{Hawaiian Vacation} Day Three

Today was "Pearl Harbor Day" as I kept calling it as we (errrr, I) was planning this vacation. The government now lets you reserve tickets for free online and only pay $1.50 per ticket for processing. I was sold on this as I had heard horror stories of people trying to get tickets and getting there super early the morning of and just waiting and waiting in hopes of getting some. Our reservations were for 9:30am, so we packed our lunch up and headed to Pearl Harbor around 7:30am. We arrived at 8:15 and got the stroller out and headed in. I knew we could not bring any bags in with us, but they did say camera bags were okay...well, our camera bag was too big so they turned us away and we either had to pay $3 to get it stored, or take it back to the car. They warned us that it was a high theft area, but we risked it and took the camera back to the trunk of the car.

We went through the gates and picked up our tickets at will call and still had about an hour before our tour began so we walked out to the waterfront. The first thing you see across the Pearl Harbor East Loch is the USS Arizona Memorial. You can also see the bridge to Ford Island and the USS Missouri Museum.

We checked out the USS Arizona Anchor and then continued on to Remembrance Circle and Contemplation Circle. Lauren read the Entertainment Coupon Book because she was bored and then did a few donuts in the stroller with Daddy for good measure.



We had about thirty minutes before our tour started, so we stopped to buy two ornaments for our travel tree and a piece of art for our travel wall at the Gift Shop. Then we headed back to the car to put the stroller away and get the ergo that we borrowed from our buddies Mila and Karlee (and Daryl). Lauren liked the ride. Justin stuck a few snacks in his pockets, thankfully.

We lined up and then went in to the theater and watched a documentary on the attack at Pearl Harbor before boarding the boat. Thankfully, Justin had snacks in his pocket. Lauren is still to little to understand the concept of "quiet" so she wanted to chat in the theater. Food was not allowed, so we snuck her little snacks to help keep the noise down.





It was very windy at the Memorial but it was also very touching. People were very respectful and there were not any children running around crazy or anything like that.

We knew that there was still oil leaking for the sunken ship, but we had no idea just how much oil was actually leaking.





We tossed the flowers from Lauren's lei in to the water to honor the fallen men and women who are entombed within the Arizona.


The Shrine Room at the USS Arizona was very moving.

The memorial was so moving and everyone was being very quiet and respectful that we felt weird asking a stranger to take our picture at the Memorial, so we tried to take one on our own.

Now I realize that the next four pictures are a bit redundant, but I just think they are so adorable. Her little baby hairs blowing in the wind...so I included all of them. We were on the boat back to the main area at Pearl Harbor and she was enjoying the wind in her face...




...and the foreign tourists taking her picture. Everyone loved her and they could not get enough pictures. At one point, they got in trouble for standing up to get a good shot of her on the boat. Once we got off the boat, they were trying to get more pictures of her, but I put her hat on her and they could not see her face. I realized what they wanted, and took her hat off and they started posing for pictures with her. It was seriously so funny. (And Lauren loved them all, because they had dark hair!)


The grounds were so beautiful and well kept. We let Lauren wander around a little bit after we got back from the USS Arizona Memorial, since she was not allowed down while we were in the theater, on the boat, or at the Memorial.




After she walked around a bit, we went inside the "Road to War" and "Attack" exhibit galleries. We found them to be a lot more meaningful to visit them after we had been to the Memorial and watched the video on the attack first.

After we explored the museums, we headed to the car to have some lunch and regroup before driving out to Ko'Olina to check out the new Disney Aulani resort that they had just built. While we were getting things reorganized in the trunk, Lauren started playing with some fallen plumeria flowers.






She fell asleep in the car on the way there, so we had plenty of time to drive around and explore Ko'Olina. It it is a mini city with golf courses, lagoons, housing developments, multiple resorts, etc.


We finally parked at the Aulani and quickly ate some sandwiches and then got Lauren out of the car and in to her stroller. She woke up as we were walking in. Parking was $10 an hour, so we went in, looked around, gave Lauren lunch at one of the lagoons and then headed back to the car. The resort WAS amazing, but at $500+ a night, we do not have any plans of returning.








We got back to our hotel around 3pm, so we decided to go swimming at the Hilton Lagoon (which is actually a public beach and lagoon). We got ready, blew up the floatie and headed over there. Lauren wore the dress Grammie made her as a cover up. We went a different way and walked along the marina instead of through the hotel. The water was somewhat cool, but manageable to be in. Lauren had lots of fun floating and kicking her legs. We did not take the camera with us, for fear of it getting stolen sitting on the beach unattended, so we do not have any pictures. The last picture is a shot of the lagoon I found on the internet.

After our swim, we headed back to our hotel and realized that we were very hungry, so we looked up where the nearest Costco was and headed there. We picked up a rotisserie chicken and strawberries (grown in San Diego!) for Lauren and ordered 2 hot dogs for Justin and I and also a pizza to go for left overs. It was raining a bit and extremely windy. At one point, Lauren's entire plate of food blew away! This was our view from the Costco Food Court. After we quickly ate, we headed back to the hotel for showers and an early bed time.