Hawaiian Travelogue #7: Tour of Pearl Harbor

Woke up early to catch the Pearl Harbor tour, with my pick-up time of 5:50am at the Ala Moana Hotel. Rory had cooked brekkie and insisted that I grab a bite to eat before heading out. It’s a good thing I complied because we didn’t have a chance to grab a bite to eat during the tour until 10:00am.

Note: The trick with Pearl Harbor, from what I had heard, was to get tickets to the USS Arizona Memorial. These are tickets handed out at the entrance but the tickets are limited, and on a first come first served basis only. The tickets can be reserved online too, but the online reservations get sold out months in advance.

Anyhow, when we arrived at Pearl Harbor, our group tickets to the USS Arizona Memorial were scheduled for 11:30am which would not work because our tour would have ended by then. So our tour guide exchanged our tickets with another group and our new schedule was set for 10:00am. To save time, the tour guide reversed the schedule by having the city tour first and the Pearl Harbor tour later.

Back on the bus, we headed towards downtown Honolulu.



As a backgrounder, Honolulu's ideally located port made the city a perfect stop for merchant ships traveling between North America and Asia, and where descendants of missionaries who arrived in the early 1800s established their headquarters in Honolulu, making it the center of business and the main seaport for the Hawaiian Islands.

But the late 1800s and early 1900s brought the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and subsequent annexation by the United States. And under American rule, Honolulu saw the rise of tourism in which the first hotels were constructed in Waikiki; and also brought the U.S. military which built numerous bases in the islands, not least of which was nearby Pearl Harbor, now famous for the surprise attack by the Japanese in 1941, which consequently brought the U.S. into World War II in the Pacific.

Statehood for the islands brought rapid economic growth to Honolulu, with all the state's major businesses headquartered in the city. Moreover, the Honolulu airport became the primary entrance point for visitors, with Waikiki as the center of the island's tourism industry.

Honolulu has a very moderate, tropical climate, with very little change of temperature throughout the year - the average high is 80-90°F (27-32°C) and the average low is 65-75°F (19-24°C) any time of the year. For me, this is the BEST part – I still can’t get over the fact that I don’t have to wear any sweater or jacket. Bliss!

The only noticeable variation in seasons is in terms of rainfall. Honolulu is on the sunny, leeward side of the island, and where you are in the city will affect the chances for rain - areas like Waikiki, downtown, and the western side of the city will usually be sunny, while the hills or eastern side of the city may get some passing clouds and very brief rainfall.

Anyhow, while cruising along the heavily congested traffic highway, the tour guide narrated the encapsulated history of Hawaii and explained the Hawaiian alphabet, which consists of only 13 characters (5 vowels and 7 consonants), plus the apostrophe, called okina, which represents a glottal stop, meaning that the following vowel is pronounced with a catch in the throat. Also, each vowel or diphthong is pronounced separately, such that Likelike Highway is pronounced LEE-keh-LEE-keh, not like-like.

Our first stop was to pay homage before the statue of King Kamehameha. If you will recall, I’ve already been to this part of town, but the commentaries of the guide were simply priceless as she pointed to insights not mentioned in history or guide books.





After some clicks before the statue, we proceeded to the Punchbowl Crater which sits above downtown Honolulu and home to the National Cemetery of the Pacific. Native Hawaiians call this place Puowaina, which translates to "hill of sacrifice."

The guide said that prime lands just above downtown Honolulu on the way to the punchbowl cemetery are called homestead lands and the lucky homeowners only pay $1 in property tax. Can you imagine paying just a dollar for prime land? Wow!

On top of that, the view from the rim of the crater is dramatic. Outward, you can take in a vista from Diamond Head on the right all the way to Barbers Point on the left. Simply beautiful!



In the crater is a verdant resting place for more than 25,000 victims of World War II. Most of the military personnel that perished in the Pearl Harbor attack in 1941 are buried here. The Court of the Missing is dedicated to those whose remains were never recovered from World War II. There is also a monument to Ellison Onizuka, the Hawaiian astronaut who perished in the Challenger space shuttle disaster in 1986. A visit to this impeccably maintained memorial is a moving experience.





Throughout the Punchbowl grounds is a host of meaningful statues and stones etched with weighty, somber words. The statue of Lady Columbia sits abreast of the building that overlooks the vast cemetery grounds, comprising more than 110 acres. Lady Columbia is a symbol of all the despairing mothers of those who perished at Pearl Harbor. Carved along the bottom of the statue is the sobering phrase, “The Solemn Pride That Must Be Yours To Have Laid So Costly a Sacrifice Upon the Altar of Freedom”.



Thereafter, we headed back to Pearl Harbor for the tour.





Going back in history, two waves of fatal attacks pummeled the shores of Pearl Harbor in December of 1941, thus forever changing the lives of millions of people. For the soldiers who perished, the families who grieved their losses and the millions of others who were crushed by the tragic events, life seemed to take a turn for the worst.

Today, the site of Pearl Harbor is toured by thousands paying tribute to those who died fighting for freedom. One of the most significant and important things to do in Honolulu for many is a tour of the Pearl Harbor which offers a deeper look into the calamitous events directly from the shoreline where many lives were taken.

And so, upon arrival, I immediately took the chance to look around and take some meaningful shots to help me capture this moment.
























During the tour, we were afforded a chance to relive the sobering moments through a live narration. We then viewed an emotionally moving film that presents actual footage of the attack, after which, we were taken aboard the official Navy craft to the USS Arizona Memorial.





The USS Arizona Memorial is a floating memorial built over the sunken hull of the Battleship USS Arizona, the final resting place for many of the ship’s crew.











Visitors can pay respects to the almost 1,200 men that rest on the sunken battleship in the Shrine Room where a marble wall exhibits the names of the men who lost their lives on the USS Arizona. Poignant and powerful, this is a place where visitors come face to face with the devastating effects of war.







After the tour, we were shuttled back to the harbor.



Back on dry land, I noticed that everyone really focuses on the tickets to the USS Arizona Memorial when the rest of Pearl Harbor has lots of interesting stuff to offer. With a few minutes to spare before departure time, I took this opportunity to look at other interesting places that I missed out earlier.

Back on the tour bus, I was dropped off at Ala Moana Hotel at 11:30am. But due to the heat, I stayed put at Violy’s place for the rest of the afternoon in order to catch up on my emails, check in online for my flight back to Bellingham, as well as book a speedishuttle for my trip to the airport.

At 5:30pm, we headed out for dinner at Tanaka of Tokyo Restaurant as my “thank you” treat to Violy and Rory for being such gracious hosts, as well as my advance birthday treat for Rory.











And this time, I made sure I had a taste of mai tai to go with my teriyaki chicken to cap the night. Oh yeah, it was delish!





Indeed, what a wonderful evening to cap a wonderful day!

To Be Continued...........