We got a "late" start today and left at 9:00 for a tour of the 'Iolani Palace. I wasn't familiar with any of the history of the Hawaiian royal family and pre-state history of Hawaii, so it was pretty interesting. We had to wear little booties because the King decided to floor the palace with Douglas Fir wood, and it's not really a hard enough wood to be used as floor. Mine were teal.
After that we wandered through the State Capital Building but it wasn't open for tours or anything. Based on the stealth photos that we took through the tinted windows that showed cardboard boxes and folding tables everywhere, maybe it was for the best. The building itself was interesting though, being largely open to the outdoors, with a large square hole in the roof, no real walls on the sides of the building, and a large multi-story interior courtyard.
The Foster Botanical Garden was nearby so we walked through that. It wasn't anything fantastic, but was a nice half-hour walk through a varied garden.
Next door was "Zippy's Napolean Bakery", and we were so hungry and thirsty at that point that we headed in. It turned out to be sort of a Asian-influenced version of Denny's. Not sure how any of "Zippy", "Napolean" or "Bakery" apply to it, but whatever. It got us fed and we moved on.
We then went to Punchbowl, which is an old volcanic crater that's been turned into the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. It's got graves of over 45,000 men and women buried there, and there are 28,000 names of those that died in the Pacific since 1949 carved into marble monuments throughout. It had a great series of very detailed displays on the progression of the Pacific Theater in WWII. Not every day you see a giant cemetery/memorial in a volcanic crater.
Finally we drove a few miles up a crazy winding road to Pu'u Ualaka'a State Wayside Park which had pretty much the most amazing view I've ever seen in my life. The panoramic photo isn't even going to remotely do it justice. You can see for miles, in about a 270 degree swath around you, including all the resorts of Waikiki, Diamondhead, and the valley beyond it in one direction, and Honolulu all the way to Pearl Harbor in the other.
After that we headed back to the hotel, hung out there, went out for some sushi later, and now are trying to stay awake long enough to finish this post!
Our photostream for the day is here.
Tomorrow: Flying to Kauai!
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