Where There is a Bucket List There is a Way - Honolulu 2019

We made it - to the top - two out of shape old farts!!

When Ted was coming home from Connecticut a couple of weeks ago, he had to take the long way home - which meant five airports, lots of walking and finally home.   When he got home, he said with all that walking, he realized he felt in better shape than he had in a long time and felt like he could actually fulfill our goal of conquering Diamond Head in Waikiki.  We had planned to do it a few years ago - but he injured his foot and we didn't feel it was something that could be accomplished because of that.  Some quick planning and finagling for time off and such,  we decided that we were going to try it.

Getting to Honolulu was not easy.  We woke up Saturday, made sure all our bags were packed and ready, I jumped on the computer and booked our hotel and airport transportation.  Then I  looked at the flights.  GAH - they were horrible.  The night before, they looked like no problem - overnight something happened.  We were booked Las Vegas to Los Angeles to Honolulu because the direct flight and getting straight to LAX was not looking good.  We got to the airport and I was having my first nervous breakdown - oh why oh why oh why did I book that hotel before looking at the flights??  I decided instead of Las Vegas, we were going to try and get on the Phoenix flight and when we got to Phoenix, there were ten seats to LAX.   We land in Phoenix and they now have four seats and we are four and five.  Luckily, there was a no-show and we were able to get on last second.  We had to check our bag and that meant picking it up in LAX and then going back through security.  No biggie - we had plenty of time.

Our heading to the beach photo

Getting on the Honolulu flight was no problem.  Ted and I ended up with our own row - cuz the guy next to me got upgraded - and we watched movies and landed in Honolulu around 11:00 p.m. and then got to our hotel around midnight.  We were upgraded to a two bedroom suite - it was quite nice.  And they gave us this guava/pineapple juice on arrival - holy cow it was so nummy.

All that exposed white skin offending you right now -
it's very red now. 

Sunday was our relax day.  We went to the beach and rented an umbrella and a couple of chairs and waited for the bar to open.  It never opened.  I was really disappointed by that.  But, two hours of sitting in sunshine and water, I ended up pretty burned.   We got back to the room in the afternoon and got ready to go out for lunch/dinner.  This was going to be my effing birthday burger meal.  We figured since it was getting close, may as well.  We went to Cheeseburger in Paradise - because it's tradition.   We always go there, every time we go to Honolulu.  And afterward we went across the street from the hotel to Henri's.  It was literally a hole in the wall of a store and they had all this homemade ice cream or sorbet.  I got mango sorbet and it was soooo good.  Ted got pineapple ice cream - he said the flavor was great but the consistency was a little weird.  Then we went and got ready and went to the pool/hot tub and soaked for a while.  The hotel had an evening reception where you could have beverages and snacks.  Ted and I enjoyed a couple of pineapple margaritas and then decided it was time to head to the room and snuggle in for the night for the big day.

Monday morning we woke up at 6:00, got ready, headed to the breakfast the hotel provided then called an Uber to get us to the mountain.  As soon as we were close up - I kind of freaked out.  We started walking and got about a quarter of the way and I started wondering if I could do this.  We just kept trucking.  We weren't fast, in fact, we were probably really slow.  They suggest to allow 90 minutes to two hours - we took just about three.  That  included stops along the way and our time on top of the volcano.  When we were done, we got us some t-shirts that said we hiked Diamond Head, got a Pineapple smoothie and called our Uber to get us back to the hotel.

We were exhausted.  We literally could not think of doing anything else that day.  Our shuttle to the airport was supposed to pick us up at 6:30 - and we decided to have them come get us early.  That we could just do nothing at the airport as well as the hotel lobby.

That was the extent of it.  Two nights.  Two days.  Lots of adventure.

Pictures- - - - -

This is from the Uber drop off point.  The top of the mountain there
is where wee were headed.  This spot was a little daunting

Another view to the top

Slow and steady

One of our stop and go points.   We had people pass us going up and then they would pass us coming back down.
They would always encourage us - you're almost there!!

A view from the mountain

Getting closer

The first set of stairs.  The first set is 76 steps.  This view is from the top of the stairs

The second set of stairs.  99 steps. I thought my heart was going to explode.  Sorry - it's sidewise.

And then there is a spiral staircase.  That is scary and freaky!!!  The happiest part of the whole thing was when we
realized that you only went up about a third of the way and then entered.  There is a small ladder and then you have to scrunch through this weird opening to get up onto the top of the volcano.

 

From the top

The views are AH - MAZ - ING!!!

The center of the volcanic crater

So proud of my old fart!!!

On the trek down - - we were walking on air.

If you ever wondered what was at the end of the rainbow

Pineapple smoothies for the conquerers.

We ended up at Cheeseburger in Paradise again - because it was close and
we were too tired to find somewhere else to go.  We didn't eat burgers, though.
But we had the same great waitress and the manager there got us free
ice cream cake or whatever it was.  Whatever it was, was delicious - topped
with chopped macadamia nuts and all!!

Back story - about nine years ago the first time we went to Honolulu
 with my two daughters, son-in-law and son  and went on my son's
benefits from SkyWest.  That was the first time to Cheeseburger in Paradise.
My evil daughter stole her beverage cup from the restaurant and still has it
and uses it today.  Every time we go now, she tells me to steal her a cup.
So I told the waitress the story - since I'm pretty sure they won't extradite my
adorable evil child - and asked if there was any way I could buy one, because
I couldn't bring myself to steal it because of karma and all.  She and the cute manager
charged me two bucks for it - and it's sitting here ready to go to my daughter.  May
not have stolen it for her - but I got it for a steal of a deal.  :)