At Punchbowl crater is the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific. I really felt called to go do something to remind myself of the loss of life for our freedom, so Brian and I went and checked out the cemetery. I wasn’t sure what to expect and thought it might be a waste to go see a bunch of graves, but turns out it’s a really beautiful memorial to our military.

There were flags on all the grave sites and most had leis. Opposing this, there is a grand staircase leading to a memorial flanked by beautiful stone memorials with names carved for those lost without remains. At the top of a set of stairs was a really nice exhibit of mosaics of the different wars. There was a lot of text describing the events and forces and attacks involved.

There’s a nice chapel and everything was decorated extra special.

The punchbowl crater itself is elevated a bit and there’s a walk up to a lookout. On the way there are different plaques to remember specific segments of the forces and here’s the one for submariners.

The lookout itself offers a beautiful view of Waikiki.

We expected only to be there 30 mins and were pleasantly surprised to be there a lot longer. I really don’t understand how there can still be wars… I hope one day we don’t add more names to the list of people we need to remember. I pray Brian’s is never on it.

We did find our way to the beach afterward and enjoyed the day thankful for those who lost their lives so we could.