Hawaii

If you are here for photos of Emma (and you know who you are), this post isn't about her. (Amazing, I know!) Instead, here are photos of Beau's and my brief trip to Oahu. He went for work and I tagged along while Emma stayed with Grandma Ellen. A few notes: it was pretty voggy (volcanic fog) the last two days so the pictures from the scenics are hazy. I didn't enhance the colors. While it looks like I cranked up the saturation in Photoshop, that is the way the water really looked. Also, this post will either be REALLY long or broken into two, depending on what I end up doing.

This is the North Shore. Famous for the Bonzai Pipeline in the winter but pretty quiet on this day.

Ghost crabs

This is Turtle Beach. These Hawaiian Green turtles (huge!) just hang out here with no fear of people. There were at least 20 there that day. Here is one basking on the beach.

If you look closely, you can see the turtles surfing in the waves on the right.

This is an ancient temple ruin where they did human sacrifices. The tree is full of "offerings."

The view from the temple.

North East: This is a hole blown in the rock one day in 1946 by the ocean. It is huge- much bigger than it looks. Close-up below.

This cute little island is called Chinaman's Hat.

This is what the mountains looked like all over. They are folded - volcanic but really old.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites in Waikiki Beach. Wakiki (basically Honolulu) was much too touristy for us so we spent as much time out as we could. Every day at breakfast and the reception they had Hawaiian entertainment. The top photo is the view from the end of the hallway of our pool and the ocean (hazy).

When Beau had to work, I would take the car and go exploring. This is a road called Tantalus that winds above Honolulu. Enlarge it - see that mass of skyscrapers? That is Waikiki. Almost every hotel on the whole island is right there. And the mountain to the left is Diamond Head Crater. More on that later.

This area was a rainforest, not dry like Honolulu. The climate differences in just a few miles are amazing. This flower was on a tree - it is several inches across.

This is a weasel-like thing I saw. Picture through the car window. Since I know Hawaii has no native mammals, they must be invasive but I haven't looked them up yet.

This flower smelled amazing - like citrus!

This tree was massive - the trunk is all weirdly intertwined.

Mushrooms on a log - probably 4 inches across each.

I put this in for scale. This tree was smaller than a lot of them but look at it compared to the two-lane road.

Diamond Head Crater: Diamond Head is an old volcanic crater that you can climb. It was a military defensive spot (still is, I think). It has a good view from the top but it was hazy that day. There are steps and a path but it is a trek because of the humidity. The path is steep and pretty primitive. Emma said she was glad she didn't go so she didn't have to climb that mountain. I didn't tell her we would have skipped it if she had been there.

74 steps

99 steps and a steep tunnel

The 54 spiral steps

This is the last 54 steps you climb

Honolulu is behind Beau

The coral reefs below

This is the caldara (part of it).

Lighthouse down below.

South Oahu: This was probably the coolest thing we found on the island. It is called Spitting Cave. In the first picture, you see the cave. When the seawater rushes in, it spits it back out and makes this low rumble that shakes the cliffs. The pictures of the large amounts of water don't work, but the second picture is a smaller "eruption."

Beau watching the cave. There was no one else here. It is really hidden and obscure.

Look, a picture of me!

Beau, far away

This is across where Beau is in the above photo. The waves crashed up and left waterfalls. We spent a long time watching the waves and probably would have stayed a lot longer except we were tired and hot from hiking Diamond Head.

The two nights we were able to take sunset pictures were both the hazy nights, unfortunately. This is the beach right by our hotel.

Last day: Driving across the middle on Pali Highway, we saw this! We tried to stop and buy souvenirs but there was a wedding so we just got the sign.

In the park next door was this massive tree. Notice Beau.

To give you an idea of how big it is, way up in the branches I saw a palm tree growing inside this other tree. It starts just above the gnarled stuff and has a darker trunk. Weird!

We drove over the Pali Highway (cuts through the island) and stopped at Nuuanu Pali State Park, which is the lookout over Kailua and site of an old battle. Also where the old Pali Road ran - it is now a trail.

There is an old legend about a half-man, half-pig who lived in the pass and you couldn't carry any pork over or he would get mad. At the top, someone had dropped off their pork chops before crossing!

In Kailua, we were planning to go to Chocolate Sushi for lunch (really!) but apparently it is gone so we found Boots and Kimo. It is a hilarious local place that is tiny! You wait outside and they take your order and when your order is ready and there is a table, you are seated, at tiny tables right next to other people. And--the whole restaurant is a Denver Broncos shrine!

The specialty is macadamia nut pancakes with this cream sauce. Awesome! No customer service, no ambience, just very local and very good! We waited about 30 minutes and apparently that is really short.

This is from an overlook above Kailua.

It was starting to storm and all these huge waves were coming up at an unmarked spot on the shore. There were cars parked randomly everywhere - tons of surfers were there to catch the surf! We stopped and took some pictures before the rain started in earnest.

This is our last night. We had a redeye home so we went to Magic Island to watch the sunset. Look, it's me again (twice!)

OK, because you have patiently endured tons of photos of Hawaii, here is one photo of Emma in her new kitty mask (the sum total of what she wants to wear right now for Halloween -- just her regular clothes and this), one of her "masterpiece" from art class [that is what it is called!] and two of spiders we found.