Kaohikaipu Island Monday - Day 11 Our only fixed plan for the day was the Arizona Memorial at Pearl Harbor in the afternoon, so we explored a little of the east end of Oahu by car in the morning, heading first to Kahala Lookout on the side of Diamond Head, then heading east to Makapuu Beach Park, which had been strongly recommended by our guide the day before. For lunch, we tried Whiskey Smoke 808, a restaurant in Kailua which I picked after a quick search on my phone and was our only BBQ of the trip. I wanted to try a variety of meats and we shared the $30 all meat plate which has pickled onions and all of their meats (brisket, pork rib, chicken and pulled pork). My favorite part of the meal was the "steak fries" which were large thin, wide slices of potato whose primarily seasoning came from the smoker.
After lunch we drove into the mountains to the 1,200' high Nu'uanu Pali Lookout. which has a beautiful panoramic view of the coast and adjacent cliffs from 1,200 feet up. The cliff was the site of the Battle of Nu'uanu, where in 1795 King Kamehameha I won the struggle that united O'ahu under his rule. The battle is also called Kaleleka'anae, which means leaping of the 'anae fish, because of the men who were forced off the cliff where the lookout is during the conflict. An estimated 400 warriors died in this battle.
Returning to Honolulu, we drove to the Pearl Harbor Visitor Center to check in for our 2:15 reservation to tour the Arizona Memorial. We checked in about 45 minutes early and had time to visit the museums and gift shop before the briefing for our tour. Various web sites say there is a 23 minute movie before the tour, but there was none. We boarded a U.S. Navy shuttle boat to be taken across to the memorial, which was built above the sunken Battleship Arizona in 1962. Each boatload of passengers has about 15 minutes to visit the assembly room and shrine. From the windows of the Memorial and the opening in its floor, you can view the Arizona under the water and see occasional drops of oil rise to the surface. The far wall of the shrine has the names of all those killed on the Arizona, etched in marble. We learned that the few surviving crew members of Arizona can have their ashes interred within the wreck and their names placed nearby. The last surviving crew member passed away just a few weeks after our visit. Another boat returned us to the Visitors Center and we spent a little time viewing the grounds before taking our rental car to the airport and our overnight return flight to Dallas and connecting flight to Kansas City.
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