Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...

Sumida Watercress Farm

This week, we went on a field trip to Sumida Watercress Farm in Aiea. Ben was not happy about going with us. He grumbled the entire way there about me waking him up early to "watch things grow". Sumida Watercress Farm grows 75% of all the watercress produced in Hawaii. It has been run by the Sumida Family for three generations. One of the most interesting things about this farm is that the Pearlridge Mall was built around it because the Sumidas did not want to sell the land. It's very cool to look at this little farm and then see the city buildings all around it. One wall has the tails of marlins they have caught, each of which weighed over 600 pounds! One was even from an 800 pound fish! Mr. Sumida brought out a giant bowl of crawfish which live in the water. He showed the kids how to pick one up and where to hold it so it couldn't pinch them. Katie picked one up and it promptly twisted itself into a backflip and pinched her finger. We got to walk out through ...

Luau, Luau

This week we attended our first luau! We went to the luau at the Hale Koa hotel. The grounds were just incredible. There were men playing soft Hawaiian music, the plants and flowers were glorious. There were people in native costumes making headbands out of palm fronds, chopping up fresh coconut for us to taste, handing out flowers for us to put behind our ears and handing out seashell leis to each guest. It was very relaxed and peaceful. This was a Samoan man who kept us entertained during the cocktail hour. He was very funny! Check out those tattoos. He said the tattoos were part of a rite of passage that he had to go through. He said it took fourteen days to complete the tattoo and, yes, it hurt. And yes, everything was tattooed. He demonstrated how to climb a coconut tree using only a bandanna around his feet. They picked people out of the audience and gave them a quick hula lesson. Katie was thrilled to be one of the people chosen and of course it irritated Ben because he thi...