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| It's an old picture, but I wanted to put one of my Mom in for her birthday. :) |
I charge my devices back up while waiting on breakfast, and finish going through my photos from the night before. I got some really good sunset pictures last night! While I was sitting in the lounge, a little bird flew in and started eating breadcrumbs. I was able to shoot some great photos, despite sitting at a somewhat awkward angle, and not wanting to move, so as not to disturb the little guy. It was awesome.
After breakfast, I go around the corner to the ABC store, I withdraw some money from the ATM, buy a Gatorade and get ready to take a bus up toward Diamond Head. I thought about buying some sunscreen, but for some odd reason, I didn't. Couldn't see where it was either, even though it was clearly lining the wall right inside the door to the store. Silly Zack. The Google Maps are being weird again, saying there is no transportation route up there. They used to show when buses would get you close, now they only seem to show you if the bus gets you all the way. Most inconvenient.
The bus shows up and I buy a day pass, then I look back into the bus... It is packed full of people! No space left, everyone is standing now. I end up standing by the driver because it is so full. Crazy.
I get off the bus at the exercise park which is at the bottom of the hill leading up to the entrance to Diamond Head Crater. It's at this point, the sun beating down, 80+ degrees, that I realize I messed up not getting any sunscreen. The wind is picking up too, just like last year. I made one video on the way up, played it back later and realized that there was almost no audio.
I made my way into the crater, paid the $1 admission and began climbing the trail. (By the way, Gatorade tastes awful when it warms up.) It was a pretty uneventful climb, much the same as last year. It might have been a little more difficult, though I've been losing weight, I'm not exactly as fit to walk and climb recently, having done nothing but work for the past 3 months.
I did sit down on a bench about 3/4 of the way up, and this beautiful little bird flew up to me. I ended up having a crowd of people gathering to watch the bird, and wonder if it was going to land on me, because it hopped right up to me and looked at me. I got some good pictures. :)
There is a point towards the top, where you can take the easy way, which zig-zags up or the hard way, which is a very steep staircase. I, of course, had to go the hard way. (I thought that's the way I went last time, but by the time I got the top, I wasn't sure if it was.) It was quite steep and about two thirds of the way up I had to pause for a moment. I could hear people debating whether or not to take that way. Several people followed me, and I stepped aside at the top to catch my breath. It made me feel better to see all the people who looked fit having a hard time of it.
Now, this is an old military structure and looks like something out of a horror movie. Someone remarked as much, and I, in typical Zack fashion, made that creepy predator noise I make and disappeared into the tunnel. I heard a grown man ask, "what was that?" in a trembling voice. Children, you ain't seen nothing yet.
After breakfast, I go around the corner to the ABC store, I withdraw some money from the ATM, buy a Gatorade and get ready to take a bus up toward Diamond Head. I thought about buying some sunscreen, but for some odd reason, I didn't. Couldn't see where it was either, even though it was clearly lining the wall right inside the door to the store. Silly Zack. The Google Maps are being weird again, saying there is no transportation route up there. They used to show when buses would get you close, now they only seem to show you if the bus gets you all the way. Most inconvenient.
The bus shows up and I buy a day pass, then I look back into the bus... It is packed full of people! No space left, everyone is standing now. I end up standing by the driver because it is so full. Crazy.
I made my way into the crater, paid the $1 admission and began climbing the trail. (By the way, Gatorade tastes awful when it warms up.) It was a pretty uneventful climb, much the same as last year. It might have been a little more difficult, though I've been losing weight, I'm not exactly as fit to walk and climb recently, having done nothing but work for the past 3 months.
I did sit down on a bench about 3/4 of the way up, and this beautiful little bird flew up to me. I ended up having a crowd of people gathering to watch the bird, and wonder if it was going to land on me, because it hopped right up to me and looked at me. I got some good pictures. :)
There is a point towards the top, where you can take the easy way, which zig-zags up or the hard way, which is a very steep staircase. I, of course, had to go the hard way. (I thought that's the way I went last time, but by the time I got the top, I wasn't sure if it was.) It was quite steep and about two thirds of the way up I had to pause for a moment. I could hear people debating whether or not to take that way. Several people followed me, and I stepped aside at the top to catch my breath. It made me feel better to see all the people who looked fit having a hard time of it.
Now, this is an old military structure and looks like something out of a horror movie. Someone remarked as much, and I, in typical Zack fashion, made that creepy predator noise I make and disappeared into the tunnel. I heard a grown man ask, "what was that?" in a trembling voice. Children, you ain't seen nothing yet.
Apparently, I forgot to get a photo of the creepy passageway. I am ashamed. I did get a pic of the next set of stairs, which brings me to the next part of this narrative. This is the point that things started to seem unfamiliar and I became uncertain of whether I had come up this way last time. Perhaps, I just charged up so fast without catching my breath that the lack of oxygen prevented the formation of memory? That's happened to me before. It's true what they say, sometimes you gotta stop and breathe. I'll forget given the chance. In this case though, I probably just took the easy way last time, however unlike me as that sounds and merely forgot during the intervening year.
So, emerging from this old military lookout point, I got that beautiful view of the island that I remember so well. Then, I climbed a little higher, to the highest lookout point. I took a bunch of pictures, trying to improve a little on what I took last time. I thought about doing a video, but there was quite a crowd and the wind was blowing pretty good, so I didn't think you would be able to hear me. I debated about it for a couple minutes, eventually deciding just to do a little 360 video of the view without saying anything and then come back down.
I went down the easy way, as it has a more scenic view. This whole trip up to Diamond Head, the climb, the descent and back to a bus stop on a route that would take me back to Waikiki only took a couple of hours. I was hungry now (I had chugged a whole Gatorade bottle of water when I got back down to the water fountains), so when I got off the bus in Waikiki, I headed over to Teddy's Bigger Burgers again. This time, I tried the Crispy Chicken Sandwich, with Pepperjack cheese and added bacon with onion rings as the side instead of fries. It was delicious!!!
Then, I walked around a bit, watched the waves and wandered back to my room. I changed clothes and went down for a dip in the ocean (I didn't want to go in the water the last few days as there had been jellyfish warnings when I first got here.) I walked around in the shallow waters, looking at all the fish, there are a lot more than last year for some reason.
After this, I went back to the hostel, and started washing laundry. I could see the sun was starting to set, but I wanted to finish the laundry. Finally, while the clothes were in the dryer, I ran around the block to the beach and snapped a few pictures, as the sun completely disappeared. This one was the best, IMO:
After I had finished my laundry, I went up and took a shower. Over the course of the evening, they had been setting up for some live music in the lounge. By the time I was finishing up in my room (I had decided to repack my bags as well) the music was starting. I went back down and enjoyed the live music while I went through my photos. The singer's name is Kiana Luna, she is really good.
Went for a walk up and down the beach again tonight, but I didn't take any pictures this time.
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