Other Hawaii posts: Kauai, Kauai Quilting, Kauai Food, Kauai Sightseeing, Oahu Fireworks, Oahu Food.
On July 7th we went to Pearl Harbor. It deserves its own post, honestly.
The entire Pearl Harbor site is a solemn, efficient, respectful, and yet somehow still entirely pleasant experience. They allow pictures pretty much everywhere; the entire site exists to keep Pearl Harbor in everyone’s memory. The staff are very informed and polite, and they treat military men with the utmost respect. Especially older ones. Some of the last remaining survivors volunteer there and tell their stories.
The Visitors Center lets you buy tickets for all the sites (USS Arizona, USS Missouri, USS Bowfin, Pacific Aviation Museum) in one place. The USS Arizona Memorial is obviously the big draw here, and the tickets are free. But you have to go early or the tours will run out. We got there around 9am, and we were on a 12:15 tour for the Arizona. So we went to the Pacific Aviation Museum in the meantime, and it is so well done.
The museum is split into 2 hangars on Ford Island, 37 and 79. Hangar 37 is a detailed recreation of the events of December 7, 1941 and the months that followed.
