Aliiolani Hale in Hawaii

A statue of King Kamehameha I stands in front of Aliʻiōlani Hale in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi, as seen during our June 2023 Hawaiʻi trip

I told about our visit to Aliʻiōlani Hale in Part 9 of the trip report. However, I had taken lots of photos during our visit, and I did not want to clog up the trip report with photos. So I chose to save most of them for a separate post. Which, of course, is this post.

You may recognize the building as the headquarters of the Governor’s Task Force on the television show “Hawaii Five-0”. Book ’em, Danno! But in real life, the building houses courts and judicial offices. We got there late in the day after everything was closed, but that was fine for us. We enjoyed just walking around the outside of the building, looking at the interesting architecture.

In front of the building is an impressive statue of King Kamehameha I, adorned with gold leaf that helps it to catch the sunlight, and catch your eye. At the base of the statue are four plaques that tell about the life of Kamehameha I, also known as Kamehameha the Great. The original version of the statue was shipped from France, but it was thought to be lost at sea when the ship sank. A second casting of the statue was then shipped to Hawaiʻi, and that is what you see here. However, the original statue was also found and can now be seen on the Big Island of Hawaiʻi, near Kamehameha’s birthplace.

Several large banyan trees stand near Aliʻiōlani Hale. I was fascinated by these trees every time we saw one, just because they are different from what we have back here at home. And every now and then, you can see these trees in background shots on “Hawaii Five-0” when they have something going on outside their headquarters. No, we are not television geek tourists. Why would you think that?

Here is one last look at the exterior of Aliʻiōlani Hale before we leave. The building was originally designed as a royal residence, but King Kamehameha V (not the statue guy, but a few generations later) decided that the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi needed a government office building, and so that is what this building became, and a palace building was built nearby.

And yes, this photo looks similar to all the others, but I assure you it is a different view than the above photos. Which are all different from the photo that I shared in the trip report

The Doors

Besides the building being impressive on its own, the doors were pretty interesting, too. Take a look:

The main doors into the building were huge, as you can see here, although you may not get a good sense of the scale of the doors just by looking at this photo. These doors were much taller than regular doors, fitting the scale of the building. And no, I did not try to open the doors. I did want to, just to see how thick they were, but I refrained. And someone had covered up the doorbell with tape, so I did not ring that, either.

Looking to the right from where I was standing for the previous photo, these doors were down at the end of the covered walkway. They were just as tall as the main doors, although they were obviously much narrower.

I liked the columns and stone walls, and the wooden doors added a little color to the scene. All very grand and interesting, and very fitting for such a stately building.

Palace Vs. Enough

As I mentioned above Aliʻiōlani Hale was originally designed to be a palace, and it definitely has a palatial look to it. Our house is no palace, at least in one sense of the word. However, our house is plenty nice enough for us.

Our house has enough room for our stuff. And if we ever run out of room for our stuff, it means that we need to get rid of stuff instead of that we meed more room. And as it is, we could probably get rid of some of the stuff we have, even without getting more stuff.

Our house is fancy enough for us, too. It definitely would not compare to all of the fancy trims and furnishings and architectural styles of what most people consider palaces. But then our house is more of a farm house in the middle of nowhere. If you did not know, farm houses never are all that fancy. But ours is just fine, and that is enough for us.

Our house keeps us warm in the winter and cool in the summer. It provides more than enough shelter for us, no matter what the weather.

And best of all, our house feels like home. It is where we are comfortable. It is where we look forward to getting back to when we are away. It is our home, and that makes it good enough for us.

So while we do not live in what most people would consider a palace, our house is more than enough for us.

Many times we find ourselves wanting more. A bigger house, a newer car, a smarter phone, a larger bank balance, and so on. But if we really put everything in perspective, more often than not, what we have is enough. And yes, I am speaking to myself here as much as to you.

Change your mindset to focus on enough rather than more.

Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” - Hebrews 13:5

About the Photos

I wanted a bright, bold, colorful look for these photos, matching what you might see on television (yes, the TV show keeps coming up). I combined several techniques to get the look you see here, and it was fun to figure it all out. Maybe we have different definitions of fun, but this was fun for me, as photo processing almost always is.

Photo: Each photo is A single Raw exposure, processed in Raw Therapee and GIMP.
Camera: Sony Alpha A7 II
Lens: Rokinon 35mm f/1.8
Date: June 21, 2023
Location: Honolulu, Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi