Hawaii vacation news & deals: December 7, 2016

– Today is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. We can’t fully comprehend the tragedy and incredible bravery on that fateful morning of December 7, 1941. With much interest, we’ve been reading and watching the stories of the brave survivors who are returning for the 75th anniversary commemoration today. These are some of the stories of heroes that have caught our eye:

• The story of Mr. Robert Coles
   who jumped into action to man guns that he’d never been trained to operate.
• The story of Mr. Lauren Bruner who was aboard the USS Arizona on the morning of the attack. He narrowly survived, sustained substantial burns that took more than seven months to heal and returned to duty early.
• The story of Mr. Ray Chavez, who at 104 is the oldest known Pearl Harbor survivor.
• The story of Mr. Don Stratton who was aboard the USS Arizona on the morning of the attack. Though he was badly burned, after he healed, he re-enlisted.

Now, after those stories, if you have a dry eye left, here’s more Hawaii-related news that’s of interest, but trivial in comparison.

– Legal residents of the US and Canada (with some exceptions) can enter to win a trip to Wanderlust Oahu in February.

– The Bishop Museum in Honolulu now offers a free shuttle service from Waikiki on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. I can’t find any information about this newly launched service on their website. Contact them directly for more information. Here’s a snapshot of pick up locations and times shared by the Waikiki Improvement Association:

– In addition to the Waikiki Christmas and New Year’s Eve lists we announced earlier this week, we’ve completed all of our other popular Hawaii holiday activity pages as follows:

• Maui Christmas
• Maui New Year’s Eve
• Hawaii (Big) Island New Year’s Eve
• Kauai New Year’s Eve