Besides the USS Arizona Memorial, the USS Missouri and the USS Bowfin are anchored nearby.

The Bowfin is a submarine which served with distinction in the Pacific Fleet during WWII, and the Missouri, of course, is the battleship on which the Japanese surrendered.

Because the weather was threatening, the crowds were pretty small, and we only had to wait a few minutes before entering the theatre for the film presentation about the attack. At peak times, the wait can be two hours!

The film, narrated by Stockard Channing, was well worth seeing, and gave quite a bit of perspective to what led up to the attack. Then we boarded a boat to travel to the USS Arizona Memorial itself.

The memorial is built atop and at right angles to the wreckage of the Arizona; most of the Arizona is underwater, of course, but some parts do protrude from the water.

When the Arizona went down, she was carrying thousands of gallons of fuel oil; that oil has been slowly leaking out ever since 1941, and it is visible on the surface today.

The government and environmentalists are worried, because the ship is deteriorating, and if the tanks should breach, there could be a major spill in Pearl Harbor. But any attempt to drain the oil is a sensitive topic, because 1177 men are still buried on the Arizona, and their families are concerned about disturbing their remains. One wall of the Memorial shows the names of all of the men who died on the Arizona.

After a few minutes on the memorial, we boarded the boat and returned to shore, to await the return of our bus (and to give us a chance to visit the rest of the museum and the bookstore). I got photographic proof that I’d taken this trip (though the value of that proof isn’t what it was in the days before digital image manipulation) instead of staying in the background on all the shots.

We then started back for Waikiki via Punchbowl National Cemetery. Tour buses aren’t allowed to stop there, so we drove through very slowly. The grave markers are all flush to the ground, but if you look closely:

you can probably read the name of Ellison Onizuka, who was one of the Challenger astronauts.

Our final stop was in Honolulu’s Historical District, where we got a chance to take a quick walk through the grounds of ‘Iolane Palace. The Palace itself was too big for me to get a decent photo, but the Barracks were a better target.

Then it was back to the conference for another bout of e-mail and some planning for tomorrow.

The flight was uneventful, if a little bit bumpy 15 minutes before landing. First Class was loaded with people coming to the conference; so was coach. So it was easy to fill up a taxi on the way to the hotel.

And now I’m sitting in the second floor lobby of the hotel, taking advantage of the wireless connectivity laid on for us. It beats sitting in my hotel room on a slow phone line.

My first stop, though, was at the Reyn’s store in the lobby, to exchange the aloha shirts I bought back in January — as soon as I took them out of the suitcase, Diane said, “that’s not a good color for either of us”, and so I put them aside to bring back on this trip. I hope I’ve found better colors this time around…because it may be a long time before my next trip to Honolulu.

Time for bed — my computer claims it’s after midnight, and so does my body!

The next morning….

I changed the computer to believe it was on Hawaiian time, but I’m not sure I’ve been as successful with my body.

When I woke up, the weather people on TV were talking about the flooding on the windward (North) side of Oahu, but claiming that the weather would be fairly decent in the Honolulu area. So I went out for a jog…it was very humid and warm, so my time was not very good!

Then I got back to the hotel to shower, only to discover that the handle on the hot water tap in the shower was broken! I called maintenance and they took care of it promptly, but I wonder why the previous tenant hadn’t complained.

After that, I had a pleasant breakfast at Moose McGillicudy’s — yes, it’s a bar, but they don’t require that you have beer with breakfast, and the cost was about half of what I would have paid in the hotel!

Then I registered for the conference and did some e-mail; I confirmed that there were no obvious disasters for my track (I’m sure I’ll find some non-obvious disasters tomorrow) and decided I could safely leave the hotel for a while.

So I took a sightseeing tour out to Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona Memorial. I had wanted to do this in January, but time didn’t permit it, and I was happy that the conference schedule gave me the chance today.

Of course, I took pictures! If you want to see them, take a look at my photo essay.

Tomorrow, the conference itself begins. I get to chair two sessions, both of which I hope will be interesting!

Aloha for now.

Even though the track and the formal conference don’t start until Wednesday, I’m leaving today, giving me tomorrow to panic on site if necessary. And if it’s not necessary to panic, I have a list of things to do anyway, even including handling my daily dose of e-mail (though I have to admit that’s not top of my list of things to fly to Honolulu to do).

I’m hoping for good connectivity from the hotel and, with any luck at all, a chance to post some pictures.

Aloha!

This morning, I gave blood at the semi-annual Shir Hadash blood drive. It’s a much nicer environment than giving blood at work — instead of being in a cramped conference room on hard tables with minimal refreshments afterwards, we were in the sanctuary/social hall on very nice reclining chairs (I wonder if they were dot-bomb castoffs?), and the food afterwards was almost excessive: Krispy Kreme doughnuts, bagels and lox, freshly-baked cookies, and plenty to drink. The next Shir Hadash blood drive won’t be until November (Thanksgiving week, when the demand is high and the supply is low), so I’ll probably give blood at work before then, but maybe I’ll bring in my own goodies for afterwards.

We just got back from seeing Spider-Man; the ticket lines weren’t too bad, but I’m still glad we bought our tickets in advance, since they were selling out most of the shows. We got decent seats, too. But the screen seemed awfully small — I think I’ll plan on braving the horrible parking at the Century complex on Winchester Boulevard so we can watch Episode II on a properly-sized big screen.

Oh, yeah…I should have said something about the movie, not just the theatre, shouldn’t I? It was a good movie; I liked the web-swinging a lot, and the rest of the movie was worth sitting through. I don’t understand why Peter walked away from MJ at the end…she’s already in enough danger by being his friend! But I have to admit that, when MJ awoke on top of the bridge, my first thought was, “wait…she’s not Gwen Stacey…what’s she doing on the bridge?”

Jeffrey is with the Kids’ Youth Group tonight, taking a guided night walk through Sanborn County Park. Part of the deal was that we had to keep the nature of the event secret from the kids, which was fun…what was a little less fun was finding the actual assembly point in the park! We carpooled, and the other family will be picking up; I hope I gave them enough information to find the kids at the end of the evening. In the dark.

BattleBots has just put tickets for Series 5.0 on sale — time to get a group together and make plans!