Memorial Day

We found out that this is a pretty awesome place to be on Memorial Day.  Considering the military presence and history on this island, they do it up big for our country out here in the middle of the ocean.
First we went to Hukilau Cafe for breakfast.....wait that wasn't the patriotic part of the day, but we did it none the less and we had gigantic coconut and macadamia nut pancakes at the place where parts of "50 First Dates" was filmed.

     We're definitely going to come back here again and try out lunch!  We went down to town and then up the volcano...

 The volcano crater, of course, has a Hawaiian name but the cemetery in that crater is called Punchbowl National Cemetery, and is home to over 35,000 markers for soldiers that lost their lives is World War II and other wars as well.  The Boy Scouts of America put a little flag on every grave for Memorial Day.

 This is a picture of Waikiki from the entrance to Punchbowl.  You can see Diamondhead in the background.  The south side of the island is so different than the north shore.

 These murals were made from little tiny colored rocks, and were maps of all of the allied forces victorious battles.

This just shows the detail of the rock, and was my favorite compass of all of them.

 The kids didn't really get the significance of the day and the place and the sacrifice, but it was a very emotional visit for me and I was very grateful we made the trip. I hope they remember.

We had read about a floating lantern ceremony at Ala Moana Beach Park that they do every year to commemorate their loved ones that they have lost.  Anyone can buy a lantern and let it go at the beach.  Well, thanks to a few too many Disney movies I was envisioning lanterns floating away in the sky about the ocean, and sold it to the kids that way.  When we got there, all the lanterns had long since been sold out and they were on little boats that floated ON the ocean.  It was also attended by over 50,000 people, so it was not the night I envisioned, but it was cool, what we could see of it!

 Cool bridge behind us, you have to cross it to get over the canal, and to the beach.

 There was also a religious ceremony presented by the Buddhists which was quite beautiful.

It was a heck of a lot of people, and when it ended it was a heck of a lot of people to get back over those cool little bridges and out of the mall parking lot....

We had packed camp chairs in the back of the suburban, and snacks, and George's ukelele that grandma bought him for his birthday so... Grandy and the kids got comfy, and camped out on the top level of the parking lot while Kyle and I went back into the mall and shopped a little.  They had a great campout (minus the fire) and eventually we got back home.

We were all exhausted, but glad to have had another day of adventures.