Diamond Head and Beach!

Amy and I became true tourists on Monday.  While Katie worked, Amy and I got in our car rental and headed to Pearl Harbor.  We wanted to see some specific things such as the USS Arizona and the aviation museum.  When we arrived, we found out the tickets were already sold out for the day.  After asking questions, we found out we had to get to Pearl Harbor by 7am in order to claim tickets since they go so fast.  We decided to postpone Pearl Harbor to another day, so we made our way to Diamond Head.

Amy and I got to Diamond Head, and it was a little bit of an ordeal.  Trying to find it was a little difficult, but there was a beautiful view along the coast that we were able to enjoy.  The car lot was full at the entrance way, so we had to find parking at a different location.  After finding parking we headed up to the entranceway.  The trail takes you through the crater to one of its high points where you could see the ocean and Waikiki.  The trail was paved and easy to walk at first, but there were so many people.  We kept having to zigzag to get past people.  Once we finished the paved part, that was when the stair climbing ensued.  The stairs were ridiculous!! At the top was a lovely view.  On our way down we met an Australian couple who were on holiday.  Amy and I pretty much decided that we our next stop will be Australia.

Entrance to Diamond Head

The scary stairs after the paved trail ended... we took a different route up

Lookout over the crater

The crater

After finishing our walk, we looked up some beaches on google.  We decided to head to a nearby beach.  It was a secluded beach near some beautiful million dollar homes that were apparently having an ugly statue contest in their yards.  We had our brown bag lunch on the beach and relaxed for a few hours.  The sky was off and on cloudy, and after awhile we decided we should check out the beach near Katie's house in Kailua.  On our way back we saw signs for Pali lookout, so we decided to check it out.  The sight overlooked Kailua and it's beaches, and it gave some historical references to islands kings and battles.  We also got to see a lot of roosters and chicks while at the Pali lookout.

Our private beach

Pali lookout

me at the Pali lookout

Amy at the Pali lookout

The roosters/chickens/chicks

Kailua Beach Park

The beach in Kailua was extremely windy, and the sand was flying everywhere.  We lasted about 20 minutes on the beach, when we decided it was time to call it a day.  Katie, Amy, and I had a low key evening which consisted of grabbing food from Champa Thai (our now loved local Thai food place) and watching TV.