A Pearl in Every Oyster

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Well, there may in fact not be a pearl in every oyster; but, evidently there is one (or two, or three, or more) of them in every group of visitors to Pearl Harbor. And no, I’m not talking about Japanese tourists. Although, that may be truer than the pearl in every oyster! You’ll understand exactly what I mean before I finish writing about today. Today we needed to set the alarm clock because we needed to be one block down the street to be picked up by the Greyline Coach that would be taking us to Pearl Harbor at precisely 6:40 AM. We called to confirm the pickup place and time the day before, and the lady asked, “And you’ve heard about our ‘No Bag’ policy?” I had not; so, she explained that no bags, backpacks, purses, camera bags, etc., would be permitted in the USS Arizona Memorial or onto Ford Island to board the USS Missouri. Cameras were okay; just, No Bags. Got that? I got that.

As we were getting ready to leave Sharon began handing things to me to put in the various pockets of my cargo pants shorts… two extra camera batteries, a package of Kleenex, the excursion voucher, then the camera to carry. “What am I, your personal pack mule?” And from her smile I think that pretty much accurately summed it up.

I had another bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. Sharon managed to spill her dry breakfast cereal all over the floor, and that was all of what she now didn’t have for breakfast. A group of three were at our pickup point, also waiting to begin the same tour. Our driver showed up on time and he was a very jolly Samoan fellow. He spotted the purse that the two women in the group we joined were carrying, and made sure they understood that they would need to check them at the entrance to the Arizona Memorial (for a fee of $4); but, they had already gotten the word as well. A few people were already on the bus when we boarded, and the tourists quickly grew in number as we made several hotel stops around the Waikiki area. As each person boarded the bus the driver collected our vouchers and passed to each of us a name tag. As it turns out, it wasn’t a name tag for our names, it was a name tag that already had his name “TY” printed on the clip-on badge. It seems, we now all belonged to Ty!

He began by explaining how the day was going to work. We would get our group assigned start time for the Arizona Memorial. We would probably do that visit first (which is why we had such an early start for this tour, to ensure just that). We had the option of slipping in the visit to the USS Missouri if our scheduled start time was much later in the morning. But we would see when we got there. Then he sounded very serious. “I want you to list very carefully to what I’m about to say. There will be no bags carried with you as we visit various venues at Pearl Harbor. You may not leave bags or items on the bus. No bags. No purses. No backpacks. When we get to the Memorial you will have the opportunity to check bags or belongings, where they will remain until we depart this afternoon.” Anyway, that’s what he said in a nutshell; except, he took ten minutes to carefully explain that you can’t bring bags with you or leave them on the bus in excruciating detail. When he was done one lady with a distinctly Brooklyn accent chimed in “This doesn’t mean MY purse does it?” Sharon and I looked at each other, shaking our heads, with that “One in every group” commiseration.

Some members of our group had a “Gold Package” and when we were assembled outside our bus he said, “First, you must all wait here. I will go get all of our tickets so that we are all in the same group of 150 to visit the Memorial. When I get back, those of you with bags may check them. Finally, for those with the Gold Package, I’ll need to speak to you.” One veteran acknowledged that he was one, and then a second, and then a third lady waved her hand as well “for the Gold Package”. Ty knew he only had two with the Gold Package on the list, so he confirmed the name of the first gentlemen, and checked him on the list, then the name of the second, and that was good. And then he turned to the lady, who offered the explanation, “I need to check my gold baggage too.” And she did indeed have a gold purse hanging from her wrist.

We had a 9:15 start time to enter the theatre to watch a 20 minute film using live footage back in 1941 of the attack on Pearl Harbor. We had about one hour to kill so we used that time to get Sharon some breakfast (a chocolate chip muffin and a bottle of water). We sat on the bench where the signs warned not to feed the birds. And there were many fat birds hopping around. And with each bite that Sharon took, crumbs would fall to the ground and several birds would try to scavenge those morsels. Sharon explained, “It’s not feeding them if the crumbs accidently fall to the ground. You have to break of pieces and give it to them.” She handed me the muffin to hold while she got a drink of water from the bottle she’d bought, and as more crumbs fell from the muffin (okay, maybe I took a nibble from a very dry and aged muffin) I told her, “You’re going to get us both arrested.” Sharon was done eating and wanted me to hand her the hand sanitizer, and she wasn’t happy when I told her she hadn’t asked me to bring that; although, she was pretty adamant that she had. We took some pictures until it was time to get in line for the theatre. Others visited a submarine, the only surviving of the five two-man subs used by the Japanese during the attack on Pearl Harbor. Nine Japanese sailors were killed during the attack, and the tenth became the first Japanese POW.

The presentation was reminiscent of what you might once have seen on the History Channel before “Pawn Stars” became a popular staple of that network. It gave a very good overview of the events with actual footage from both sides leading up to and during the attack on Pearl Harbor. We exited the theatre to board a launch that took us to the USS Arizona Memorial, erected where that battleship lay just beneath the water. That battleship was destroyed when its magazines ignited sending the ship to its final resting place and killing 1,177 sailors and Marines. We spent about fifteen minutes at the Memorial, taking some pictures, and taking pause to reflect on events that triggered the US entry into World War II. After taking the launch back to the theatre area, and from there we made our way to the bus to meet up again with Ty. Some people obviously didn’t hear the go straight back to the bus since they took so long to get back they must have stopped along the way.

He had gotten approval to drive the bus and passengers onto Ford Island, something he is able to do because he has an ex-military ID. Without that, it would require what can be a slow time consuming process of waiting for shuttles that only come every 30 mins to the island. Ty had hoped to be our guide through the USS Missouri; but, they combined our group with another and we were handled by someone associated with the USS Missouri restoration effort. The USS Missouri was under construction during Pearl Harbor, entering combat in 1944. It is famous for being the ship that documents ending hostilities between the US and Japan were signed. I had always imagined battleships being made of steel, so it surprised me to see that it had teak decks, not unlike cruise ships. And it makes sense when they explain, the decks don’t get slippery when they get wet. And with ammunition, if it gets dropped, it’s not going to cause a spark, followed shortly by some very big problems. It’s nine large guns can put 27 shots in the air before the first rounds land some twenty-plus miles away. And as our guide said, if you’re on the receiving end of that salvo, you’re about to have a very bad day. The Missouri was the target of a kamikaze attack near the end of the war, but the munitions failed to explode. The guide asked if anyone knew what “kamikaze” meant. I waited a moment, and when no one spoke I chimed in “Divine Wind”. I think he wanted someone to say “Suicide Bomber”; but, I suspect he’s had other Holland America trivia aficionados on his tour groups before. The USS Missouri was decommissioned in 1955 after serving during Korea and recommissioned again about thirty years later. It saw action in Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

After our tour of the USS Missouri we decided to get something to eat at the shore side cantina. And Sharon got another shave ice, this time lemon-lime and cherry. I got her a plain roach coach burger and I had a teriyaki chicken burger with French Fries that we split.

Our bus group headed back to the USS Arizona Memorial so people could retrieve their bags. We waited on the bus while the six or eight people went over and got their stuff. We were soon on our way. Then a lady in the back went up to tell the driver something. He started to say, “It’s not real easy to do that; but, I’ll see what I can do.” He announced that there was an “emergency” and that we needed to go back to the Memorial. We had to wait to make a left turn, and then he managed to make a three-point turn with his bus (and some cooperating traffic) and we were back at the Memorial. I said, “What did she do, forget that she left her bag there?” And Sharon said, “I saw her come back with her bag.” Well, this time she came back with her cell phone, and she was thankful to have gotten it back.

Our driver took us through some historical Honolulu sites, pointing out the capital, the king’s palace. Always he was trying to infuse his speech with Hawaiian words like “wikiwiki”. He had told the lady to be wiki wiki (about getting her phone). And he was surprised that we knew how to say “likelike”. Even our GPS had trouble with that one for Likelike Blvd, saying like, like Boulevard. But we were rushed because of the go-back. We drove up to the Punchbowl, where the flag was at half-mast for the military funeral that was in progress. The Punchbowl is the interior of a former volcano, and now a military cemetery. The view overlooking Honolulu was spectacular, above the many skyscrapers all the way to Diamond Head. It was really worth the drive to see this view, the natural harbor of Honolulu and the beaches along the shore. We learned that Hawaiians don’t give directions the way mainlanders do: North, South, East or West. For Hawaiians everything is either Towards the Mountains “Mauka” or towards the Sea “Makai”. I recalled earlier on our drive to Pearl Harbor seeing a sign to the Makai Campus of the University of Hawaii.

We got dropped off a block or so from our pickup point, and the driver pointed us in the general direction. Sharon didn’t recognize any of the landmarks; but, I kept pressing on. She followed me; but, she also complained that I didn’t know where I was going. Isn’t it just like a woman to want to ask someone for directions. I told her that she could rely on my expert homing skills, and besides, “There’s the ABC Store,” I beamed. “Yes, but they’re on EVERY corner!” To my surprise, but I didn’t let Sharon know this, it was indeed the one on our street. Sharon relaxed some once she saw the street sign which said “Onohana St.”



We relaxed a bit before going out to Tony Roma’s for a second time. We split a full order of baby back ribs, and I ordered the regular Tony Roma BBQ and the Bourbon BBQ sauces on the side. I started with the French Onion Soup, which was as I remembered from some thirty years ago in California, still excellent. I also tried the “Kickin’ Shrimp” (a crispy shrimp in a creamy sauce) and enjoyed the dish. We both enjoyed the ribs; and, quickly became too full for dessert. Again, I drank massive amounts of iced tea.

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