Oahu, Hawaii 2016 – Part 2

Hubby and I were in Oahu, Hawaii from April 2nd through April 12th.  To see what we did on the first four days of our trip, click HERE.  On Day 5 of our trip we had breakfast at a wonderful 2nd-floor restaurant near our hotel called Lulu’s.  Lulu’s, in addition to having regular tables, also has long counters installed along the open-air sides, where you can sit [side by side] facing the amazing view:

      

We loved that, and ate there a few times [well, hubby ate, I couldn’t eat much except yogurt].  I did try to eat an omelet, for protein, and some dry toast.  Then we headed back to our crappy hotel room to get ready for the day – notice the luxurious brown carpet:

       

After changing and grabbing cameras, we walked 2 blocks up the street to the Waikiki Aquarium.  The walk was beautiful, and the Aquarium was small but very cool:

      

      

Eels are always my favorite part of any aquarium visit.

That always makes me giggle 🙂  Here’s me leaving the Aquarium with my hat, and slathered in SPF70 lotion:

That afternoon we hiked to the top of Diamond Head Crater.  We could see the crater from our hotel room by craning our necks out the window – here’s a day view & a night view:

       

We drove over to the park, which was only a couple miles from our hotel.  The park is inside the crater, which is a very large bowl with high sides.  The warning sign for the hike was a bit daunting:

       

Especially THIS part:

A long, narrow path, then 74 steps, then a dark tunnel, then 99 more steps?  OMFG.  I can do this… I can do this… we had plenty of water, and took our time.  I took some nature shots along the trail.  Hawaii has such amazing diversity:

       

45 minutes after the start of our hike, we reached the first staircase – O.M.G.  By this time I was already a sweaty mess after walking up countless dirt/rock/cement switchbacks:

At that top of that fiasco, there’s a very long spiral staircase you need to climb up, before you get spit out into a bunker, with more stairs to climb up to the surface.  I am not usually such a wuss with physical activity, but my stomach flu was impairing my ability to hold much food in, so I wasn’t feeling my optimal best.  Here’s a picture of me in the bunker at the top:

Once climbing out, the views were amazing:

       

       

       

It took another half hour to climb back down to our car.  On the way out of the park I was amazed to see blue stop signs [LOVE]:

On Day 6 we ate breakfast down by the water on a bench.  I made the mistake of offering a pigeon some food:

Not even 10 seconds later, this:

      

       

It was hilarious!!!  Thanks, hubby, for the awesome pics!  It feels very weird to have pigeon feet clamped to your legs, feet, chest, and hands!  Hubby wasn’t completely spared the experience either, and seems to have made a new orange-eyed friend:

       

That afternoon we visited the NOAA building on Ford Island, and got a wonderful tour by my friend Stef who used to work in the office here.  Thanks, Stef!  It’s an impressive building, built in an old airplane hanger:

Not really supposed to take any pictures on Ford Island, being that it’s mostly military based… but I snuck that one in on the way to the building.  We had planned to visit the Pearl Harbor memorial but this is as close as we got:

I took that through the telescope on top of the USS Bowfin, a WWII submarine we did get to tour, which was pretty fascinating.  It was very cramped so not many pictures:

      

I did see a familiar family name on the sample menu in the dining room:

Apparently Ensign J.M. Ayres served on board the USS Bowfin between 5/1/1943 and 9/2/1945 [as you may know, I am Alison Ayres Verry Ferguson – Ayres is my mother’s maiden name].

I’ll end this post with 2 selfies of us:

      

And 2 awesome sunset pics hubby took at the beach across from our hotel:

      

Stay tuned for pics from Days 7 & 8.