February 3, Back to our favorite state, it has the best weather of all fifty states. I think the coolest place here to stay is the Pink Hotel on Waikiki Beach. We arrived at 8am and docked next to the Aloha Tower, it was built in 1926 and was the tallest building for 4 decades. Duke Kahanamoku set his first swimming record here at pier 7.
Our main goal here was to go to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific and the Honolulu Memorial. The cemetery and the memorial, covering 116 acres, are located in the Puowaina Crater, an extinct volcano referred to in Hawaii as “Punchbowl” because of its shape. Roughly translated, “Puowanina means “Consecrated Hill” or Hill of Sacrifice.” It is one of the two hallowed resting places in the vast Pacific for the recovered remains of WWII dead, whose family did not request the return of the remains to the continental US. The Honolulu Memorial was erected by the American Battle Monuments in 1964, in it’s ten courts of the missing which flank the monumental staircase are recorded the names of the missing. The inscription reads “In these gardens are recorded the names of Americans who gave their lives in service to their country and whose earthly resting places is known only to God. We spent over 3 hours here and could have stayed longer.
We had intentions of walking down from the cemetery but were advised by cemetery personnel that we should not, so they called a cab. The cab took us to the State Capitol building. (We wanted to stop and see McGarret and Dano but we could not locate them, apparently they were out on a case.) On the other side of the Capitol Building was Iolani Palace, where the Royal Hawaiian Band was preforming on the side lawn. We were treated to a wonderful free performance.
We had the hardest time finding a place to have lunch and some local brews, ending up at Gordon Biersch Brewery (a US chain) for a couple hours. I had to drink their brews which are always good. One of the waiters spotted my Cleveland Browns hat and came over, he grew up in Euclid and his brother Kevin works at Great Lake Brewery as a bartender. Disappointed in not having any local brews, I found a six pack of beers from Maui and brought it back to the ship. Overall a beautiful day in paradise.
We returned to the ship in time to enjoy the evening show “The Halau Hula Olana Show” that showcased traditional and modern Hawaiian music, dances and songs. The performers were Hawaiian children aged between 6 and 18. Below is a picture of two of the girls waiting to board the ship for the performance. It was a excellent show.
We sailed away from Honolulu at 11:00pm and traveled the 80 miles to Nawiliwili, Kauai,Hawaii.
