Hawai'i Redux

So I was in Hawai'i for the last week, thanks

to Molly Bennett and I used it to kick start my workout

s- since they have been lagging and I've been feeling lazy.

Monday:

We went to

Waimea Falls, and took a short walk/hike up a hill that was winding through a garden. Once at the top of the hike, there was a lovely waterfall to swim in.

And swim I did! I learned not to approach the waterfall from the front and instead to attempt it from the side. And that was successful.

On Tuesday morning, I hiked Diamond Head. It was hard and amazing. It's a

short hike- about .7 miles

and then back, and of course it's uphill. I had wanted to hike it first thing

in the

morning, but because of scheduling that didn't happen and I hit the trail around noon. That's right,

noon- blazing hot sun, very very dry. So, the hike, in pictures:

It starts out not so bad, a slight uphill...with a warning sign. And then more uphill...winding around the crater until you get to the first set of stairs- there are 78 of them.

Then, you move into a narrow, dark, upward sloping tunnel.

This image is looking into

the tunnel from the other

side--- because if you look forward on the trail you e

ncounter these steps.

There are 98 or 99 of them. And yes, they go straight up.

You'd think that meant you were at the top, but

no. There is another short tunnel, and then 42 more steps up a spiral staircase. And then you

are at the top.

At this point, I realized

that I had essentially two sips of water left in my bottles. So I took a sip at the top of Diamondhead while I enjoyed the view:

.

Mitch and Molly picked me up once I walked back down, and then I had a shave ice while we drove to the beach at Kailua. If you've not been there, Kailua is a superb swimming beach.

And so after sweating up the hill, I swam happily for a while in the gorgeous water.

On Wednesday, we all headed to Hanauma Bay. After looking around the educational center, and then watching the video, we headed down the long hill to the water and rented snorkeling gear.

This was my first time snorkeling since I was around 8. And when I did it then, it just meant I swam in the pool with a mask and snorkel.

I was a little hesitant at first, not really trusting that I wouldn't drown, and convinced that my fat belly was going to scrap against the reef if I swam on top of it. As the tide came in, that fear lessened and I got to see all kinds of neat fish (don't even try to ask me what they were, I have no idea). I only scraped my knee on coral once, and that was because someone swam into me, and knocked me off balance. The most exciting thing for me was seeing a spiky little sea urchin!

Thursday was the day I was really looking forward to. Mitch and I booked a tour

with Dolphin Excursions. This was a four hour boat trip to snorkel w

ith Spinner Dolphins, Hawaiian Green Sea Turtles, and fish. We met Jenna

and Kat, our captain and first mate at the Waianae Boat Harbor and got onto a little tiny raft like boat. That's me sitting next to a guy from Cleveland getting ready to jump into the water.

This was my second time snorkling! The dolphins were pretty cool, but they didn't want to stick around to play with us.

The sea turtles though were very very neat, and they were interested in us. We saw three of them in the water, and they were s

o graceful. We didn't take a lot of underwater pictures because we wanted to watch the sea life, but we did order the on-board photographer's disk, so hopefully it will have some good pictures on it.

So, some of the fat fears for me with snorkeling were:

1. There wouldn't be a vest to fit me

2. I wouldn't be able to get up the ladder back into the boat.

Both were unfounded. There was a vest that fit just fine and once I figured out how deep in the water the ladder was, it was easy to slide my flippers off and climb back onto the boat.

Friday, we went to the tourist trap known as the Dole Plantation. It was pretty awful. Everyone was trying to sell you something: "Aloha, would you like to buy your Hawaiian name on a bracelet?" We rode the train through the plantation, learned something about pineapple production (of course nothing about labor or wages etc.) ate a pineapple whip (skip it, it's awful) and left to go to the beach.

We had planned to swim in Waikiki; however, parking issues and other things tossed us further along the sand down past the two natural swimming pools and into a high surf area. We tried to swim, but I got wiped out by Mitch who got wiped out by a wave. So I took my bloodied legs and decided to just lay out in the sun. After it got chillier, we walked around hoping to catch the Fireworks at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, but we couldn't see them either. We did however, see Surfboards!

I might try surfing sometime. It looks like fun. And scary. I like scary fun.

Saturday was our last day together in O'ahu. Mitch was kind enough to drive me to Moanalua Gardens for the Prince Lot Hula Festival. This was awesome! I got to watch 4 halau perform. My favorite two groups were Halau Hula O Maiki and the Joan S. Lindsey Hula Studio. I also really liked the kuma hula of the Na Pualei o Likeolehula. She was very funny when talking about her youngest students (4-7 year olds).

After the hula festival, I met up with Mitch and Molly and we headed to the Hale'iwa Arts Festival, of course, Mitch and Molly wanted to stop for shave ice at Matsumoto's. Afterwards,we headed across the island and back to Kailua for more swimming. We headed home, ate a yummy dinner and prepared the house to depart the next morning.

On Sunday, Mitch and Molly headed to the airport dropping me off in Waikiki. I checked into a hotel with a day pass, swam and went shopping before heading home myself.

Yay Hawai'i!

I cannot wait to go back.