The Clarkenhovens.....: Hawaii ~ Thursday, July 3rd

On Thursday, we got up a little later but I was still able to catch a couple of "sunrises". Like I mentioned they always seemed to include clouds!

I like this one with the sun shining through the clouds.

Emily decided to skip this early morning set of sunrises!!

We had lots of visitors on the balcony. Emily liked to put the crumbs from a chip bag out there so that they would come and visit!

This was the day that we chose to go out to Pearl Harbor. We were a little discouraged with the line when we got there but it seemed to move fairly quickly once we got there. We even ran into a couple from our home town there!!

My friend De Anna had been to Hawaii a couple of months ago and suggested that we get the Audio Tour while we were there and we thought it was well worth it. They had survivors talking and giving information and it was very interesting.

I liked this display of most of the 50 states' license plates that honor Pearl Harbor Survivors.

While we were there the USS Kitty Hawk was in port. It is a very impressive ship. Apparently it is heading out for it's last tour of duty and will be ending up in Bremerton to be decommissioned.

I liked how they kept each of the moorings for each of the ships that were lost on that day.

This was a picture I took while we were waiting for the boat to take us to the memorial site. It was a very warm day. It was one of the only days where it was overwhelmingly hot. The rest of the time there were plenty of trade winds and it was fine.

The USS Missouri was also there.

We waited for about an hour for the boat to take us out to the Memorial. We were reminded several times to not talk or to talk in really quiet voices if necessary as this was the final resting place for over 900 people that were still buried with the ship. Almost every one respected this request except for one man who talked very loudly on his cell phone. I was very irritated by him.

In this picture you can see where part of the ship is above water and some of it is showing below water as well.

Here is the original mooring for the USS Arizona.

This was in the room that they called the Shrine. It displays the names of everyone who lost their life that day.

We all decided after the visit was over that we were really glad that we had gone. It was very interesting and it was a very important part of History.

Here's a pic of a Bird of Paradise that I found. They are so beautiful.

Later that day I went to the beach to find a sunset while Gord took the girls to our Hotel swimming pool.

I was not able to find a sunset, in fact it started to rain once I got there. I like this shot of the silhouetted surfer.

The waves were really pretty too!

I think I got these pictures a little out of order. I was taking them with two separate cameras so they're a little jumbled. We went on a little walk along the canal after we got back from Pearl Harbor. This is the same canal that Gord ran along in the mornings. He said it was really pretty to run there. The only bad thing is the canal is very contaminated so it's very important not to fall in!!