I might not post every time I re-do hikes, but we wanted to try to get to a sunrise on this hike. It was pretty cloudy and there was a wall of rain coming at us, but we’re glad we did it. This was Jess’ first time so I told her to come back.
We must’ve seen at least six rainbows this day from all the rain.
I bought tickets for us to go do an after hours tour of the Honolulu Zoo, but turns out Brian wouldn’t be home, so I brought a friend instead. This tour books out a few months in advance, and it lives up to the hype! It was super cheap, I think $10 for each of us as members. Our tour guide was great, she was very knowledgable and told great stories about the animals. We saw almost every animal that we stopped at, and a couple that she claims “are NEVER out” (I believe she was authentic about it, but it was funny that it happened to a couple.) One was the lizards and the other was the Aardvark.
A couple story highlights; the zebra and the giraffe are BFFs, the Rhinos were matched in hopes of mating but she didn’t think he was man enough, the male lion died of COVID, so the female now does the territorial scouting.
Loved this guy and it’s shame he doesn’t keep his window clean.
This guy was mesmerizing swinging around… apparently doing a territorial dance because there was a large man in our group.
We had a really great time doing this and I can see why it sells out! 10/10 would recommend this behind the scenes tour. There was only 15 of us, including three kids, so it was really easy to take pictures and never felt crowded.
The short way to Lanikai Pillbox is right outside my door and takes all of 25 minutes, but includes a couple sections of rock scrambling. A friend, Jess, is past her due date and wanted to go for a hike to try to move things along. I was nervous about her doing the steep fast way, and have been wanting to do the back way, so we went for it.
To get to the back way, I can actually park on the other side of my complex and walk. (This comes in handy later).
The views from the back are incredible… dare I say better than the short way.
You’re set further back from the ocean, so you can see the bay a bit better. You also climb higher (maybe?) at some points… essentially we went over three-ish peaks to get to the ocean. You can see we’re kinda starting that section after doing a decent amount of climbing to get there in the first place.
You also get a really great view of Bellows and Waimanalo
And view after beautiful view of the mokes along the way.
If these pictures seem blurrier than normal… it’s because my lens stopped talking to my camera. I didn’t know that’s what was happening until I troubleshooted at home. I switched between manually focusing and trying to get the camera to do it. Oh well, good excuse to do it again. Here we are finally coming up to the first pillbox.
That took an hour to get there (It felt like two if I’m being honest), so we decided that we should go the “short” way home. It was actually the perfect amount of wet… it wasn’t super dry and slippery and it wasn’t muddy and slick. I’m really glad we picked that way. Then we walked through my complex back to the other side to get my car.
It’s kinda hard to get on the top of the pillbox… and by that I mean it’s hard for anyone scared of heights… but Jess did it so I figured out a way. It is actually kinda hard logistically to get up, takes a couple big steps. Anyway! This was my first time to the second pillbox and first time on it… lots of firsts for me this hike!
This is on our way back down.
And of course I had to get a selfie with the fantastic new signs on completion.
10/10 recommend doing the hike this way… if you have the in and can get into the fabulous community somehow. The views of the mokes just keep getting better and better… it feels more like a hike… you hit both pillboxes, it’s so much quieter (we saw two people until we got to the pillbox).
Taken from Wikipedia: Diamond Head is a volcanic tuff cone on the Hawaiian island of Oʻahu and known to Hawaiians as Lēʻahi (pronounced [leːˈʔɐhi]). The Hawaiian name is most likely derived from lae (browridge, promontory) plus ʻahi (tuna) because the shape of the ridgeline resembles the shape of a tuna‘s dorsal fin.[3] Its English name was given by British sailors in the 19th century, who mistook calcite crystals on the adjacent beach for diamonds.
This hike is ridiculously popular, so it was on my list to just check off. I planned to do it with people from KOSC… but no one ended up committing… so I just did it with my thousand best tourist friends(i.e., alone). (Brian is gone, again…not for long). Thankfully, I don’t have to pay anything because of Kama’aina (I have a Hawaii license). Normally it’s $10 to park, and $5 to hike. They probably could charge $50 to park and there’d be lines… however, when I went (7:45a on a Saturday), it only took me ten minutes waiting to get a spot (there are attendants who do a great job monitoring). There’s a lot of turnover, so it goes quickly. I can imagine this being horrendous in prime tourist season.
The trail starts out nice and paved, and then it’s uneven and paved. Some parts of the unevenness get dirty, but truly most of it is paved. The elevation gain is 500ft. It starts in switchbacks and then there are a couple sets of stairs and a tunnel to get you to the finish.
Someone was BLASTING Christmas music on the way up. And I immediately understood why this hike gets a bad rap, and why I love my in the jungle ones. Anyway, in the photo above you can see the sheer amount of people that come. You can also see the bunker hidden in the dirt. There are a lot of history plaques and an audio tour, should you chose (I didn’t…)
The views were pretty cool.
You can see a couple more bunkers.
I’d put this on par with Haunama bay. Should you do it once? Probably. Is it a complete tourist attraction? Yes. It is an easy “hike” to take not in shape people on to see a decent view? Definitely. Am I worried about my car getting broken into? Not so much. Are there are million other hikes I’d recommend over this one? Absolutely.
It’s been rainy these past few days, like all day instead of passing showers. I told myself that I’d go to museums once this weather hit, so Jess and I chose the Bishop Museum. The Bishop museum is a museum dedicated to Hawaiian culture and history. It was really impressive, I thought it would be a lot smaller.
There are multiple buildings and a big field. The first building we explored was the natural history part. I didn’t take many pictures inside, but the exhibits were centered around this big volcano model and all about the ecology of Hawaii. I didn’t realize that the chain of islands was formed because the tectonic plates would move between volcanic eruptions. I also found out that there will be a new island likely in 100-300k years from now. Buy the real estate now, people!
Then we ventured into the actual Bishop building. It started as a place to train the Hawaiian army and then turned into a boy’s school.
We saw a neat exhibit on Polynesian tattoos and one on the Hawaiian royalty succession. Then we made it to the great hall, which has three floors dedicated to Hawaiian living (the Gods, the farming/fishing, etc)
We also encountered Parley, an organization trying to reuse microplastics. We had a really great conversation with them. They’re trying to melt and give a second life to the plastics washing up in our oceans. We were able to take home a carabiner (he’s injecting the plastic into the mold for these in this next picture) and we want to go back and ask for a plastic slab they made to use for a project (I’ll post about this at a different time if it works out).
They can also make bricks, but right now their quality isn’t great. They’re supposed to snap together, but my guess is the tolerance of the molds and material fluctuation is too high and often they don’t fit together. We think they should use them as planters.
After, we ventured to Kaka’ako for some food at SALT. SALT is similar to Quincy Market or Bow Market in Somerville, it’s like a big restaurant food court. We landed at Moku, and I had delicious ahi tacos. I wasn’t a fan that it’s counter service (you order, take a number, and they bring it to you). The nice thing about SALT is there are a couple garages that do parking validation. Sundays street parking is free and we were able to find a couple spots as well.
Great way to spend a rainy Hawaiian afternoon!
Today we went to Ho’okua’aina, a kalo (taro) farm in Kailua. We helped with weeding the lo’i, kalo fields.
We started with learning abouth the aina (land) and kalo plant in the hale. We sat in a circle and gave our names and which aina we claim as our home. We also talked about why we were there, and my answer was because I wanted to learn more about the land and give back to Hawaiians as a small thank you and out of respect for being able to live here.
Then the work began! The mud kalo mounds are surrounded by moats or trenches. These can get up to waist deep; the ones we were working in made it up to my knee, and thigh for some of the shorter people joining us.
We pulled up weeds and put them in buckets or off to the side as best we could.
There were all sorts of animals… frogs, tadpoles, and ducks were the most common that we saw. I attempted to keep the mud off of things but that became a lost cause in short order. My camera survived, however, and we were fortunate to be able to shower most of the mud off there before getting in our cars.
What a day this was! I gave my camera a good sponge bath after this. I think I’ll go back but more prepared this time for just how fast things get muddy. We have a lot of people who want to go again, so I think there will be more.
Wouldn’t be a proper birthday without starting with a sunrise walk!
I had to do a little bit of work, but then I took a half day and mid afternoon Jess picked me up for our grand Birthday adventure! We started with a hike to Likeke Falls with the grand plan to loop to Old Pali Rd or go back down and up Old Pali. At one point, the path splits and you have to follow the arrow to the right to find the falls.
The trail was not muddy, but sometimes this can be a disadvantage because there’s nothing to dig into and it ends up being slippery. Between the roots and rocks we made it without falling.
0.4 miles in and we made it! Really quick hike. I specifically chose this because I knew it was relatively easy and I wanted a low risk, high reward hike for my birthday. November is supposed to be the rainy season, but we haven’t received much, so the falls were pretty dry, but SO beautiful.
I chose my attire so that Brian would be there in spirit.
The water was cooler than ocean water, but pleasantly refreshing. The rocks weren’t slippery at all, which seems strange from what I’m used to in New England. Decision time, go down and find Old Pali or cut across? We decided to cut across because the trail was actually stone lined. The path itself isn’t an official trail in all trails, though, so we were going a bit into the unknown. I actually also decided to try my micro spikes on the way back (down is slipperier). Let me tell you, after putting those on I felt like Spiderwoman. Which is great because that was about to come in handy. Soon after stones the path became overgrown with leaves.
I know this picture doesn’t reveal much, but see how the path disappears in front of the tree? It’s a very steep uphill there. Hard to get good footing to get a picture, so just use your imagination. This is where my spikes really came in handy.
Little did we know we had to go down a very steep decline.
I learned that really leaning back on your way down so your feet are more horizontally planted and having cleats makes you feel like you can do anything (don’t worry, parents, had I slipped I would’ve merely landed at the bottom, unlike some Hawaii hikes where I would’ve landed 5K feet off a ridge).
Thankfully after this decent we were right on Old Pali, and now you can see pictures of it!
After this point, there’s a little shortcut to the left you’re supposed to take to get back to the parking… but we ended up walking all the way down to walk back up again. We also came across a father and son harvesting start fruit from a tree (the father is taking this picture). They let us each take two home.
Next we headed to get pizza at Pizza Mamo in Chinatown. I’ve heard a couple people recommend this place, and the real reason we went was because it was near where I wanted to get my cake. We parked at this lot and paid, but the receipt didn’t print… on point with Hawaii. Retrospectively we should’ve found a meter.
Anyway, we pre ordered the pizza leaving the hike and it was ready upon arrival. We originally tried to eat outside, but the sun was scorching us. So we moved inside, but then the guy told us about this place with a courtyard next door that would let us sit there. Turns out it’s a really cool Mexican bar place called Encore Saloon that we decided we’d love to go back to.
The pizza flavor was DELICIOUS. I am personally a thicker crust fan. We also worked up an appetite from the hike, so it was extra delicious. Chinatown was interesting… there was a homeless man outside PizzaMamo that was yelling a lot. But there were all these little hidden gems of restaurants. It was relatively quiet. We’ll definitely go back.
Then we made our way to Slice by HB Baking. I have had my eyes on this place for a while. Go look at their Instagram! They are ice cream cakes of complete decadence. Jess wanted to get two slices, but I encouraged us to start with one, and she ended up agreeing with me. This was pumpkin pecan ice cream, some fall flavored pound cake, and banana pudding with the best whipped cream frosting I’ve ever had. 11/10 would go back here.
Finally, as if all that wasn’t enough, we made it back to Lanikai in time to fit in some snorkeling.
And even got a birthday honu! (It was really cloudy for some reason today, and the sun was behind clouds, so hard to see)
I was in my pajamas by 6pm. I’ve been joking about how this sure beats any rainy November New England Birthday 😉
Not pictured/documented are the communications on a variety of platforms I received and the presents I opened.
I obviously missed having my best friend with me, and communication has been rough/non existent the last week or so. But he managed a couple Happy Birthday emails (in case one didn’t get through).
Here’s a throwback to our probably third date? We went for mimosa flights for my birthday at Friendly Toast in Cambridge and made it a tradition… well sort of… until COVID ruined it.
Let me start by saying that every year I feel loved on my birthday, and I know that that’s what matters. And that this day was GREAT. I had such an awesome time. This is just a reflection on them in general. The past couple were a bit tough, I think because I was hoping someone would’ve planned or done something for my 30th (they didn’t) and there were quarantine shenanigans (I actually had a nice lobster dinner that year, so actually that was great). I don’t know why it feels like I’m missing out on something… I think because I see “all” these people on social get parties planned for them, or surprised, or have something special, and it makes me feel like no one cares to go through the extra effort for me, and I don’t really get why. Ever since I lost my last best friends to weird circumstances, I feel like I haven’t been able to truly find that again (Brian is not much of a celebrator, nor was their family growing up, so it’s something I have decided not to expect from him). So I have no “bestie” to do things like that that seemingly everyone else does. Anyway, I’ve always just owned my birthday celebrations, because when I don’t I’m disappointed. I was sad Brian wasn’t there to experience these things with me, but it was the perfect day otherwise, and God has filled the hole with a new friend who was thankfully down for my crazy plans for the day. I’m not sure what I feel like I’m missing not having someone that would plan a party for me, but I think it comes down to social media and just how high expectations get set, and maybe feeling like I still don’t quite have a bestie. Again, this is simply a reflection and not meant to say I don’t feel like I’m loved or that I didn’t have an awesome day, because that’s certainly not true. My 32nd was a blast and I don’t think anyone could’ve planned it better/done anything to make me enjoy it more, and I felt completely loved. So I’m not sure what this dissonance is really about, but I’m sure it has something to do with social media. Anyway, here’s to hoping year 33 is a little less tumultuous.
For lunch we got Banan, her first Acai bowl so far, and I was super proud I remembered reusable bowls.
Later that day we went and got massages (we were late due to Lanikai construction backup) and then to MCBH. I showed her secret beach and we went to another submariner’s house for dinner (She has base housing on MCBH.) She has the cutest 3 month old, Maeve. Not pictured to protect privacy, per usual. It was nice meeting her.
On Monday afternoon we received word one of our friend’s submarines was leaving. We headed to go watch at Missing man monument, except after waiting an hour we found out we’d be waiting another 45 minutes, so we left before we saw a submarine. But, we didn’t leave before seeing this wicked cool ship. The USS Germantown (LSD 42)
It was HUGE.
I found the contact information for the Ombudsman on the internet and sent her the pictures. This boat is stationed in Sasebo, Japan.
We then headed to Diamond Head to find parking for a yoga class and took a short walk to see the Diamond Head Light house up close and personal.
And then went to the diamond head lookout and saw some surfing, cool wave patterns, and pretty shoreline.
We went and relaxed at the Lē’ahi Beach Park for a bit before Yoga started. I don’t have any great pictures of the actual yoga, or the full park, but imagine people in a grassy park doing yoga and extremely picturesque palm trees. I was still hurting from the hike fall, but I did my best. The sun set while class was happening and I was a bit distracted that I wasn’t able to take pictures. All the same, it was a peaceful class and I was happy to explore a different part of the island.
We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Kalapawai on the way home. And by that I mean she bought a salad and we both bought an ice cream sandwich. (I ate real food I had at home first!) It was DELICIOUS.
