Saturday 4 May 2013 - Pearl Harbour

Our last day in Oahu. (I was extremely ignorant about Hawaii before I came. 
I didn't realise that there are five main islands plus other smaller ones - and only one island is actually called Hawaii - or "The Big Island". Honolulu isn't even on The Big Island. It's on Oahu.

So, we were due to leave Oahu for Maui in the afternoon and decided to fit in a visit to Pearl Harbour before we left. Apparently that's the must-see tourist site.

The presence of the military is very obvious in Hawaii - and something we aren't used to. There were military bases along the beach in Honolulu and signs in shops saying 'military prices" and "general public" prices. They show a lot of respect to the armed forces round here.

At Pearl Harbour, the first thing we noticed was military personnel at the gate refusing to let anyone bring any bags of any kind on to the site. Seemed strange to me. Haven't they heard of scanners? If it's good enough for the airport, why not Pearl Harbour? Anyway, it meant carrying a purse, phone, camera, hat, sunglasses etc and juggling everything whenever you went inside and took hat or sunglasses off - or wanted to get money out to pay for something.

There were lots of moving exhibits - and it was free, unless you wanted to actually go out to the USS Arizona Memorial or visit the USS Bowfin - a restored submarine. We chose the submarine tour - and it was fascinating! I would have liked to spend a lot longer down there but there were people coming along behind and there's not a lot of room to loiter, as you might imagine!

And I managed to drop my camera and hat several times while trying to adjust the headphones on the audio tour and barked my shins on the door frame above.

I loved the officers' sleeping quarters - three layers of bunks. But these were the lucky guys. Some of the crew slept in temporary beds above the torpedos and others did the "hot bunk" thing - just like your "hot desks" Barbara.
You only need to sleep 8 hours a day, so your bunk is available to two other people for the other 16 hours. Why not?

The galley was an exercise in efficiency. How many cooks were in there at one time, I wonder?

But I did love the Captain's Office. Not much room for writing, it seems.