Hawaii Day 2

On our second day, I woke up at 4:00am again. I guess it was jet lag? Anyway, it gave me time to read in the lobby in my pajamas while I waited for Steve to wake up. By the time we headed to breakfast, I had been awake for four hours already! We found a place in the resort, CJ's New York Deli, that made great macadamia nut and coconut pancakes. They were served with coconut syrup and Steve had them three times the week we were there. Just the right thing to give us energy for the day ahead.

We started off at Diamond Head State Monument, a volcanic crater.


You can see Diamond Head from Waikiki Beach.


We drove into the crater, a volcanic cone, which was formed when an eruption spewed lava into the air. As the lava fell, it flared out and landed, creating a nearly perfect circular shape.


Driving into the crater brought you nearly halfway up. There was still a long climb ahead.








In our 48 hours we'd been on the island, we had seen a waterfall, mountains, beaches and a rainforest. I was surprised to find that inside the crater was a desert, dry and loaded with cactus. What an amazing variety of landforms on one island.



The views made the climb worthwhile. This is Waikiki from atop the crater.


Here is Honolulu.


Diamond Head was an important spot for harbor defense before the advent of radar, and the remains of Fort Ruger are at the top. This is one of the moments on the trip when all I could think about was how much Will would like to see this!


From the top of the crater, I had my first glimpse of the Diamond Head Lighthouse.


On the way down, I had to take a very important phone call from Will and Nick. It was kind of cool to be atop a mountain in Hawaii, talking to my family at home.


When we left the crater, I had to see the lighthouse from the ground. Here are some of my attempts at photographic artistry:




We drove around the eastern (windward) side of the island. The coast was beautiful: rocky and jagged and mountainous, with outcroppings of black lava rock. I had never seen anything like it.




Here we are, standing on the wrong side of a sign that told us to go no further. Our defense? Everyone else was doing it! This picture was taken by "Crazy Buzzkill Lady," as I dubbed her. She caught my attention in the first place because she and her husband were roughhousing and screaming on rocks that ended in a ledge that led straight into the Pacific. They made me ansy. Hence, the "crazy" part of her name. She made sure she told me how much more beautiful Maui is than Oahu, which earned her the "buzzkill" part. I'm sure Maui is superior (yadda yadda, whatever!), but I just wanted to soak up the beauty of THIS rugged coastline. Sorry, I don't have a picture of Crazy Buzzkill Lady.


We had a second climb ahead of us: we had to hike to Makapu'u Point to get to the final lighthouse on our itinerary. When we got to the parking lot of the climbing area, I wanted to be sure we were in the right place (I didn't want to climb another mountain for nothing, and you couldn't see the lighthouse from the road), so I asked some Japanese tourists if there was a lighthouse at the top of the hill. After a few fumbled communication attempts, they assured us that there was no lighthouse there and we drove on to the next beach. This is what we saw when we looked back at the hillside from the beach!


Do you see it? See the lighthouse? Lesson learned. Ask for help from people who speak the same language you do! So we backtracked and started climbing. Here are some views from the hike:






After a good thirty minute uphill walk, we came across the reason we had come, peeking out from a hillside cliff:


Just a little farther on, we reached the top. Here's the Makapu'u Lighthouse!


But even more special, as it turned out, was that we spotted a pod of whales! We spent at least twenty minutes watching whales frolic. They were very far out, but it was really exciting anyway, especially because they weren't supposed to be there in the middle of May. By then, they have usually migrated North to summer in Alaskan waters.




We stopped by the Halona Blow Hole. Crazy Buzzkill Lady had informed us of a drunken fool's bitter end at this spot. Apparently, he got sucked in and his parents won a lawsuit that claimed the state of Hawaii didn't adequately protect him. Yes, Crazy Buzzkill Lady was a ray of light and hope. We enjoyed the blowhole in spite of her macabre and litigious tale. If I understand it correctly, the waves cause water pressure to build up in an underground chamber, creating a water spout that sprays quite high into the air. Pretty cool.


We decided to stop for some snorkeling at Hanauma Bay Nature Preserve. The highlights of this stop were both the chili rice bowl served at the snack bar and getting to swim with a giant sea turtle. He came straight at me, looked me in the eye, and told me with his gaze, "Get the heck out of my way!" I gladly obliged by madly flapping my arms around to move back. He passed by me no more than a few inches away. Here he is:


All right. I lied. This is really a picture of a sea turtle at Sea Life Park. We had no underwater camera with us when we were snorkeling, so we didn't get to capture the close encounter with the wild-eyed reptile. But we did get some shots of Hanauma Bay. It was pristinely beautiful with clear, cool, coral-filled water and loaded with brightly colored fish. Snorkeling there was definitely a highlight of our trip.


That pretty much sums up our sight-seeing adventures on our second day on the island. Looking back, it was another nearly perfect day, Crazy Buzzkill Lady, Japanese Tourist Mishap and all!

Our Hawaii Trip-Day 1

Steve and I had a wonderful week in Hawaii. We stayed on Oahu, in Waikiki Beach at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.


Here is the Rainbow Tower in the Hawaiian Village. The mural on the side of this building is made of tile. Can you imagine laying all that tile? Amazing.


Here's the pool. Tropical paradise, is what it is!


There were even flamingo and penguin habitats to enjoy on the grounds of the resort. We were assured that these penguins are very comfortable living in a Hawaiian climate, as they are not from Antarctica, but perhaps Africa? I can't remember, for sure.






The city was a combination of dilapidated houses and high rise towers with a cool international feel. The smell of tropical flowers wafted on the breeze nearly everywhere you went. If you have enough money, the shopping's great: you can find every high-end store you can imagine. Mostly, we stuck to the ABC stores, which in spite of the name, were more like WINGS at Myrtle Beach: there was very little liquour, and very much of everything else, including tacky souveniers and t-shirts.

Going to Hawaii was a great opportunity for us! Steve was chosen to mentor a student from Oklahoma State University who was presenting a paper at The World Environmental and Water Resources Congress. We got to have a Hawaiian Vacation and expense some of the cost. Yippee!

We arrived on May 10 and had two days before Steve's conference started, so we had a lot of sight seeing to do before he had to go to work. Unable to sleep, I woke up at 4:00am on May 11, ready to roll. Steve woke up soon after, and began plotting our first day's sightseeing adventure, programming the locations into the rented GPS he was smart enough to get at Alamo Rent-a-Car!

We started off seeing Barber's Point Lighthouse. It's on the east side of Oahu and near slums and an industrial area. But I had to photograph all the lighthouses on the island, so off we went.


On the rocky beach near Barber's Point.


Next, we roared off in our rented convertible. (Great for tanning on the go!)


to the Dole Pineapple plantation


where we saw real live pineapples growing on pineapple plants! (Feel fortunate that I'm not making you look at the 25 other pineapple pictures I took...)


We ate some pineapple ice cream


and headed northwest until the road ended. Steve had to see the area of the island where LOST is filmed. Here is the "Others" compound (really a YMCA summer camp).


and a tarp-covered cylinder that Steve insists is the fusilage from the beach


then we walked around the remote beach,


I saw my first real tidal pool,


we watched some morons nearly flip this Jeep over,


and took a picture of this lone surfer, which spoke to me for some reason!


Then we headed east along the North Shore and came to Waimea Bay. it was gorgeous, and we decided we had to take a swim.


People were jumping off the 20ft high cliffs into the bay. I convinced Steve that he'd regret it forever if he didn't try it. So he did. I was on picture duty (there's no way on Earth I could have jumped, I know this, so I didn't bother trying). Here he is climbing.








and then he jumped and I totally missed the shot.


So he had to do it again! This time I got it!








Yay Steve! When we left, it was time to head to Waimea Falls. We were hoping they would let us swim in the pool. First, though, we had a 30 minute walk through a gorgeous rain forest to get to the falls.






Me in a Banyan tree.


Here's the waterfall


We were in luck! They were allowing swimming! We had a picture made before we entered the pool.


And we got to have our picture taken in the waterfall!


Thanks for sharing our vacation with us. I'll show you the rest of the trip, as time allows!