Hawaii: Remembering Pearl Harbor and a Luau

On Monday, we decided to go to visit the memorials at Pearl Harbor. 

Knowing that it would be a little more difficult with a one-year old, we decided we would just visit the Visitor's Center and the Arizona Memorial.  I think if we would have been able to get on the first ferry out we would have been ok, but we had about an hour wait until we could go.  For those who have never been, to visit the Arizona Memorial you have to watch a video that lasts about 20 minutes, then you take a ferry out to the Memorial (the Arizona was sunk in the Pearl Harbor attacks).  Evelyn was getting pretty antsy during the video, so I took her outside.  I had been to Pearl Harbor, and the Arizona Memorial, when I was there with my family in 2003, and I wanted Dan to have the opportunity to see it.  She and I walked around while Dan rode out to the memorial - the entire trip lasts about an hour.

The white rectangular structure in the distance is an enclosure built over the Arizona.

Evelyn finding some grass to crawl around on

These next pictures are all from the Arizona Memorial...

 THANK YOU TO ALL WHO SERVE, THEN AND NOW...

While Dan was out at the memorial, I found a snack stand and got some Tootsie Pops.  Evelyn thought it was hilarious that I kept putting it in and taking it out of my mouth...

 

After visiting Pearl Harbor, we found the real L&L Drive Inn!  It was fantastic!  While we were there, I was texting with Laura (my friend who's husband is from Oahu) who told us we had to try the macaroni salad.  Holy smokes - it was sooooo good!  I'm seriously salivating thinking about it.

After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for naps and to get ready for the Luau.  Evelyn didn't want to nap (a theme for the first couple of days!), so we decided to take another drive - this time up the center of the island.  We didn't realize it at the time, but we were crossing off another item from the Jumer list!  We took what is called Pali Hiway - a really pretty drive with tons of trees.  We didn't stop to take pictures this time because we didn't want to wake Evelyn up.  It was a great drive, then we snaked our way around to get to the Luau.  We had made reservations at the same Luau that I went to with my family - I remembered it being really pretty and there were a lot of things to do beforehand.  Evelyn was wide-eyed the entire time we were there, it was really fun to watch her!

Our family picture as we arrived at Paradise Cove

 And...this is our ONLY family picture from the entire trip...I guess this is what happens - I'm going to have to figure out the timer on our camera!

This is an iPhone picture of the picture...I can't find the real one to scan right now!

Various pictures from the Luau...

There was a fire on one of the other islands that was drifting smoke...it made the sunset kind of hazy, but still beautiful!

Evelyn found a patch of grass to play in!

And I do like chewing on Daddy's shell lei

Some of the Luau festivities

And, here's dinner!

They invited people up onto the stage to learn to hula - so I took Evelyn up

She was way more interested in the people dancing around us than dancing herself!

 Some videos from the evening...the first of Evelyn dancing with the Hawaiian music, the second of the sunset (which was incredible!)