Capitol area tour showcases treasures
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Intrepid adventurers braved blustery winds and scattered showers yesterday to experience Honolulu's past during the eighth annual "A Capital Day, Down Capitol Way."
Cory Lum • The Honolulu Advertiser
The daylong event kicked off with the Royal Hawaiian Band glee club, hula dancing and conch shell blowing at Honolulu Hale, and proceeded on to a dozen locations around the capitol district.
Jane Galluzzi, 12, plays a game of "graces" at Mission Houses Museum. The activity was part of yesterday's "A Capital Day, Down Capitol Way" event of open houses and tours of museums and historic sites in Honolulu's capitol district.
Jane Galluzzi and her 8-year-old sister, Diane, foreground, race with hoops.
"It beats staying at home all day and watching TV with the kids," said Nanci Munroe of Kahalu'u. "For the kids, the biggest thrill is the free trolley ride."
The children — Brandon, 5, and Wyatt, 9 — were willing to leave the trolley to visit the Honolulu Academy of Arts, perhaps because they were attracted by the gigantic 75th anniversary cake on the front lawn.
"I was at the Academy of Arts one other time," said Brandon. "But I don't remember it."
Part of National Historic Preservation Week from May 12 through 18, Honolulu's Capital Day affair included well-known sites such as 'Iolani Palace, Washington Place, Hawai'i State Library and the Richards Street YWCA, as well as some lesser-known stops, such as the Judiciary History Center and the Honolulu Police Department Law Enforcement Museum.
The lawn of the Mission Houses Museum had the most eclectic lineup, featuring antique cars, Mongolian warriors and a Civil War encampment. Rick Watkins, a 55-year-old itinerant Southern Baptist preacher who was born on a Civil War battlefield in northern Georgia, fried up mule steaks over an open fire.
"There is a Hawai'i connection," said war buff Watkins. "There are 31 soldiers buried at Nu'uanu Cemetery who fought for the North."
