Today has been jam-packed with history and new experiences. We woke up at 7 (which doesn’t seem early out here, for some reason) and got ready to leave by 8:15. We caught the 42 (yes, it’s out here, too!) for $2 each and read for the entire 50 minutes it takes to get to Pearl Harbor from our hotel.

Once you get there, you have to check your bags (it’s $3 to do that) and then you can get your free tickets for viewing the movie and boarding the ferry to the USS Arizona Memorial. We arrived well before 10, but had to wait 1 1/2 hours to view the movie and board the ferry. Our original tickets would have been for 12:30, but a very kind young lady gave us hers as she was leaving. Woot! In the meantime, we read about Pearl Harbor and the December 7th attack. I guess I didn’t really know about the reasons for the attack, or the fact that so many different places on the island were attacked. Interestingly, there was a “Goff,” “Cox,” and “Ogle” on the registry of killed soldiers on the USS Arizona. I had no idea that those who were killed were never extracted from the ship, probably because scuba gear was not yet invented. Interestingly, the 1800 Japanese-Americans who were interned from Hawaii were never discussed. At any rate, the museum with the personal effects of the soldiers, the not-yet-exploded torpedo they found as late as the early 1990s, and the model of the Arizona were informative while we waited for our video and tour to the memorial. The memorial itself moved me, surprisingly. The cut-away that allowed you to look into the sunken ship, the engraved wall, and the leis floating on the water brought home the reality of what the ship still contained. It also contains over 500,000 gallons of fuel and oil, which still leaks daily.

This adventure took us a good 4 hours, so on the almost 1-hour trip back, we read again and rested. We ended up going through Chinatown on our way to Iolani palace, the only permanent residence of a monarch in the U.S. It was built in the late 1800s just two blocks from the ocean at the time. Now it is surrounded by high-rise buildings but still has lovely, ancient-looking trees on its well-kept grounds. After coffee, we toured the building in record time. We had to wear little blue booties over our feet and had to stow our bags. We got an audio tour (’cause that’s the thing to do around here) and made our way from room to room, marveling at the electric lights they had before the White House or Buckingham Palace, as well as their pull-chain toilets. I loved the koa wood staircase, the quilt made by Queen Lili’uokalani while she was imprisoned in her own palace, and the different types of leis in the basement. Unfortunately, the o’o bird used to make the capes and leis worn by the royalty are no longer around. Another interesting fact: the Hawaiian government was overthrown in 1893 and annexed by the US in 1898. President Clinton righfully apologized for this during his presidency.

With a little history under my belt, it was time for some walking, cleaning up, and eating. We walked from the bus stop through Ala Moana Shopping Center to our hotel, and got refreshed before dinner. We had a glorious multi-course dinner with Amy and Shannon’s families and friends (maybe 30 of us) at Happy Days Chinese Restaurant. We had tofu and shrimp egg drop soup, roasted honey walnut shrimp (my favorite), breaded oysters, breaded ribs, noodles, crab, rice, roast duck, duck buns (?), and an almond gelatin for dessert. This all took 3 hours.

Now we are recovering and watching Wimbledon. The movie, not the sport.

Tomorrow we will visit the Polynesian Cultural Center for an IMAX and Luau and much more. Yippee!