Hoʻomanaʻo ~ To remember

I actually slept quite good last night! I woke up at 9:08am, and had to get ready for the day. First off, we drove up to Diamond Head, which is a volcanic crater on the edge of the island and drove into the crater and looked around for a bit.

We then began the drive to Pearl Harbor...buuuuttt, we missed the exit and got onto the wrong highway when trying to find another way to get there, resulting in us accidentally driving to the opposite side of the island and through mountains. So although we got lost and the driving didn't go as planned, the mountains were huge, and the views were beautiful!

We were in this valley with mountains towering over us, and at one point, I looked out my window, and right there on the side of the mountain in front of me were the Haiku Stairs a.k.a, Stairway to Heaven. If you don't already know, they are suuper steep steps along the mountain, 18 inches wide, and almost 4,000 steps total, straight up the mountain. It is something that since I first heard about, have been longing to climb. However due to liability issues, they have been closed to the public for almost 30 years, and to actually climb them, you have to sneak out there in the dead of night before the security guard shows up at 5:00am to ensure that you make it up and back without being caught. So that was a wonderful site to see, unfortunately I didn't get a good picture of them, but there are tons online like this one which shows the steps, but you can also see down the mountain to gauge the dizzying height of them.

Then we had another adventure trying to find a gas station, which here in Hawaii, are quite sparse, and then we were on our way to Pearl Harbor. We finally made it and let me tell you, it is amazing to stand there and think about and remember what happened. It really is unbelievable after learning and hearing about the events that took place in December of 1941 for years and years, to actually stand in the spot and see exactly where the ships and planes came from and where so many lives were taken. Most of what they have done to the site is really nice. There are memorials with the names of those who died, there are tributes to the survivors, there are museums and exhibits explaining everything and it is all really nice. Although we weren't able to go out to the USS Arizona Memorial due to the time of day and there being no tickets left, we did see it from shore, and it is so nice and simple, and is a beautiful way to commemorate the lives lost here.

We went aboard the Bowfin Submarine and got to tour it which was really interesting. 

Overall, it is one incredible place that you should all visit one day. Here are a few more pictures from Pearl Harbor to end of this post. Have a good day. :)