Hawaii Trip Recap: Day Two- Pearl Harbor & Bon Voyage

My last post was a little short and uninformative. Since we got home, I have been pretty much depleted of all energy. (Blame it on jet-lag, lack of sleep, or the amazing amounts of fun I had) That shouldn't be a problem anymore after I slept through all my classes today and just totally relaxed to recover from the vacation. I live a hard life. So from now on, you get to see what I see, live what I lived, experience what I experienced! On to day 2!

My dad and I began the day by visiting Pearl Harbor. It was a pretty surreal experience, for sure. Here I am sitting on some sort of gun-thing. (See, I learned tons!) Some random guy came up to us and spent a good five minutes explaining how this was the best gun ever made.

Here is a submarine that you could walk through. We didn't.

Is this a bomb or like a little baby plane? My friend, I just don't know.

The long white structure on the right side is the USS Arizona Memorial, which is built directly above a battleship sunk during the attack. On the left is the USS Missouri, another battleship that was in the harbor during the attack.

Inside the memorial are the names of the over 1,000 members of the Navy and Marines who were killed in the USS Arizona. Most of the bodies were never recovered. At the bottom left, there is a smaller list of Pearl Harbor survivors who choose to be buried in the Arizona. Being in this room, I felt such a strong peace and gratitude toward all of these brave men and women.

Part of the Arizona that can be seen from the Memorial. After the ship was attacked it took less than nine minutes for it to sink.

There are similar markers like this one that show were all the U.S. ships were during the attack.

It is impossible to see it in this picture, but there is still oil leaking to the surface from the ship. Every thirty seconds or so, we could see a decent amount of oil bubble up. The crazy thing is that the ship sunk over 68 years ago! Wow.

After Pearl Harbor, we loaded ourselves and our things into our home for the next seven days, the NCL Pride of America. Isn't she a beaut?

We were met by our director, Doug. This is a terrible picture but I could not leave him out. He was a gem.

I took a few pictures of Honolulu.

My brother and I marked our departure by playing a intense game of giant chess. I was the white pieces and he was the black pieces. As you can tell, I kicked his butt. That is what big brothers are for. He consoled himself by cozying up to my queen. How cute.