Diamond Head Crater: We all woke up early on Monday to drive out to Diamond Head Crater. We planned to get there when the park opened, at 6:00 a.m., but the drive took a little longer than planned. We ended up being too late for the 6:15 sunrise, but still caught magnificient views of the crater below and of Honolulu off in the distance. The hike to the top was 0.75 miles (1.1 km) long and took about a half hour to complete, with it's switchbacks and tunnel. The lookout point at the top of the trail is a coastal artillery observation platform built in 1908 as part of Fort Ruger.
Pearl Harbor: Our next stop was at Pearl Harbor to see the Arizona Memorial. Tickets to visit the memorial are free, but are limited and handed out on a first come, first served basis. Even though we were there soon after opening, we had in excess of three hours to wait before our tour. We spent the time looking around the grounds, where the submarine U.S.S. Bowfin is moored and open for tours, which we did not take. We also checked out the souvenir shops and the museum telling about the events leading up to the infamous attack, the attack itself, and the immediate aftermath.
Arizona Memorial: Once the time for our tour finally arrived, we headed into a theater for a short film on the subject before heading back outside and onto the ferry that would take us to the memorial. Remembering the approach path from my trip there years ago, I chose a seat to give me the best view of the memorial as we approached. The memorial itself spans across the ship sunk when Pearl Harbor was attacked by the Japanese on 7 December 1941. From the memorial you can see the hull of the ship below and along the wall a list of all the people who perished when the ship went down. After our allotted time on the memorial, we packed back into the ferry to take us back to shore, where it was another quick stop at the shops so the kids could purchase the items they had picked out earlier and were now sure they still wanted, before driving over to another memorial site on the island, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, better known as Punchbowl.
Punchbowl: The memorial and cemetery is located inside Punchbowl Crater and contains the remains of those who served in the Pacific Theater during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War. The major battles of those three wars are depicted on mosaics contained in a large memorial on the gounds of the cemetery. Centered in the memorial is a statue of Lady Columbia, symbolizing motherhood, and a chapel located directly behind the statue. Walking around the rim of the crater from the memorial, we witnessed a grand view of Honolulu open up below us.
Menehune Adventure Trail: From the Punchbowl, it was back to Aulani where each of the kids picked up a tablet PC from the activities center to participate in a sort of scavanger hunt, the Menehune Adventure Trail. A narration would be played on the tablet at the end of which a map of the Waikolohe Valley would be shown with a spot marked on it. The participant would then have to go to the spot marked, where something would occur, such as an image lighting up on a rock, seemingly inanimate objects coming to life, water spurting from a fountain, etc. There were many locations to go to, and each kid went in a different order.
Peep and I first accompanied Abby and Becky on the trail. Abby put it down half way though to save some for a later day and go swimming instead. After Abby turned her tablet in, we ran into Samme and Nate, who were still working on theirs, so Peep and I accompannied them until they too were ready to call it quits on the game and go swimming. It was then across the street and to a pizza parlor with Ben for dinner for Becky, Peep and myself.