Our plan for June 9 was to visit Pearl Harbor, but first we had to check out of our hotel and into our next one. We were leaving the Doubletree and moving to the Hilton Hawaiian Village on Waikiki Beach, which would give us the beach and pool time we desired. We packed our bags and then headed over to the Hilton to drop off our luggage until we checked in later in the day. We stopped next for a quick breakfast at a restaurant in the Ward Center we had seen the night before, the Big City Diner, and then drove over to Pearl Harbor.

J. R. picked up tickets for the USS Arizona Memorial, which were not until 1PM and we bought our tickets for the rest of the exhibits. First up was the tour of the USS Missouri. We climbed on board a bus which took us across the bridge to the Naval installation where the Missouri is berthed. The Missouri, the last of the great American battleships was the site of the signing of the surrender documents by the Japanese in World War II and the ship has served in WWII, Korea, Viet Nam and Desert Storm before being retired and brought to Hawaii.

With time to spare before our Arizona visit, we toured the Air Museum of the Pacific, located near the USS Missouri.

Following the bus ride back, we toured the USS Bowfin, an American submarine berthed at Pearl Harbor.

After a stop in the gift shop, we headed to the Reflection Circle to await our boat ride to the USS Arizona Memorial. However, after waiting for about a 1/2 hour, the Coast Guard announced there would be no more boats to the memorial that day due to high winds. We had heard this sometimes happened and this was why we chose to come early in the trip to give ourselves more than one chance to see the Arizona.

We headed back to Ward Center to have lunch at Kincaid's steak house, which we had seen the night before. It was a wonderful meal and very satisfying after a morning of walking around in the heat. We had nothing planned for the rest of the day, so we headed over to the Hawaiian Village to check in. Janie parked the car while the boys and J. R. checked us in. Our room was not ready, but they had a lounge in our tower for Honors members where we went to have snacks and a soft drink. When our room was ready, the kids changed into swim attire and headed for the pool while J. R. called for our luggage to be brought up. Our room was a very nice two bedroom suite with full kitchen and laundry and would serve us well as our home for the next several nights. We spent the rest of the night relaxing by the pool, then had pizza at the pizza shop in the hotel.

June 10th is J. R.'s birthday and since it was technically June 10th back in Chicago, he made everyone wish him a happy birthday and then Janie gave him the presents she was able to smuggle along with her -- a shirt and malted milk balls, his favorites.