(this happened on)  Monday 6th July, 2009

The Gap Year Gang Remember The Brave

Inside USS Bowfin

Sabastian and I were off on our own today as we were going on a full day coach tour called The Pearl Harbor Heroes Adventure Tour.

First we went on a Submarine called the USS Bowfin. Wow, I, feel sorry for anybody who had to serve on one of those old subs.

The lack of room would soon have most people suffering from major claustrophobia and apparently when they had to do silent running to avoid detection from ships above, all air conditioning is off and apparently the guys would be just dripping with sweat, not just hot but literally dripping on the floor sweating.

The guys in the torpedo area literally sleep on top of the torpedo with another right above their heads.

The galley was quite amazing, no more than a tiny kitchen that most people would struggle to feed a family of four from let alone a crew of 100+ people.

Next we headed out to the site of the USS Arizona.

First we are shown a film explaining what happened on that fateful day, then it’s out of the theatre and onto a navy launch which whisks you across to the memorial.

It’s quite a moving site, the water has a non stop oil slick which is leaking from the ship 24/7.

apparently this could all be removed as the technology is available but we are told that the fact that the ship is actually an official resting place of over 1000 souls and it is felt that as it might not be just oil that is being removed it would not ever happen.

It’s a silent and haunting scene.

Next we are whisked back to shore and back onto the coach and off to the USS Missouri.

The USS Missouri was the scene of the final surrender by the Japanese, It’s a massive ship over 800 feet long and the tour was amazing as we get to see most of the ship.

Finally we head over to the Pacific Aviation Museum which is right in the same area as the attack and right next to the old airfield control tower. Some of the buildings around the area still have damage showing from the attacks.

It was a long and quite educational day, well worth doing.

USS Missouri

‘Girls day today as Alan and Basty went off early, their bus was due at 7:30am.

I knew that Sasha had again stayed downstairs on here computer until 4:00am so, I let her sleep in until midday.

It still took her until around 2:00pm until she was ready to go out and about.

We waited at the tram stop for around 20 minutes before giving up and catching a cab to Walmart. I got into the queue to return all the items I did not like or that did not fit and what a queue it was , a non moving queue, three ladies working the finances desk bit on one on returns. One guy was being dealt with for about 20 minutes and then the women walked off into the store with him, I still had five people in front of me and the line behind was now all the way to the door!

Eventually a lady from another checkout fetched me and it was sorted quite quickly from then on. I found Sasha in the underwear department, she had filled a trolley with stuff to try on.

At the changing rooms she could only take six items in at a time, by this time she was hyper with excitement. After a lot of time and trying on she had whittled it down to two bra and pant sets and a pair of green check shorts.

I found replacements for the dress and trousers I had returned with two larger dresses.

We got cards and some crayons.

Our next target was Walgreens for make up and in Sasha’s case some Captain Crunch and Lucky Charms breakfast cereals and milk.

Then on to the Mall, Sasha wanted to choose some glasses, she feels wearing glasses gives her much more confidence and what can I say, as a child I always wanted glasses as I thought they would make me look more intelligent and it might rub off on me. We also got two pairs of matching pink poppy hair clips and lots, lots more.

We both loved the bags in the Ed Hardy shop.

We wanted to go to the Borders book shop to try to get my friend Michelles book (The Undrowned Child) but we were all out of energy so instead we jumped in a cab and got back to the room just after the boys.

USS Arizona (very moving)

We needed food except for Sasha who by this time had overdosed on Captain Crunch and Lucky Charms.  For tonight we decided to go to the Wailama Coffee Shop, which had been recommended by a few people and was always busy when we walked past, it’s just two doors down from the hotel.

The food was bloody awful, truly horrible all except Basty’s, he had pancakes and Ice Cream and seemed to enjoy it, the only good thing about the place was the entertainment value of the batty old Asian woman who served us.

Still hungry we sent Basty back to the room while Sofia and I headed to Margarita’s Local Beach Bar.

We Played Cards and had nice cold drinks, we ordered Wings and Chilli Cheese Fries to fill the gap left after our visit to Wailama Coffee Shop.

Sofia beat me at cards yet again.

pearl harbor, hawaii, oahu, waikiki, walgreens, world travel gap year, adventure, holiday, gap year, gap year travel, USS Bowfin, USS Arizona, USS Missouri, walmart, captain crunch, lucky charms, wailama coffee shop, Margarita’s Local Beach Bar