The Whiskey Widow Adventures - Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Pearl Harbor.

What a day.

We were greeted by Pacific Historic Parks guides and they did a tremendous job ushering our family through the most amazing national park.

We enjoyed self-guided tours through the battleship USS Missouri and had to have some dole whip.

When it was time to explore the exhibits our guide, Westin, gave engaging explanations and knew just how to keep the kids involved.

It is a historic, solemn place.

If you have not experienced Pearl Harbor, add it to your bucket list.

The kids enjoyed a flight simulator in the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum and we are always excited to find a penny press.

But the place that touched us all was the USS Arizona.

The remains of a ship and the final resting place of so many brave men who died December 7, 1941.

This place is hallowed ground.

The briefing is a reminder that this is an active military installation and you must follow the commands of the servicemembers in charge.

There are areas you cannot take photographs and requests to remember this is a watery cemetery and we should speak in hushed voices to respect everyone’s experience at this important place.

The boat ride over is 8 minutes long, which is about the same amount of time it took the USS Arizona to sink in Pearl Harbor. They ask you to remember that as you cross the water.

We arrived at this somber memorial and moved through it with the aid of our knowledgeable guides.

We got to move up close, take photos, and hear more about what is viewable from the bridges, and those who rested underneath.

Our guide brought out a wooden Hawaiian bowl filled with flowers used to make traditional leis. We were told it is a way the Hawaiian honor the dead and asked us to sprinkle the flowers down to the water below. It was moving and beautiful.

We didn’t know there was more in store. As the folks who rode the boat over with us lined up to board again, we were ushered to the front of the memorial, to a stark white empty space with a lone flagpole.

A speech that seared our hearts was given in that Adam, like so many servicemen before him who had gone on to do amazing things, would likely say his greatest contribution in this life was raising a family. Adam was so proud of his children and he loved the United States flag.

When they gathered the kids and asked them to help raise a flag in Adam’s honor right there on the USS Arizona it was such a beautiful and overwhelming moment for us all. There wasn’t a dry eye as we recognized the sacrifice of so many in that sacred space and to think they let us honor Adam in a way he would truly appreciate with the red, white and blue - well, it was a gift. An experience. A memory that is burned inside our souls.

They gave us the flag and mailed a certificate showing that it flew in Pearl Harbor in Adam’s honor. 

It is already cherished.