The Aloha State - Day 3
Today we satisfied my geek cravings by visiting Pearl Harbor and the memorial for the USS Arizona, which was sunk during the Japanese attack and took 1,177 sailors and marines with it. As can be expected, it's quite a moving experience, although cheapened somewhat by the tourists who smile for the cameras in front of the wall naming those who died in the battle. But it was a beautiful day and the memorial helped to put that in perspective.
After we left Pearl Harbor, we stopped by Snorkel Bob's and rented a couple of mask/snorkel/fins sets, which we'll put to good use tomorrow. On the way back to the house, we stopped at the Pali lookout. This is the pass through the mountains that the native Hawaiians used to connect Honolulu with the eastern coast of Oahu up until the modern "interstate" was built in the 1960s (which burrowed through the mountains rather than go over them). This was also the site of the Battle of Nu'uanu, where King Kamehameha I defeated the Oahuans in his final drive to unify the Hawaiian Islands in 1795. Many Oahuan soldiers were forced over the cliffs during the battle.
Then we came home, changed, and went back to the beach. I showed stinky_monky how to use the snorkel and mask and generally got batted around by the waves for a while. We'll try to get some beach photos tomorrow. For now, it's time to find some food.
Here are the pics:
A shot of the memorial and the USS Missouri (the Japanese surrender took place on this ship) from the visitor center:
A closer shot of the Missouri:
This is the one part of the Arizona that is always above the waterline, the number three gun turret. The white buoy in the distance marks the stern's location, and the white structures in the water note the locations of other battleships during the attack (each ship was salvaged and returned to service, except for the Arizona and the USS Oklahoma, which was damaged beyond repair and capsized, killing 415 men):
A look in the other direction. The white buoy here marks the location of the ship's bow. The USS Missouri is in the background:
Even after nearly 64 years, the Arizona is still leaking oil, which signifies an ecological disaster, but is also a poignant reminder of the dramatic events of that day and of what is just a few feet below the waves:
Here's me in front of the Arizona's anchor:
Here's the view from the Nu'uanu Pali lookout, encompassing a good part of the windward portion of Oahu:
It was a bit windy up there:
