Hawaii - Diamond Head and Pearl Harbor

September 10

Hike number two for the trip! Diamond Head! I absolutely love hiking when I travel, it’s a free way to workout and see the most beautiful areas of the place. Even though today's hike is a heavily trekked trail, I was happy that mom was down to do this, whatever the hike, I was happy to do it. We got up so early because we had to get there by 6am to park. Pretty sure we woke up around 4am so we could leave by 5am. It was a crisp cool getting out of the car, but not enough to bring my sweatshirt. Mom brought her plaid long sleeve but I kid you not when I say that she took it off in the first five minutes of our two hours journey. 

It was such an easy trail. It had only the slightest incline, enough to feel it but not enough that it took it out of you. There was a portion of it that was straight stairs and no place to pull aside and rest, so all my time spent on the Stairmaster my senior year at Madison was coming in handy. Just like that, we made it to the top! We did make a couple viewpoint stops, and while mom caught her breath, a captured some shots on my camera. Perfect duo.

At the top, we got to enjoy the view- seeing the crater that we hiked and the city of Honolulu. It also was next to the ocean and beauty truly surrounded us. I love taking in the scenery whenever I hike, making the workout worth it. There were a couple spots to lookout up there, getting to them all, and soon enough we made our way back down.

We spent our full two hours on the hike, feeling awake and refreshed after it. We walked down, me chatting the whole way about a deep topic, how I believe everything happens for a reason and me being so happy that I was solo this summer and took the opportunity to travel even though the thought of traveling alone seemed scary.

Today was a big day for us, as we not only had Diamond Head on our agenda but also Pearl Harbor. In between the two, we had some time to kill and brainstormed at breakfast. Mom got Zippy’s, the Perkins of Hawaii, and I had a smoothie bowl at Lanikai Juice. We also both got coffees at Coffee Bean and Tea. It was a cute little strip mall area with some lovely stores. We really tried to figure out what we should do with our day before Pearl Harbor, until we realized we might as well just go now and see all of the sights, making our USS Arizona reservation at 2pm the last thing we do for the day there. 

We got there around 11am, getting some front row parking because we had an EV, and thank goodness we parked there because we went back to the car a handful of times to grab stuff, drop it off, or eat. It was so convenient and the admission to enter was free so us leaving and returning five minutes later was no biggie. 

It was a hot sunny day out and most of the exhibits were outside, not what I was expecting but it making more sense for it being Hawaii with amazing weather. The first thing we did was go to a ranger talk who told us some cool facts and history about the pearl harbor attack and some things that Japan and USA did to make history.

Then, we went to the giftshop, ate, checked out an exhibit, watched a movie, almost fell asleep during the movie, and then went to the last exhibit before getting in line to board the ship out to USS Arizona. I was very tired after the movie and barely made it through the Arizona excursion, but it was a quick trip because we were mainly just visiting the memorial, a list of the names of the fallen men on the boat and of the survivors and when they passed.

We left after we saw USS Arizona, getting some proper food. There was a Vietnamese place with tofu and I had to bring mom and introduce her to this sandwich. When ordered them up, inhaled them, and then headed home. The presidential debate was on so we tuned in for the entirety of it, that replacing our music for our listening heading from Honolulu back up to Huaala. 

That night we continued our watching of HIMYM, just continuing the episodes where we left off. It became a nightly routine to watch TV while going through the day's photos, but we were both so tired from the long day and enjoyed the rest that we gave our full attention to the show. And just like that, another day in Hawaii passed.