Night view

From the hotel balcony.

Sunset

We stayed for sunset and were treated to some great entertainment. Not only was it fun to watch the surfers but there were two fishermen casting lines and while we were watching they snagged something big. They had a large audience as they ran back and forth along the sea wall until they were finally able to reel it in. The fish put up a good fight but the fishermen prevailed. It even earned them a round of applause from the beach crowd. 

Ice Cream is hard to find!

After the big hike all Alix wanted was regular scoop ice cream. It’s harder to find than one would think. There are not a lot of ice cream places (most are shaved ice with a few soft serve thrown in). We tried one place and it was closed. After pizza for dinner at Blue Ocean ( one of our favorite food trucks) Sam who works there pointed us towards Haagen Das. 

The beach seemed like the place to go enjoy ice cream and the surfers.

Waikiki Beach

One last afternoon at this beach. Jim and Alix opted for relaxing in the shade while Sam and I went for a swim.

Aloha!

We wandered through one of the malls along Waikiki and found this. (It was in the section of town we called “Las Vegas” because it reminds us of the hotels, stores, and restaurants along the strip. Lots of people and brand named places with less local charm.)

Aloha Gas

It’s expensive, but not as crazy as we expected. More like California prices.

The high cost makes less of an impact here, because there are less places to go. The island is small…

The most beautiful ice cream

And we’ll deserved after the hike!

Pineapple soft serve with pineapple chunks in the bottom.

Diamond Head

Diamond head is the volcano  at the end of Waikiki. It was also a military post so they built a tunnel into the crater. Now it’s a state park. 

It’s one lane so we had to wait our turn. 

It was cool to be inside the crater. Unfortunately you need reservations to park so we didn’t stay. The nice girl at the booth offered walk in reservations. (Park outside and walk through the tunnel then hike to the crater rim.) We politely declined as we have had enough hiking for today!

The tunnel was worth the detour!

Koko Head

We came, we saw, we climbed!

It doesn’t look like much from down here!

What goes up must come down

The hike up was tough and now we were ready to brave the intense climb down. 1149 is a lot of stairs.

One part of the rail was a bridge. This was the warning.

They didn’t hesitate! I went on the trail around!

Exploring the military site

There are all sorts of bunkers, buildings, and tunnels. We explored it all but heeded the warning signs.

These are some lucky kids

So everyone tells us and there was a sticker to remind them. 

Welcome to the desert

The volcanic craters on this side of the island are much drier than the rainforest like conditions in the north. We were surprised to see cactuses at the to of the railway.

Incredible Views

Hanuma Bay, Waikiki, and the coast road. 

We are not very good at selfies!




In the background you can just make out the island of Molokai, the next in the line of Hawaiian islands.

We made it!

There were markers along the way. They counted down as we hiked up. This is marker 1!

Koko Head Rail Hike

It’s an old railroad built in the 1940s by the military to get supplies to the top of the volcano (1200 foot elevation). When they stopped using the lookout and radar station at the top the railway became a hiking trail with 1000+ steps.

Don’t feed the wildlife

Or the chickens. It’s not every day you see one of those.

Mountain View

This is the view from our hotel. It’s interesting to see the weather roll over the mountains then venture to the sunny beach!