Pearl Harbor

On Sunday, the Nicolls took Grant to church with them and Mike, Betty and I headed to Pearl Harbor.

She's the best little tourist!

I wanted Mike to write  this post because he's more of a historian than I am but he didn't think he'd have time so...this is Pearl Harbor from my perspective!

The whole thing was on an audio tour so you just bought headphones when you got there and then each exhibit had a number you punch in and it would guide you through the whole thing. 

This diagram shows how the torpedoes were launched. 

And what they looked like.

After we went through a few exhibits, we took a ferry to the USS Arizona Memorial.  Bets wasn't too excited about it.  Haha!

 

Inside the memorial is this list of all the people who died on the Arizona.  Most of their bodies are still inside the ship so they stressed a lot on the tour to treat it with reverence since it's their final resting place.

This is what's left of one of the bases from where the big guns were mounted on the ship.  The memorial sits perpendicularly over the top of what's left of the ship.

This diagram kind of puts it into perspective...basically, it's huge!

Rems and me with the U.S.S. Missouri in the background.

Full size, but still from a distance.  I can't believe how big these ships are! I can't wrap my head around what a catastrophe it must've been that morning.

This  was a sub they had on display that you could tour but it seemed to be separate from Pearl Harbor and wasn't mentioned in the tour, plus, it was a pretty ridiculous fee so we just opted to take a picture :)

 Pearl Harbor has really made me want to go to other historical sites.  It's so interesting to learn about our Nation's history and the great people who "more than self their country loved"....it seems like you just don't see as much of it anymore.  It's MUCH more impressive and impressionable than some Michael Bay movie. Whom Michael Loathes by the way.

(P.S. Just FYI, it was never mentioned, nor have I found anywhere anything about President Roosevelt rising from his wheelchair exclaiming, "Don't tell me it can't be done"...or whatever the quote is....actually I'm thinking the majority of that movie is not factual!)

Poor Nate ended up driving us there, coming home and taking his family to church, then driving back to pick us up in the pouring rain, in terrible traffic, all on his day off.  Once Remi got to spend some time with him that night, she was finally happy enough to show her gratitude!

Harlee's Birthday!

Once again, Grant woke up the next day asking to go to the beach, so that's what we did.

The next two pictures are from my iPod but I liked them too much to not post!

Is this not the cutest little swimsuit (on the cutest little girl) you've ever seen?? Thanks Melina!!

Beach Bum

One of my favorite pictures from the whole trip!

Looking at turtles!

Looking at a pregnant seal.

Two Scoops!

The best baby ever!

 That evening, we went to the pool for Harlee's pool party and Grant got to try out his floaties.  I swore my kids would never wear these but they were a life saver and got him a lot more comfortable in the water!

Remi and the birthday girl!

Another really bad picture but it marked the end to another really awesome day!

Can We Go to the Beach?

Every morning we were in Hawaii, Grant would ask if we could go to the beach.  Luckily for him, the Nicolls live just a few minutes walk from 4 big lagoons and resorts.  So we usually walked to one of them at least once a day. And, that's how we started day 3.

 

 

Happy girl!

 

Not so happy when the water gets too close.

That evening, we drove the "Dirty Bubble" across the island to the Polynesian Cultural Center.  The scenery everywhere you look is unbelievable!  Mike and I tried to imagine what it would be like to own a ranch in Hawaii!

Right when we got there, a random Asian woman stopped us and took like a million pictures and videos of Remi. I don't think she spoke a word of English but she kept giving us two thumbs up and saying "Ceeeeeooot".  Remi cooperated pretty well and smiled for all her pictures.

Poor Grant was already tired by the time we got there. But he loved the water!

 That's much higher than it looks!  It was kind of scary to watch!

They kill me!

 This guy was funny!  He showed us how to peel a coconut, make fire, make coconut milk and... something else but I can't remember what!

My Grandma served her mission in Samoa so this is for her!

The kids were SUPER tired by the time we finally made it to the show so we ended up leaving early but we did stay long enough to have some really good fruity ice cream! We also ended up sitting next to the same lady who had taken all the pictures of Remi earlier.  She jumped up when she saw us and showed Remi to all her friends (who took a ton more pictures) and showed us all the videos and pictures she'd taken.

Maybe we should've been a little more creeped out but...what can we say?  We have cute kids!