I noticed Shawn woke up early as well. Showers happened, had breakfast from our favorite snack shack in our room and then loaded up our girl to start what ended up being a really enjoyable day full of education and history!

At 8am we were on the road heading to Pearl Harbor. The plan was to go to the swap meet at Aloha Stadium before our ticket time for the Arizona Memorial. Due to a home football game later in the evening, the swap meet was cancelled. We were mildly disappointed but eagerly drove around the corner and arrived at the Pearl Harbor visitor center.

She likes to point out every airplane in the sky!

I went to the counter to get our tickets, scheduled for 11am, and was asked if I’d like to go earlier. Heck yeah I would! We were able to do the 9:15 tour instead. First it was a movie about December 7th, then we exited out of the theater to load onto a boat. Our destination was the Arizona Memorial.

There aren’t really any words to describe what it is like there. I can say that I absolutely recommend visiting if you get a chance. We went last year as well, and I would go again in a heartbeat. This time the Memorial wasn’t as crowded, so I left feeling satisfied. I felt like I was able to take things in a bit more, really experience it and not feel rushed.

Since I was wearing Katura I left Shawn in charge of the real camera while I got some photos and video with my phone. It was so darn hot, so I wasn’t that upset to board the boat again and enjoy the breeze on our way back to the Visitor Center.

Instead of looking at any exhibits, which we experienced last year, we made our way to the gift shop (air conditioning!!!) and then straight to the car for the next part of our day. Basically it was just too hot for me in the sun while wearing Katura and she was ready to walk on her own.

Seeing as Shawn and I both have military ID, we were able to easily drive right into Ford Island and officially be on a military base. It was so cool! Usually my ID is just glanced at for discounts, but finally someone cared and really checked it out. It was pretty much like crossing the border between Canada and the US.

Our first stop was at the USS Utah Memorial. Did you know there was one? Arizona gets all of the publicity, but on the other side of Ford Island lies the Utah. It was very quiet there and a strange feeling to be the only person standing there looking at it.

After we took turns visiting the Utah (Katura stayed in the a/c) we went to the USS Missouri. Shawn served on her back in the 90s, so I had my own private tour guide. We did the Missouri last year but only had a short amount of time, making the visit feel incomplete. This time I left feeling like I really knew that ship! Katura was getting cranky, and when you’re wearing a cranky baby and it is nearly 90 degrees out, well, that’s a challenge. So we probably sped up the end a bit more than we would have. But that was fine. We covered nearly every part open to tour.

And now here are too many photos of our fun times on the Missouri. There are way too many to share, but since I lost all of last year's I'm going heavy on this!

The last stop before the car was the USS Oklahoma Memorial. I spent more time there last year, so I was fast this time, just popping over to take some photos. *Last year’s photos were all lost so I was on a mission to recapture them.*

Back in the car we decided to continue driving around, ending up at the Pacific Aviation Museum. Holy cow this was awesome! Just arriving in the parking area made you feel like it was 1941 again. Katura fell asleep which meant we finally had a easy time touring something. So many old planes of all kinds. The real highlight for me was visiting Hangar 79. The size of the building was impressive on its own, but the true “wow moment” for me was looking up to the windows and seeing bullet holes still remaining from the Japanese attack in 1941.

Rain starting working it’s way toward us, so we called it a day and returned to Hale Koa. The heat was so much, paired with the humidity, that we decided to just grab some dinner, take it to our room and call it a night.

And Katura got her first shiner!

*She has recovered nicely.

~ ALOHA ~