We started off July 5th by saying goodbye to our hotel
and getting on a bus to visit the USS Arizona memorial. Alyson thought tour busses were great. I thought they were tiring. She was constantly up and down and bouncing around… not in her own seat, but on our laps. Buses did make her tired, too, though.
We arrived at the memorial before it opened, and the line to get in stretched all the way around a big green field. Thankfully, there were some trees for shade, and once the gates opened the line moved fairly quickly.
At the bookstore, we got a great pamphlet about the events December 7 1941 for Christian to read, a comic book for Brandon, and some totally unrelated paper dolls for Alyson. Bill and the boys walked through the museum.
We watched a film containing all original footage from the attack on Pearl Harbor. I was amazed just that much film existed and survived. After being put in a somber mood, we boarded a boat that took us past the USS Kittyhawk and dozens of other ships to the memorial. So many people lost their lives that day. And so many are still entombed there. It was pointed out that many of the names on this memorial wall are the same, because fathers and sons, brothers, served together and died together.
It was amazing to see what’s left of the Arizona under the memorial (which incidentally does not touch any part of the submerged ship). They had great displays that explained what we were seeing beneath the water. The kids were fascinated by the oil on the water.
Drips of oil are still escaping from the Arizona. Legend says it’s the ship crying for its fallen crew. Legend continues that it will stop the day the last survivor dies.
The kids didn’t understand, of course, what it was really all about. When we returned from our trip, we showed them the Hollywood movie, Pearl Harbor, and I think Christian at least has a better idea of why we went and why it was important.
After that sobering start to the day, we had a tour of Honolulu by tour bus (which much of the family slept through), and returned to reclaim our luggage from the hotel and catch taxis to the cruise terminal. We waited in excruciatingly long lines, but they were moving, and got our luggage checked, our key cards issued, and were finally allowed on board the Pride of America.
We were greeted with Mimosas (or orange juices for the kids), and our first buffet lunch of the cruise while we waited for our cabins to be ready. We also had the opportunity to check out the kids’ new favorite place, Kid’s Club!, where they would spend 6 hours a day most days (9am to noon and 7pm to 10pm).
We went to dinner at the Liberty Restaurant that night, and before the entrees could even be served, two of our kids were asleep at the table. That 3 hour time difference and busy day caught up with them.
