Before we crashed the previous night, we did manage to stop by the hotel’s convenient store to pick up some eggs and milk. So when everyone woke up before 5am island time, we were able to not scramble (pun-intended) and leisurely cooked and enjoyed breakfast in our apartment. When everyone’s got a full tummy, we walked a bit further away from the hotel to a local grocery store so we could be fully stocked for the week while paying semi reasonable price. We have actually gone back to the store a few more times throughout the week because we just could not get enough of Hawaii’s super-delicious pineapples. The Boy proclaimed that it’s the best pineapple he’s ever had!
Since it was our first full day in paradise, we decided to just take it easy and only had hiking the Diamond Head trail on our agenda for the day. In hindsight, there were a couple of things we could’ve planned better to make this experience even more enjoyable. First of all, we probably should’ve arrived at the park an hour earlier than we actually did (apparently we took to the island pace right off the bat). Even with it being a weekday, the parking lot was completely full when we got there (after 10am). This led to Rich having to drive all the way back down to the bottom of the mountain to find a place to park.
And secondly, we should’ve made sure that both of us brought our cellphones. Rich left his behind in the apartment since I already had mine. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue, until when I saw many cars leaving the parking lot shortly after he dropped us off by the park entrance. There was no way to reach him and ask him to turn back around. Which means, the 3 of us stood in the heat for about 45 minutes while waiting for Rich to park and walked back up to the park entrance. Nothing like warming up for a major hike by taking another hike first… 😦
Even though things did not start off smoothly, we were not deterred and pressed right on to start the hike. The trail started off with pavement and steady slope, but before long it turned into narrow and uneven dirt path, and pretty steep slopes in some places. And just when we thought that we must be getting close to the top, then there were stairs, and more stairs. Oh those stairs…
It took us about 1 hour to get to the summit. The view on top of Diamond Head was nothing short of spectacular. The only thing was that the lookout area was not very big, which can get pretty crowded. All in all, the hike was a success. I wasn’t sure how the kids would like it, but they had a lot of fun doing it, especially on the way down.
We spent the rest of the afternoon swimming in the resort’s pools and strolled around Waikiki beach. We wrapped up the day by stopping at our favorite ice cream shop, then finished the evening off with a bang!
