Right Back Where We Started

Well, we're back in Waikiki. This time, however, we're right on the beach. We have a fabulous room with a fabulous view. Here's a picture I took from our balcony last night when we got in:

And this is what it looks like in the morning.

Today was not a beach day, though, today was our Hawaiian History Day. First, we returned out rental car (we tried to do it last night, but the place was closed when we got there, so we had to do it this morning and pay to park the car, and parking in Waikiki is NOT cheap!)

We got some information and some breakfast, and took the bus into downtown Honolulu to the 'Iolani Palace. The 'Iolani Palace is the last residence of the Hawaiian royal family. We learned a lot about the Hawaiian monarchy, and how Hawaii ended up as a part of the U.S.

This is the royal coat of arms on the front gate.

Here's John in front of the palace.

After our self-guided audio tour, we went across the street to the King Kamehameha statue in front of the State Supreme Courthouse. That's us. It was raining, I was glad I had my hat.

We had planned on visiting the Maritime Museum, but when we got there, it was closed. So we took a picture of the Aloha Tower, which was built to greet visitors arriving on cruise ships in Honolulu Harbor. This is how it greets visitors arriving from the closed Maritime Museum.

We took the bus back to Waikiki and walked around and bought junk for the kids that they do not need and then headed back to our room to enjoy the sunset. We got some really great pictures of us on the balcony during the sunset. Here's one of them. You should have seen my "tripod"--two books, on top of an upturned trash can, on top of a patio side table, on top of a lounge chair. Hey, it worked.

Well, that's pretty much the end of our trip to Hawaii. Tomorrow we're leaving in the morning for the airport and we'll get home sometime in the middle of the night and we'll get to see the kids in the morning on Monday.

Mahalo to you for reading my blog, I hope you enjoyed it, we sure enjoyed our time here.

Aloha to you all!!!