Iolani Palace and the State Capitol

Hailey went on a field trip today to the Iolani Palace and the State Capitol. I learned so much! This historic landmark is the ONLY Royal building on U.S. soil. There were 5 kings before the king's sister became queen, and then it was overthrown. ( that is the very, very short version) It is over 125 years old and a lot of history is behind it. At first it was the Capitol building, but when more rooms were needed for the Senate and such, they expanded to across the street. The Capitol building itself symbolizes the ocean and volcanoes erupting making the 8 Hawaiian Islands. We got to see the Senate room, the House of representatives, and even got to go to the Governor's office to take pictures. It was pretty informative...unfortunately, by days' end I had a HUGE headache from all the kids. Who knew 4th graders were so obnoxious?!?!? Here are some photos of our big adventure.

This was my group of four that I was in charge of: Hailey, Mckenna, Olivia, and Ryan

This is a picture of the front of Iolani Palace..

This is the side view...The gold painting represents the palace when it had REAL gold window coverings...
This was the House of Representatives, it has 51 board members. The ball on top is the symbol of the sun, and the floor is red again representing the sun and the sky during daylight.

This is the Senate board room. It has 25 board members. The blue carpeting is for the ocean and the ball at the top symbolizes the moon. The tapestry on the wall is to symbolize when the islands were formed, and how when the moon is high, what reflections come from the water.

This is the front of the State Capitol. You can't tell, but it is really neat how and why the artcitecture is the way it is.

This is in the Governor's press office. We have seen her multiple times on T.V. especially for her involvement during Furlough Fridays. The symbol in the back is the Hawaii State Seal. This is Hailey's class who went this time, almost 3/4 of her class went on Tuesday.