Day 6: Pearl Harbor day, Hula Grill, and more

Wednesday, June 5

Wednesday was our Pearl Harbor day! I think it’s pretty much a given that you have to visit it if you go to Oahu.

It’s slightly confusing to sort out the ticket options. The main site is the Visitor Center and USS Arizona memorial. But there are also several other museums both on site and off site related to Pearl Harbor that cost extra and require extra tickets.

It’s necessary to book a time slot (for $1!) for the USS Arizona visit in advance, so I had booked ours for 12:00 noon. I figured this would give us time to take it easy in the morning, get there without rushing, and hopefully have some time to start exploring the visitor center exhibits before our 12:00 reservation. (There is a possible standby option but with a group of 6 that sounded like a bad plan.)

In the morning, Ethan and I walked to the McDonald’s in Waikiki. At the last minute, Ivan decided to join us.

Was a beautiful morning and we got some breakfast sandwiches and sat there for a little bit and talked.

I bought some food to go for the others and we headed back to get ready.

Pearl Harbor

I think we hit the road around 9:30. Someone asked in the comments how we fit so much in on our days on vacation and don’t we need a while to get going in the morning? I guess I feel like we are NOT super fast in the morning! I feel like many other people are up, shower and head out by 7-8 am to go touring. For us, we are usually more in the 9-10:00 range. I feel like this is later than “average”? No? I guess I’m not sure! 🤷‍♀️

But if we wake up around 6:30/7, that gives us often ~3 hours or so to just relax, shower if needed, hang out and have coffee, etc. I intentionally take a slower morning into account most days (with the exception that sometimes it is warranted to leave earlier!).

Anyway, we left by about 9:30 am which felt like plenty of time.

It was maybe a 30 minute total drive to Pearl Harbor. Paid the parking and headed in. (Of note, NO bags or purses are allowed in. I patted myself on the back for reading the info online and knowing this- we came prepared with just ourselves and our phones in our pockets. Many other people got turned away and had to go wait in a big locker line.)

Inside, we decided to buy the audio guides (included 60 minutes of material with stops all along the exhibits and also 3 discussing the USS Arizona.)

There is a 25 minute video in the theater which is a must do to get a full overview of the history of Pearl Harbor. It runs on the :15 and :45 every hour. We did this right away to make sure we didn’t miss it.

Then we toured one of the big exhibit buildings and listened to the audio stops.

By 11:50 we had to line up to check in for our USS Arizona tour. They take you on a boat out to the memorial site.

From the boat on the way out:

Up close of the memorial. For those who don’t know, the Arizona is just one of the battleships that was sunk in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Over 1,000 men on this ship died and their remains are still below the surface in the sunken ship (which was eventually declared a mass gravesite).

Inside the memorial is a huge wall with the names of all the thousands of people who died that day.

Many surviving seamen later requested to be brought back to the USS Arizona to be interred with their old shipmates. On the other side there were some that were interred as recently as just a few years ago! I found this really moving.

The Arizona tour only lasts about 45 minutes total.

From there, we got some water and snacks and then toured the other big exhibit area.

I was impressed! This was all very well done and thorough with artifacts, videos, etc.

I thought this copy of the first draft of the famous “December 7, a date which will live in infamy” speech was cool to see. Originally it was going to be “a date which will live in world history”! Infamy was the better word choice. 😉

This quote…. So true. Especially nowadays that many of us are living a long time removed from when many of our taken-for-granted privileges were fought for.

This quote from Eleanor Roosevelt was also thought provoking:

It took us longer than expected to cover all of the exhibits. I had loosely planned that perhaps we would buy add on tickets to the Submarine Museum (and tour of the USS Bowfin), but it was hot and we had stood around a lot already. We ultimately decided to scratch that plan and call it good at Pearl Harbor.

(You could really spend ALL day from early until close (or maybe even more than one day!) there if you really wanted to see it all.)

In the Remembrance circle outside there was a recovered piece of the Arizona’s anchor:

Our family:

It was mid-late afternoon by the point, and we were hungry, anyway! The boys kind of wanted to go back to the pool, but we ended up driving down to the main drag on Waikiki and going out for a beachfront lunch.

Hula Grill

The famed Duke’s Waikiki and Hula Grill at the Outrigger were on my list, but I hadn’t made reservations. (Mostly because I didn’t care that much if we got to eat there, and figured we could try to walk in and if it worked, it worked, and if not, oh well. I tried the day before to check but they were both all booked up.)

Duke’s didn’t have any good oceanfront tables open for walk-ins, but being as it was sort of that in between lunch-dinner time, we managed to snag a table at Hula Grill!

Very pretty place with a nice view!

I got a yummy tropical drink:

The food was REALLY good!! They have lots of seafood options etc but I went with a combo plate – 1 island chicken, 1 shrimp taco.

After lunch we shared a huge slice of Hula pie. (Macadamia nut ice cream, amazing hot fudge, whipped cream, etc.)

This was a great meal! I was happy we got in. 🙂

By this point we were kind of in a food coma, so I really just wanted to go sit on the beach for a while. It was a perfect afternoon.

Walking back through Waikiki Beach:

Ivan and the boys took the SUV back and my parents and I walked back to the hotel.

Stopped for a daytime pic with Duke Kahanamoku statue:

And one with my parents!

I think it was it was like 5:30/6:00 by the time we got back?? Getting late for the beach, but we had over an hour until sunset and the beach is just a block away.

So we quick changed and headed down:

Beach evening!

I just lounged in a chair and relaxed, mostly. The boys swam and did a bunch of boogie boarding.

Asher ended up staying out there until it was getting really dark!! He was way out there with a whole crowd of other boogie boarders so there was no way for me to really get him to come back (he couldn’t see or hear me).

I got mildly nervous just being dusk and all but he was fine and finally did come in. 😉

We didn’t head back up to the room until well after 7:30 pm- maybe almost 8:00!

The boys just wanted to chill and none of us were really hungry for a proper dinner after our late lunch.

My parents and Ivan and I decided to just get a drink at the hotel restaurant.

It has a beautiful view of Diamond Head from here, but obviously it was dark! Still a really nice place.

We hung out there until maybe 10? At one point Ivan quick ordered a Domino’s pizza for the boys and ran nearby to grab it and bring it back for them. 🙂

I guess I sound like a broken record, but it was a really great day! I so enjoyed seeing Pearl Harbor (in a somber way….but my knowledge of all the specific details of this event was a little fuzzy, so this was so informative for me). The nice lunch, relaxing beach evening and drinks at a beautiful bar rounded the day out very nicely.