As I stand at the edge of the dining table in ‘Iolani Palace, I should be marveling at the 150-year-old Parisian porcelain dinnerware inlaid with the royal coat of arms; soaking in palace historian Zita Cup Choy’s stories. Instead, the fact that I have passed through the stanchions that kept visitors at a distance for decades fills my head with barely suppressed exclamations of glee.