Hawaii - Ohau - Day 5

Sunday August 19th, 2007

This morning were up early to pack up and leave the the Bed and Breakfast so we could see Pearl Harbour. It opens up at 7:30 am for tickets so tried to get there for opening to avoid the crowds, We got there at opening but the buses were already there. We were in line for about 30-40 minutes before we got out ticket and then had about an hour to wait before we could get onto the national momument the USS Arizona. We got some head sets for $5 so we could go through the musuem area and learn about the artifacts recovered and the events that happened on December 7, 1941. I never realized the extent of damage that happened at the Pearl Harbour attacks. I was glad that we went even though I was frustrated at first with the waiting.

We headed out to the Memorial. It's a white platform to be able to view the sunken ship that sits in the bottom of the harber. You see parts of it out of the water in sections. Apparently, during the war they were able to reuse many of the ships in battle with the exception of the two ships that were badly damaged. So they left the Arizona there as a reminder. Apparently, the ship still has oil coming out of it after 65 years.

After going to Pearl Harbour, we went to have some lunch and drop off the car back at the airport. I had wanted some Chinese food Jamie spotted a place just after we passed the airport. It wasn't the greatest looking but it was a buffet with all kinds of foods (Japanese, Chinese and some more American foods). The food was really good and it looked like all the locals ate there.
We got some gas and took the rental car back. We then had to find our way back to the Peir to catch the ship. We took the Avis shuttle back to the Airport and then found a shuttle to get the Peir from there. We were on the ship about 2 pm or so.

The ship is called the Pride of Aloha and it's an older Norwegian Cruise Lines ship but still really nice. We orginally were to have an outside cabin on the 5th floor of the 12 floors of the ship but we were upgraded to the 8th floor in the forward (front) section of the boat. We got our stuff away (so nice we get to see so much and not have to move from hotel to hotel) and toured around the ship a bit.

At 4 o'clock we listened to the ships tours talk (mostly to get ideas) and then at 5:30 we had the manditory US Coast Guard drill. We had dinner on the pool deck and then watched the sun set over the navy air base and the west coast of Oahu. There was some Hawiian entertainment too.

We didn't set sail until about 7 pm. We booked some more car rentals and such and listened to the musicians play some Big Band Music before going to bed .