Hiking Diamond Head and dealing with cloudy skies!

---

Mauka & Makai

Towards the Mountain & Towards the Ocean

Wow, can it be possible that it's Thursday already? Our last full day here...so sad! After the huge disaster of Brett being sick and missing our family snorkel trip he decided in the end he didn't care if he went or not...meaning we didn't reschedule just got a refund(luckily) and now had the whole day to sight see. We have such much more to do and so little time to cram it all in...truth be told, Aaron and I wondered if he really was excited about the idea of snorkeling in the open ocean. There's a big difference in security between walking into the water and snorkeling or jumping off a boat to do it. It all worked out good for us. Much to the kids excitement and I'm being sarcastic, we announced we were heading to Diamond Head Mountain for a morning hike. These kids are dreaming of a vacation that does not involve hiking, but Aaron and I keep telling them there will never be one...the only way to truly experience the world is to get out and see it. That involves walking!

Diamond Head is something to behold. It is so visible every time you drive by Honolulu, so we have seen it from afar nearly every day of the trip so far. I reassured the kids it is only 1 1/2 miles round trip and is supposed to take only 60-90 minutes round trip... Nothing compared to some of the hikes we have taken in the past. It started out cloudy but soon turned beautiful and sunny. Brett declared from the beginning he was getting Shave Ice from the food truck in the parking lot when this hike is all over. So we hardly saw him. He was on a serious mission to climb to the top, get back down, get Shave Ice and find a beach with waves. It was a great walk and pretty easy. It was steep but with all the switched back it was no problem at all. What a view from the top! Breathtaking! The city and reefs in the water are just awesome from that view. The only problem was all the people...so many people! We made it back down and that's seriously where we met up with Brett again, Maggie bought Shave Ice and

we were on our way to find a beach on the East coast of the island within 2 hours.

The weather was really unpleasant and uncooperative today. It was like we were driving into the cold and clouds and unfortunately every beach we attempted to swim at was rocky. Aaron and I were loving the beautiful drive and seeing all the sites, but after about 2 hours were had a serious protest in the backseat. Chocolate time! I found a place on the map called "Fine Ass Chocolates". The kids loved it and loved they had permission to say it over and over. The sugar high perked everyone up and thankfully saved the day. We found a shrimp shack near Kahuku. I'd read about Giovanni's, "the original white shrimp truck" and suddenly there it was. I made aaron turn around because even though I wasn't hungry I wasn't leaving Hawaii without shrimp. Wow, it was delicious and for not being hungry I had no problem eating 9 of the 12 we bought! In fact, it wasn't until they were gone I remembered that I wanted a picture😞. We decided to head back near Hale'iwa and let the kids

swim there before we headed back to the condo, but no sooner were we on the road did we pass Ted's Bakery. Again I made Aaron turn around because Ronn, our friendly bartender at the beach bar, told us we had to go there and try a piece of the chocolate coconut pie. We'll we bought a whole stinking pie figuring we'd have it forbreakfast tomorrow. Still stuffed, but I managed a piece of that too. Gosh was it good!

We found a beach. Maggie and Brett got to swim. All was good. Another happy ending in Hawaii!

Miles Traveled: most so far! The whole East Side of the island and back down the middle to Ko Olina.

Wildlife Report: more beautiful turtles as we drove by turtle beach

Funny of the day: When Brett declared he wanted Shave Ice at Diamond Head Hanna exclaimed, "I am NEVER EATING SHAVE ICE AGAIN," after the t-shirt dripping accident at the swap meet!

---

Photos

One of my favorite pictures!
I love the view of the gorgeous water and I love you can read Hawaii on Brett's hat. This was one of only a couple times I saw Brett on this entire hike:)

AAHHHH...the reward at the bottom.
After all the talk of Shave Ice we told them no...I know mean parents, right...so Maggie countered and said,"I have my own money." So she even bought Brett one too. Notice Hanna really did swear the stuff off, she's eating Cheetos.

Picture Perfect!
At the end of our rainy colder day we were delighted to see this beautiful rainbow at the beach!

On the trail!
Maggie named her cute little back pack "chubs"

Top of Diamond Head!
You can see all of the busy city of Honolulu in the distance.

Brett and Maggie on the way down!
By the time I caught up to them Maggie was on her own and Brett was no where to be seen. He was on a Shave Ice mission.

OMG...the chocolate hapuia cream pie!
I had to read the label...why, why did I read it...30 grams of fat in one piece! No one cared we kept shoveling it in. Ronn was right...Amazing!

Run Brett Run!
The Hawaiian waves are serious stuff. You could be swept away so fast!

Leftover from the waves!
Note as I am typing this we have been home for 4 days and Hanna is still finding sand in her hair!