Pearl Harbor and more of the beach

Today we went in to Pearl Harbor (actually, just outside Pearl Harbor) to the U.S.S. Arizona memorial. It's actually a really neat program--there's a video about the progress of the war (in the Pacific) leading up to the events of Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and then a lot of stuff on that day specifically, such as which ships were destroyed, which were damaged, and which had loss of life. The most significant of those was the Arizona. When the bomb hit, it ignited the ammo (or fuel, I don't remember which), which caused a fire locking everyone inside.

Here's just about all that's left of the Arizona:

And here's the wall in the memorial with the names of those lost. There's also a section for those who made it off the ship, and chose to have their ashes buried with the Arizona after they died.

Here's a model of the ship (while it was in one piece, obviously):

And, of course, Tripler Army Medical Center from the Arizona memorial:

I have more pictures from the Arizona if anyone wants to see them (just let me know.

After visiting the Arizona memorial, I went to the NEX (Navy EXchange) on Pearl Harbor, which is the nicest exchange on the island. If most exchanges are K-mart, and the MCX at Henderson Hall was Macy's, this one is the entire mall. It was quite amazing. The commissary itself was larger than most Safeways.

And then there was the standard late afternoon trip out to the beach (Waikiki again, this time). We saw some sailboats while the sun was setting.

Tomorrow a small group of us is driving up to the northern shore of the island. I don't know what we'll see, but I hear that's where all the professional surfers go (someone said something about twenty foot waves). Should be interesting.