Museum Day Live!

The Smithsonian Magazine hosts Museum Day Live! every year in September. Across the country participating museums & cultural institutions provide free entry to people presenting a Museum Day Live! ticket. Ron & I went to Iolani Palace which was one of the participating places. We found that we should have arrived earlier, apparently there were a whole line of people waiting before they even opened! But we got lucky, we were able to snag 2 tickets for the 2:10 pm tour. In the meanwhile, we (& other people who could not get in) were allowed to tour the basement.

Ron with photo of Iolani Palace, c. 1890.

While we waited for our entry time, we went to Liliha Bakery for lunch. Ron remembered having lunch here with Mom back in December but he couldn't remember the name. It was so busy when we got there we spent time looking through the bakery; I think they set it up that way on purpose. I saw a bunch of cool cookies to take to Curtis & Lori's tomorrow night for dessert.

This is the one on Nimitz, not the original one.

I got each of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, plus R2-D2, an Angry Bird, an Emoji, a butterfly, teddy bear, and kokeshi doll cookie.

Ron had a craving for a burger and I had the Grilled Mahimahi Sandwich. My mahi sandwich looked really large when it arrive but my morning walk plus walking around the palace basement made me hungry; I finished all of it!

Deluxe Burger.

Grilled Mahimahi Sandwich; it was a real piece of fish, not a breaded square fish.

We had enough time after lunch to go to Home Depot for Ron to pick up more paint to finish off the touch up on one of the walls for his friend's condo that he is staying at. Phyllis got the original paint from Home Depot, so Ron took the cover from the old paint can back to get a match on the color so he could complete the wall.


While there I noticed their Halloween items that were across the aisle from the paint place. I can understand the T. rex & human skeletons for Halloween but not the horse skeleton. And the skull of the horse is wrong, it shouldn't have a bony nose and the dentition is wrong.

The number of people allowed in to Iolani Palace is controlled so that each visitor can have an iPod for the audio-tour & enough space to move around & see everything. Since the palace is over 100 years old we had to wear booties to protect the flooring and carpets; food & drinks are not allowed in the building either. The tour started in the entry to the palace at the foot of the staircase, at location #2 on the iPod.

Very fashionable!

The iPod platform was much nicer than the old cassette-type audio-tours; it had about 6 language options including Hawaiian!

The electric lights were in the original palace. Hawai'i was a leader in having electricity in the residence of the monarchy; the palace had electric lights before the White House and Buckingham Palace!

Here is a portrait of Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning Hawaiian monarch. She was overthrown by American businessmen with the help of U. S. Marines.

If you have ever watched the original Hawaii Five-O, you have seen the outside of Iolani Palace; its where Steve McGarrett's office was located. And for a while the palace was used for government offices up until 1968 so its plausible that his office would be there. The only problem is that the location as seen from the outside of the building is actually a small corner room off the main room; its about 10' x 10' and entered through a narrow, diagonal hallway.

Looking in to the room in the corner.

Ron walks for 2 hours in the morning and frequently walks around Diamond Head. This morning he walked over to the house after going around Leahi. Dad got up to eat breakfast and was sitting in the family room when Ron arrived. Yesterday when I told Dad that Ron was coming over, he said he didn't know who he was, but then he remembered that Ron bought his Bronco, although he said he could not remember what he looked like. But as soon as Ron walked in he knew who he was. At this phase of his dementia he can still remember someone when he sees their face but he can't come up with their face if you just give him a name.

On my morning walk I went around the playfield 3 times for a total of 1.38 miles; it took me about 28 minutes. But I don't think I'm going to do that again; the grass and dirt were wet and I ended up with a bunch of the Kaimuki red dirt splattered on my calves & my shoes. Because of the iron oxide it stains. I'll be trying a different route tomorrow so I'm glad I took the photo of Leahi today.

Leahi #35 from Kapaolono.

This morning one of the papaya flowers opened up. I think it might be a hermaphrodite; it has anthers but is attached to the trunk and not on a long stalk.


Happy Birthday to Bennie, Bruce, Mike, Christopher, & Kito!