DAY 5
We wake up to a beautiful day in Waikiki with this panoramic view of Diamond Head and the Pacific Ocean!
Diamond Head is a volcanic crater, and the name comes from 19th century sailors who believed the shiny crystals embedded in the rock were diamonds.
The hike to the top of the trail takes about an hour. It's just under 1 mile each way with many switchbacks and includes 74 stairs, another 99 stairs, 52 more steps on a spiral staircase, and finally 54 stairs to the summit. I am not used to that type of aerobic climbing, and I like to whine whenever I am outside in the heat. You can imagine what a joy I was to hike with!!
To make matters worse, we got a late start, and the parking lot was full. We had to park at street level and walk even further just to get up to the park to start!
The walk was hot on the interior of the crater but once we made it to the top, we were rewarded with a cool ocean breeze.
As well as stunning views of Waikiki!
Interior of the crater.
In the middle you can almost see the parking lot that was full, and then the tunnel we had to walk through to get there. It was a long way down!
Haha! This jerk read the sign, and then immediately jumped the fence because he wanted to do some off-trailing.
We finally made it back to the bottom... I survived!
We worked up quite an appetite for some authentic Hawaiian lunch food.
Pork wrap with mango salsa & chips, plus some lau lau (chicken and fish wrapped in leaves)
in the bowl.
After my strenuous morning, I was ready for some relaxation on Waikiki Beach!
(BTW - it was a rare treat for me to take off my hat and sun shirt. This was merely a ploy for a good photo, then I went back to protecting myself from crazy sunburn!)
Canoeing teams practicing in Ala Wai Canal!
We wrapped the day up with a HULA lesson!
Tarynn goes once per week to hula class, and the instructor let me tag along! I learned some basic foot movements plus hand & arm coordination, and then we put it all together with music. Anyone who has seen me try to learn dance steps before (the Hustle, salsa dancing, etc.), can guess that I wasn't very good!
But it was fun to understand the history behind hula, and that each dancer tells a story with her movements.
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