Kewalo Basin, State Capitol

More images from yesterday when I stopped off at Kewalo Basin which is near Honolulu Harbor.
Another view of Diamond Head:



Kewalo Basin is mix of commercial and private boats.
The charter fleet well, charters from here:



I went out on an all day charter once, with some friends.
The Fish Aggregating Device or FAD is about twenty miles out though there are others both closer and farther away anchored around the island.
We managed to bring in some ahi(tuna) and some mahimahi(mahimahi).
It's cool to hang out here in the afternoons and wait for the charters to come in. They fly flags that represent catches, and you can watch them weigh the fish in and take pictures with the tourists.
Big boat coming in to Honolulu Harbor:



Yachts with the Waterfront Towers in the background:



There's a small number of commercial fishers here too, but their numbers are diminishing. Most of the sampan fleet used to be here, but they're all gone.

Some other stuff from the state capitol.
The entrance, with the state seal and a statue of Father Damien:



Father Damien lived on Moloka'i in Kalaupapa, the leper colony.
He was recently made a saint.
You can read about him here.
The inside of the capitol:



The Senate chambers are to the left, the House to the right.
If you squint your eyeballs, you can see Iolani Palace on the other side, behind a large banyan tree.
The capitol is unusual in that there's a puka in the roof:



Directly below the puka is a mosaic:



On the other side of the capitol, adjacent Iolani Palace is a bronze of Liliuokalani, the last monarch:



Again, Iolani Palace:



I think that's actually the back side though the front side looks the same but faces the street.
New Honolulu isn't that much different from old Honolulu, most of the historical places are still there.
The palace is interesting in as I said before, it's like the only royal palace in the United States.
Protests are held here on the anniversary of the overthrow and Hawaiian activists have even tried to take it over.
There's a sovereignty movement here don't you know.
Once the queen was deposed, the provisional government, run by mostly white folks, took over the palace.
Now, you can take a walking tour and check it out.
Downtown Honolulu again is sort of a mix of old and new, with newer tall buildings right next to a Chinatown district where some of the buildings are turn of the twentieth century.
Next time I ride past here, I'll try to linger and get more stuff.