oahu – HOME ON THE CORNER

Good morning! I hope you all had a good weekend! I mentioned on Saturday that I haven’t been feeling very inspired, so today is another Hawaii post. But I promise I am working on a couple of other projects to share with you next week!

Our family visited Hawaii in February and we had the opportunity to see so much of Oahu. If you would like to read Part 1, click here. It was so beautiful and the weather was divine. Our last morning we hiked Diamond Head. It was rainy and windy in the early morning, but as you can see, it was nice once we started out.

Diamond Head was once a volcano. It erupted and left the crater behind, which you can see very clearly on this hike. In 1908, the trail was built as part of the Oahu coastal defense system. This huge pulley system was used to help haul some of the equipment and building materials up to the top.

The trail is 0.8 miles from the trailhead to the summit, going up 560 feet from the crater floor. It is steep and pretty strenuous.

What a view! We made it to the very top! This is looking straight down below one of the bunkers which was built into the side of the mountain.

The lighthouse was built in 1917. Aren’t the grounds around it beautiful?

Looking back at Waikiki, you can see for miles. You can see why this was the perfect spot for the defense system. See the marina? Our hotel was right across the street from there.

The walk down was much easier. 🙂 We just finished walking through a lighted tunnel which is 225 long and includes some very steep stairs.

Can you see the trail and the little ants, I mean, people?

Ahh! The reward for a hike well done! Hawaiian shaved ice! This one had coconut, pineapple and strawberry flavors. Yum!

This was so worth the effort! There were a few times I wondered if I could make it, but then I would look around and see all these others who were doing it and knew I could too. It was a great way to spend part of our last day in Oahu! Hope you enjoyed the hike!

Did everyone have a wonderful spring break, if you had one in your area? Mine was good, but I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked. But I did have time to relax and spend time with my girls (see zoo post here).

I know a lot of folks went to the beach or somewhere else nice for vacation. We stayed home, but we did go to Hawaii last month! This was our first time going. A lot of people couldn’t believe we had never gone before since we live in Ca. But now we can say we have! I realized I hadn’t shared any pictures with you, so I thought this would be a good time. I will have to do several posts, since I took llloootttss of pictures! We stacked a lot of activities into 6 days! I thought I would just share pictures of the beach where we spent our time and some of the wonderful things we saw there.

I have had traveling to Hawaii on my ‘bucket list’ for a very long time. What finally prompted us to go was Haley. She is part of the theater group at her junior college. She found out in the fall that they would be traveling to a theater festival that takes place each year. This year would be Hawaii. How could I not go?! I told here there was no way she would get to go to Hawaii and I hadn’t gone yet! So as soon as we found out where the festival would be held, we made our reservations.We made them through Travelosity and it included our flight and hotel. Such an easy way to travel. We also purchased a GoOahu Card through SmartDestinations.com. Best purchase ever! They have this card for many different cities, so be sure to check it out if you are traveling. By the way, I am not affiliated with these agencies, I just thought they were really good deals.

Okay. So on to the pictures! This is the beach were we spent most of our time. It was across the street from our hotel. The little piece of water you see to the left if a man-made lagoon. It belonged to one of the hotels and was a great place for kids. Straight ahead is a cove, so the water was great to go swimming in.