Friday: Part I

*Note: Due to some technical problems, we're a bit behind on posting! Be sure to check back later for part II!

Friday was a whirlwind of activity! We went to the Palace (sort of), a courthouse, the post office, the Foster Botanical Gardens, and a rehearsal dinner. Then to top it all off we went to karaoke.

After our nightmare parking experience, we decided to forgo the car and simply walk downtown. It did not seem all that far, so we loaded up on water and headed out. We were going to do the palace tour, walk to the botanical gardens, then head over to the Punchbowl- all before the 6 PM rehearsal dinner for the wedding that we are going to on Sunday evening.

When we looked at the map, it did not really seem that far away.

Here's one of the many huge trees in front of the palace.
So leafy!
Kirk also hangs out in front of trees.

The walk downtown went pretty well. It took about an hour to get to the palace, where we decided not to go on the tour after all. The cost was pretty astronomical considering it was only a 45 minute tour. We walked around the grounds instead and headed across the street to the post office to pick up some stamps.

The post office is really pretty!

After the post office, we wandered towards a statue that looked pretty interesting.

This is the post office.

We also ran into the court house, which happened to have a free museum!

Walk into the court house and look up- this is what you'll see.
This is the courthouse as it was in the late 1800's.
Kirk dispenses some justice!

The courthouse had a history section of how Hawaii switched from the tribal justice system to the western system. They are very different systems and it took awhile to completely switch over. They also had a display on WWII and Pearl Harbor. Marshal law was declared in Hawaii during that time. They also had small displays on things I had not thought much about. For example, they used blackout curtains here at night, just like the rest of the country. However, in this tropical, very humid climate, this created extreme ventilation problems. It was a neat thing to stumble upon, and the volunteer was helpful and informative.

We stopped for lunch. This is a "plate lunch." They are everywhere here, and are served with a meat or two (this is chicken and mahi-mahi), two scoops of rice, and a scoop of macaroni salad. Yummy!

We're still having picture issues, so I'm going to post this at the half day point- check back later to see the rest of our Friday, including the par-tay at Karaoke Hut!