Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!

This is a long post. You have been warned.

Our day started relatively early, as we planned to attend the 9:00 church meeting this morning. We ran into some problems (couldn’t get onto the road we needed to get on to and my dress ripped) so we went back to the hotel to regroup and by the time we got everything together, it was time for the 11:00 meeting. So we went to that. There’s a church building right here in Kapolei, and three wards meet in it. We attended the Kapolei Ward sacrament meeting. Nice little family ward. The stake president and his wife spoke. I enjoyed her talk on fast offerings and being grateful for what we have and generous in helping others.

After sacrament meeting, we went to Pearl Harbor. This was one of John’s most important things to do in Hawaii and we felt it was a nice and appropriate thing to do on a Sunday. I’m going to post some pictures and make a few comments about our visit, and then I’m going to turn the time over to my guest blogger, John, to share his feelings about visiting Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial.

Today we just visited the USS Arizona Memorial. There is also a submarine, an aviation museum and a ferry ride to the USS Oklahoma Memorial. These cost money, so we decided to wait to do them on Monday. To visit the memorial, you get a ticket, which has a time on it. Each ticket has a little biography on the back of a serviceman who died on that day. When your time comes up, you go to the theater and watch a short film about the events of December 7, 1941. After the film, you’re escorted to a boat which is piloted by Navy sailors who take you to the memorial.

The memorial sits directly over the sunken remains of the USS Arizona, the battleship stationed in Pearl Harbor which had the greatest number of casualties in the attack. 1177 Sailors and Marines died when the ship took a direct hit to the weapons bay and the ship exploded. The ship with the next largest number of casualties was the USS Oklahoma, where 429 men lost their lives.

Because of the shallow waters in the harbor, parts of the ship stick up above the water and can easily be seen. On calm days a great deal of the ship can be seen under the water. Inside the memorial, there is a wall of honor listing the names of the men who died. There is a smaller list of survivors of the attack who were later buried with their fellow servicemen. The ranger (it’s a National Memorial run by the National Parks Service, and yes, we got a stamp) told us that the survivors who are buried there were cremated, and divers took the urns carrying the remains down into the ship for burial.

This is what’s left of one of the gun turrets.

There's a hole in the floor of the memorial where you can look down on the ship.

From the shrine inside the memorial:

The names of the fallen:

These are the names of the survivors who were later buried here.

After visiting the memorial, we returned to the visitor center and toured the museum they have there. They are building a whole new and expanded visitor’s center and museum, and a number of the artifacts had been removed from the exhibits, and we figured they were cleaning them up and preserving them for the new site.

It was a solemn visit, but one that we both appreciated. It was inspiring to read the accounts of the men who fought valiantly under some rather dire circumstances.

Now I turn the time over to John to share his feelings about our visit today.

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Elizabeth invited me to Guest Blog about my feelings about visiting the USS Arizona Memorial in Pear Harbor today. I’ll do my best.

I’ve been interested in the WWII Pacific Theatre since I was in about 5^th grade. I read every book in the school library about it and continue to read about and study it today. Obviously, the December 7, 1941 surprise attack on the US Naval, Marine Corps and Army installations in and around Pearl Harbor was a major chapter in these studies and I have wanted to visit the USS Arizona Memorial since I sailed past it on the deck of the USS Pintado in May, 1889. Elizabeth and I visited that memorial today, November 15 and paid our respects to those who served and died that day.

I knew about the details of the attack already, but I had always wanted to learn more about the servicemen. We read and watched movies today about individuals who died on board the Arizona. Most of them were young men about the age I was when I was in the navy. They lost their lives in the service of their country and I felt for them. They deserved to be honored and I left that the memorial was just right.

Visiting the memorial made me think about my brief naval service and how I could have served in several wars and conflicts if I had remained in the navy. How would my life have been different? At the very least, I would not have Elizabeth and Meghan and Sam and Erin and that thought makes me happy with my lot. But I hope I would have been brave and served with honor and led my sailors with skill to accomplish our mission.

The memorial reminds us of the individuals who served and died that day and throughout our nation’s history for us. They were brave and served to keep us free. After we pay our respects wherever we are and at memorials like this, we can continue to honor their sacrifice today by being active and vigilant citizens who love and protect our great nation and the freedoms they helped to preserve.

A Very Grateful John

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While there, at first we didn’t know what branch of service the boat pilots were from, because John said he had never seen their uniforms before. He asked the park ranger who they were and was surprised to find out they were Navy, and had just started wearing these new uniforms. They’re replacing pretty much everything except dress blues. No more white bell-bottoms! Here’s a sneaky picture I took:

After visiting the memorial, we headed out, along the coast for a nice Sunday drive. First we drove east from Pearl Harbor (A), through Waikiki, past Hanauma Bay (B) then out past Makakapuu Point, the easternmost point on Oahu. Then we drove north a bit, past Waimanalo Beach (C) then turned into the interior of the island, through the rainforest, down Pali Highway with a stop at Pali Lookout (D) and back into Honolulu (E). See the map below for the marker references.

Right now there’s some sort of storm out here in the Pacific that’s causing a great deal of trouble. Kona, on the big island of Hawaii had over 15 inches of rain yesterday alone! Most of the beaches on the eastern coast of Oahu have red flags up because the surf is so high. Of course, all the surfers are out trying to catch a big one! On Saturday some of the beaches were closed. The waves we saw were really big and coming in fast and furious. This appears to be the same storm that is causing all the trouble with my sunsets.

Anyway, here are some pictures.

This was taken at Halona Point, which is just past Hanauma Bay (B). Beautiful dark rocks with white waves crashing all around with the most gorgeous color of blue water imaginable.

This picture is from Makapuu Beach Park. You can see the lighthouse up on the hill. That rock, where the lighthouse is, is Makapuu Point, the easternmost point of Oahu, and is the place where the tradewinds divide.

We then drove on up a little more, through the little town of Waimanalo, which is just what I imagined a little town in Hawaii looking like. Lush and green, with small and simple houses. I mean, really, if you live halfway between these gorgeous mountains and this beautiful ocean, a fancy house is just overkill.

These pictures are right above Waimanalo. We turned onto Pali Highway (where the map says “61”) and enjoyed the drive through the rainforest. It’s just so green! Keep in mind we’re staying on the leeward side of the island, where they don’t get nearly as much rain. It looks a lot like California in the summer: brown and dry. So, this was so nice to see.

We stopped off at Nuuanu Pali Lookout (D), in Nuuanu Pali State Wayside Park. It was so windy. I couldn’t believe how windy it was out at the point. But the view was spectacular (I’m running out of words that mean “really, really, really pretty”). I spent most of the time trying to keep the skirt of my dress from flying up over my head and to keep from losing my wrap. I did lose it at one point, when John and I were trying to take pictures of me pretending to be flying. My skirt blew up over my head, so I let go of the wrap to grab my skirt, and luckily a lady caught it before it blew away forever. I’m pretty sure I put on a show for everyone there, but John says he didn’t see anything. Some of my pictures show otherwise (they will self-destruct in 1 minute. . .) Eeeek!!

These two pictures were taken from the Lookout. If you’re wondering what’s down there, I took a picture of the “What can you see from here” sign and I can look it up for you.

Here are a couple of pictures of us being blown around. They just do not even begin to show how windy it was. I think the only time I’ve been in stronger wind was at the top of Rocky Mountain National Park, where there’s a little path near the Alpine visitor’s center that goes up to a spot that was so windy, we couldn’t even stand up straight. One of the problems we had, was that it was so windy that we couldn’t hold the camera steady. So most of the pictures are blurry. The ones above I used the wall to keep the camera still. None of our superman pictures came out.

See how John’s hair and clothes are blown straight back? The wind even unfolded his left-hand sleeve.

It took me a good 10 minutes to untangle my hair after we got back in the car. It was a mess.

Pali Highway is a beautiful drive that dumps you out right in Honolulu (E), where we were able to pick up the freeway that took us back to the resort. When we got back, John grilled us up some kebabs with steak with teriyaki sauce, pineapple chunks (cut fresh from a whole pineapple), red potatoes, and grilled mango slabs on the side. We sat down at a table outside to eat, and not long after that discovered that were were sitting in the smoking area. We found out the hard way, when people started showing up to smoke. We finished up quickly and headed up to room. Where I then proceeded to write this long and winded account of our day.