Swap Meets & Cemeteries

Sunday morning meant worship service at the base chapel with the Osbornes. They are the praise team leaders and the worship was fantastic! We had lunch at the church potluck to fuel up for our serious souvenir shopping at the Aloha Bowl Swap Meet! Let’s just say it was a good thing we brought an extra bag to check on the way home… ;)

After the swap meet closed we went to the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at the Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu.

About 53,000 veterans from the last 4 major wars (and their dependants) are buried there. A few are buried in graves marked “unknown”. Millions of people visit there every year. It is a beautiful, yet solemn place. It is sobering to walk past the names of brave men and women who gave their lives for our freedom and the freedom of others around the world, some of which never even lived to be 20 years old…

  There are lines of trees along both sides of the road that are so cool and many of their roots have grown right over some of the gravestones…

On either side of the staircase is two sets of memorial walls where the names of 28,788 military personnel who are missing in action or were lost or buried at sea in the Pacific during WWII, Korea and Vietnam.

At the top of the stairs is a statue of Lady Justice standing on the bow of a ship. Below her is the quote from Abraham Lincoln in a letter written to a mother of boys lost in the Civil War.

THE SOLEMN PRIDE

THAT MUST BE YOURS

TO HAVE LAID

SO COSTLY A SACRIFICE

UPON THE ALTAR

OF FREEDOM

 Directly behind the statue is a small chapel.

  On either side of the statue and chapel is a colonnade lined with mosaics made of tiny bits of glass depicting battles in the Pacific during WWII, Korea and Vietnam. Each one is not only very informative but they are incredible detailed works of art that are a fitting tribute to those who fought there…

  The views from the top of the Punchbowl Crater are breathtaking!

Diamond Head in the distance

Honolulu from the road coming into the cemetery

shots from the cemetery view point

After leaving Punchbowl we went to the Liliha Bakery, famous since 1950 and now known for their scrumptious little Coco Puffs: a cream puff filled with chocolate cream and topped with a dollop of the well-loved Hawaiian chantilly frosting. Mmmmm…..