Very Busy - But Vacation Next Week

I've been putting in quite a few hours at work, often getting home after dark. There's a lot happening in the Army with Lean Six Sigma these days and I'm in the middle of it all!

Last weekend, DeAnna and I visited Pearl Harbor and saw all of the attractions, including the Arizona Memorial,
Battleship Missouri and the Submarine Bowfin. We started at 7:30am and didn't leave until 4:30pm, so it was a long day. If you're on vacation for a week, I wouldn't recommend doing it all because it takes all day (unless you're really into history), but I'm glad we made the effort.

We started with the Arizona and the nicely done audio tour that culminated with the ferry to the sunken ship. This part of the tour was historically interesting and somewhat somber. There is a museum that explains the attack with artifacts uncovered as recently as 10 years ago!

Stories from both the Japanese and American perspectives of WWII are given and that helps give some background. Interestingly, everything is available in Japanese and it is a favorite site for Japanese tourists. You have to give them credit for a perfectly planned attack.


After the Arizona, we went for the Explorer's tour of the Battleship Missouri. Now, if you had a chance to do this tour (which is kind of pricey), it is amazingly fascinating! We met a personal guide (Dave) who took us through the ship. We went into the 16-inch gun turrets, galley, officer's quarters, engine room, navigation, radio and through countless passages and stair ways.
All along the way, Dave spoke about the history of the ship and it's service - including the final surrender of Japan in WWII on the deck of this very ship!



After we finished, we ate a sandwich in the ship and headed over to the Bowfin. The Bowfin is a celebrated WWII submarine. There's an audio tour (which we took) as we walked above and below decks of the submarine.



Once you see what these men had to live through, it is amazing to think that they actually volunteered for this duty! People were just one more item that had to be squeezed into this big steel tube and privacy is not an option.

In all of our wanderings over this island, we never took the time to see these monuments. I'm glad we did and I'm glad we took the time to spend the whole day doing it all!

Next weekend, John & Jessica will be here for a week of vacation! There will be lots more stories and pictures from that I'm sure!