Diamond Head and Waikiki

On this day we wanted to hike Diamond Head. This was Brian's first hike with the family, and only two days after doing Maunawili, so the kids were slightly skeptical. Especially when you looked up and saw we were going WAY UP THERE. Diamond Head is actually a crater, that was once used as lookout points with bunkers up on the top.  The hike takes you from inside the crater to the top where a few of the bunkers are located.

Everyone started off well, and we realized very quickly that there was very little shade.

We finally reached the point where the views were spectacular, and the breeze was strong. 

These views were right before the dreaded stairs. We had already gone up stairs, and through a tunnel, and now we had the choice of going around on the outside, or going up major stairs and into the bunker. Since Blondie was a trooper and not complaining, but obviously tired, we took the route through the outside. 

Blondie was fabulous, and we even had a lady stop and tell us how impressed she was with how she was climbing along without any problem.

Towards the top, Lori, Leigh Ann and Megan met up with us. 

As we stood up there we could look down and see all of the hats that had blown off of people's heads and down the side of the crater.

This is the very top with the amazing views.

A bunker along the ridge, and Honolulu behind it.

 We loved the water, so many different shades of blue.

 Now towards the top, the girls got a little sick of Brian's photography.  He took pictures of EVERYTHING from many different angles, and we were sort of getting tired of the frozen smiles on our faces.  All of them were a bit embarrassed by what he was wearing (can't imagine why).

So part way down, to make his point about how obnoxious he COULD be, Brian just started throwing the camera over his shoulder and randomly taking pictures. One of them caught Cheesie... with her tongue out.

Just to illustrate how this wasn't just a cement path, most of it was actually rock with a lot of level variations.  She did it all by herself though.

By the time we got down to the bottom, Lori, Leigh Ann and Megan had caught up with us again. We all felt pretty powerful after that hike. 

After lunch we headed over to Waikiki to check out the beach, but I have apparently maxed out blogger with all of these pictures, so I'll have to do a part two with the next post.