Who woulda thunk?

Okay - On Thursday we rented a car and drove around the north shore. The water was pretty roiled up. Snorkeling in Sharks'cove would have been on the stupid end of the spectrum. We did see some beautiful beaches. On Friday, we walked along the canal and down to the Army Museum. Those pictures will be shown in another post. My new camera will let me take up to 3 pictures and then it bolts them all together, giving some good landscape views.

We found Kayleen's true calling, as a priestess to worship at my feet. (lol)

We found a new area down by the museum to watch the sunset.

At 3:30 AM, we got a phone call from one of Kayleen's friends, telling us we better move to higher ground. We turned on the news, and sure enough, there was a tsunumi warning. We were evacuated vertically ( at or above the 3rd floor.) we checked out of the hotel, but stayed in our room. Security actuall would not let us out of our room after about 10:00 AM. Here is a video of the sirens going off, and police cars trying to clear the beach area.


When the surge hit it was not immediatelyy noticable. Here is a picture of some rocks sticking out of the water about an hour before the surge hit.

This is a picture of the same area after the surge hit. This tsunami was more like going from low tide to high tide in a five minute time period, and then repeating that sequence 5 more times over the next 90 minutes.

The largest surge was the 3rd one to hit. Here is a short video of the waves over those same rocks.


We changed our flight to Sunday, checked back into the hotel, and went for a walk. Again, the sunset was beautiful.

An interesting, but crazy day.

A Change of Plans

The intestinal issues that have been in and out of my life the past 3 months were back in this morning. I stayed close to the WC while Kayleen walked down to the Aquarium for a couple of hours. When she got back, I was feeling better. We had canceled the rental car, so we decided to WALK out to the light house. This is a view of Diamond Head point from a park. It took us about an hour and 15 minutes to walk there. This is a view from the road.

A lady in our ward told me there was tide pools down below the light house, so we found the path and walked down. It was mostly surfers on one end of the beach, and single men in thongs at the other. This is a view from the beach below the light house.

We really didn't have proper footwear to go into the water, but it was neat to see the tide pools.

On the trolley this evening, we saw a sculpted palm. It almost looks like a Kachina doll, that one would buy in Tucson Arizona.

The sunset this evening was beautiful.

We will try to rent a car tomorrow and go out to the North shore and stuff that we did not do today.

The hike up Diamond Head

We left fairly early in the morning - the number 23 bus to the base of the trail.

The trail was not overly long - only about a mile plus a bit from the bus stop to the trail head. But as you can see, it was a climb. The climate was much dryer inside the crator than I expected it to be.

After climbing almost to the rim, we had two flights of stairs that were very steep.

But the view was wonderful. This picture shows the inside of the crator.

Some of the ridges had pathways along the top. The ridges were steep and narrow.

This is the lighthouse down below the summit, warning ships of the shallow waters and the reef.

Back down at the bus stop, waiting for the 23 bus to take us back to the hotel. We were tired but happy. We got too much sun, but the only thing we have to do the rest of the day is our anniversary dinner.

Tomorrow we will rent a car and visit some sights out at the north shore - sharks cove and the like. We may get some snorkeling in, depending on the water and the weather.

Thursday it will be back to Hanauma Bay for more snorkeling. We have not yet decided what to do on Friday.

A few pictures -

This is the trip for our 31st Anniversary. Kayleen was gone last year for Kennedy's birth, so we are taking the "big" trip this year.

Flying into Honolulu on Friday.
We visited Pearl Harbour. This is the submarine. We went down inside, which was pretty cool.

Unfortunately, we did not get to go out to the Memorial becuase of the lateness our our visit. We will make plans to go back and take the boat ride out to the Arizona.

The love of my life, sitting on the jettie, waiting for sunset on Sunday evening.

Monday we took the bus out to Hanauma bay. The snorkeling was the best ever. We saw three small turtles, a fish or two, and a brown spotted Morey eel.

Evening time on Waikiki.

A view of Diamond Head from a park close to the hotel. We will try to climb it on Tuesday, before eating our Anniversery Dinner at Dukes. (which will include some Hula Pie)

Monday's Sunset. Nice color. A great ending to another day in Paradise.