Hawaii, The End.

So how do you feel about me taking nearly 3 months to get our Hawaii trip blogged?  Well, I'm getting tired of it, personally, so it needs to be done and done.

Without further ado, I give you our last full day in Hawaii:

PEARL HARBOR

I'm trying to figure out how to explain the whole Pearl Harbor experience.  The whole thing seems so unreal to me.  To be there, standing, in the exact spot that saw such horrific devastation is almost overwhelming.  It was so difficult to try and picture it all.  Although December 7, 1941, "a date that will live in infamy" was years ago and there are so very few left who were actually present on that day, the grounds are still held in great reverence.  

A few pics-

This is outside the Visitor Center:

We got our tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial, but had about an hour and a half to wait for our turn so we toured around the grounds for a while.  Looking at the different artifacts and such:

This is the USS Bowfin submarine, but I am too cheap to spend an extra 12 smacks a person to go inside, thank you very much:

Here is the anchor for the USS Arizona:

And to show you the size of it, here is Jacob next to it:

This is inside one of the Visitor Center buildings:

This is a quote from Eleanor Roosevelt that I really loved:

"Dear Lord/ Lest I continue/ My complacent way/ Help me to remember

Somehow out there/ A man died for me today./ As long as there be war

I then must/ Ask and answer/ Am I worth dying for?"

The tour out to the Arizona Memorial starts in a small movie theater where we saw a clip about the attack on Pearl Harbor.  We then loaded on this boat to head out to the memorial:

This picture shows an aerial view of the memorial.  The top horizontal part of the ship was removed, but the main part of the ship remains under water exactly where it sank, in relatively shallow water.  

They are very particular that visitors remember to be extremely respectful and reverent while out at the memorial.  After all, it is the burial place of over 1,000 men.

The ship still leaks oil.  The day before the attack, it was fueled to the max with nearly 1.5 million gallons of fuel.  There is an estimated 500,000 gallons of oil left.  I was flabbergasted to hear that.

Being at Pearl Harbor was really amazing.  And humbling.  So grateful to have been able to go.

After Pearl Harbor, we stopped in one last time at the swap meet at Aloha Stadium to make sure we were covered in the souvenir department.  After that we checked into our hotel for our very last night in Hawaii.  It was right next door to the gargantuan Ala Moana Shopping Center, so we headed over there for dinner and to shop around.



Here are a few more shots of downtown Honolulu that simply reinforced our decision to NOT stay in Honolulu the majority of our trip!

   
The next morning started bright and early as we headed to the airport to drop off our rental and hop our plane back to the mainland.

Jacob and I keep saying that it all just seems like a dream now!  Memories to treasure, for sure.

And there you have it.  Hawaii is DONE.

But certainly not forgotten.