Hawaii -- Part 4

I was able to find the pictures from our time on Waikiki Beach...did I mention that we were able to walk out the door of our hotel, cross the street, and fall in the water? Um, yeah. It was so awesome. So, if you need to see those pictures, you'll have to re-visit Hawaii--Part 3. 

The main reason that we scheduled a couple of days in Honolulu was so that we could visit Pearl Harbor. We planned to go there on Saturday morning knowing that it would be crowded and we were scheduled to fly to Kauai at about 6 PM later that day. So we got to Pearl Harbor early. By 8 AM (that's early for the Martinez family) and it was already busy. We had to wait until 11:15 AM to do the tour of the USS Arizona. So much for beating the rush. However, the three hours gave us lots of time to explore the rest of the memorial. There are a couple of museums and lots to look at and read. It was actually a perfect amount of time to not feel rushed but the girls were not bored, either. They started to get a little antsy right about 10:45 and then it was time to get in line.

 Andre rented the audio tour. It was nice because then he was able to explain stuff in more detail. Olivia used it quite a bit, too.

 Olivia and Victoria took lots of breaks in the shade.

 This is one of the family pictures we had taken. The USS Arizona memorial is in distance next to Andre's right shoulder.

 There is an area where they have the names of all the sailors (and others) who died during the attack. In the middle of this area there is a map of the islands; it gives you a visual of how the Japanese attacked and where.

 This is where the USS Arizona is anchored.

 Andre listening to his audio tour.

The memorial building is built directly over the USS Arizona; you can see that parts of the ship are not even fully submerged.

The Arizon sank with thousands of gallons of fuel and oil on board. She "burps" up a significant amount every day. Some people say this occurence represents the tears of the sailors who went down with her.