Honolulu, Hawaii
Today we arrived in Honolulu and had a scheduled HAL trip to Pearl Harbor. Normally we would do this on our own but the travel time and all aboard time did not make it easy to do this.
We met at 8:15 and and by 8:30 and were off to the harbor.
We had admission to the USS Missouri and this was first stop. Our guide would take us back to the ship at 1:30. We had a reservation to see the USS Arizona Memorial at 3:15 so we opted to stay behind and catch an Uber. A young passenger heard me ask the guide about staying behind as she also had a 3:15 reservation. She asked me if she could join us. She was young and was trying to be smart about getting back to the ship safely. She was on the ship with her mother but mom decided this was the day to get her nails done and Citra went alone.
The USS Missouri was a massive battleship built in 1944. It is parked near the USS Arizona and serves they serve as bookends to WWII. The Arizona was the beginning of WWII for the USA and the Missouri was the ship that the Japanese signed their surrender in 1945.
These guns can fire a 2,700 lb shell 23 miles with pinpoint accuracy. 6 bags of powder are used to fire each bomb. Each bag weighs 110 pounds. A bag of powder can be seen in this photo to the left of the bomb that is below the guns. The deck is teak. This ship was retired in 1955 and sat mothballed for 29 years. It was Ronald Reagan that built up the military during his tenure and this ship was outfitted with the latest technology. It served in the Persian Gulf War and then again retired in 1992. Now it is a museum. This is the last battleship to be built by the United States. The Navy uses different types of ships today such as aircraft carriers and destroyers
We spent a few hours on the Missouri. Ship living for the crew was a bit different than it is for passengers on the Zuiderdam. Crew mattresses were 1 inch thick. Three bunks high. I imagine hot and noisy. Officers mattresses were 4 inches thick and they had a private room. Mess hall was like a cafeteria. There were rooms for television or card playing. There was a post office, a lawyers office, psychologist, dentist.
We stepped off the ship and had lunch. Hot dog for me, salad for Terri. One soft drink each. $32 I think they we are going to have to add some zeros to our currency to keep up with prices.
There was a WWII museum on Ford Island. Ford Island is an active military base. I did visit the museum but was disappointed in its size. Much smaller than the Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, that I have visited numerous times. The most interesting thing I did see was a plane that was rescued from Lake Michigan. It was a training plane that crashed into the lake in 1944. 65 years later it was brought up and put back together and repainted in a shop in Kalamazoo. Later it was brought to this museum.
The door to the hangar where many of these planes are restored still has bullet holes from 1941.
The Arizona Memorial was next. Our appointment was 3:15 and when we showed up, Citra, was waiting for us. She joined us for the boat ride over to the memorial. There are many pictures of the Arizona on the web and I only snapped a few. Over 1100 died on this ship and this marks their grave. Crew who survived have had their remains interred here following their death.
We spent about 15 minutes on the Arizona Memorial and took the boat back to shore. We walked to the entrance of the National Park and called an Uber. Honolulu traffic was heavy but we made it back in time for dinner. I think Citra was relieved that she had us to travel with. No place for a young girl to travel alone.
The evening entertainment was a group from Honolulu. They came aboard and did traditional Hawaiian music and dance. It was very entertaining. Terri thought some of the girls were too plump but I found them to be thinner than the traditional polynesians I was expecting.
The ship left at 11:00. 8 sea days until we get to Guam.…