Walking in Honolulu...

...just doesn't have the same ring as walking in Memphis. Aloha! Can't believe it's already been almost another week since I've written. Time is flying here. I'm already starting to get panicky about leaving. So, the past week. Yeah...I didn't quite make it up to the North Shore or anything cool like that...blame it on LOST. It's seriously taking over my life. Most of the past week I have stayed up til 4 AM watching it, then slept til noon, then woke up and started watching it again. Pathetic, I know. The good news is that I'm almost done with Season 2 already. I did go with the Melissas to the beach in Waikiki one day. Here was that view:

So beautiful. Minus the half topless girl with a towel over her head looking like a corpse in the foreground.

On a random side note, I have discovered a new talent of mine. Well, not so much a talent as a gift. Or maybe a blessing? I am a rainbringer. Seriously. They should hire me in places like Arizona or the Gobi or the Sahara or something. Or maybe my gift only works in Honolulu, I don't know. But seriously, no matter where I go, no matter what time, if I'm going somewhere, it's going to rain. It doesn't matter if it's been beautiful & sunshiny all day; the minute I step out the door - rain. And remember I ride a moped. Soooo fun, riding along getting wet all the time, let me tell you. But anyway, if you need me to do a little rainbringing, I'm for hire.

So, I started feeling guilty on Wednesday that I was wasting all this time in Paradise, so I decided to go walking around & exploring in the Capitol District downtown. Do you know what I hate? (Yes, I know, I hate a lot of things - how could you ever guess the answer to that question.) But I really hate one-way streets. And that is all downtown Honolulu is. SO annoying. I intended on parking at this one church I was wanting to see (which you'll see about a million pictures of in just a minute), but about 4 wrong turns caused by a mess of one-way streets later, I ended up at a FedEx Office and decided it was close enough. So off I set wandering around, taking lots of pictures, and looking like a total tourist.

Here's a cool mural on a building behind FedEx Office. These are everywhere in Honolulu. There's a face in the cliffs, can you see it?

Pretty flowers outside the Mission Houses Museum:

I don't really know anything about the Mission Houses Museum, and I didn't go inside either, so I'm linking a Wikipedia article about it here in case you want to read up on it. Mission Houses Museum I just took pictures as I walked by. And here they are:

Next up was the Kawaiaha'o Church, which is like Hawaii's Westminster Abbey. I came in through the back by the cemetary.

Back entrance gate:

Info sign about the cemetary:

Walking along the side of the church:

Kawaiaha'o was built on the grounds where there was supposedly a sacred spring. This is a fountain commemorating the spring:

Info sign about the spring and fountain:

Close up of the fountain:

And now the church itself:

The tomb of King Lunalilo, right outside the church. Unfortunately, I seem to have caught it on a maintenance or repair day or something:

Info sign about Lunalilo's tomb:

More of the church:

Looking out the church front doors:

Marble placard in the church entryway:

Looking into the church from the entryway:

Portraits in the back of the church (I don't know who they are, probably some members of the Hawaiian royal family):

Walking up the stairs to the balcony (I love this picture!):

The view from that window:

Looking out another window in the stairwell:

Left-side balcony:

Organ pipes in the back of the balcony:

View of the church from the back of the balcony:

Portrait of Queen Emma (I think she's pretty):

Another picture of the window in the stairwell (Sorry, it was just so pretty, I couldn't help myself):

View of the church & tomb from across the street:

Ok, I finally left the church. Here's a shot of the Honolulu Hale (government seat of the City & County of Honolulu):

The Hawaii State Library:

Next up, Iolani Palace. They tout is as the only royal palace in the United States. I'm kind of like...well, yeah, duh, are you familiar with U.S. History? But whatever, it's still really pretty. I was trying to keep this photo expedition free (for the record, I succeeded), so I didn't do the tour inside. I'm going to eventually, though.

Pretty tree on the palace grounds with the Coronation Pavilion in the background:

Coronation Pavilion:

Iolani Barracks:

This is what the University of Hawaii School of Law would look like if they followed in Memphis's footsteps and moved into the U.S. Post Office, Custom House, and Court House:

Next up, the Judiciary History Center, with a statue of King Kamehameha out front:

Close up of the statue:

Looking from the Judiciary History Center across the street to Iolani Palace:

More Judiciary History Center:

And that completes my photo tour of the Capitol District of Honolulu. Hopefully, you enjoyed the deluge of pictures. (I just love pictures. I actually took tons more than this, but I didn't want to inundate y'all.) Oh wait, I do have one more of a really pretty statue or tomb, not sure, that I saw in the corner of the Kawaiaha'o Church Cemetery on my way back to FedEx Office:

On a more mundane front, I ran out of Clif Bars on Thursday, and that is just not acceptable since I'm hopelessly addicted to them. Off I set for Sam's Club, thus leading me to a great illustration of what Honolulu is like. There are tons of people and not tons of space. So everything is crammed together and stacked on top of each other. The entrance to the Honolulu Sam's Club is on the third level of Walmart's parking garage:

So strange. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of going down the cookbook aisle in Sam's Club, and I left with this beauty:

Isn't it SO exciting?! Doesn't the sight of a shiny new cookbook with over 600 recipes just whip you into an ecstatic, euphoric frenzy? No? Just me? Whatever. I love cooking & I love cookbooks. I've already read through it twice! Call me a dork or nerd if you want, I don't care! It's the little things in life.

So, bad news. I start school in 4 days. FOUR. Kill me now. I am dreading school. Probably more than y'all know. My time would just be much better spent climbing up mountains & going to the beach all the time, don't you think? Yeah, I think so, too.

Work is going well. I got to food run last night, which is infinitely better than hostessing (which suuuucks). When you food run, you just stand at the kitchen window, wait for orders to come up, make sure everything on the ticket is there, look what table it goes to, and take it over to them. Easy and also fun, because you get to stand there and talk and joke with the kitchen staff a lot of the time. I get to food run tonight, too, so work shouldn't be too bad. I start training for waitressing tomorrow. Exciting/scary.

Well, I've talked your ears off (wait - worn your eyes out? Whatever, you get what I'm saying) enough at this point, and I've got to go get ready for work! Write me. Love and miss y'all!