Pearl Harbor

When we were planning our trip, we knew that we wanted to visit the U.S.S. Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor. The memorial was one of the more serious stops on our trip, but we were very glad we had the chance to visit the memorial and think about what happened there. From the memorial, we could see a few places where the Arizona still reaches out of the water.But for the most part, the ship lies beneath the water.At the memorial, we were reminded of how many lives were affected by the attack at Pearl Harbor when we found Chandlers and Webbs listed among those who died that day.After visiting the memorial, we spent some time exploring the U.S.S. Missouri.The Missouri ("Mighty Mo") fought in WWII and more recently in Operation Desert Storm, but the ship is best known as the ship where the peace agreement was signed, ending the war in the Pacific. The agreement was signed right here . . . While walking around the upper decks, we were amazed at the sheer size of the firepower on the ship. We took almost two hours wandering around the seemingly endless halls inside of the ship. Josh was excited to see that the Legal Officer on board had a relatively spacious room towards the front of the ship, in the air conditioned section. We were both intrigued by the bread dispensers that we found in one of the cafeteria areas.The boat really was huge. We couldn't believe how much there was to see, and we were amazed when we saw that this little steering wheel steers the ship. We imagined something a little more of this variety . . .
It was pretty amazing to visit Pearl Harbor and the Missouri to see how the war started and where it ended so close to each other.