SINCE OUR FLIGHT TO HOUSTON WOULD pass through Honolulu anyway, we decided to spend a few days on Oahu along the way. We have plenty of time and there are a few birds we missed on our last trip. It took nearly as long to check-in and clear TSA as it did to fly from Hawaii to Oahu; even longer to get our “el cheapo” rental car.
Island Hopping on Hawaiian Airlines
This is our most expensive and smallest AirBnB ever but compared to the hotels in Waikiki, it’s a bargain—especially with a kitchen and parking included. The view from 18 floors up is great but I was surprised by the traffic noise—motorcycles mostly—and music from the clubs. Earplugs are handy if you want to sleep before 11PM.
18 Storeys above Waikiki
We were last on Oahu in 2019 but hadn’t visited Pearl Harbor since 1996! Well things have changed in 25 years—imagine that! The new Pearl Harbor National Historic Site Visitors Center opened in 2008 so I can’t blame my incipient senility for not recognizing anything this morning—even Pearl Harbor Naval Base and Hickam Air Force Base have merged to become Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
Pearl Harbor National Historic Site
Arizona Memorial and Mighty Mo
Tribute to Lost Submarines and USS Bowfin
The Battleship Arizona Memorial is still the big draw but the Pearl Harbor NHS now includes the WW II submarine Bowfin and “Mighty Mo,” the battleship Missouri. We obviously hadn’t made reservations for the boat ride out to the Arizona—duh? We didn’t want to wait in line for hours—where did all these people come from? Instead we just wandered around for a while before shuffling off to the Navy Exchange Commissary to stock our shelves for the next few days.
