Sadly, I am back at my desk in Seattle. I am in wool socks, a turtleneck, a sweatshirt and sweatpants. The heat is turned to 72′ and I am FREEZING! We arrived home just in time for a record-setting storm. Wind gusts were measured up to 55 mph. How quickly reality sets back in. Dave said it best….”it’s as if we went through a black hole”.
Due to technical difficulties, I was not able to log into my blog the last few days in Hawaii. I do want to document our final adventures and meals, as they were some of the best.
We ventured out Monday morning to hike to the top of Diamond Head. The guide books made it sound like a “walk in the park” with a few steps thrown in. Oh my, I felt like I was on an episode of “The Biggest Loser”, as I pushed myself up and up. While only .8 miles, the gain in altitude was 520 feet. The view from the top was WORTH IT. Needless to say, the hike back was a lot easier.
Notice how the infamous Royal Hawaiian Hotel stands out!
Looking toward Diamond Head from the Royal Hawaiian.
Luckily, we had stopped at The Rainbow Drive-In for “plate lunch” before the hike. Plate lunch was intended for the plantation workers. It is definitely not for the “carb-conscious” as it consists of two scoops of rice, a scoop of mac salad, meat and gravy. I chose chicken cutlet and Dave chose pork cutlet. Neither one of us could finish our meals, which totaled $17.00, with drinks. It “broke da mouth, bra!”
OK, back to the hike…. The trail traverses the side of the volcano. Every once in awhile, there will be a flight of stairs to climb. I can only imagine what it was like to haul military equipment up these trails to the bunkers during WWII!
The trail….switchbacks and stairs.
One of the bunkers on the top of Diamond Head.
The lighthouse.
It’s been a few weeks since the last post. I am happy to report my absence is due to being in Ko Olina, on Oahu. We arrived on Tuesday and are having a fabulous time. We have a one bedroom condo with a fully stocked kitchen. While we are not cooking anything extravagant….the balcony table and the West facing view compete with any 5 star restaurant in the world! Sometimes “where you eat, matters as much as what you eat”. The fabulous sunsets coincide perfectly with dinner time. 
We are keeping the food simple. We are taking advantage of Costco’s semi-prepared food. We dressed up a Costco take and bake pizza and made two meals out of a Costco roast chicken. Dave grilled steaks one night, and we had a fabulous shrimp salad another. Ko Olina is close to a town called Kapolei. It is a newer town filled with numerous fast food restaurants. We are saving our dining out dollars for a couple of splurges, when we get to Honolulu the last two nights of our vacation.
After lunch we headed North to the Bonsai Pipeline. If you have ever seen a surfing competition, this is probably where it was filmed. It is the home of Vans Triple Crown of Surfing competition. The biggest waves hit in November and December. The lifeguards are some of the best in the world. This is not a tourist beach and the lifeguards will kick a novice out of the water in a split second.
