A Beautiful Palace...You MUST see IT!
Iolani Palace is beautiful! We toured around Honolulu and thought that our tour of the palace would be a nice stop. We were certainly amazed at how well-kept, restored and furbished the palace was with it's amazing furnishings...to it's gold-gilded crown moldings!
Our tour guide was very informative and spoke loudly so all (even those in the back of the group) could hear her. She was the best tour guide I have ever had on any tour I have been on. And I have been on private tours of the White House in Washington DC.
The Royal Princess of Hawaii was visiting the palace at the same time our tour was going on. Her name is: Abigail Kawanakoa who is a direct descendant of King King Kaumuali�i---the last King of Kauai before King Kamehameha I took over all the Hawaiian Islands and merged them under his soul rule.
Princes Abigail Kawanakoa was at 'Iolani Palace when we went for our tour. Our tour guide told us she was the royal princess....the Princess was taking a few of her friends around the palace showing them everything. In fact...she just seemed like a regular person...that at first we thought was a tour guide herself for a small-personal tour until our own tour guide told us otherwise.
My girlfriend (who we went with and her husband to Hawaii) and I were in the palace shop buying some souveniours..the 'Royal Princess' was in front of us with her friends buying a ton of stuff. Anyhow she was really fascinating to listen to as she told about the history of the Hawaiian language & their music to her friends as they checked their stuff out. It did take quite a while for them to finish getting their purchases, about 10 mins. but it really didn't bother us cause we were so interested in what she was talking about standing behind her..it was hard not to listen. Anyhow, she turned to us and apologized for taking so long with her purchases and we said no problem please take your time. Both my friend and I were just too fascinated by all the info she was telling her friends that she could've taken even longer! So when she was about to leave she smiled and turned to us and said thank you for being so patient and to have a great visit in Oahu. Then as we began to pay for our items, the sales clerk informed us (as she handed us each a beautiful ticket box with a picture of the palace on it) that she was the 'Royal Princess' and wanted both of us to have a gift (the boxes) as appreciation for our patience. Well, needless to say...we were floored that the Princess was so kind in giving us such a lovely gift. We asked if the sales clerk could please write down her name (and who she was was descendant from) on a piece of paper..because no way could we remember her name or how it was spelled.
Needless to say, after meeting the 'Royal Princess' our tour of Ionlani Palace was more than complete.
I would recommend every visitor to tour the palace. There are many wonderful places to see and tour in Honolulu, but to understand and experience what the native people lived through & felt before & during the annexation into the USA, a tour of the palace is a MUST.
MonaK