Literally, yesterday, as I was walking onto the airplane, I was trying to secure tickets to the USS Arizona at an early time. The tickets for the next day are released at 7:00 A.M. Hawaii time which meant 1:00 EST. Ugh. I was frantically typing so that I could get the 8:00 A.M. tour for 8 people. Luckily we were able to reserve 8 of the 70 tickets released for 8:00. Whew.
At Pearl Harbor we saw a 20 minute film about the attack, what came before, and what came after. The footage that they were able to get was amazing - footage of both the Americans and the Japanese. While on the USS Arizona Memorial, I was haunted by the idea that 900 men are still submerged in the ship. You can see very little of the ship, but the white buoys mark its length. The whole experience was very moving and very humbling.
Later in the afternoon we decided to go to the beach outside the hotel. The beach is very narrow and the water is a little rough. In addition the floor of the ocean has tons of rocks of all sizes that move around and sometimes bang into you. This was quite a different beach experience. The kids did not seem to mind as they jumped right in as usual. We rented Luke a boogie board which he played with for almost two hours. I love watching him play with the boogie board in the ocean. It's clear to see that it brings him such joy.
For a late dinner we went to Eggs 'n Things which served really great breakfast. Everyone agreed that it was delicious. Luke didn't quite make it, though. After eating most of his dinner, he fell asleep with sunglasses on. I guess he was really trying to hide the fact that he was sleeping. Nice try, buddy. We totally busted him and took many pictures. Everyone was asleep by 10:30. Jet lag is rough.
