Mom and Dads Visit - Day 8

Saturday - a big day of shopping and fun! We drove down to Honolulu to Aloha Stadium where they hold the swap meet and went in to find just a couple of things.

We did end up with a few items and dad was quite the bargaining customer. He made sure he got good deals.

 He found him a Pearl Harbor hat that had a strap on it so he could wear it while riding the rhino. Then he found one for mom also.

We came out with a lot of fun things they will be able to use.




Then we headed up to the Punchbowl, the National Memorial Cemetery for veterans of wars.

There were thousands of graves, known and unknown, from the various wars. They were all lined in neat rows all through the cemetery. The Punchbowl is actually the crater of an old volcano where the Hawaiian's once buried some of their royal dead.






These trees were growing throughout the cemetery. They have quite the root system that is built to collect water and hold it.

Then we walked up to the overlook at the cemetery. From one side, you see the cemetery and from the other side you see the city of Honolulu with Diamondhead in the background.

Mom finds the plants all so interesting. Everything is so green and most have flowers growing on them. This one had little spiky red flowers that were very interesting.

This is overlooking the cemetery with more of Honolulu in the background and rows and rows of grave markers.

Dad was quite pensive at times during the visit.

This was a big cactus growing up on the hill side.

This is the memorial at the top of the hill. looking back down over the cemetery with Honolulu and Diamondhead in the distance.

 This is looking at the front of the memorial. You can't see under it but their are mosaics and histories of the various wars. Underneath the lady that stands on the bow of the ship are these words written below.

Mom and Dad are standing out in front of the memorial. Again, you can see Diamondhead and Honolulu in the distance.

 As we walked to where the car was parked, we took one last picture looking from the memorial back to town and Diamondhead.

 This is the view looking back to the enterance to the cemetery. The flowers were beautiful.

Linda was in a class all day so we left to go pick her up. We drove the old highway going up to Pali Lookout. It is a fun highway because it is through the lush, green rain forest and the trees have grown over the highway forming natural tunnels.

We picked up Linda and then stopped by the macadamia nut farm. Dad and mom got some cinnamon coated nuts (sorry, they will probably be gone by the time they get home!!!) and got to view this beautiful flower arrangement. They are all real flowers.

Here they are standing under a macadamia nut tree.

 This was the view leaving the farm. Another couple crazy trees. The one looks dead but it isn't. It's just winter so the leaves will come back out in the next couple months.





After we got home and ate, we were off to the BYU-Hawaii Seasiders last home basketball game of the year. We had a good game against University of Hawaii - Hilo and in the end, pulled out the victory.

It was senior night so they recognized the four seniors and then took a few team pictures after.

Number 10, Junior Ale (standing third from the right, holding all the leis) and I served in the Bishopric together. and Nkosi (standing on the far right with the duckie) has been in the EQ Presidency of the ward I served in while in the Bishopric. Coach Wagner (standing on the far left side) is the Bishop of the ward I now serve as a High Counselor. It's fun to see them off to the tournament.



Then we all came home exhausted, read the scriptures together, had a snack, and headed to bed after a busy day.