Around the World in 128 Days - Honolulu - USS Arizona Memorial and More

 

 Travel Day 37 - February 8, 2024 - 13,170 Steps

Good Moring Honolulu!

Busy Harbor

Very busy

Hawaii State Capitol Building

Some 80 years ago they were looking forward to life.

Nu’uanu Pali lookout.

Oh so beautiful views, oh, such blustery winds.

Definitely windy!

Bird in the grass.

Thanks to Linda I can say with a great deal of certainty this is a Common Myna.

One of my life bucket list places. Dad was here in 1944 aboard his ship on the way further west to begin sweeping mines from harbors.

It took some searching, but we finally found the NPS stamp station.

Linda was stampy happy.

Three stamps, happy girl. See only stamped the sites we are going to see.

USS Arizona Memorial. It's reached by boat.

A memorial and grave for the over 1000 sailors and marines aboard her who died that morning in 1941.

Long may it wave.

Looking back along what was battleship row to the USS Missouri.

Aboard the boat that took us back to the pier.

After our visit to the Arizona Memorial, it off to see the ship on whose deck the Japanese surrendered ending the war.

Texas Hill Country boy who rose to become the commander in chief of the Pacific Fleet during the war.

It's difficult to show just how huge a ship like the Missouri really is.

Maybe this can convey a sense of size.

The surrender location. is marked by this plaque located just outside the Captains quarters on a small deck.

Kamikaze about to crash into the ship. 

No explosion occurred and the next morning, the pilots body, wrapped in Japanese flag was buried at sea. right next to where his plane struck the ship.

We followed the self guided tour on all three deck. For some reason I found the mess area intriguing.

Linda showing off her ability to negotiate the steep stairs on the ship.

View from the open bridge.

From what we were overhearing during our walkabout, many visitors were non-English speakers, hence the need for the barrier.

At the end of this post there is a video slide show of what we saw when touring the ship.

My new camera. Have seen so many people using super zoom cameras during our excursions that I order one for pickup at a nearby Best Buy here in Honolulu. Took a taxi, had him wait while I went the store, picked it up and he returned me to the ship. The whole process from ordering the camera a week ago to holding it in my hands couldn't have been easier. Now to learn how to use. It's my first ever Nikon, a Coolpix P950.

Our last sunset over land for more than a week as we head toward Guam later tonight.

Another of those "finds" on Linda's camera.

Special dance , music and song troupe that gave us a sendoff performance.

They can do things neither Linda nor I can.

New Piano player singer in the Billboard Lounge, one half of the duo.

The other half of the duo. The have played together on other ships and not only have music and sing skills, they also have great chemistry together. It's going to an every night stop when they play if the first night means anything.

USS Missouri slide show. Since Dad was a Motor Machinist Mate I always want to visit the engine rooms of the ships we tour. And as almost always happens, the lower levels of the ship were closed to visitors. It isn't like we are going to steal one of those engines, we just want to look at them and see under what conditions the sailors down there worked.