Memorial Day in Hawaii and Iolani Palace

Just a quick note before I get started here. I decided to combine Memorial Day and the day after into this blog post because they go very well together. So bring out that cup of coffee and kick your feet back, because this is gonna be a long one!

So on Memorial Day, we were supposed to go see Iolani Palace, keyword here “supposed”. 15 minutes before our tour, we arrived and the place was empty. My aunt, uncle, and I found out that they were closed for the day in honor of Memorial Day so that scheduled tour we planned probably wasn’t going to happen. Oh well! That gave us an even better idea and so we spent our Memorial Day at Waimea Falls. Before we left though, we got some pictures of the palace and the statue of Kamehameha the Great which was across the street. Waimea Falls is a small waterfall that has a beautiful and easy hike up to it. Along the way, we saw some beautiful flowers and lush green vegetation. There were trees whose arms intertwined with one another and reached out as if they had all the room in the world. The views were breathtaking and all of the plants and trees were just amazing. When we made it to the actual falls we took some pictures (of course, haha) and sat and watched the running water as well as all the people swimming around below the falls. If you ever decide to go up to Waimea Falls, bring your swimsuit! You can swim in the falls, but before you do that, you have to check in with the lifeguard and get a life jacket, regardless of how good a swimmer you are. I would suggest going in the mid-morning, so that the crowd will hopefully be smaller and it won’t be as hot. We ran into a little bit of rain while we were up there but it wasn’t anything we couldn’t handle. It actually felt very nice. The rain in Hawaii is more of a mist and it’s very gentle even when it rains more. We spent quite a bit of time hiking around and being at Waimea Falls so if you plan to go there, be prepared for a longer stay. 🙂

The next day, we were fortunate enough to get our tour for Iolani Palace rescheduled and we got in! What a stunning building the palace is and inside is even more beautiful. Iolani Palace is the only official royal building in the United States, fun fact. It was built by King Kalakaua during his reign from 1874 to 1891. From what I remember, he was the last king of Hawaii. His sister, Liliuokalani would be the last ruler of Hawaii before the monarchy was overthrown and Hawaii annexed. They make you wear covers over your shoes to protect and preserve the floor which is kinda fun. Wow I’m a dork, haha. At Iolani Palace we learned more about the Hawaiian royal line and specifically Hawaii’s last rulers. The story of the monarchy’s overthrow was quite sad honestly, but it was very interesting to learn more about. The palace was GIANT and it was cool to learn how innovative and tech-savvy, for lack of better words, King Kalakaua was. He had electricity and running water in Iolani Palace before most buildings on the US mainland! The music room, which is on the second floor of the palace was my favorite room. It contained King Kalakaua’s music box and the room itself was just beautifully decorated. I also really enjoyed the Blue Room, simply because the furniture’s cushioning was all a deep, royal blue that was just stunning. And the throne room. Oh. My. Goodness. It was gorgeous! The red throughout the room was stunning and the thrones themselves were stunning. I can only imagine what Iolani Palace would’ve been like at the time of King Kalakaua. The throne room was really cool to in that there were recreations of several of Queen Liliokalani’s gowns. She had one with ostrich feathers in there and one embellished with peacock feathers. They were beautiful. I highly recommend visiting Iolani Palace. We had a wonderful tour guide who told us so much about the royal family and the palace itself. Feeling like royalty for a few hours was pretty cool. 🙂 And just when you thought this day couldn’t get more exciting, we had parasailing shortly after! Woohoo! My aunt and uncle used this company, Hawaiian Parasail. They have a very good record and are well-known for their safety, which I’d say is pretty important if you’re going to be 1000 feet in the air! While my stomach did not appreciate the choppy waves and how they rocked our small boat around, it did just great as my uncle and I soared above Oahu. I hope I never forget the feeling of parasailing. You can hear the wind rushing and it moves you around a little and the view is just something else. I could almost describe parasailing as being on a swing in the sky but I still feel like that doesn’t quite describe it. It was so fun though! I wanna say that my uncle and I were in the air for about 7 minutes and then on the way back to the boat, the guys dunked us in the ocean. Yay saltwater! I’m sooooo glad I wore my swimsuit for that. And after parasailing, it was time for our luau. We went to Paradise Cove which is on the west side of the island. I’ve never been to a luau, so I didn’t really know what to expect, but let me just say I was not let down. We were greeted with orchid and kuikui nut leis and then ushered in to our tables. There were several activities before the actual show began which including watching coconuts be husked, cooking the pig, watching people climb palm trees, and a shower of plumeria flowers. Finally it was time to eat and we were treated to a three course meal. There was a delicious salad plate followed by the main meal which had several different types of meat and then finally dessert! Dessert was a delicious chocolate and pineapple cake with coconut icing. There was also this interesting gelatiny dessert that tasted like coconut. When the main dish came around was when the show started. And oh what a show it was! The singers were extremely talented and so were the dancers. The girls were all beautiful and the guys were all pretty good-looking too. Especially the fire dancer, oh my goodness his eyes were pretty! Anyway, the show was wonderful and I absolutely love the sound of the music there. It’s totally unique and different from anything I’ve ever heard and I love it! Paradise Cove was a great luau with great service and an even greater view. The sunset that night was gorgeous to and it was a great way to end that day. I think that my aunt and uncle ordered one of the more expensive packages and that’s what allowed us to have the lei greeting and stageside seats. As mentioned it’s more expensive, but I’d say it’s worth it. What a fun couple of days that was.