I know we looked ridiculous but these particular neck pillows were actually quite comfy and helpful in sleeping on the 15+ hours of travel time. We arrived just in time to rent our car and drive down to Waikiki beach for the sunset.
The next morning we were up bright and early to get 3 and 1/2 hours of snorkeling in at Hanauma Bay and it did not disappoint-lots of beautiful fish! Aaron's favorite was a rainbow fish and I even found a lurking barracuda. Beyond the rocks it dropped off about 30 feet which made me way nervous, but I did it. Then we were off to Pearl Harbor. After a very well done movie about that day, we rode on a ferry out to the memorial. It was a sacred spot, standing where so many were buried in defense of our country.
On our way back through town we stopped at Safeway to get some drinks and ended up grabbing some sandwiches as well. The lines were incredibly long for 3 in the afternoon and we were famished, so we just started devouring our sandwiches in line. There was a friendly Hawaiian behind us that playfully insisted that if we finished eating before we got to the front, we shouldn't have to pay for our lunch. Since there was still light left in the day, we headed to Diamond Head Crater for a decent hike (with a LOT of stairs) and found this incredible sight from the top.
Lastly we ventured up to another gorgeous lookout at Tantalus. Thankfully this one had a road all the way up...and more amazing views. Diamond Head, to the left in the picture, looked so far away, yet we had been there less than an hour before. We drove to our beach house in Lanikai just after sundown that night and fell into bed.
Saturday morning began with another hike-Pillbox hike-which was a pretty steep climb. We mistook the sunrise time however and ended up being 40 min early-at least we got a good seat since many people joined us by sunrise. Then we picked up our kayak and took it to three little islands. The water was the most pure aqua blue all along Lanikai and Kailua-we just couldn't get over it and had to keep mentioning it.
We landed at Flat Island first-basically a big pokey lava rock.
The other two islands were Mokulua (left in the picture above) and Chinaman's Hat, but we didn't get any pictures. We had a terrible landing at Mokulua and got a bit scratched up and embarrassed, but there was a large monk seal sunbathing on the beach which was cool. And a nice frenchman helped us shove off the island at the right time to avoid an embarrassing departure as well. We also found a coconut floating in the ocean on the way there and toted it around with us for the remaining 7 days of our trip, intending to cut it open but eventually abandoning it on the last day since it started rotting-bummer. Aaron climbed to the top of Chinaman's Hat but it was too steep for me so I collected beautiful little pieces of broken off coral that had washed up on shore. I was going to bring them home to the kids but the land lady at the next beach house we stayed at threw them out-maybe she thought I had broken and stolen them from the ocean-either way, I was really bummed.
On our way back from kayaking we drove through this lovely cemetery and ended up finding the Byodo-In Temple which is apparently pretty famous. We did feel bad about our attire but we couldn't pass up at least a quick walk through. It was immaculate and so peaceful. Aaron said if he could live anywhere in Hawaii, he would build his own house in this setting against the mountain. I wouldn't mind:)
Our night life pretty much consisted of eating and early to bed because of the 5 hour time difference. We weren't very adventurous with food-had pulled pork a couple times-no fish-a lot of PB and honey or deli sandwiches. We definitely spent our time on the go, so it was a great trade.
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