Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial are two things I have been hoping to show the kids for about a year. When we began with Classical Conversations for homeschool last year, we studied US History. And we spent a week talking about Pearl Harbor and the kids memorized a song about it. We taught the kids about WWII in an age appropriate way, and I was excited to make this come alive in their minds. If you are planning to visit this area, officially called the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument, please be aware of a few things. First (and allow me to get on my soap box), the memorial is FREE. If you have a rental car, you do NOT need to book an expensive excursion or tour company to see this, it is a National Park. It bugs me that if you just do an internet search, the things that pop up are expensive tour companies. Some even have .org addresses! The best place to start your research is the National Parks website nps.gov. From there you can learn all about opening times, closures, costs, and available tours. If you want to book a time to visit the memorial, you can do so at 60 days out for $1 per ticket. Alternatively, you can show up when they open and get free tickets that they hold back for day-of visitors. The tickets are for the movie and the boat ride to the USS Arizona Memorial. Second, be careful what you bring with you. If it is larger than a cell phone, you cannot bring it in. You cannot bring in a backpack. You cannot bring in a camera bag. You cannot bring in a large purse. The official size dimension is 1.5x 2.5 x 5.5 and this rule is strictly enforced. There are lockers available to rent. Beware if you choose to leave your purse in your car. Lock it in the trunk! Thieves know about the rule and purses left in cars by tourists are easy pickin's. Third, at the time of writing this (February 2019) you cannot go onto the USS Arizona memorial because the dock is unstable. According to the National Parks website, it should reopen in March of 2019. However, when we were there in January of 2019, they had not started working on it. While it is closed, you can still watch the movie and then the boat will take you around the memorial, but you will not get off the boat. It was still worth it for us. Ok, enough with my disclaimers, on to our day! Our plan for the Valor in the Pacific Memorial was to check out of the Outrigger Reef, head to the Memorial, then check into Aulani in the afternoon for the rest of our stay. Check out was easy and there was minimal traffic on our way to Pearl Harbor. I had secured us 11am tickets for the movie and boat, and we were parking the car at 9am. Perfect! There is a lot more to do at the Valor in the Pacific Memorial than just the USS Arizona Memorial. There is a museum, you can tour the Bowfin submarine, you can tour the USS Missouri battleship, and you can go to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. The Mighty Mo' and the Aviation Museum are both located on Ford Island, an active military installation, so if you decide to tour them, a motor coach to the island is included in your ticket price. Unless you are active duty military, then you are able to go on base yourself. Rob and I previously toured the Missouri and the Aviation Museum, so this visit we focused on the USS Arizona Memorial and the Bowfin. Since we arrived early, we were thinking of touring the Bowfin and then seeing the movie/memorial. When I went to pick up our tickets, they had 9:30 tour tickets available and switched us! We had a short wait and then we saw the film. The film was very well done, including actual historical footage, a history of the battle and the war in the Pacific, and information about the building of the memorial. The kids learned a lot, and it was appropriate, even for 6 year olds. After the film, they explained the rules of the boat ride to the memorial. They explained that we would not be docking and that we were to remain seated at all times, then we boarded the transport boat. The boats are actually US Navy boats and are crewed by Naval officers. In their starched white uniforms, they take this duty seriously! The boat ride out and around the memorial was about 20 minutes. Twice they stopped the boat so we could take pictures and pay our respects (from a seated position). My pictures, surprisingly, are terrible. Rob and I spent most of the time narrating to the kids what they were seeing and picture taking was not a priority. I could share hundreds of tidbits we learned about the attack, but I won't. Please indulge me one fact. The USS Arizona, over which the memorial was built, is still leaking fuel. Because it was scheduled to head out the next day, the ship was full of fuel. Despite the fires from the attack, experts estimate 500,000 gallons of fuel sank with the ship. About 9 quarts of oil leak out each day. People refer to these drop of oil as "black tears." Our next stop was the USS Bowfin Submarine. If you've ever wondered what life is like in a submarine, this is a must visit. The USS Bowfin served 9 war patrols from 1943 to 1945, each patrol lasting about 2 months. During her service she sank 39 Japanese merchant ships and 4 Japanese war ships. She now sits in Pearl Harbor and is part of the Valor in the Pacific Memorial. Lucky for you, I took lots of photos. One thing I have neglected to tell you, it was freezing on this day and windy. Ok, so it was about 70 degrees and windy, but when you are expecting a tropical vacation, that's cold! After touring the USS Bowfin, we had a quick lunch at the outdoor cafe (this place could seriously use some improvement in the food department) and then went through the submarine museum. We learned a lot about subs and the role they played in WWII. Another place I recommend visiting if you can. Then we went to Ford Island, which is such a cool place to visit. First, it's living history because you can see actual buildings that were hit during the attack. You can see where the runway once was. You can visit the Battleship Missouri and you can tour the Aviation Museum. Second, it is an active Naval base. There are families stationed there! Can you imagine living on Ford Island? Amazing. And the base housing is really nice. As I said before, we were not touring the Mighty Mo' or the Aviation Museum this trip. We did, however, show the kids some of the building with bullet holes from the attack. And we visited the USS Utah, another battleship resting in Pearl Harbor. The USS Utah is actually more interesting to see because it rests half out of the water, half in the water and it sits very close to the shore. I guess Rob and I both had the same idea to take a picture of the other one looking at the ship with the kids. Great minds! That was the end of our time at Pearl Harbor. Just for reference, we were on Ford Island, looking at the USS Utah at about 12:30. So the USS Arizona, the USS Bowfin, lunch, the Submarine Museum, and driving around Ford Island took about 3 hours. At this point, the kids were reaching the end of their patience with looking at cool historical stuff, so we loaded into the car to head off to Ko Olina and Disney's Aulani Resort.
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After striking out with Diamond Head the day before, we made sure to be up and out of the hotel at 6:30. That was the perfect time because the parking lot was mostly empty and the hiking trail to the top wasn't too crowded. But let me take a step back, in case you aren't familiar with Diamond Head. Also known as Lē'ahi State Monument, Diamond Head is an extinct volcano and is one of the most recognizable geographical features of Oahu. You can either walk into the park for $1 per person, or park your car in their tiny lot for $5 per car. Get their early, or late, to get a spot! The Diamond Head Summit Trail is 1.6 miles round trip. We did the whole thing in about an hour and fifteen minutes. The day we were there, we didn't see many other kids and we got a few comments about them being "brave." Honestly, parts of the trail are steep and there are a lot of stairs at the top, but the kids and their low centers of gravity were better able to handle the trail than I was! Plus they have all that kid energy. So go, take your kids, don't miss the views! Having summited Diamond Head, we had a brunch to get to! I booked the Hale Koa brunch about a week before our trip and I was so glad I did. The brunch is only held on Sundays but is open to all military, not just those staying at the hotel. And let me tell you, the price is right. Adult are $39.95 and kids under 11 are $12.95! For Hawaii, that's a bargain. The adult price also includes a mimosa. The food was delicious. Sushi, fruit, carving stations, peel and eat shrimp, pancakes, omelet station, all the brunch staples. I was so busy eating I didn't take any pictures. Sorry! For our final afternoon in Waikiki, we decided to rent beach loungers and let the kids run free. They spent their time frolicking and collecting invertebrates. It was Ryan's best day so far. Since we were leaving the next day to go to Aulani, I took about an hour and went up to our room to pack. I also took the opportunity to take photos of our room at the Outrigger Reef. I was really pleased with the room size at this hotel. We were never squished or felt like we were on top of each other. There was lots of storage. We could have spent a week in this room, no problem. For our final meal in Waikiki, we headed down the beach to Duke's. This is an awesome restaurant and is famous for it's drinks and views of the sunset. Oh, and the Hula Pie is amazing, but I skipped it this time. We actually went at the worst possible time and had to wait about 45 minutes for a table. Dinner was worth it, though. That was the end of our time at the Outrigger Reef and Waikiki Beach. I will admit, I was a little nervous. The kids looooved Waikiki and were not happy to leave. Would the magic of Disney's Aulani be enough to wipe away their tears? Day two started out like day one, watching the sun rise over Diamond Head. Then we had breakfast at The Reef Bar and Grill at the hotel. This used to be The Shorebird, but is now operated by the hotel. It has to be some of the best restaurant real estate in Waikiki. After breakfast we thought we would hike up Diamond Head. But we arrived at 9am and there was no parking anywhere. Since we didn't want to walk 2 miles to the trail before hiking up, we decided to go with Plan B and head to the North Shore. The drive was about 45 minutes, but it was worth it! The North Shore in the winter has some of the biggest waves I've ever seen. When you think about people surfing in a pipeline wave, that the North Shore in the winter. We saw a few pipeline waves but there was no one out surfing where we were. For lunch there is only one choice in the North Shore area, Giovani's Shrimp Truck! Bellies full, it was time for dessert. Time to stop at the Dole Plantation for the world famous, Dole Whip! We also took the train tour of the plantation and ran through the World's Largest Maze (which is, of course, shaped like a pineapple. One thing I found interesting is that Mr. Dole wasn't the first, or biggest pineapple grower. But he was the first to can his pineapple, making it easier to sell in the mainland US, and that's why when you think pineapple, you think Dole. All this touristing, and we were still back at the hotel by 3:30! You can get a lot in when you start before the sun rises. The kids were full of energy (how?) so we spent the evening at the Outrigger Reef pool. For dinner we ordered some appetizers from the pool bar and let the kids swim and eat as their leisure. Actually, it was pretty windy and we all wanted to go up to bed around 7pm. And that was Day 2! Read about the previous day here. "Are we allowed to be up yet?" No parent wants to hear that at 4am, but if you've ever taken an East Coast kid to Hawaii, you probably have. We ignored the kids as long as we could, but at 4:30 we had to admit defeat. No one was going back to sleep. The kids were starting to get rowdy and they were collecting garbage loudly outside our window. Note to self, when there is a sound machine on the nightstand, go ahead and change rooms. We were all hungry and luckily I had spied an IHOP across the street on our way in. Breakfast was over by 6am, so we decided to watch the sunrise from the beach. It was a quick walk two blocks to the Outrigger Reef where we would be staying for the next three nights. We thought we might watch the sun rise then see if they would let us check in early. This hotel is FANTASTIC and let us check in at 6:20am, plus our room was ready. Not only that, they gave us each a cool towel scented with coconut water and a glass of papaya, orange, guava juice, with a little sparkling water in it. It was amazing. Fully juiced, we headed to the beach. We started out saying "stay out of the water" because we weren't in swim suits. That lasted about 5 minutes. The kids were in heaven! Rob volunteered to walk back to the other resort and get our stuff and the car. Once we were properly attired, we headed down to the beach for real. When everyone was getting hungry for lunch, we thought we would walk down to the Hale Koa for lunch and a dip in their pool. The Hale Koa is the military resort on Waikiki (like Shades of Green in Orlando) and anyone with a military id can swim in their pool. Or so we thought. When we arrived at the Hale Koa we found the pool closed and completely demolished. What! No where on their website did they mention pool construction, and I know because I had been looking for available rooms when we added the two extra days on Wednesday. The adults only pool is now the only pool at the Hale Koa, so only registered guests are allowed to swim there. Boo! We did grab an affordable lunch and I took a spin around the BX while we were there. Then we walked back down the beach to the Outrigger to check out their pool. It is a nice size and there are plenty of chairs. However, the pool is blocked on all sides by high rise hotel buildings so the water never sees the sun and is freezing. For dinner we walked to Moose McGillycuddy's. Rob has a lot of good memories from going there when he was an Air Force crew dog. I started to feel really sick on our walk over and dinner was not a pleasant experience for me. Nor was the "let's just check in a beer across the street at Kelly O'Neils" that came after dinner. I'm not sure if it was delayed air sickness, some bizarre travel stomach bug, or just fatigue. But I felt awful and was ready for bed. Read about the next day.
Read my PreTrip Report here. Remember how my pre-trip report said we were going to fly to LA, on Friday, spend the night and then fly to Honolulu the next morning? Well... that didn't happen. Tuesday night, we checked the loads and the Friday flight to LA was getting tight. We did what all good non-rev passengers do, and we looked at every angle. Leaving Thursday and spending 2 nights in LA seemed like our best bet. Until I went to our homeschool co-op on Wednesday and Rob started texting me that maybe we should rip the bandaid off and fly all the way from Cincinnati to Honolulu on Thursday, giving us two extra days in Waikiki. I told him if he could take care of the hotel details and the rental car, I could be packed and ready to go. This non-rev life is not for the inflexible! So after a full day at co-op, I got everything ready while Rob worked fast and furiously on the computer to get hotel and car arrangements in place. We told the kids at the last possible minute about the change, because we wanted to be sure. They still thought we were leaving Friday, so after dinner we told them we were waking up at 5am the next morning to go straight to Hawaii!! The problem with going from Cincinnati to LA and then LA to Honolulu in one day is what they call in the biz "a five hour sit." Yup. Five hours in LAX. Since we have the Delta Amex card, Rob and I can access the Sky Club and when we saw that there were no places to sit in LAX (and people were sleeping on the floor), we decided to buy the kids a one day Sky Club pass. It was so nice to sit in the relatively quiet Sky Club instead of out in the hubbub of the main terminal. Plus there are free food, drinks and wifi. Winning! (Are we still saying winning?) Five hours later we received a Delta miracle! 4 seats to Honolulu, together! Well, sort of. We got three seats next to each other and one seat across the aisle. At first, Ryan said he wanted to sit by himself. But at the last minute he changed his mind and I got to fly to Hawaii alone! Let the vacation begin. When we finally landed in Hawaii, we were exhausted and we still had to get the luggage and the car, then drive to Waikiki. We decided it was best to divide and conquer. The boys went to get the rental car and the girls got the luggage. Waikiki is a short 20 minute drive from the airport, which is nice. We quickly checked into our first (of 3) hotels. We were staying just one night at the Courtyard Waikiki. The lobby was very impressive, and although the room was clean and looked nice, there was a weird smell. We were glad it was just one night. Finally, our day was done. A mere 20 hours after we woke up in Kentucky, we fell asleep in Hawaii. Read Day 1 here.
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