Day 9 : Diamond Head, Punchbowl Crater, and Mokapuu Lighthouse

We got up at 6 this morning, packed our lunch for the day, made a quick stop by Starbucks to get our coffee, and headed out to Diamond Head.  We made it to Diamond Head about 730 or 8, and there were plenty of parking spots.  The hike up to Diamond Head is somewhat steep, but there’s plenty of people in all sorts of physical condition that make the trek because of the beautiful site that awaits you once you reach the top.  You can see all of Waikiki and Honolulu from the top.  A lot of people that stay in Waikiki just make a half day of Diamond Head and actually walk from Waikiki up to the top.

Waikiki

We weaved our way in and out of people and raced our way to the top.  We wanted to get in somewhat of a workout with our morning beautiful hike.  Yes, we’re on vacation, but when you’re on vacation for close to a month, and growing a baby, you can’t let things like your eating habits and exercising just go by the way-side!

We made it to the top, sweaty, and feeling exhilarated.  We asked a lady to take our picture, and wound up striking up a conversation with her.  She was a flight attendant and told us things we ‘had’ to do on the other islands. 

After enjoying the view for awhile, we headed back down to the car and to our next stop.  Hanauma Bay.

Hanauma Bay’s parking lot, by 1030 a.m., was already full for the day.  They said they’d let people in again at 130, so we decided, again, to just adapt and do something else on our ‘to do’ list.

One thing on our list to do that we hadn’t done before in Oahu was Punchbowl Crater, still in Honolulu.  It’s a beautiful national cemetery where many veterans from WWII, the Korean War, and all of the other  wars fought in the Pacific.  Punchbowl Crater has some amazing views looking over Honolulu, and over Diamond Head.  It was cool to hike Diamond Head in the morning, and then  go across town to see the entire crater that we had just hiked. 

The memorial was absolutely beautiful.  There were plaques of the stories of the different wars and everything was so green and so pretty.  



We spent a few hours there, and after that, we headed back down to Hanama Bay to see if we could get in for parking.  It was 1245, and the lot was still full, so we headed down to the blow hole that we had went to the previous day, climbed out on the rocks, and ate our lunch overlooking the most beautiful waters.  We were in a little rock cove all by ourselves.

After we were done eating, we headed down to the blow hole beach.  It wasn’t as crowded today, and it was such a fun, relaxing afternoon climbing on the rocks, swimming in the waters, and reading our books.  After the two morning hikes, it was a great break to the day. 

After a few hours at the beach, we headed to the Makapuu Light House and did the hike there.  It's an active lighthouse that is absolutely beautiful.  We saw whales blowing off of the coast on our walk up to the lighthouse.  So pretty!