Entries from June 19th, 2009

‘Iolani Palace

June 21st, 2009 · 1 Comment

‘Iolani Palace is the only royal palace that was used as an official home by a reigning monarch in the United States. Both King David Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani lived there. A couple years ago I read a book about Liliu’okalani, who was the last Queen of Hawaii. .. the last reigning monarch, in fact. Since then I have been interested in her life and wanted to go see where she lived.

Dallas wasn’t interested in going to Iolani Palace because he had gone on class trips. He decided instead to drop me off and then go shopping at HIC. I didn’t mind at all. I’d just call him when it was time for him to come pick me up. When he dropped me off in downtown Honolulu he accidentally dropped me in front of the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. They were both regal buildings, easy mistake, but I didn’t realize it until Dallas had already driven off. Luckily he was able to look it up on his phone and tell me where to go. ‘Iolani Palace was just around the corner.

The first thing I saw were the barracks behind Iolani Palace.

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You can see the palace just a bit taller off to the side in front of the barracks. I walked through the palace grounds, which were kind of like a park with people sitting around and enjoying the day, and finally arrived at the front of the palace. Below is the view from across the street.

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And inside the gates.

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Oh, but I had to walk back through the grounds because the barracks are where you buy tickets.

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I’d missed the guided tour, so I got a ticket for the 90-minute audio tour.

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The entrance to ‘Iolani Palace is at the back of the building.

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Everyone had to put booties on over their shoes. These were kind of hard to keep on when I was wearing slippers!

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The brochure we had showed a map of the 2-story palace and was numbered. Basically you just pressed the number on the audio device when you were in that area and it told you where to look and what you were looking at. You held the device right to your ear.

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Photos were not allowed inside the palace. It’s a shame because it’s gorgeous inside, but that is usually how it is when you tour historic homes. I love touring places like this and seeing how people used to live. Like I said earlier, this one was especially cool since I’d read a lot about Queen Lili’uokalani. From the rooms where she entertained heads of states from around the world to the upstairs bedroom where she was eventually imprisoned, it was all pretty amazing. A quilt that Lili’uokalani made while she was held captive is still in the room.

After the audio tour everyone got to go into the palace basement where there are galleries of historic photographic displays, Hawaiian crown jewels, and all sorts of ancient Hawaiian regalia.

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Curry House

June 21st, 2009 · No Comments

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For lunch we went to one of our favorite quick spots, CoCo Ichibanya Curry House. They have several locations on Oahu. Last time we were in Hawaii we took Dallas’s grandma out for curry there. This time we hit up another location, but it was as good as last.

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The Curry House menu is huge. You get to choose how much rice you want, how spicy you want your curry, what kind of meat (chicken, beef, pork, etc) and what toppings or sides you want.

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I decided to have chicken katsu with cheese.

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Dallas had pork katsu with kimchi.

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I think Dallas was psyched because almost every store and restaurant in Hawaii stocks his favorite Japanese green tea.

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Holunape at Aku Bone

June 20th, 2009 · No Comments

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Holunape at Aku Bone, Honolulu

Holunape
Holunape at Aku Bone, Honolulu

That night we went out to a locals bar called Aku Bone where one of Dallas’s classmates, Kekoa was playing with his band Holunape. The band plays traditional Hawaiian music and consists of a ukulele, a guitar and a stand-up bass. Kekoa plays the bass. Actually… er.. here he’s the guy in the middle playing guitar. He was mostly playing bass, though.

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Monte, Dallas, BJ :: Aku Bone, Honolulu

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Monte, BJ, Kilo, Keone, Dallas :: Aku Bone, Honolulu

We timed our trip this year so that Dallas would be able to attend his Kamehameha Schools alumni week. The event at Aku Bone was not an official Kamehameha reunion event, but many of Dallas’s friends from Class of ’94 were there, as well as many Kamehameha alum from other years. The table next to us was full of Class of 1940-something alumni, which was kind of like drinking with your grandparents, but also very cute because the old-timers got up a lot to hula. Kilo and Monte, from Dallas’s class, did a hula. At one point, the older ladies next to us were kissing Monte and putting money in his pants! It got a little crazy.

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Kilo, Brandy, Lani, Hoku, Monte, Dallas, Nalani, BJ :: Aku Bone, Honolulu

This was the first time many of Dallas’s classmates had seen each other in 15 years. Dallas has a special bond with the students from the outer islands because they all had to board in the dorms on campus and spent every waking and sleeping minute together for many years. Dallas says he’s lived with some of his classmates longer than he lived with his own brother and sister. It was neat to see them all together again.

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Kamehameha Schools Class of ’94 :: Aku Bone, Honolulu

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Kamehameha Schools Class of ’94 :: Aku Bone, Honolulu

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Kamehameha Schools Class of ’94 :: Aku Bone, Honolulu

Oh, and I didn’t realize it at the time, but Kekoa’s band Holunape is quite accomplished. The following week when we were in Maui the 32nd annual Na Hoku Hanohano awards were held. These awards are given out by the Hawaii Academy of the Recording Arts and are the equivalent of the Grammys, but for Hawaiian music only. Holunape was nominated in four categories. They won the award for group of the year, and their album “Ahea? ‘Ano!” won for Hawaiian album of the year. You can listen to clips from the album at mele.com. (Mele = Song). Later when we were in Kauai at Borders we tried to buy the winning album but they were all sold out. We did see their previous album on the shelf, though.

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Holunape CD at Borders :: Lihue, Kauai

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Iso Peanuts

June 20th, 2009 · No Comments

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After hiking on Diamond Head we went back to the hotel and lounged more by the beach. Not much to report, except that I found out that I love iso peanuts, which are basically arare (Japanese rice crackers) with a peanut inside. I found this out when I ate the entire bowl of them. Our bartender that day gave me a fresh gardenia for my hair, it smelled divine, and asked if she could refill the bowl of iso peanuts for me. I said “please.. wait.. NO!” I drank a mai tai and Dallas had more Primo beer.

Later on we walked around Waikiki. I saw this cool bike rack.

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Then I made an appointment at the Apple store because I thought my computer was acting odd. The Apple store in The Royal Hawaiian’s shopping center is the biggest Apple store in Hawaii. It ended up that they couldn’t do much for my computer because they couldn’t replicate the issue, but they logged the ticket anyway in case something happens later. Dallas and I went to Yard House for half-priced appetizers for dinner and then took a nap before going out for the night.

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Diamond Head

June 19th, 2009 · 4 Comments

On our 3rd day of vacation, I dragged Dallas up to hike Diamond Head. It’s one of Oahu’s most recognizable landmarks. I’d gazed upon Diamond Head many times from Waikiki, but I’d never actually been there. There’s a hiking trail from the crater floor up to the summit, but to get to it you have to drive through a tunnel they made in the crater.

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We have arrived!

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See that white dot on the top of the cliff? That’s where we’ll be hiking to. People think it’s just a quick little hike, but it is actually quite steep and strenuous, especially when the temperature is 80+ degrees. In 0.8 miles the hike ascends 560 feet from the crater floor.

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Again, deceptive. The trail starts out as this nice and wide paved walkway. This part of the trail lasts about 0.2 miles and the reason they poured the concrete here was to reduce erosion. Easy peasy!

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The paved trail didn’t last long and soon we were on to a rougher road. Dallas has been to Diamond about 481 times on class trips, but he came with me anyway. He even offered to carry a backpack with our things in it so I didn’t have to carry a bag. What a good sport.

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Soon the rough trail turned into rough trail switchbacks up the crater’s interior.

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I’d been going to the gym 3 times/week for months before vacation and I still found the hike hard. I pretended like I wanted to take in this scenic view just so I could rest for a second and grab a drink of water.

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Diamond Head was known to Hawaiians as Leahi and then these stupid Britsh sailors came and thought that the calcite crystals embedded in the rocks were diamonds so they called it Diamond Head. The name stuck.

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Here’s Dallas at one of the scenic lookouts.

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Ok. Enough resting. Next up was a steep flight of 74 steps that leads to a dark tunnel. Dallas said back in the day the tunnel was not lit at all and you had to bring flashlights or else just hold your arms out and walk in the dark. These days the tunnel is lit so you can see where you’re going. At the end of the tunnel there were some weary people lingering about. I wasn’t sure why until I looked up. 74 steps was just the beginning. Get ready to climb up a very steep flight of 99 steps.

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I got 99 problems, but a step ain’t one. Hit me!

Groan.

Next was a spiral staircase that went straight up to the top. I wanted to die at the thought of more steps, but we were almost there.

At the top you have to duck down and squeeze through this opening that is only a couple feet tall.

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Once through the opening (on the left) you can walk out to a point and then go up a bit farther to the summit (on the right). Fort Ruger, the first US military reservation on Hawaii, was built in the interior of the crater. At the top there’s a station that directed artillery fire from batteries in Waikiki and Fort Ruger outside the crater. There are also bunkers to be seen up there.

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Diamond Head Lighthouse was originally built in 1899 and still uses the original lens. The current structure was built in 1917. iIn 2007, the lighthouse was on a United States postage stamp.

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Inside the crater. You can see the tunnel we drove though to enter the park on the right.

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Looking over at Waikiki.

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That “little” pink building is our hotel, The Royal Hawaiian.

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Some teenaged tourist from the mainland took this photo of us. It turned out really bad. I did some Photoshop magic on the lighting, but it’s still kind of bad. We asked a Japanese tourist to take a photo of us a bit later. She was so into it she was running all over the summit trying to get the best shot of us. That photo turned out even worse!

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One last view before going back.

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Going down 99 stairs is a lot easier than going up, but it still feels like this.

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By 9:30 we were at Zippy’s eating breakfast. Dallas had a chicken katsu plate lunch and I had a bowl of chili rice. Breakfasts of champions.

Sources: Wikipedia, HawaiiStateParks.org.

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