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Published: March 7th 2009
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Pali Lookout
Pillar that signals the pass between north and south shores of Oahu We enjoyed another slower start to our touring. Even though we were served breakfast at 7 am as usual, we didn't have to meet the bus until 10.
Our first stop was the mountain pass where King Kamehameha won the major battle giving him control of Oahu. Here, rather than having to face his opponents in a deep jungle valley as he did on Maui, he took them on at the heights of the Pali Lookout between two main low land sections of the island. He must have been a master tactician.
We returned to Honolulu to tour the state capitol, find lunch, and listen to the Royal Band Concert.
The architect of the capitol building had quite an imagination. I suppose the shallow moat represents the island nature of Hawai'i. And I suppose the pyramidal shape echoes the shape of a volcano. It didn't matter a great deal as long as we were able to find the bathrooms. Older folks do not have a one track mind except when they are enclosed in a bus for over an hour without having a built-in rest room. Suddenly they all agree on something!
The capitol is impressive, once
Sign of battle
The story of Kamehameha's victory at Pali Lookout other considerations are laid aside.
Across from it is the 'Iolani Palace we will visit later and the open park where the band was already warming up as we came out of the capitol.
As she had done a number of times, Susan gave each participant of our group a ten dollar bill to spend on lunch. Ann and I usually made out because we were pretty thrifty. I was able to get a rice dish-to-go and a large Coke for each of us for just a little over a saw buck apiece. I was offered directions by two different very nice locals but could not find food in either circumstance.
I followed my nose. Well, actually, I didn't. I followed four well-dressed professionals who all seemed headed to lunch and found a nice take-out place. I got back in time to find good seats for the concert.
Susan told us that it was a British foreign service officer who passed over a document signed by the King of Hawai'i that would have officially tied Hawai'i to England. So it never happened. Even so, the pomp, ceremony, architecture, and accoutrements of British royalty were favored by
State Capitol
Creative architecture the Hawai'ian kings.
That was to our benefit in a small but very good way by the concert. We enjoyed it thoroughly. It combined traditional Hawai'i music, marches, short orchestral numbers, and some patriotic (toward Hawai'i) music. -- Come to think of it, band concerts in Wisconsin usually include either "On Wisconsin" or "The Stars and Stripes Forever." I must admit, I think Hawai'i has a stronger secessionist movement than Alaska does. It certainly has a unique music tradition.
After the concert, we enjoyed visiting the 'Iolani Palace. A few years ago I would have remembered the stories about the various leaders who used the palace. Some included big businessmen who ran the islands while holding the queen hostage. But I'm not clear how that all fit together. But the fact that big business tries to hold a government hostage is not just a modern phenomenon. -- I don't think the big health insurance companies will let the government revise the current financial arrangements in our health care system. I wish I remember how that queen did it. History can be so instructive!
After the palace tour, I wanted to get a photo of the King Kamehameha's
Royal Band
Excellent music performed weekly statue across the street. I hunted for walk lights at a handy location. Finding none, I looked for sheriff's cruisers. Finding none, I looked for an opening in the traffic that would allow me to cross where I was without getting run over. Lights changed. Traffic stopped. I stepped lively over those six lanes successfully and still had day light to work with! -- Actually it was only about 2:30 so I'm spoofin' you. --
After getting a good picture, I started back across the street. What had appeared to be a clear shot suddenly turned into a race.
While I usually walk, except when I am on a treadmill where I occasionally spend a minute or so in a moderate jog and a few seconds in a full sprint, I found myself facing having to do a full sprint to get out of the way of one idiot who only saw a target on me. I hit my stride quite fast and made it across the last three lanes.
What I forgot to take into account was having to slow down and stop. On the treadmill, my relative position with respect to the walls does not
change as I slow down. That was not the case with respect to the gate to the palace which was closed.
Since you didn't see an imprint of the state seal on my face at supper, you now realize I was able to pull up in time.
Having made safe haven on the park side of the street, I wandered toward what looked like a small band stand. It turned out to be the stand in which the kings were crowned. The stairs had a modest barricade at the top to minimize unsacred feet tromping on those hallowed boards. On that rope is a sign which says "Kapu."
That reminded me of a story Susan told us about how Kapu collapsed right after the death of Kamehameha in 1819.
The Kapu system was enforced very severely. Violation usually meant death on the spot. For example, if someone did not fall on his or her face in the presence of a leader (or just disappear down the street or behind a tree), a servant used a sword to slay the person.
Kapu was not impossible because every leader had to wear a distinctive helmet, have standard
King Kamehameha I
Kamehameha the Great who united the Hawai'ian Islands bearers precede him, and have conch horns blown in order to give fair warning.
But Kapu was integrated into everyday life with similar deadly results if the rules were broken. That was what finally led to Kapu's collapse.
Meals were taken separately by men and women. Only men could prepare and eat the food prepared for the leaders. Women were not allowed to sit with let alone to touch or eat men's food. And men were not to sit with, touch, or eat women's food. That would be Kapu.
When Kamehameha died, it was unexpected. His son, an imbiber of some note, was still three sheets to the wind when he was brought to the table of the banquet at which his ascension to the crown was being celebrated. When the queen (I don't remember if it was the favorite or the sacred queen) escorted Junior to the festivities, she escorted him past the men's table and seated him at the womens' table.
All h... broke loose because the king was the head enforcer of Kapu and here he was the violator.
That was 1819. The courageous queen and the new king ended strict enforcement
State Seal
This gate might have helped me. of Kapu, with John Young gladly supporting them. Human sacrifice never sat well with him.
The following year, Protestant missionaries came. Their morality was only somewhat less restrictive than Kapu. The biggest difference was that the burning fires of the afterlife would take care of law violations rather than a very present sword-yielding servant.
Several of us left the park together to walk to the Chinese restaurant where we would have supper with the group. On the way, we found a Chinese herbalist's shop. There we found some pain patches that Ann has used for years with good effect. Some of the Elderhostel group had borrowed some from Ann and tried them. They were able to buy some of their own at the herbalist's.
The supper was also a happy success. Afterward, we went to wait next to a river for our motorcoach.
Being in the Chinatown of Honolulu, we were not surprised to see a statue honoring Sun Yat-sen. The Chinese revolutionary had lived in Hawai'i for awhile and later claimed to have been born there. His principles of governing were widely accepted except by the war lords who ran China and sent him into
Hawai
South Seas explorers may have followed migrating plovers to discover Hawai'i. exile a number of times.
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Marty
non-member comment
I had a picture in my mind of Kmehmeha and his warriors forcing the other warriors off of the cliff, but didn't know where that came from. You supplied the answer for me. Thanks