Cemetery Day

Today, we decided to visit the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii. Because Hawaii is the only state to have once had a ruling royal family, we thought it would be interesting to see their mausoleum.

This is a very tiny sign on the outside gate. We actually passed the mausoleum at first because it does not have any signs directing you to it. Even after we drove past and turned around and came back, we weren't sure if that was it. There is nothing to lead you to believe that this is where the Hawaiian royal family rests.

The Internet says that you can go in the little chapel and pray for the royal family. Don't you believe it. It's locked up tight. If you want to see the inside of the chapel you can view it here.

King Kamehameha II, III, IV, and V are all buried here. Some were originally buried at Iolani Palace but were moved to this location after Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma chose this site as a mausoleum for their son Albert who was only four years old when he died. Again, all my info comes from the Internet, as there were few signs giving information.

There were some names on this monument. I have no idea who are the people behind the names, as again, there were no signs and no information given about who they are or why they are buried here. I did see a monument to Charles Reed Bishop and I knew who he was because I have a membership to the Bishop Museum.

Stairs down to an ornate door. AGAIN, I think this might be where someone is buried. The stairs are roped off so we couldn't even walk down to the ornate door to peer through it and see what was behind it.

This is the only sign with info on it. It does tell the names of the people buried there, but not nearly as much as I would like to have known.

But there is a great climbing tree there.................

Then we decided to visit the Punchbowl Cemetery which honors war veterans.
It's quite a climb to the top!

There are thirty-nine little walled gardens all the way up each side of the staircase and each wall has the names of soldiers killed in battle inscribed on it.

The monument at the top of the stairs.

There is this unexpected, pretty little chapel behind the monument.


The view from the top is really awesome too! This is really a beautiful, peaceful place for a memorial to our service men and women.