After breakfast we visited the Punchbowl cemetery, which is actually officially called the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. It is a national cemetery located in the Punchbowl crater. The crater itself was formed about 100,000 (!) years ago in what they think was a one time eruption. It had a ceremonial use on the past and a cemetery in this peaceful place is a good fit. There are 53,000 servicemen and women and their families buried here and more memorialized even through their remains a have never been found nor identified. The stones are set in the ground with occasional flower vases stuck in the ground by those still alive to remember. The memorial itself features At the top of the staircase in the Court of Honor is a statue of Lady Columbia, also known as Lady Liberty, or Justice. Here she is reported to represent all grieving mothers. She stands on the bow of a ship holding a laurel branch, as she watches over those buried there. There are “maps” features showing the wars and raids and locations and dates. It was interesting to see how these reflected what Irvin shared and what little we know about Grandpa’s time there as well, both the Philippines and New Guinea. We walked along the path of smaller memorials to the top of the crater—what a view!
Our next stop was to hike the Maunawili Falls. We planned on it—we found the trail head although it was challenging as the main road was closed and we both had different direction on how to get there—it said “muddy” but it was MUDDY! Truth be told I am aware of my hiking abilities as I need to literally watch each step; this trail was awesome. But LOTS of roots to walk over and around with mud thrown in for good measure. We had lots of “oops!”, “whahhhs!”, and “woahs!” Those folks coming out were covered in mud and they were younger and more “athletic” than us so we opted to turn around. We probably made it in about .25 of a mile :). As we exited we noticed a pile of muddy and left behind shoes/sandals. One hiker’s entire back end was covered (We followed him to his car as it was by ours.), so we feel we made the right decision for us.
As we were walking towards our car we saw a little “toy store,” like a little library where you can borrow books but this had little toys in it!! Too funny!
We drove and found a random swing hanging in a tree facing the ocean. It seemed sturdy enough so we swung for a bit! Lovely view for sure. Across the street was a food truck called the “Shrimp Shack,” bright yellow and touting that it was featured on the travel channel in their “Beach Eats” feature. We shared some spicy garlic shrimp (really good and spicy) and some crab cakes (also delish and not spicy) on a picnic table near our swing!
We then continued on our journey, Laniakea Beach, where sometimes turtles show up—- and they did!! Wow!! They weren’t on the shore but just floating about with the waves! One got face to face with Andrew! I got some incredible video! They are HUGE! It made us want to watch “Finding Nemo” again! The water was so clear and there were schools of bright blue fish also farting around!
We headed back to our hotel to get cleaned up and find some dinner—we knew early on that the Pan-Pacific Festival as we’d seen signs for parking restrictions on Saturday due to the parade. We first heard the event and followed the massive drumming to its source and saw drummers and hula dancers, and smelled sumptuous foods, and heard more drums and saw more dancers, etc. for the entire stretch of street!! Wow—it was truly amazing!
We walked down to the Hilton ear where we paddle boarded so we could watch their fireworks! Fireworks are always nice. :). We then headed back, grabbing a bite at a lesser bait Mexican restaurant near our hotel.
Our flight to Maui is early!
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