Hawaii Trip – Day 3

We went back to breakfast at Hula’s and had Dan as our server again. He gave us his number and said we should get together on his day off…ha! Breakfast was excellent and I had a Belgian waffle with fresh pineapple and strawberry.

From breakfast, we got ready to head out to Diamond Head for our big hike. We arrived around 12:30 pm which was probably the hottest point of the day (not so smart). The crater looks so much bigger once you get to the park and realize that you’re about to climb it! The signs say that the trail is about 0.8 miles each way and takes about an hour and a half to complete. We began the hike and took breaks when we were feeling winded. Thank goodness for the recommendations to bring a big bottle of water and wear a hat and sunscreen. We would have suffered without these items.


Geof ready to hike


View about half way up. You can see the parking lot and how far away it is.


Looking out at the ocean about half way up


So pretty and the view just kept getting better

The hike was completely uphill to the top, with several flights of stairs (one of the flights was 99 stairs), an enclosed cave-like area and some treacherous terrain. Needless to say, we made it and the payoff was well worth it.

We met a few really nice people along the trail and got some wonderful photos. You definitely look at Hawaii from a different perspective atop Diamond Head. The mountains, the ocean, the landscape…everything looked like a dream. Pictures do not do it justice. I didn’t want to come back down.

I loved this lighthouse right on the ocean

View from the top

You can see our pink hotel from the top

We finally made our way back down, which was much easier than the way up. It was so nice to relax and chat with Geof during our walk. We really enjoyed ourselves and this was definitely great bonding time for us. Once we got to the bottom, we were wiped out and treated ourselves to a shaved ice flavored with coconut, pineapple and strawberry. It was so refreshing and just what the doctor ordered after our workout. We met a really nice couple from Vancouver and then all of a sudden the rescue helicopter headed to the top Diamond Head to get a hiker that was in distress. We don’t know exactly what happened, but there was a wife at the bottom that was saying that her husband did the climb and it had been a few hours. I hope that everything was okay.

Refreshing shaved ice

Helicopter going up for a rescue

We came back to the hotel and changed into our swimsuits to take a dip in the ocean. We were finally able to make use of our floats. It was so nice to chill on the water after our excursion. Where we were in the ocean, we had a perfect view of Diamond Head and I just looked at it in awe and couldn’t believe that I had climbed it just a few hours before I floating around. After the ocean, we went in the pool for awhile and just relaxed.

Later, we went to the Ala Moana shopping center and browsed around. It was getting late and we ended up having dinner at Assagio's (yes they really spelled it that way). It was an Italian restaurant and the food was good. We had Mozzerella in Carrozza (basically mozzarella sticks) as an appetizer and then I had chicken parmesan and homemade ravioli for dinner. For dessert, I had some of their homemade chocolate gelato and it was also very tasty.

Ready to head out shopping and have dinner

Another beautiful sunset

Sunset from our hotel

Mozzerella Carrozza

After dinner we were wiped out and came back to our hotel and called it a night.