Nothing says romance like a breathtaking sunset view. Maybe the only thing that can top it is a fine dining experience on a romantic date at The Beach House Restaurant, with its mouth-watering Pacific Rim cuisine. Combine both and you're in for a memorable evening.
The USS Arizona Memorial is a stoic memorial that will stir emotions in every visitor who enters its gates. The memorial is part of the WWII Valor in the Pacific national Monument., which includes sites on Ford island and several historic Battleship Row mooring quays. The USS Arizona Memorial is built over the remains of the sunken battleship USS Arizona, the final resting place for many of the 1,177 crewmen killed on December 7, 1941 during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. While the tour is free, tickets are available on a first-come, first-served basis, but it's usually all gone by noon. The Visitor Center features a 23-minute film on the history of the Pearl Harbor attack. A Navy-operated launch awaits to view the Memorial. The entire program takes 75 minutes. An audio tour narrated by Academy Award winner Ernest Borgnine is a great way to pass the time while waiting to start your tour. The audio tour will guide you through the Visitor Center, interpretive displays, interpretive information on the shuttle boats and on the Memorial.
Experience dance, theater and music at the Kennedy Theatre, home to the Department of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The program is internationally recognized for its multicultural approach. It incorporates influences from the East and West, and is organized into Asian Theatre, Western Theatre, Design, Youth Theatre, and Dance. Past performances have showcased the talents of both students and visiting professionals in such notable pieces as "Hamlet," "Waiting for Godot" and "Kabuki: The Vengeful Sword."
The Honolulu Academy of Arts was founded in 1922 and opened to the public on April 8, 1927. It was the vision of Anna Rice Cooke, a woman born into a prominent missionary family on O‘ahu in 1853. Growing up in a home that appreciated the arts, she went on to marry Charles Montague Cooke, also of a prominent missionary family, and the two settled in Honolulu. In 1882, they built a home on Beretania Street, on the site that would become home to the museum. In 1961, Thurston Twigg-Smith opened an art gallery—the Contemporary Art Center—within the Honolulu Advertiser building, which he owned. The gallery featured work from Twigg-Smith's collection and work by local artists. In 1988, the Twigg-Smith family donated Spalding House, which was built by Honolulu Academy of Arts founder Anna Rice Cooke, to create The Contemporary Museum, a private, nonprofit museum for contemporary art in Honolulu. In 2011, The Contemporary Museum gifted its assets and collection to the Honolulu Academy of Arts and in 2012, the combined museum changed its name to the Honolulu Museum of Art.