Aloha friends! Saturday, LouAnna was at the conference all day and it was her last day. She said she had a great session in the morning and the afternoon was fine. So, now she's ready to enjoy Oahu a bit before we fly back on Tuesday.
Chris made his way to Pearl City and Harbor. This was #1 on his Hawaii bucket list. The bus was pretty full after making two other stops at nearby hotels. The tour guide's name was BK and was voted Royal Star's 2023 #1 driver of the year. He knew his stuff, reciting over Hawaii's importance here in the Pacific and to WW2. We stopped by several governmental and historical sites on our way to Pearl City. We had a drive-through tour of what would be the Pacific's version of Arlington National Cemetry. The National Memorial Cemetry of the Pacific is located in a crater named the Punchbowl. Unlike Arlington, the grave markers are on the ground rather than upright.
After leaving the cemetery we headed towards Pearl Harbor Visitor's Center. The drive was probably 15 minutes or so on Oahu's main interstate, the H1. On the way there, BK continued to display his knowledge of the events leading up to the war. Once we got to the visitor's center, BK went over the instructions at least 3 times with us repeating each time. The guy didn't want anyone to be confused about what to do. Our tour was split up into 2 groups, for the Arizona Memorial. We had a 10:15am and a 10:30am ferry over to the memorial. We were given strict instructions, not to take any phone calls, play on the phone, or take photos after we landed and were entering the memorial. Somehow there was a photo of the USS Missouri in Chris' camera reel... oops! Once upon the Arizona Memorial, the mood was pretty somber. Not many people were talking, and if they were, it was a hushed tone.
After the ferry ride back to the vistor's center, Chris decided to go ahead and purchase the extended package of boarding the USS Missouri. Cool fact about the layout there, the remains of the USS Arizona is facing out to sea, whereas the Missouri's bow (front of the ship) is facing the Arizona's bow. This was done to signify the start of World War II in the Pacific for the US and the end of the War.
The USS Missouri is freaking HUGE!!! Chris might have gotten lost a couple of times, he should have opted for the guided tour rather than going alone. The only things that were small on the ship were the doorways, and living spaces for the sailor's on board.
The Missouri was a floating city, it had everything on there from a lawyer and post office to a kitchen just for making donuts. In 1992 the Missouri was decomissioned. What's not posted is a photo of the computer room for the sailors... think back to school a room full of Compaq Presario desktop computers and CRT monitors and that's what you would have seen on the ship.
Chris made it back to the bus around 2:30pm and back to the Hilton around 3:15 or so. LouAnna returned around 4:30pm. We had dinner at a restaurant here on the property because L is so tired from learning and networking. Nothing exciting but the food was good.
We went to bed kinda early (9pm) because it had been a long day for both of us.
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